Sooners Scrimmage on Owen Field

NORMAN —The Oklahoma football team held its first full-length scrimmage of training camp Saturday morning, practicing for more than an hour inside renovated Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

The session yielded big plays on both sides of the ball, pleasing 18th-year head coach Bob Stoops.

"I thought they did a good job overall," said Stoops, who is aiming this year for his 10th Big 12 championship. "We're missing some pieces with some minor injuries, but overall the guys played hard, played well. Both sides had their good points. It was positive. And no one (got) hurt, so that was good, too."

Quarterback Baker Mayfield engineered the day's lone scoring drives. After the defense held the first team to a pair of quick series, Mayfield directed a six-play, 75-yard march that ended on 20-yard touchdown pass to redshirt sophomore walk-on receiver Nick Basquine (pronounced BASS-kwin) in the right corner of the end zone. On his next series, Mayfield threw a 15-yard pass to running back Joe Mixon out of the backfield and watched the redshirt sophomore outrace the defense for a 69-yard score.

"We checked into a play with Nick and he ran a good route and got open for me," said Mayfield, who finished fourth in last year's Heisman Trophy voting. "Kind of put it where only he could get it and he made a play on it. And the other was Joe just running a good route. It was easy for me just getting it off to him and then he did the rest. That makes my job easy."

"We're missing some pieces with some minor injuries, but overall the guys played hard, played well. Both sides had their good points. It was positive. And no one (got) hurt, so that was good, too."
- Head Coach Bob Stoops

Mayfield also presided over a two-minute-drill drive that ended the scrimmage as kickers Austin Seibert and Kyle Pfau both drilled 47-yard field goals.

The defense registered seven touch sacks on the morning (three by junior college transfer Kapri Doucet and two by junior Ogbonnia Okoronkwo [o-BO-ny-uh o-kor-RON-kwo]) and the only interception of the day was made by linebacker Jon-Michael Terry after a tip by cornerback and fellow freshman Parnell Motley.

"Overall it went pretty well," said defensive coordinator Mike Stoops of the scrimmage. "Take out two or three plays and our position on the ball was pretty good.

"I think we're bringing our young depth along. We're starting to establish some depth on our team. That should happen 11 or 12 practices in. I think we're starting to see the two group separate themselves and feel like we have a quality group of players across the board in the two-deep."

One of the standouts defensively was junior nickelback Will Johnson, who said he was fairly happy with the performance on his side of the ball.

"I think it went a lot better than the (mini) scrimmage (on Wednesday)," commented Johnson. "Everyone was more disciplined, there were a lot less big plays and we managed pretty well as a defense."

Mixon and fellow starting running back Samaje Perine saw very limited action in the scrimmage. Perine carried the ball twice (longest was a 12-yarder) and Mixon once. Redshirt freshman Rodney Anderson got a good chunk of the carries, bursting for 47 yards on one of them.

"He's doing well and he's back healthy," offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley said of Anderson. "He was one of the bright spots today offensively. The great thing about him is he's so consistent. You get the same guy every day and as a coach it's nice to know that you can count on him."

The Sooners will return to the practice field on Monday.

ADDITIONAL QUOTES

Head Coach Bob Stoops

On what he was looking for going into the scrimmage:
"Guys play hard, be physical, know what you're doing assignment wise and see who makes plays when the coaches are off the field and can manage the game on their own."

On the stadium renovation:
"It's great, it's awesome. We've been out here (on Owen Field) a few times now and can't wait to see it full of people and loud as all getout, hopefully."

Defensive Coordinator Mike Stoops

On his expectations for the scrimmage and his takeaways:
"Well we gave up a couple big plays. Our defense is set on not giving up big plays so those are always concerning, giving up chunk yards. So getting players more aware of situations. We gave up a big pass today on a kind of different play, so those are really the big concerns for us; trying not to give up big plays and play consistently. I think right now you just look for consistency in everything you do across the board. We're starting to put things together where we are playing more consistently and that to me is the key to any success, getting quality play any time you step on the field. We're starting to get more consistency as we go through camp."

On Kapri Doucet and Will Johnson:
"We've counted on Will and he played really good, winning football for us a year ago. We're trying to get him more involved in how we're going to use him, kind of in that (Eric) Striker position. Kapri Doucet has come on, and so has Emmanuel Beal. Those two guys have shown signs of starting to be playmakers, and it's what we need on this defense. If we can get those guys to continue to progress, we feel like we're going to have quality depth and some new playmakers on this defense. They bring a tremendous amount of speed and quickness to our team, and in this league that's paramount to be able to cover the field. We feel like we're getting better."

On anyone else who stood out in the scrimmage:
"It's hard to say. Caleb (Kelly), the injury has slowed him up a little bit. Mark Jackson is coming on. Amani Bledsoe is coming on. They're just young and feeling their way. The first couple of weeks they're trying to understand what we're trying to do. We haven't really seen their athleticism come in to play yet, but that's expected with all freshmen. They're trying to understand their position and then being able to play fast at the rate we need them to play at and against tempo teams. Tempo teams go so fast you need to be able to get lined up, get the call, understand your position on the football field and where you need to be. So we're moving along and our offense gives us a good dose of that every time we step on the field. We're learning how to play fast."

Offensive Coordinator Lincoln Riley

On the scrimmage:
"We were a little lackadaisical offensively. The defense was more excited to play than we were and they played more physically than we did. We have to be better."

On the offensive line:
"That group is getting better. We've worked some different groups and I think they've progressed well through the majority of camp. Today wasn't really a good indicator of how we, as a whole, and the line, have been throughout camp."

On backup quarterback Austin Kendall:
"Austin is progressing well. He made some mistakes today that he hasn't been making, but he has had some really nice practices and I really like what I am seeing out of him."

On receiver Nick Basquine:
"He's been good. He's made some competitive plays for us, just like he did today, and he's been a solid blocker. He's definitely a guy who we see fitting into the rotation pretty heavily this year."

Quarterback Baker Mayfield

On the scrimmage:
"We did some good things (offensively) and had some explosive plays, but I mean that's expected with the guys we have. The defense played well and they tackled well when we went live. The big thing we talked about afterward as an offense is they were more physical than us. And that's kind of what we've been stressing, being more physical every game. The reason we lost our two games last year is we weren't as physical in those two."

Nickelback Will Johnson

On his play in the scrimmage:
"I felt pretty good, but I can always do better. I had a couple reads on the pullers and stuff like that — I just need to clean up my thought process on plays and understand everything I need to do, like on motions and things like that when the offense gets tricky."

On playing in coverage and also rushing the quarterback:
"You just have to have the mindset to go get the quarterback and to protect the secondary. They call the blitz for you to execute and you have to know that there are people behind you counting on you to get to the quarterback. Every time you blitz you have to have an edge and go hard and fast."

On outside linebacker Kapri Doucet:
"I kind of still see that juco hunger in him. You can tell he came from a juco because he is such a hungry guy. He is still catching on to the plays, but he is definitely a playmaker and he's been making big plays out there. He is catching on fast. He's big, fast and instinctive, so the sky is the limit for him."

On the young defensive backs:
"I would definitely say that Parnell Motley has stood out, the young corner from (Washington) D.C. I've been real close to him and getting to know him. He's a real cool guy off the field and he's been making plays on the field."

Receiver Nick Basquine

On his touchdown catch:
"We were going tempo and when they called the play I saw it was man-to-man. So I knew I had to make a play and I went out and made a play."