Now that the pod is done, back to writing and round No. 2 for this week. Massive Harrington feature coming Thursday 
Chris Murray
Dillon Gabriel?
He’s just a very calm quarterback. I love playing with him, too. There’s a thing when you’re a great guy off the field and a great guy on the field as well. There’s not a lot of differences in his character and who he is. It’s not hard to love him. We’ve grown very close to the offense as a whole. Dillon’s character is a big part of that.
Lebby being a former OL as OC?
There’s a lot of confidence in everything he calls. We really just trust him and trust goes a long way on the field. We know why he’s calling that, that chain of command. We have that trust in the head, the rest will trickle down.
Anton Harrison?
Just his overall work ethic. He’s always come in and worked and worked hard, but you can really see his maturity this year. He played early as a freshman and got thrown into the mix and it can be hard to catch up. He’s always had his head on his shoulders and been one of the smartest guys in the room. You can see his leadership role step up. That’s helped him out on the field a lot.
Marvin Mims
L'D Washington?
Yeah I mean impression, I kind of know his history, his past, what he's been through, his career and stuff like that. So I was excited about having him here. And you know so many players see where he went to a high level. Just what he knows about the game, playing receiver just like us. I mean that's what receivers want, to be coached by other receivers. To learn from other receivers. So it's been a great experience when I first met him back in January it was pretty cool. Everybody was new so you had about a hundred new faces around here. But our relationship has definitely grown since then.
Brayden Willis and Theo Wease come back off of injury?
It's been great. When you're a younger guy you kind of look up to the older guys and now that I'm going into Year 3 there's not much older guys around. I mean they are the older guys. Especially in the receiving corps. So seeing those guys and when they came back it made me happy. Seeing them practice every day, Theo coming off of injury being back. Brayden going through what he went through last year, you know, debating going to the draft and coming back. I mean it's great to see him practicing and playing to the highest level. I mean they look great.
Advice to Jayden Gibson?
It's just try your best to limit the distractions. There's going to be a lot of fans, about 90,000 people in that stadium. And there's gonna be another team. Back talk, all that stuff. Being an outside receiver you're going to be right on their sideline. They're gonna say stuff to you and you'll want to say stuff back. But just locking into the game, locking into the moment. The way we play offense fast he's going to have to lock in and be there, be present every single snap of the ball. That's probably the biggest thing.
Deep ball?
Oh definitely. There will be some one-on-one matchups for sure. There will be some busted coverages just because of how fast we play, how fast we get set, how fast we snap the ball. I think the deep ball will definitely be there from multiple locations for multiple people this year.
David Ugwoegbu
New lease on life with Venables?
“I have to credit a lot of that to the staff that came in with Coach Venables, Coach Roof, Coach Schmidty. From the first day I met them, I saw that intensity they were going to bring to the program. It just sparked something in me that these are people I’d love to follow. You hear the say, ‘I’d run through a wall for this coach,’ that’s how I feel about every single one of them."
Venables obsessed with technique?
“I went through a huge amount of it and I still go through it today. Literally during this practice today, he’s telling me about my steps and telling me about my strike and telling me about my entry angles when I’m blitzing. He’s a very detail-oriented person and that does nothing but up my grade so I’m very thankful he’s like that.”
Did you need that?
“One hundred percent. Just like you said, I’ve kind of just been banking on my athleticism and not realizing the details and how much more efficient I could move depending on the stuff he’s been telling me. That’s exactly what I’ve been seeing translate
Stutsman?
“Danny’s a special breed. Even a year ago, I would’ve said he was miles ahead of a lot of other freshmen across the country. Going into Year 2, like I said before with this staff coming in, that just brings something out of you that you couldn’t have brought out of yourself. I’ve seen Danny go from up top to raise it even higher. His standard and his limit is the sky. There’s nothing that Danny can’t do.”
Woodi Washington
Jaden Davis?
The freshman year, he started off on a great start. His sophomore and junior year, he was more up and down. But he’s gotten it together. Coach Valai and Coach Venables are definitely giving him a chance and I think he’s doing a great job of holding the other side down.
