Carson Meier makes leap to Sooners’ lineup
NORMAN — Carson Meier figures to have played a lot more over the past few years if it weren’t for Dimitri Flowers.
Over the last couple seasons, Flowers was the most versatile Oklahoma player, shifting seemingly effortlessly between a variety of positions and becoming a big-play receiver at any of them.
This year, with Flowers gone, Meier’s role has expanded. He’s not asked to carry quite the load that Flowers did, but he’s finding a niche in one of the best offenses in college football.
Sooners coach Lincoln Riley said Meier’s preparation for that role over the past few seasons — he played in 40 games
over the three previous seasons — helped him be ready for his opportunity.
“Dimitri was so versatile and stayed healthy for us for several years. But with all we did with Dimitri, we had to have the next guy ready and he was always ready,” Riley said.
“So he took a lot of reps here and really grew behind the scenes.”
Meier has always been able to block — he came to the Sooners as a tight end from Tulsa Union — but it’s been his receiving ability that helped get him on the field significantly more this year.
“He’s really improved not just catching the ball, but understanding our route concepts, understanding where we need him to be versus different coverages,” Riley said. “So that development has allowed us to use him more. He’s a weapon there. He’s actually built so much different than Dimitri, we’ve been able to do some different things with him because of that.
“I just think he’s made himself one of those guys that we don’t want to have off the field right now.”
Meier was on the field for 40 of Oklahoma’s 72 plays last week against TCU, starting for the sixth time this season. He lined up most often at tight end, but also was in the backfield at fullback for more than 10 plays and on one play on the Sooners’ first drive of the game he lined up at wide receiver.
He punctuated the Sooners’ big offensive day with a touchdown catch — his second of the season — in the closing moments.
“It’s incredible. It’s something I’ve been excited for the past five years now,” Meier said recently about his expanded role. “Starting a Sooner football game is just an incredible feeling. Just getting out there and being able to do that is a dream come true.”
Riley compared Meier’s evolution as a passcatcher to another recent Sooner.
“We’re confident in him as a receiver,” Riley said. “We weren’t quite confident in him as a receiver a couple years ago, but he’s really built his game, a lot like, a different position, but a lot like Samaje (Perine) built his receiving game as we get here those few years. We didn’t have confidence in him doing that in the beginning. But Carson’s built it. He’s known that to play a lot for us, he was going to have to be a good receiver. He is right now.”