Nobody would have predicted Tre Norwood to be among the early entry guys for Oklahoma after the 2019 season, but nobody would have known Norwood would have such an outstanding bounce-back season in 2020.
There was some debate as to whether Norwood would play another meaningful down for the Sooners after getting injured and missing the entire 2019 season. He silenced those critics in a major way.
Norwood’s feel-good journey continued by being chosen 245th overall in the 7th round by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL Draft on Saturday afternoon.
He caught some people off-guard with his choice to leave Norman after his redshirt junior season, but Norwood bet on himself and won big.
2020 stats: 23 tackles, 5 INTs, 2 PBUs
Career stats: 111 tackles, 6 INTs, 21 PDs
Mentioning the now infamous #SoonerSquad17 class, you don’t often think about Norwood being in that group. He was one of the last members, and honestly, one of the guys fans talked about the least.
OU doesn’t go into Arkansas and win recruits. And even though Norwood was a Sooner, he wasn’t going to amount to much was the initial line of thinking.
But Norwood kept plugging along. No matter who the coach was or what position he was being asked to play, he just went out there and did his job to the best of his ability.
After tearing his ACL before the 2019 season, some wondered if he would ever play a meaningful down again for OU. He obviously silenced any critics with a breakout 2020 season, capped by being named the Defensive Most Outstanding Player in the Cotton Bowl.
His versatility made him such an asset at the college level, it will be interesting to see how far that can carry him in the NFL as well.
Best game
2020 at Texas Tech: 62-28 win. This could have been yet another Sooner whose best moment was his final one because the pick-six vs. Florida’s Kyle Trask was huge, but Norwood had already shown he was a playmaker because of Lubbock. Norwood had two interceptions in the first half against Texas Tech and let everybody know he’d be a factor again. He finishes with five interceptions in the last six games.
Coach says…
“You talk about a guy that’s played all the different secondary positions for us, a guy that’s started at corner and then moved over into that safety and nickel role this year. I think the scouts are very impressed with his versatility. And then I think everybody is excited to see as he continues to get further and further away from the knee injury that he had in the spring of 2019.
“And we all say that this year that as he continued to get more healthy and more confident, get his feet back underneath him and get used to being back on the field, he played better and better. Tre is one of those guys that is just pretty at everything.” – OU head coach Lincoln Riley
