California dreamin’
How did Baker Mayfield, a Heisman Trophy candidate, end up walking the halls of freshman tight end Grant Calcaterra’s old high school last week?
With the Oklahoma football players given a rare weekend off for last week’s bye, the Sooners spread out across the country.
While some remained in Norman, others went home to visit friends and family. Some even came home with a teammate or two.
That was the case for true freshman tight end
Grant Calcaterra, who went home to Southern California to visit his family for the weekend.
He also brought along quarterback Baker Mayfield.
“Football brings together lifelong friendships, so I think Grant’s gonna be one of those guys for me,” Mayfield said. “His family, they try to get to every game. I talked to them and they said, ‘You should come out to California for the bye week. I said, ‘Don’t ask me twice. I’ll do it.’ So it actually happened.”
It might seem strange to some for a redshirt senior to go out of his way to visit the home of a true freshman, but Calcaterra didn’t see it that way.
“I had a similiar relationship with my high school quarterback,” the freshman said. “You just connect on the field, you can kind of build a relationship off the field with that.”
Along with a trip to the beach, they went to an Anaheim Ducks preseason hockey game and visited Calcaterra’s high school.
Thomas aims to get back on track
After exiting the Baylor game with an ankle injury, cornerback Jordan Thomas is ready to return to the field against Iowa State this weekend.
Before he got hurt, Thomas had given up big plays, including two touchdowns of more than 70 yards.
“It hurts me as a player because I never want to be off the field,” Thomas said of his injury. “Especially after you give up big plays; you never want to go out being hurt. My mind, at the point, was how do I get healthy and get back on the field.”
While he healed, Thomas reviewed the tape of the Baylor game and worked to correct the things he missed in the close win.
“It’s a game of inches,” he said. “Both plays. I was in halfway decent position the first time, I fall down and he makes the catch and walks into the end zone. The second time, it was just me not doing my job. Obviously, he threw the ball over my head. I miss it by a few inches.
“It could have gone either way, but it just all comes down to if I stay assignment and technique correct, that stuff is out of the door, out of the window, it doesn’t happen.”
Sooners to collect donations for hurricane relief prior to OU-Iowa State
The OU Athletics Department is partnering with United Way to take voluntary donations for hurricane relief at the OU-Iowa State football game Saturday.
Volunteers in United Way shirts and some OU studentathletes will be located outside of each stadium gate beginning at 9 a.m., and they’ll be carrying hurricane relief signs and donation buckets. There will also be a text-to-donate number advertised on the stadium video boards.
Money collected will go to hurricane relief efforts in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico.
Scouting Iowa State: Joel Lanning
In 2016, Iowa State’s
Joel Lanning played against Texas. Played quarterback. Completed 12 of 21 passes for 140 yards. He also had an 18-yard run.
In 2017, Lanning again played against Texas. Played middle linebacker. Had 20 tackles, the most by a Cyclone in a single game since 2006 and the secondmost in college football this season, behind only the 23 by Tennessee’s Daniel Butuli against Georgia Tech.
Iowa State plays at OU on Saturday, and Lanning remains one of college football’s feel-good stories. A guy who got beat out at quarterback, by JacobPark, did what lots of guys in that position do. Lanning transferred.
But he didn’t switch schools. He switched sides of the ball.
“Remarkable,” said OU coach Lincoln Riley. “Absolutely. Especially just physically. Mentally, you’re learning the defense, and defense is just as hard as offense, but he obviously has a good mind for it if he was able to play quarterback there. So he gets the game.
“And just watching the games chronologically, you can just see he’s getting more comfortable as a player in there each week. He’s gotten better and better. So to do what he’s doing physically right now, knowing how to take on blocks, it’s remarkable. It really is.”