Interview

Oklahoma continues to be excessively humid and the Sooners continue to plow through practice after practice. After their morning workouts today Marshall was interviewed by Jason M. from Soonersports.com. His first video interview at OU! You can imagine how excited we were to see it :)

Check it out!


Marshall's Interview


In other news, Rivals posted this article today. Offensive Coordinator Kevin Wilson talks about this year's offense. Marshall is mentioned once.

Wilson Wants to Become Balanced Again

Kevin Wilson heads into the 2010 season wanting to establish a better identity on the offensive side of the ball. In 2009, injuries and inexperience forced the Sooners into becoming a strict passing team down the stretch. Wilson hopes a healthy offensive line, a fresh start and a wealth of talent at the running back position can bring some balance back to the offense this season.


SoonerSportsPhotos.com
Wilson is working to improve the running game behind offensive linemen like Stephen Good
Q: Everyone talks about losing guys like Sam Bradford and Jermaine Gresham, but how hard is it going to be to replace a guy like Brody Eldridge?
Kevin Wilson: I think you saw how much it affected that offense last year with all the scenarios he was put through. You saw what it did to tight end when we had to move him to the offensive line and then you saw what it did to the team when we lost him for the last few games when he got hurt.

I think another other guy people don't bring up is Matt Clapp. After he got hurt we really lost three big lead-blocking ends of that line last year due to injury and I think you saw then how much those guys meant to our offense.

Hopefully this year we can use guys like Marshall Musil and Austin Haywood coming in. And hopefully with guys like Trent Ratterree and James Hannah having played last year then they will be mature.

Q: Having had those injuries though, you had to throw some young guys in there that got some valuable experience. Can you talk about how much that means now?
Wilson: It was exposed last year publicly when they weren't quite as mature or ready to roll with the injuries at the time. But now those guys have played and that's the beauty of that. There's a saying in our locker room right now that if you keep doing the same things over and over then you'll continue to get the same results.

So, hopefully our practice habits will be better and we'll be stronger and more mature to practice like great teams do. Last year when we got into two-a-days, and then into the season, we didn't practice like a good team does. Yes, we had some injuries exposed and then some lack of experience, but we didn't really have the toughness that a good team needs. Hopefully since some of these guys played, we're going to be tougher.

I don't know if we're going to be any flashier, but hopefully we're going to be a team that can take better care of the ball and win some games that last year we didn't.

Q: Do you feel confident that you have more receivers who can step up and make some catches for you this year?
Wilson: Well, when you run the ball the passing game becomes so much easier. So we're going to try and re-establish an identity of having some toughness and being a football team that can have some balance and some direction. A team who runs the ball and is committed to it.

With that, you hope that the pass game gets set up.

Again, that group right there was probably as inconsistent as any group we had. There were a lot of young guys or guys that hadn't played that much besides Ryan Broyles. It's a lot easier when you have a great receiver who can make a guy miss versus having to block them up front and then beat nine, ten or eleven guys to get a touchdown.

When we had guys like Mark Clayton, Juaquin Iglesias and Malcolm Kelley, it was a lot easier to get the chunk plays. Demarco (Murray) on the other hand has to take on nine and ten guys sometimes to get a 40 or 50-yard play. The receiver is a one-on-one guy. So hopefully they can step up.
There were several factors last year that limited us and that was one. That entire group is back and they look better in short term right now. So we'll see if that group can step up and make some big plays this year.

Q: The last couple of years you have had a complimentary back with Chris Brown to Demarco Murray. This year, the only back with experience is Jermie Calhoun. How do you feel about the depth at that position?
Wilson: Well we also have Mossis Madu back there as well. Mosis can be another hybrid-type back like Demarco. He can play a little tailback and a little wide out. John Miller showed some flash before he had the slight knee injury and we've seen a little from Clahoun but you don't know.

I'm really intrigued by Brennan Clay and Roy Finch, I think those two guys got a chance. Now we have yet to put on pads, but just running around, those two look like they're going to be some exciting players.

Again, the competition is going to be a lot better than it was last year because of so many guys who are returning and with what we think is a pretty strong freshman class.

We've yet to put on pads and hit anyone, but our thought is to push every freshman to see if he can play. We're not going to sit here and look and think what you could be in five years because of so many kids who are coming out early. Our thought is, if a kid can play then we're going to get him ready to roll.

We approached yesterday's practice with every freshman in the mix playing.

Q: Do you think any of the players lost confidence with how last season turned out or do you think they've come to understand that last year was a result of a lot of bad things happening in one season?
Wilson: I don't know if they've lost confidence by any means, because I think everyone who comes here comes to play for championships. I think everyone here thinks that they're going to go on and play professional football.

What I really think, Is we're a little hungrier. Our attention to detail, and our sense of purpose and urgency is significantly greater because our performance, particularly on offense last year, was unacceptable. I think our guys have a greater sense of the level they need to play at.
I don't think they said it happened last year and it will never happen again. I think they say some of that happened because some guys weren't ready to play.

At the same time, I don't think we've lost any confidence. I think we have a hungrier group and a more driven group. We've had a lot of positive energy as we finished off the last game last season.
I think these kids are excited about two-a-days. While most years we might be talking about how hot it is and how hard it's going to be, I think you're going to see a lot of energy.


September 4th is coming quickly! Boomer Sooner! Beat Utah State!