Cain helping shape OU's defensive line
NORMAN — Sonny Puletasi was never going to be good enough for the coach.
“Good isn' t good enough for him,” Puletasi said of his old defensive line coach. “He wants you to be a pro. He's a perfectionist and he wants the same for his players.
“Even if I made a sack, he'd say ,` You could've sped it up a little bit more,' or, `You could've been more aggressive with your power rush.'”
Puletasi was a defensive standout for Wyoming from 2011- 14, with the Cowboys going through a revolving door of defensive line coaches.
His posit i on c oach f r om his junior season stands out, though, for not only the way he attacked the technical aspects of playing on the defensive line
but the way the young coach went about building relationships with his players.
Now a fire fighter in his hometown of Lawton, Puletasi is just a bit more than an hour away from that coach.
Jamar Cain spent the 2013 season at Wyoming. Now seven years later, Cain is the outside linebackers and defensive ends coach a tO U and his group has been a difference-maker for the Sooners' defense.
Cain's job seemed like it'd be a tall order going into the season with the team's top two returning pass rushers out — Ronnie Perkins due to suspension and Jalen Redmond after Redmond decided to opt out.
Under Cain, Isaiah Thomas emerged f rom being a role player to become a consistent playmaker, Nik Bonitto has played a much bigger role and the depth at his positions has flourished.
“He's teaching us more technique, angles, and just being more efficient when we're playing,” Bonitto said. “It's helping us make plays in the backfield, being more disruptive on the field.”
Sooners defensive coordinator Alex Grinch calls meetings “expensive.”
It' s easy to waste time while in meetings, and Cain's presence has made those positional meetings much more economical.
A year ago, Calvin Thibodeaux was coaching the entire defensive line. Now, Thibodeaux works with the interior players while Ca in handles the others.
So Cain's presence has not only helped his players, but it's also helped the other defensive linemen.
“Every coaching point you're giving one guy that doesn't apply to the rest of the room, again, there's an expense to that,” Grinch said. “That's one less coaching point that they're getting. This just made a lot of sense from a structure standpoint.”
Cain got to this point with the Sooners without the benefit of face-to-face time for much of the first few months after he was hired in late January thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.
Pule ta si certainly isn' t surprised.
While Ca in is one of the toughest coaches he played for, the relationship Ca in built with his players made that tough teaching easier to handle.
Cain would drop by his players' apartments for barbecues and just to spend time around them away from football.
“He was more of a players coach,” Puletasi said. “He'd do his job on the field but also off the field, he'd make sure you were OK. There were a lot of guys away from home that were homesick and he'd make sure his players were comfortable in Wyoming.”
Gr inch brought aboard plenty of coaches he was familiar with when he arrived before last season.
But in hiring Cain, he went a different direction.
That's been important as well.
“He's given us perspective about things that he's been successful with, whether it's t he pass rush or a stunt or anything along those lines,” Grinch said.
“Anytime you have an elite coach that brings good perspective, new perspective that can add to a staff, that is the best-case scenario, and he does all those things, checks all those boxes.”