TAKE 3: Alex Grinch breaks down his defense
Alex Grinch met with members of the media Monday afternoon for first time since Aug. 2. That was Oklahoma’s local media day. Now after 8 practices, Grinch is starting to get a feel for where his defense is headed and who his starting lineup will be.
Here are three takes, plus one, from Monday’s meeting with Grinch.
TAKE 1: Starting lineups coming into focus on defense
At the start of week two of fall camp, Alex Grinch is making progress toward a starting lineup.
“We’ve got our best 11, gotta find a way to get 22 we can put in a game,” said Grinch Monday afternoon.
After 15 spring practices and 8 fall practices, Oklahoma’s defensive coordinator is starting to figure out his best players on the defensive side of the ball.
Even with the loss of Tre Norwood it appears Brendan Radley-Hiles is ready to step in and fill that void.
“I commend Bookie up to this point in terms of fall (camp). I think there's several guys that have kind of taken leaps from their performance in spring and he'd probably be number one on that list,” said Grinch of his potential starting nickel back.
And the praise in the secondary didn’t stop.
“We kind of have two guys in Delarrin (Turner-Yell) and Pat (Fields) that kind of established themselves at this point,” added Grinch.
As Grinch was asked for a response to Tre Brown telling reporters the defensive line and linebackers were performing at a high level, the defensive coordinator turned it around to praise his star cornerback.
“I'd like to think if you polled the defensive line and linebackers they would say the same thing about Tre Brown,” he said.
Grinch is finally in a position to be impressed after all of these practices. He’s installed his system, set his level of expectation and now he’s getting the results he wanted.
At least from some of his front-line players. He’s still pushing for others to join the players who are rising to the top of the depth chart.
“Certainly, we have competition at some points but maybe not as much as we need. We’ve got to get that corrected,” Grinch said. “There’s a message for some of those guys that don’t find themselves with the first group at this moment. If you’re just a two by default, and we wouldn’t put you in a game, you’re just that. You’re just a depth-chart guy. Not truly a rotational player for us. We need more of those guys to step up.”
TAKE 2: Emphasizing what you want
One thing was evident more than anything else talking to defensive players Monday afternoon. They know what Alex Grinch wants.
He wants turnovers.
He has a production sheet of what’s going on,” explained cornerback Parnell Motley. “We have strip attempts and he’s going to let us know if we don’t have enough strip attempts.”
Grinch actually awards a “Strip King” every day during film study.
“The coaches are keeping count of how many strips you have. You want to be one of those guys getting called out during meetings for the (good) things you’re doing in practice,” added Delarrin Turner-Yell. “It’s also letting your peers know the success you’re having on the practice field.
“Every day that we have a defensive meeting he always tells the entire defense that this guy has this many strip attempts and whoever got the ball out the most they were the Strip King of the day.”
That doesn’t mean players get to practice the next day with a big crown on their helmet.
“Unfortunately we just get candy bars,” explained Turner-Yell.
Grinch has taken every moment to remind this defense and these players what he wants them to be. With no classes in session, these past two weeks have been an opportunity to drive home the way he wants his team to play and who he wants them to be.
“They feel us,” Grinch said of OU’s offense during practice. “We keep track of it. We're almost 400 strip attempts. Almost 400 strip attempts up to this point, almost 40 strip attempts a day, and a true strip attempt is a willingness to get the ball out.
“So by the time we play game one, we should be right around 1,000 strip attempts on legit ball carriers. Not a guy holding onto the ball and somebody just ripping it out, because we say it's a takeaway drill. Every play in practice turns into one.
“That's a learned skill. It's a learned trait. It's no different than a basketball player shooting 1,000 shots.”
TAKE 3: Grinch looks at key veterans as key assets in this rebuild
So much weight has been put on the shoulders of players such as Neville Gallimore and Kenneth Murray.
It’s a bit unfortunate (I am guilty of this with my article about Gallimore just today) that so much blame about the defense has been put on the veterans.
These are guys that have been through some serious battles in their careers. They’ve been to Ohio State and won. They’ve been to a couple of College Football Playoffs. They’ve won conference championships. They’ve never even lost a conference championship.
So Grinch opened up Monday and offered his appreciation for those players on that side of the ball.
“That’s the one thing, for me, a little different than the situation when we took over at Washington State, there was such a struggle as a team at that point. The difference here is the stage these guys have been on is everything you want in our sport,” he said. “You gotta, you say, OK, the standard has not been met from a defensive standpoint. However, it would be inappropriate on my part not to give those guys credit for some of the atmospheres and the moments they’ve been in.
“You gotta lean on those guys and you gotta talk to ‘em a certain way. They demand that sort of respect. The best thing about all those guys, whether it’s Kenneth Murray and stuff, the feedback is, they want to be so much better. God, they want to be so much better.”
All along it was thought Grinch was starting not just from ground zero, but from a pile of rubble.
Grinch just doesn’t see it that way because of the veterans on his roster.
And in the way they’ve responded to his arrival.
“The buy-in, I can’t describe to you. That’s a credit to Coach Riley and this program. Coach Wylie in the weight room,” he added. “The guys that have been around, in terms of them buying in as quickly, the message, the scheme itself. There’s been almost zero pushback that way from those individuals.”
BONUS TAKE: Grinch on the loss of Tre Norwood
Monday was the first time Alex Grinch had a chance to address the loss of Tre Norwood for the season. Safe to say he didn’t take it easy.
“I feel sick for him. He worked his tail off since we had a chance to start working together in January,” said Grinch. “He was kind of the Swiss army knife for us in the spring. And then reminded there's a Saturday for us where he played corner for us, safety for us, nickel for us all in the same practice. Oh by the way we just installed a new defense. He had a tremendous summer and a couple of good days in fall camp and it's just unfortunate what happened.”
Norwood was going to be a central piece of the OU defense as a starting nickel back. But Grinch is positive about his future as his rehab will soon begin.
“I will say this: he's gonna be a tremendous college football player,” he said. “As you look into the future I couldn't be more excited about him and I know he's one of those guys who will attack the rehab and come back and actually be better from it.”