Martinez getting to know Sooner DBs, and vice versa
Published: 3/27/2010 4:47 PM
Last Modified: 3/27/2010 4:47 PM
NORMAN — Oklahoma is looking for a couple of new cornerbacks. To go with their new cornerbacks coach, you know.
Willie Martinez has been going a hundred miles an hour since he arrived at OU in February. He was previously defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator at Georgia. The South Florida native has received high marks both from his new boss, Bob Stoops, and his new players.
"I like him a lot," said Demontre Hurst, one of the frontrunners to replace Dom Franks and Brian Jackson at cornerback. "He's fundamentally sound. He's all about technique. He's a good guy on and off the field. He'll tell you what you need to work on and tell you what's good, what's bad. He doesn't down you. He just wants you to get better. He wants to make you a better person and a better man and a better football player, too. He's a very, very good coach."
Martinez has been on the job for about seven weeks. He said he's not working 20-hour days just trying to review everybody's game and practice film. Not any more, anyway. Not since spring practice has begun.
"I've done that already as far as getting a feel for what they've done," he said. "Just to get the feel for their abilities and what they can and can't do, what they need to work on and not work on — for the most part, they need to work on everything. But the process for me, too, is to get a feel for their personalities and their attitude."
It's not unusual at many college football programs to replace an assistant coach. But at OU, it's hardly routine. Martinez is just the third new defensive assistant Stoops has hired since his original staff in 1999.
He's been leaning hard on the words of Stoops and former DBs coach Bobby Jack Wright (now back coaching defensive ends) for insight on Hurst, Marcus Trice, Gabe Lynn, Kevin Brent, Quinton Carter, Sam Proctor, Jonathan Nelson and everyone else.
"Everybody learns at a different pace," Martinez said. "Most of them learn by visual. You just try to find the right button to push. It's kind of a get-to-know-you deal right now, because I'm behind. These guys have been recruited and been here, but I'm just — the great thing is the staff is really good in being able to give me good input. It's a learning in progress, and it's just a process that we've got to keep going through."
And that process is a two-way street.
"I'm still trying to get to know him," Hurst said. "He'll be getting me sometimes. I'm trying to get to know him, he's trying to get to know me. We're still trying to get that relationship bond going."
— John E. Hoover
Written by
John E. Hoover
Sports Columnist
