Sooners Hold First Camp Practice

NORMAN — The Oklahoma football team took the field Saturday morning for its first practice of the 2019 season, beginning preseason camp with a two-hour, 20-minute workout at OU's rugby fields.

Head coach Lincoln Riley said he was pleased with his team's first practice, as the Sooners begin the road to a fifth straight Big 12 title and third straight College Football Playoff appearance. OU opens the 2019 campaign at home against Houston on Sunday, Sept. 1.

“Good, good,” responded Riley when asked how the first practice went. “Got a lot of good situational work. Team effort, enthusiasm — there was certainly a lot of excitement to hit the field, which, with the way they performed in the summer, wasn't really a surprise.

“Smooth,” he continued about the morning. “There's still a long, long, long way to go, but it looks a lot different than it did the first day of spring. There's definitely been progress in learning the schemes, the guys who were here in the spring being a little bit more comfortable. We look better physically. The guys who have been here developed well over the summer, and certainly the newcomers we added make us look better as a team overall. Fun day. Excited to get back in (the film room) and evaluate it.”

Junior linebacker Kenneth Murray echoed his coach's sentiment and expressed his excitement for the symbolic start to the season.

“It was a good day,” Murray stated. “Obviously, it was the first day so everybody is excited to get back out here. We have a lot of stuff to get better at but today was a good starting point. Definitely a great first day. I'm excited to be back on the field and continue to get better.”

The OU veteran and Big 12 Preseason Defensive Player of the Year complimented the work of the Sooners defense on the first day of camp. He said his side of the ball has taken on a new mentality under first-year defensive coordinator Alex Grinch.

"There was certainly a lot of excitement to hit the field, which, with the way they performed in the summer, wasn't really a surprise."
Lincoln Riley

“We look good. We had guys flying around and making plays and playing with great effort. As long as we continue to do that and stack days on top of days, we'll be all right,” Murray said. “(Coach Grinch) comes out here with great energy and a no-excuses mentality. That's the mentality we as players need to have and the mentality we as a defense are going to have this year. There's going to be no excuse for us to not achieve our goals and we're going to come out every day and work to achieve them.”

Riley, who is 24-4 in his two years at OU, added that the defense's effort to create more turnovers has made it more difficult for the offense in practice.

"Job No. 1 is to get the guy on the ground, but job No. 2 is to get the ball out," he said. "You can tell it is being emphasized and we're seeing that more on this field now right now. From the offense's perspective, what I would say is it has been much more of a challenge for us in practice, just competitively, on the turnovers."

Players Mentioned

Kenneth Murray

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