Tulsa World: Up close: OU's Trent Ratterree

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Up close: OU's Trent Ratterree

Trent Ratterree (right) celebrates with Ryan Broyles after Broyles scored against Idaho State on Sept. 12. STEPHEN PRINGY/Tulsa World

By GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer
Published: 10/29/2009 2:26 AM
Last Modified: 11/1/2009 6:11 PM

NORMAN — Oklahoma tight end Trent Ratterree wears tattoos just above both wrists. One is the symbol for emunah, the Hebrew word for faith. The other is tikvah, the Hebrew word for hope.

The two words tell a lot about Ratterree, a spiritual young man who admires Sooners quarterback Landry Jones as much for his character as his ability to throw a football.

"He has really strong faith and he really stands by it and lives it," Ratterree says. "That's really hard to do, especially in college. He sticks to it."

Faith and hope also play a hand in the experience of a typical walk-on, particularly at a program like OU. It's not that Ratterree, a walk-on from Weatherford, gets dumped on and lives practice to practice. Not by any stretch.

"You may hear a lot of stories from other schools about how walk-ons are treated real bad. You've seen 'Rudy' probably," he says. "But here, people are treated really well. ... I don't have to do anything crazy. There's no big guy walking around trying to smash your head in at practice."

The faith and hope come in while you wait your turn behind scholarship players like All-American Jermaine Gresham. Ratterree waited it out in 2008, then suddenly was thrust into prominence when Gresham hurt his knee the week of this season's opener.

He has responded the best he can, with six catches for 51 yards for the 4-3 Sooners. And if any good has come from Gresham's season-ending injury, it's the story of a 225-pound walk-on finding his way onto the Cotton Bowl field for the majority of the Oct. 17 OU-Texas game.

Fair to say you were a Sooner fan growing up?

Yeah, I was. I always watched them on TV.

How many games did you attend?

I went to a good amount of games. I'd never been to an OU-Texas game until last year, my redshirt freshman year. But I came to games here all the time. I saw the Texas A&M game (in 2003) where we won 77-0.

I was here when TCU came in and won (in '05). I was here when Antonio Perkins set the punt-return record against UCLA (in '03). I was sitting in the upper deck."

Any family go to school here?

No. But my brother was a big OU fan. Actually, my parents were born and raised in Texas. It didn't really come from them. It was just living in Oklahoma, and my older brother grew up watching them.

How did you and Landry Jones become friends?

Through this and that. You meet guys when they come in. Sometimes there's a guy that you just know will end up being your good friend. I had that feeling about Landry. We're friends with a lot of the same people on the team.

You received some basketball offers from small colleges. Do you still play for fun?

Yeah, sometimes I go to 'The Huff' (OU's Huston Huffman recreation center) and mess around a little bit.

Guerin Emig 581-8355
guerin.emig@tulsaworld.com By GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer

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Arbythree, Tulsa (10/29/2009 3:01:31 PM)

Nice article.

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