Here's How WR Jalil Farooq Can Become Oklahoma's Next Great Wideout
NORMAN — The time is now for Jalil Farooq.
Oklahoma’s dynamic wide receiver has two years experience and will be a junior when the Sooners start the 2023 college football season. He showed flashes throughout last season of being the guy OU needs to maximize what Jeff Lebby’s offense can do.
Can he step into that role? Can he be Oklahoma’s alpha? Can he replace Marvin Mims as the team’s primary playmaker?
“I have no problem being the go-to guy,” Farooq said Tuesday after the Sooners opened spring practice, “but we're going to share the love this year. So I'm just focused on being in the best position I can be for my team.”
That’s a magnanimous answer from a team-first guy.
But the bottom line is, Lebby wants to identify the team’s next Dede Westbrook, its next Marquise Brown, its next CeeDee Lamb. Lebby wants to find the next Marvin Mims — and the sooner the better.
“When we’ve been our best,” Lebby said Tuesday, looking back at his coaching career at OU, Ole Miss, Central Florida and Baylor, “we’ve had 1,000-yard guys. So 15 1,000 yard guys in maybe the last 13 or 14 years, something close to that, to where that’s been who we’ve been offensively. I would expect that.”
From Kendall Wright, Terrance Williams, Antwan Goodley, Corey Coleman and K.D. Cannon at Baylor, to Gabriel Davis at UCF, to Elijah Moore and Dontario Drummond at Ole Miss, to Mims at OU, Lebby has worked with plenty of dynamic wideouts who powered explosive offenses.
OU’s most experienced receivers this spring are fifth-year senior Drake Stoops, who has 80 career receptions for 914 total yards and seven touchdowns, and Farooq, who caught 37 passes for 466 yards and five TDs as a sophomore after an injury-plagued freshman season.
Nobody else on the roster caught more than three passes last year.
Farooq played 751 snaps last season as Lebby leaned heavily on Mims and supplemented with everyone else. Farooq played five snaps on the end of the line, 18 snaps out of the backfield, 79 snaps in the slot and 594 from the wide position, according to Pro Football Focus. He even got four direct snaps as a wildcat quarterback — a testament to his toughness, his explosiveness and his willingness to play just about anywhere.
“I’m just ready for whatever comes my way,” Farooq said.
Farooq isn’t a burner like many of his recent predecessors at OU. In fact, the 6-1, 207-pound Farooq bears more of a physical resemblance to another former Sooner who didn't have blazing speed but put up big numbers from a variety of positions before settling in as the alpha receiving target his junior and senior years: Juaquin Iglesias.
At 6-1 and 202 pounds, Iglesias started for four years at OU from 2005-08 and excelled at short-yardage and jet-sweep plays (as well as kickoff returns) before evolving into a go-to receiver alongisde Malcolm Kelly in 2007 (team-leading 68 catches, 907 yards, five TDs) and then exploding into his own in 2008 (74-1,150-10).
Iglesias finished his career second in school history with 202 catches and 2,861 receiving yards (both behind Mark Clayton). The often-underappreciated Iglesias also finished his career third in school history with 4,646 all-purpose yards.
Farooq won’t put up those kinds of numbers in his career, but he does have that kind of versatility.
So what does he need to do to elevate his game to what Iglesias did in his final two seasons — or what Mims did last season?
“Just coming in with that attitude every day,” Farooq said, “bringing the energy to the room. Just stepping up to the plate.”
For Lebby and new wide receivers coach Emmett Jones, that process began Tuesday and will continue throughout the month of April. It’s that process that will ultimately decide if Farooq or someone else has stepped up to become Lebby’s next great wideout.
“Getting guys work and timing and finding out who’s the guy that’s going to go make the competitive play,” Lebby said. “Who’s the guy that’s going to make the explosive play. Who’s the guy that can make a five-yard catch and turn it into a 60-yard touchdown. We’re going to find that out in the next 14 days.”
