NORMAN — By his own admission, Oklahoma’s first-year wide receivers coach Emmett Jones didn’t quite understand veteran Sooners wide receiver Drake Stoops from afar.
“When I was at (Kansas), even when I was at Texas Tech watching film on the University of Oklahoma, I used to always ask my room, ‘Why is this guy on the field for the University of Oklahoma with the type of receivers they have in the room?’” Jones said of Stoops Thursday. “But being around him I see why now. He’s a true student. He’ll give you everything he got and he’ll fight.”
Jones — the lone addition to Brent Venables’ staff of position coaches this offseason — has taken quickly to Stoops in their short time together since arriving to OU’s wide receivers room in mid-January.
March 23, 2023 video. The Sooners open spring practice March 21 and end with the annual spring game April 22. Video by Eli Lederman, Tulsa World
The former Kansas and Texas Tech assistant takes over a Sooners’ pass catching corps that finds itself in a state of transition in 2023. With Marvin Mims preparing for the 2023 NFL Draft, OU began spring camp this week without its top receiver from a year ago and looking for production in new places. Alongside junior pass catcher Jalil Farooq, Stoops represents one of the few established veterans for Jones to lean on in Year 1.
People are also reading…
Stoops, the former walk-on, has returned for a sixth season after setting career-highs with 39 catches, 393 receiving yards and three touchdown receptions in 2022. Come the fall, he’s expected to carve an even larger part in the Sooners’ passing game with fifth-year quarterback Dillon Gabriel under center.
Ahead of a season in which he’ll likely assume his biggest role in an OU uniform yet, Stoops has already gained the trust of his first-year position coach in a matter of weeks.
“I told the coaches — I will walk down any dark alley in South Dallas with him,” Jones said. “Any dark alley. That’d be one of the first guys I grab to walk down that dark alley.”