Valai knows CB position?
It’s definitely been good. Valai is an actual corners coach, a DBs coach. Last year we didn’t have that with Coach Manning, but it is what it is. He just pushes us to work with our body types. Kani, he’s more of a big, physical guy. He uses his hands at the line and more like that. J.D. is a small, speedy guy. He uses his speed when covering guys. Just those things, it definitely helps us.
Biggest improvement?
My physicality. As far as being on the line, not being as physical on some plays because last year I knew I could mess my feet up when I get too physical. I’ve been working on that and working on being a better leader.
Justin Harrington (the first part hasn't been transcribed as of this afternoon, sorry)
Last season after hit the portal?
I was always rooting on my guys. It had nothing to do with my teammates. I love them to death, because they actually were part of the reason why I came back. They were telling me to come back, and it's a great opportunity, but they also knew that my situation was unfair in a sense. I take advantage of every day. I talked to Woodi, I talked to Key, I talked to Reggie, I tried to get in contact with Coach Hall every day and he was recruiting, he was driving through Alabama and I was calling to make sure, calling him every day, shooting Coach V a text making sure that he knew that I cared and that I really wanted another chance and that I really just made an impulsive decision and a mistake.
Difficult coming to OU and having the knee issue?
I would just say keeping faith. Funny story about junior college, everybody says the juco struggle, I really didn't think about it. I knew I had kind of hindered abilities with my knee but when you're trying to be the best, you don't really think about that, you hear about the greats, they break their fingers, their shoulders rip out of place, and it's like they don't really think about it because there's a bigger end-all — bigger goal — so that was my thought process when I got here, it was sad. I had my days, but my family is strong. I really leaned on them, and I leaned on my teammates as well, and the guys that are in the league as well that I still talk to today. I really leaned on them for reassurance and confidence to remind me of who I am. The training staff did a great job, the coaching staff did a great job keeping me in the loop and this new coaching staff is doing an amazing job just making sure and letting me know that I'm still the guy that I was before, that I got recruited as and the guy before I left. So just building that confidence every day is the No. 1 thing that is just amazing about this staff.
Chris Murray
Dillon Gabriel?
He’s just a very calm quarterback. I love playing with him, too. There’s a thing when you’re a great guy off the field and a great guy on the field as well. There’s not a lot of differences in his character and who he is. It’s not hard to love him. We’ve grown very close to the offense as a whole. Dillon’s character is a big part of that.
Lebby being a former OL as OC?
There’s a lot of confidence in everything he calls. We really just trust him and trust goes a long way on the field. We know why he’s calling that, that chain of command. We have that trust in the head, the rest will trickle down.
Anton Harrison?
Just his overall work ethic. He’s always come in and worked and worked hard, but you can really see his maturity this year. He played early as a freshman and got thrown into the mix and it can be hard to catch up. He’s always had his head on his shoulders and been one of the smartest guys in the room. You can see his leadership role step up. That’s helped him out on the field a lot.
Marvin Mims
L'D Washington?
Yeah I mean impression, I kind of know his history, his past, what he's been through, his career and stuff like that. So I was excited about having him here. And you know so many players see where he went to a high level. Just what he knows about the game, playing receiver just like us. I mean that's what receivers want, to be coached by other receivers. To learn from other receivers. So it's been a great experience when I first met him back in January it was pretty cool. Everybody was new so you had about a hundred new faces around here. But our relationship has definitely grown since then.
Brayden Willis and Theo Wease come back off of injury?
It's been great. When you're a younger guy you kind of look up to the older guys and now that I'm going into Year 3 there's not much older guys around. I mean they are the older guys. Especially in the receiving corps. So seeing those guys and when they came back it made me happy. Seeing them practice every day, Theo coming off of injury being back. Brayden going through what he went through last year, you know, debating going to the draft and coming back. I mean it's great to see him practicing and playing to the highest level. I mean they look great.
Advice to Jayden Gibson?
