Big decision awaits OU's Aaron Colvin
BY GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer
Thursday, January 03, 2013
1/03/13 at 5:56 AM
IRVING, Texas - Tony Jefferson, the face of Oklahoma's defense this year, knows who the face of next year's will be should he decide to turn pro.
Aaron Colvin.
"Yeah, he will be," Jefferson said this week in the lead-up to Friday's OU-Texas A&M Cotton Bowl. "I know he's going to show the leadership he has. His senior year, he'd probably end up a top-15 pick."
Colvin can have that type of senior season. He can be the first defender the Sooners nominate for watch lists and All-America consideration. Then he can build off what he learned this season, his first as a starting cornerback, when he blossomed into a first-team All-Big 12 performer.
Here's the rub, though: Colvin played himself into an uncertain college future. The Owasso graduate was so impressive that he is at least considering forgoing that senior season.
"I'm still in the process of deciding," Colvin said this week. "I've talked a little bit to my parents. But since I was home for such a short period, I never really got a chance to sit down and talk to them. I am thinking about the whole NFL thing, but it's still a process."
Like several teammates, Colvin sent material to the NFL draft advisory committee for a grade after the regular season ended.
"First couple of rounds," he said of the feedback. "I'm not going to get into specifics about what it said, but it wasn't as high as I wanted. But it was high enough."
The process intensifies after Friday's game. Colvin will have more time to discuss options among family, friends and coaches. He already has heard from Bob Stoops.
"He just wants me to maximize my money situation," Colvin said. "It was a positive speech. I needed to hear it. I feel like it was sincere. I definitely took it into consideration, everything he said."
If Colvin gets around to talking to Mike Stoops, his position coach and OU's defensive coordinator, he'll hear much the same thing.
"It all sounds good right now, until you have to show up there and play. And then you have to do the things to earn that money," Mike Stoops said this week. "That's what kids don't realize. That's a whole other world. It's a big time job. You've got to be prepared for it.
"So you want to be the best prepared you can be when you go to that job, or you won't last."
Colvin, in Mike Stoops' mind, isn't quite prepared.
"He's physically not ready," Mike Stoops said. "He needs to put on some weight and strength."
That said, Stoops realizes Colvin had the type of season that would make a player curious about his draft stock. He puts Colvin on Jefferson's level as far as value.
Jefferson puts Colvin on another level.
"Honestly, I don't know where our defense would be without him," Jefferson said.
It would be in serious trouble, when you consider Colvin's contributions.
OU's season pivoted at Texas Tech on Oct. 6, when Colvin made the team's defensive play of the year - a blitzing, leaping how-did-he-catch-that interception of a pass that the 99 percentile would have batted away.
"Every pass that I deflect I'm trying to catch. You saw the hands go up," he said, grinning. "It was a hard pass, though, I'm not gonna lie. It did kind of hurt."
Colvin contributed 12 tackles and another interception to OU's victory at West Virginia on Nov. 17. The following Saturday, he added his first two sacks of the season as the Sooners won Bedlam in overtime.
"A pretty good season," Colvin said. "I was happy with it. I accomplished a lot of goals."
It's just that there are many more out there, and well within reach with one more year.
"Coach Stoops definitely opened that up to my eyes," he said. "That was a goal of mine, getting some awards like Jim Thorpe and All-American. That is on my bucket list."
So is professional football. What does Colvin do?
"There are still some things I'm kind of unsure about," he said. "That's the main thing, finding out everything I need to know...
"It's all on me. It's my decision."
Original Print Headline: Decision awaits OU's Colvin
Guerin Emig 918-581-8355
guerin.emig@tulsaworld.com
