Keenan Clayton Ready for 2006 Season

NORMAN, Okla. -- Defensive back Keenan Clayton sits down for a quick Q&A with SoonerSports.com. Clayton covers spring practice, his hometown and the personalities in the secondary.

The redshirt freshman from Sulpher Springs, Texas, expects to be a key contributor when his name is called this fall.

Oklahoma kicks off its 112th season of intercollegiate football on Saturday, Sept. 2, against the UAB Blazers at Owen Field.

In spring testing, you had the best bench (360 pounds) and vertical jump (37.5 inches) of the receivers and defensive backs. What was winter conditioning like for you?
If you make it to OU, you come in with athletic ability. Coach Smitty works a lot on technique. Ever since I was little I've been working -- like hauling hay and things like that.

You have some natural ability and when you pair that with the proper technique, it allows you to set bigger numbers. Working with Smitty, you're going to get stronger and faster.

What was the toughest thing for you to work on over the winter?
The conditioning (laughs). That was the hardest thing. Just the running, definitely. That was the hardest part for me. In high school, we worked out a lot with weights but we ran only during the season. Here, we're striving to be in great shape the whole year. That's a tough thing.

Where is Sulphur Springs in Texas? Talk a little about where you come from...
It's about 80 miles east of Dallas. Right in between Greenville and Mt. Pleasant on I-30. I graduated with about 250 kids in my class. It was a 4A school in Texas. During me senior year, we won in the first round but lost in the second to Dallas Lincoln. They went on to the state championship game so we lost to a team that was pretty good.

Keenan Clayton Bio & Stats | Clayton Photo Gallery

I mainly played DB and running back. I got moved to play running back was kind of shaky there at first. I started working at defensive back and just felt at home there.

What kind of personalities do you guys have in the secondary?
Jason Carter is the guy with all the knowledge. He's been around here a while and he knows the defense in and out. If you don't know what to do, you can ask him.

Darien Williams is the one that's real serious in the group. He doesn't take anything from anybody. It can be a good day and D-Will is still going to be serious going into the locker room.

Reggie (Smith) is just kind of laid back and then Nic (Harris). He's going to go hard all the time but he's got more of a playful attitude. Quinton (Carter) hasn't been here long enough for us to sort out what kind of personality he's going to have.

You know what is was like to be a true freshman last year...
I think with Quinton coming in early -- that's going to help him a lot. He already knows what to expect going into the summer. When we got here in the summer, we didn't know what to expect. When we walked in the first day to the weight room, we saw the older guys and they looked like they were just about to die.

When two-a-days come around and Coach Wright is teaching the new guys, Q will have a leg up. He'll be right up there with us older guys. That's going to give him a better chance to be on the field.

Seems like Coach Wright has a nickname for everyone...
He always calls me "East Texas" or "The Pride of Sulpher Springs". It's always 'get over here East Texas' (laughs). Whenever me and Manuel (Johnson) -- he's from Gilmer -- go one on one, he always makes a little joke: 'oh, it's the pride of East Texas, they're battling for the championship' -- stuff like that. Yeah, that's the nickname he gave me.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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