It's just try your best to limit the distractions. There's going to be a lot of fans, about 90,000 people in that stadium. And there's gonna be another team. Back talk, all that stuff. Being an outside receiver you're going to be right on their sideline. They're gonna say stuff to you and you'll want to say stuff back. But just locking into the game, locking into the moment. The way we play offense fast he's going to have to lock in and be there, be present every single snap of the ball. That's probably the biggest thing.
Deep ball?
Oh definitely. There will be some one-on-one matchups for sure. There will be some busted coverages just because of how fast we play, how fast we get set, how fast we snap the ball. I think the deep ball will definitely be there from multiple locations for multiple people this year.
David Ugwoegbu
New lease on life with Venables?
“I have to credit a lot of that to the staff that came in with Coach Venables, Coach Roof, Coach Schmidty. From the first day I met them, I saw that intensity they were going to bring to the program. It just sparked something in me that these are people I’d love to follow. You hear the say, ‘I’d run through a wall for this coach,’ that’s how I feel about every single one of them."
Venables obsessed with technique?
“I went through a huge amount of it and I still go through it today. Literally during this practice today, he’s telling me about my steps and telling me about my strike and telling me about my entry angles when I’m blitzing. He’s a very detail-oriented person and that does nothing but up my grade so I’m very thankful he’s like that.”
Did you need that?
“One hundred percent. Just like you said, I’ve kind of just been banking on my athleticism and not realizing the details and how much more efficient I could move depending on the stuff he’s been telling me. That’s exactly what I’ve been seeing translate
Stutsman?
“Danny’s a special breed. Even a year ago, I would’ve said he was miles ahead of a lot of other freshmen across the country. Going into Year 2, like I said before with this staff coming in, that just brings something out of you that you couldn’t have brought out of yourself. I’ve seen Danny go from up top to raise it even higher. His standard and his limit is the sky. There’s nothing that Danny can’t do.”
Woodi Washington
Jaden Davis?
The freshman year, he started off on a great start. His sophomore and junior year, he was more up and down. But he’s gotten it together. Coach Valai and Coach Venables are definitely giving him a chance and I think he’s doing a great job of holding the other side down.
Valai knows CB position?
It’s definitely been good. Valai is an actual corners coach, a DBs coach. Last year we didn’t have that with Coach Manning, but it is what it is. He just pushes us to work with our body types. Kani, he’s more of a big, physical guy. He uses his hands at the line and more like that. J.D. is a small, speedy guy. He uses his speed when covering guys. Just those things, it definitely helps us.
Biggest improvement?
My physicality. As far as being on the line, not being as physical on some plays because last year I knew I could mess my feet up when I get too physical. I’ve been working on that and working on being a better leader.
Justin Harrington (the first part hasn't been transcribed as of this afternoon, sorry)
Last season after hit the portal?
I was always rooting on my guys. It had nothing to do with my teammates. I love them to death, because they actually were part of the reason why I came back. They were telling me to come back, and it's a great opportunity, but they also knew that my situation was unfair in a sense. I take advantage of every day. I talked to Woodi, I talked to Key, I talked to Reggie, I tried to get in contact with Coach Hall every day and he was recruiting, he was driving through Alabama and I was calling to make sure, calling him every day, shooting Coach V a text making sure that he knew that I cared and that I really wanted another chance and that I really just made an impulsive decision and a mistake.
Difficult coming to OU and having the knee issue?
I would just say keeping faith. Funny story about junior college, everybody says the juco struggle, I really didn't think about it. I knew I had kind of hindered abilities with my knee but when you're trying to be the best, you don't really think about that, you hear about the greats, they break their fingers, their shoulders rip out of place, and it's like they don't really think about it because there's a bigger end-all — bigger goal — so that was my thought process when I got here, it was sad. I had my days, but my family is strong. I really leaned on them, and I leaned on my teammates as well, and the guys that are in the league as well that I still talk to today. I really leaned on them for reassurance and confidence to remind me of who I am. The training staff did a great job, the coaching staff did a great job keeping me in the loop and this new coaching staff is doing an amazing job just making sure and letting me know that I'm still the guy that I was before, that I got recruited as and the guy before I left. So just building that confidence every day is the No. 1 thing that is just amazing about this staff.
