Lincoln Riley: Freshmen defenders have earned their playing time and can 'help this team win football games'
Every game, it seems, Alex Grinch and Oklahoma’s defensive coaching staff are playing more and more freshmen.
And every game, those freshmen are stepping onto the field earlier and earlier.
Last week it was against Kansas, as defensive end Reggie Grimes and linebackers Shane Whitter and Brynden Walker were getting first-quarter snaps. Soon enough, cornerback D.J. Graham was out there. After that, corner Joshua Eaton and safety Bryson Washington were playing.
D.J. Graham
Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Yes, the one-sided nature of the games lately — 33-14 against TCU, 62-28 against Texas Tech, and 62-9 against Kansas — had something to do with it.
But the fact is irrefutable: these freshmen are playing because they’re ready to play. Graham contributed five tackles against Kansas. Whitter had five tackles and half a tackle for loss. Grimes had two tackles. Bryson Washington had two tackles and half a tackle for loss. Walker had two tackles and half a sack. Eaton also had a tackle.
“I would say we’ve had more and more guys over the last several weeks,” Lincoln Riley said, “show us they are ready and have earned those snaps and are ready to perform and help this team win.”
Players have performed in practice, so their coaches trust them to execute in games.
Is there maybe a willingness on the coaching staff’s part to try to peek into the future? In other words, they know what they have in the older players and they’re curious about what this freshman class can do?
“I wouldn’t say so,” Riley said. “I think you’re always curious, but not curious to a point to where you’re going to put guys in there while games are still certainly competitive. Our deal has been, give us a reason to put you out there. We want to, of course. We want to play guys. We want to have competition. We want to keep people fresh. We want to do all those things. You can’t just put a guy out there because you want to. They have to earn it and show that they’re ready, maybe not for 50 snaps, but maybe ready for 15 snaps.”
Whitter, Walker and Grimes all made key plays early against Kansas. That’s not really surprising, apparently.
“A couple freshmen that definitely stood out as soon as they got in were some in my linebacker group,” sophomore David Ugwoegbu said Wednesday. “Shane Whitter — that dude is explosively fast and as you can see, he made that fourth-down stop (tackling KU quarterback Jalon Daniels) during the game. That just proves to his ability to play sideline to sideline.
“We've also got Brynden Walker at the rush position. He also had him a sack out there. That’s gonna be the first of many. That guy’s a hard worker.
“You can tell that no moment is too big for these guys and I like to see that.”
Redshirt freshman cornerback Woodi Washington played a little last year and has worked his way into a starting role midway through this year. He said he noticed early on the playmaking ability OU brought in at defensive back.
“A few guys,” Washington said. “D.J. Graham, he was making a few plays. Even back in the spring when we first had the little COVID deal, he was making plays back then. Bryson was making some plays. And then Josh, he’s been coming along in practice and in fall camp and during the preseason.”
Washington echoed what Riley said: the young guys are practicing well during the week, so they’re earning their playing time on the weekends.
“I’d just say if they keep practicing how they are doing,” Washington said, “I think they’ll play a lot more for us.”
Ugwoegbu said he’s seen “a big change” in the youngsters since they got to Norman.
“When you come into college, your freshman year, you’re not expected to see the field,” he said. “You’re not expected to get reps with the 1s at practice. And once all these guys' names were called, they stood up to the challenge and I think they faced it perfectly well.”
For Whitter and Walker, Ugwoegbu said, “taking reps with the 1s at times during fall camp, that moment wasn’t ever too big for them. … I seen how they flew around and I see little things that maybe some other first-year guys are a little more tentative about or a little more shy about, but nah, they don’t shy away from anything. They’re hunting up contact, they’re hunting up to make big plays. That’s what really stood out to me to say ‘Yeah, these guys are going to be good in this program.’
Ugwoegbu even said watching this year’s rookies reminded him of his situation a year ago, when he was a first-year freshman.
“Yeah, in a lot of ways it did and in a lot of ways it didn’t,” he said. “I saw some stuff and I was like, ‘Dang, I wish I would have came in my first year having this approach,’ for sure.”
The pandemic and the scourge of positive COVID tests and even contact tracing has sped things up for all freshmen in 2020. Depth is paramount. Everyone needs to be ready to play at a moment’s notice.
But Riley reiterated: it’s not an experiment. It’s not an emergency. These guys are playing because they’re ready to play. In OU’s case, the COVID protocols have actually been costly on the freshman class.
“Some of it is just young guys growing up and understanding they have to practice at an elite level every day and give the coaches and players confidence to put them out there,” Riley said. “Some of it is the COVID year we’ve dealt with and what all these young guys have missed. A number of our young players were the ones that did get hit with either COVID or contact tracing.
“So on top of it being new, a lot of those guys have missed between 10-24 days on top of all the other stuff. That makes it a little difficult to catch up.
“I’ve been excited about several of our young guys, especially defensively. We’ve got some real talent there, and starting to get to a point where they can help this team now win football games.”
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