Football Begins Spring Workouts With Impressive First Practice

March 26, 2002

Audio

B. Stoops

J. Shipp

NORMAN, Okla. - Amidst all the attention the Oklahoma men's and women's basketball teams are drawing due to their Final Four berths, the Sooner football team quietly began spring practice on Tuesday afternoon at the OU practice fields. The Sooners opened four weeks of workouts with a 77-player spring roster, including 37 returning letterwinners, 18 redshirt freshmen, one transfer and two of its most recent signees. Spring practice will end on Saturday, April 20 with the annual Red/White Game which is scheduled for 1 p.m.

"The guys looked good and were sharp. It's amazing how they don't forget much. We went through our whole offense and defense throughout the whole practice and the guys looked pretty good. Most of the players, on offense and defense, went through practice without missing a beat," commented OU Head Coach Bob Stoops at the end of the three hour session.

The practice offered an early look at two of OU's recent signees, Pasha Jackson and Lance Mitchell from Community College of San Francisco. Jackson and Mitchell, who joined the team at the beginning of the semester, were both All-Americans during their junior college careers. Jackson and Mitchell practiced at the strongside and middle linebacker positions, respectively, and made good first impressions on Coach Stoops.

"They really played well today. They're powerful, they run well and they're very attentive. They come from a very good (junior college) program so you know there's been a lot demanded of them. They've been very impressive throughout the entire winter. They're learning now, but they're looking good," commented Stoops.

Earlier in the afternoon at a press conference prior to practice, Stoops expressed his optimistic expectations of spring practice.

"I'm really excited about our football team this year and excited about the possibilities. I believe it will be a team that will have a chance to compete for championships including the Big 12 and possibly further depending on how we come together," said Stoops.

On offense, the Sooners return a key corps of wide receivers, running backs and quarterbacks, including Jason White, who according to Stoops, is ahead of schedule in the rehabilitation of his knee. In reference to another OU quarterback, Stoops announced that reserve Hunter Wall will make a position change and compete at tight end during the spring. Stoops' only concerns on offense were replacing the vacancies at the guard and tackle positions on the offensive line due to the graduation of Howard Duncan and All-American Frank Romero.

"Jammal Brown, who started half the season for us last year, had an incredible winter and we're looking for him to have a special spring to take over the tackle spot," said Stoops. "So the way I look at it is the one piece we're missing is a guard. We have several guys that will fight for that job who are very capable of stepping in, including Chris Bush, Chike Ozumba, Kelvin Chaisson and a number of guys that have an opportunity to work in there."

Defensively, the Sooners plan to replace All-American linebacker Rocky Calmus at the weakside linebacker position with Teddy Lehman, who started at the middle linebacker position last year. However, a main topic of excitement for Stoops came when talking about the defensive line.

"Our front four maybe one of the best in the country next season and maybe the best we've ever here. We've had some great ones, but its hard to overlook this one with Dan Cody, Tommie Harris, Jimmy Wilkerson, Kory Klein and then you throw in Lynn McGruder who has joined the team and is working with us full-time now. Put all those players together and it's exciting to think of the possibilities." .

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Football Begins Spring Workouts With Impressive First Practice

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