Week of self-evaluation for OU
One thing Oklahoma first-year head coach Brent Venables loves to say is that he’s in the weeds of everything every day.
He’s so involved in the process and appreciative of the process that there isn’t a long time, or any time, to examine big picture ideals.
But you get that opportunity when the sole bye week of the season comes around, and Venables, his staff and the players were allowed to do that last week.
You can call it a self-evaluation. It’s not that it revealed earth-shattering news, but it’s recognizing the issues and trying to find the solutions for the final five games of the regular season.
“A lot of inconsistency. We’ve had our moments of weakness,” said Venables at his Tuesday press conference. “It’s because of a lot of things. It’s not just one thing.
“Whether it’s the fundamentals. It’s technique. It’s out of position because we’re trying to do too much. Bad play call, pre-snap penalties, turnovers, not making layups, overthrowing, dropping balls, you can go down a list.”
Venables mentioned injuries and those come with any season. A lot of what’s listed is the Xs and Os of football, but then he went the mental direction.
He started talking about always being ready because you never know when your name is going to be called. And if you’re not getting the opportunities that you thought you would, figuring out how to rewrite that script.
“That’s the message to all our two or three deep guys, our young guys,” Venables said. “There’s some young guys probably discouraged in every locker room across the country right now because this is the first time they haven’t had the same opportunity or the same role. Our job is to continue to nurture their development, their growth, their improvement.”
Bowman working to get back
The major offensive injury for OU was with quarterback Dillon Gabriel, and everybody saw how different the offense is when he’s back with the 701-yard performance and 52-point outing vs. Kansas.
Defensively, it’s been the loss of Billy Bowman since the first quarter of the TCU game. Injuring his knee on a kickoff return, he’s working to return. But it’s too early to say when and way too presumptuous to believe he’ll be back for Iowa State on Saturday.
“That’s one of those things, when you deal with a non-surgical injury, everybody is a little bit different with how they heal and how they rehab,” Venables said. “Billy attacks. If anything, you have to slow Billy down. He’s incredibly prideful, really tough, anxious to get back on the field, great, great worker.
“Sometimes for him, less is more and he’ll push himself to exhaustion and you have to stay within the framework of rehab. We’re hopeful he will get back sooner rather than later. As of today, we don’t have an exact date for his return.”
Venables said Bowman is only now starting to run and get back into football shape. Then he’ll move to the next step of doing football-like things. And once that all gets squared away, Bowman will return.
Cyclones praise
Even from his introductory press conference at OU, you can tell the respect Brent Venables has for Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell and the Cyclones defense.
ISU is 3-4 overall, but the four losses have come by a combined 14 points.
That defense, the rush three and drop eight concept, it’s still going strong. Nobody has found the consistent answer to figuring it all out.
“One of the things you really respect about Coach Campbell and their staff is the development of their players,” Venables said. “Coaches try to take pride in getting guys to play beyond their ability, and they’ve done that consistently, both through effort and toughness and physicality, fundamentals, belief, systems, all of those things.”
Graham’s move
Everybody thought it’d be a natural fit for D.J. Graham to be paired with cornerbacks coach Jay Valai, with their friendship going back years and years.
For whatever reason, it just didn’t pan out in the first six games of the season. Graham announced his move to wide receiver during KU week, and it sounds like it was his idea.
“My understanding, D.J. and his dad visited when I got here briefly, he was signed as an athlete, with the opportunity to play either side,” Venables said. “They (previous staff) preferred him to try defense. He said he’d give it a try. His love is on offense and at receiver. So he asked if he could move back.”
Graham was a very effective receiver in high school, putting up monster numbers. It remains to be seen what can realistically be expected from him during the final five weeks of the season in making the move.
Venables said there are no other position changes on the table at this time.
RSJ making strides
With Bowman out and Damond Harmon still recovering, the door opened for someone to make a splash. Turned out to be freshman safety Robert Spears-Jennings.
He started to see more consistent time on special teams, and then vs. the Jayhawks, had four tackles in just eight snaps as he continues to put things together.
“Incredibly bright, he's tough, he's got great size as we've seen our last game in particular,” Venables said. “We've seen it in the last few weeks of practice. I think he showed up with a different sense of purpose to what he's doing and realized that the man in the mirror is the only thing that's kept him back from being his best.”