Freshmen D-linemen helping Sooners
NORMAN — The song still rings in Ruffin McNeill’s ears.
With less than 20 second left in the second quarter of a game on Owen Field a decade ago, the familiar beat of House of Pain’s signature song started playing as the 80,000-plus Oklahoma fans — and plenty of the Sooners players — did exactly what the song’s title suggested as the No. 5-ranked Sooners were blasting No. 2 Texas Tech.
“That ‘Jump Around’ song, I still have nightmares about,” said McNeill, who was then the Red Raiders’ defensive coordinator.
While that game lives in Sooners’ lore, it helped McNeill learn a valuable lesson.
Watching the Sooners bring wave after wave of high-level skill players — guys such as Sam Bradford, Jermaine Gresham, DeMarco Murray and Ryan Broyles — it pushed McNeill to start concentrating on developing depth rather than relying so heavily on his top unit.
“That game taught me as a coach — and my dad taught me that when I coached high school basketball — you have to have backups,” McNeill said. “Not just backups, but guys who can play.”
McNeill’s defense is developing that, with one of the biggest right now being freshman defensive end Jalen Redmond.
Redmond and fellow freshman Ronnie Perkins have helped Oklahoma be much better up front over the last two games since McNeill took over for Mike Stoops as defensive coordinator.
That improvement will get a much bigger test Saturday when the Sooners travel to Texas Tech (7 p.m., ABC).
In late July, when he announced that blood clots would end Redmond’s freshman season before it even began, Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley didn’t completely rule out Redmond’s return at the end of the season, but hope wasn’t exactly high.
“We’re absolutely going to be cautious with him,” Riley said then.
But Redmond did even better than that. He was cleared in early October and made it back on the field in time for the Sooners' win over TCU on Oct. 20.
“He got to play some snaps last week, but he got to play this week,” Riley said after Saturday’s win over Kansas State. “He did some really good things. He’ll learn from it. There will be some mistakes. But you could tell this wasn’t his first one. He got to settle in and he’ll continue to get better and better.”
Perkins saw quite a bit of playing time early in the season, but he wasn’t a major part of what the Sooners were doing up front defensively.
But in the last two weeks, the two freshmen have played bigger roles on the defense, with Perkins moving into the starting lineup at defensive end and Redmond working more into the regular rotation.
Redmond had five tackles against the Wildcats, 2.5 for loss. Perkins had just one tackle but still made a difference in the run game especially.
“I think those two guys are definitely playing their butts off right now,” linebacker Kenneth Murray said. “They’re having fun and going out there and playing for each other.”