Spoke with members of the offense this morning, along with members of Clemson's defense. I'll quickly try and highlight a few items that I found interesting.
* Brent Venables kicked things off this morning ... that guy can speak with the best of them ... easy to see why it translates to the recruiting trail. He had plenty of good things to say about his time at Oklahoma, as well as complimenting the team he is about to face.
* Venables said the combo of Samaje Perine/Joe Mixon will be the best backfield Clemson has faced all season. Also praised the play of Baker Mayfield.
* Venables said he & his sons stayed up late watching the Oklahoma-Tennessee game, added he was really happy with the outcome for obvious reasons/relationship with Stoops Bros.
We'll move on to Oklahoma ...
SCOOPHD: Lincoln Riley
* Lincoln Riley kicked things off in the TV media room ... A lot of what he said was rehashed info from the last few weeks. Did think it was interesting to hear him reiterate - again- how close the QB race was in August. Said it ultimately came down to Mayfield making the least amount of mistakes.
* Riley talked about the growth of Mayfield as a player and understanding when to take chances. It's a thin line between playing the way Mayfield does and being reckless. Obviously, Mayfield has done an excellent job this season in decision making and taking care of the football. That is backed up by a 35:5 TD/INT ratio.
"We laid that out for the quarterbacks from the first day I got here that that was going to be a huge requirement, and honestly that's probably the singular thing that you can point to in the quarterback battle that we had that won Baker the job," said Riley. "It's been important, and Baker even knew once he was named the starter that that was going to be important for him to continue playing. He's found a nice mix of being aggressive but also being strong."
* Riley reiterated what others said consistently on throughout the morning ... practice this week has been excellent. Players/Coaches are both saying the mindset of this team is unlike what they've had in recent years.
Riley even called yesterday's 'good-on-good' portion of practice 'a bloodbath'.
* I'll let Mayfield sum up the biggest change post-Texas:
"Our mindset. That game, we look back at it, and the tempo we played was not how we wanted to do it, and that's not how we should play. We need to play at a fast pace and set the tone during the game and it's that mindset that we should never be stopped, and those rivalry games, they came out and they hit us in the mouth, and we tried to come back late in the game, but it was too late.
* Often it's hard to find that balance in leadership. Who's going to be the guy that stands up and says something? Who will be the guy that leads by example? Nila Kasitati considers himself in the latter grouping.
"I think we have some great leaders that are going to be here next year, guys like Orlando. Orlando I think is going to be a great leader next year and the years to come. But just within practice, within workouts, within summer workouts and winter workouts, just trying to instill some of these things, Ty more than me is a vocal person. Like I said, I lead by example hopefully. I'll get my one on one times with the guys and stuff like that, but not really speaking in front of the team and all that stuff. But when I think of guys like Orlando and Jonathan Alvarez, guys are going to step up this year, and they're going to do a great job as a leader."
* Plenty more from today but that's some of the stuff that jumped off the page to me.
* Brent Venables kicked things off this morning ... that guy can speak with the best of them ... easy to see why it translates to the recruiting trail. He had plenty of good things to say about his time at Oklahoma, as well as complimenting the team he is about to face.
* Venables said the combo of Samaje Perine/Joe Mixon will be the best backfield Clemson has faced all season. Also praised the play of Baker Mayfield.
* Venables said he & his sons stayed up late watching the Oklahoma-Tennessee game, added he was really happy with the outcome for obvious reasons/relationship with Stoops Bros.
We'll move on to Oklahoma ...
SCOOPHD: Lincoln Riley
* Lincoln Riley kicked things off in the TV media room ... A lot of what he said was rehashed info from the last few weeks. Did think it was interesting to hear him reiterate - again- how close the QB race was in August. Said it ultimately came down to Mayfield making the least amount of mistakes.
* Riley talked about the growth of Mayfield as a player and understanding when to take chances. It's a thin line between playing the way Mayfield does and being reckless. Obviously, Mayfield has done an excellent job this season in decision making and taking care of the football. That is backed up by a 35:5 TD/INT ratio.
"We laid that out for the quarterbacks from the first day I got here that that was going to be a huge requirement, and honestly that's probably the singular thing that you can point to in the quarterback battle that we had that won Baker the job," said Riley. "It's been important, and Baker even knew once he was named the starter that that was going to be important for him to continue playing. He's found a nice mix of being aggressive but also being strong."
* Riley reiterated what others said consistently on throughout the morning ... practice this week has been excellent. Players/Coaches are both saying the mindset of this team is unlike what they've had in recent years.
Riley even called yesterday's 'good-on-good' portion of practice 'a bloodbath'.
* I'll let Mayfield sum up the biggest change post-Texas:
"Our mindset. That game, we look back at it, and the tempo we played was not how we wanted to do it, and that's not how we should play. We need to play at a fast pace and set the tone during the game and it's that mindset that we should never be stopped, and those rivalry games, they came out and they hit us in the mouth, and we tried to come back late in the game, but it was too late.
* Often it's hard to find that balance in leadership. Who's going to be the guy that stands up and says something? Who will be the guy that leads by example? Nila Kasitati considers himself in the latter grouping.
"I think we have some great leaders that are going to be here next year, guys like Orlando. Orlando I think is going to be a great leader next year and the years to come. But just within practice, within workouts, within summer workouts and winter workouts, just trying to instill some of these things, Ty more than me is a vocal person. Like I said, I lead by example hopefully. I'll get my one on one times with the guys and stuff like that, but not really speaking in front of the team and all that stuff. But when I think of guys like Orlando and Jonathan Alvarez, guys are going to step up this year, and they're going to do a great job as a leader."
* Plenty more from today but that's some of the stuff that jumped off the page to me.
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