The wisdom of Jay Norvell
Published: 9/22/2009 12:34 AM
Last Modified: 9/22/2009 12:34 AM
Oklahoma wide receivers coach Jay Norvell is having a tough go of 2009. Or was.
He's got a bunch of receivers, but few who know much about playing college football at a high level.
Ryan Broyles obviously has come to play. It appears Brandon Caleb may finally have things figured out. But there needs to be more. Dropped passes continue to haunt the crew.
Last year's offense had four and sometimes five go-to guys in the passing game. Juaquin Iglesias and Manuel Johnson combined for 24 dropped passes in 14 games last season, but Sam Bradford never stopped passing them the ball because they had earned his trust. This year, you get the sense that after reaching a certain quota of drops, said dropper is done, his confidence shot, Caleb being the exception.
Still, I get the feeling that OU's receiving corps is going to be just fine no later than midseason, maybe sooner. How could they not be? Working at a position that has become — relatively speaking to the rest of the staff — a revolving door, Norvell has taken his six years of NFL background and settled in seamlessly.
He may not have the pedigree that Steve Spurrier Jr. had. He may not be the dynamic recruiter that Darrell Wyatt was. He may not have the amoebic mind for an offensive game plan that Kevin Sumlin had. (Then again, he may be better than those guys in every way; I wish I knew him well enough to fairly judge. I don't, so I'll write this blog instead.)
I do believe Norvell is Oklahoma's most accomplished receivers coach yet, and I believe his coaching of the position will raise the performance of his cadets like his predecessors could not.
Now in his second season, in Norman, Norvell strikes me as OU's most straightforward coach in media interviews — the Sooner coach least likely to BS you. Maybe he's got me fooled, but I don't think so.
You might be able to judge for yourself in reading a few excerpts from recent interviews:
On Brandon Caleb:
"He's the first guy to show up every day. He's the first guy in meetings. He comes in early and watches extra film. When you work like that, with that type of attention to detail and effort and readiness, it pays off. He was ready to play. He's been waiting a long time for this opportunity. He's been kicked around a little bit in this program. And he played well. I was proud of him and happy for him."
On players learning their roles:
"We don't need guys to be Superman. We're not asking them to be Jerry Rice. We want them to run routes, get open and make plays when they come to them. And when they don't have the ball in their hands, they need to work hard for their teammates. That's what Brandon did last week. He wasn't perfect, but you don't have to be when you play with great effort."
On why the wideouts played so poorly against BYU:
"We didn't have a whole lot of mental issues in the game. We had some balls that we had our hands on. We had about three drops in the game. I just felt we'd play more competitively, be more aggressive overall. That's really it. As far as our group is concerned, we didn't have mental issues. We had one penalty. But we could have played harder. We were playing against a 5-6 corner and God bless him, he played his tail off. But they outplayed us, and that's disappointing. It's no disrespect to BYU, but we're going to see a lot of good teams this year and probably more talented secondaries and defenses. So our guys had better buckle up and be ready to roll. It ain't gonna get any easier. We're going to have to play at a much higher level than we played last week."
On playing wide receiver in general:
"A lot of wide receiver play is like a 15-round fight. I used to work with a guy named Freddy Biletnikof and his dad was an amateur fighter. He hit the speed bag every day. That's the way you approach the game. It's a 15-round fight. You have a one-on-one competition with the defensive back. Somebody's gotta win and somebody's gotta lose every snap. And if you don't have that mentality, you're going to be losing more snaps than you win. And at the end of the game, you lose the ballgame."
— John E. Hoover
Written by
John E. Hoover
Sports Columnist
