Oklahoma Sooners

Oklahoma is no longer honoring Austin Box by wearing the No. 12 this season.

The Sooners will never forget, though. Receiver Kenny Stills continues to wear a rubber bracelet to honor his fallen teammate, who died in May 2011.

“It says always in the heart, Austin Box,” Stills said. “It’s funny. I’ve had plenty of these, and this is the only one that’s never broken.

“It means something to me.”

Brandon Chatmon talks with Oklahoma legend Mookie Blaylock about returning to Norman and the direction of the OU basketball program.

NORMAN, Okla. -- In his first press conference of the season, Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops said at least nine or 10 true freshmen will play this weekend at UTEP.

Tight end Taylor McNamara, center Ty Darlington, defensive ends Charles Tapper and Mike Onuoha, linebacker Eric Striker, cornerback Gary Simon and receivers Durron Neal, Trey Metoyer and Sterling Shepard will all avoid redshirt. Stoops added that cornerback Zack Sanchez “probably” will play. And though Stoops didn’t mention Alex Ross, the freshman running back fro Jenks, Okla., has also impressed this preseason.

No one, however, has impressed more than Metoyer and Shepard, both of whom Stoops saved most of his praise for Monday. Metoyer will start this weekend opposite Penn State transfer Justin Brown at wideout.

“Trey continues to be one of the best athletes we have,” Stoops said. “He makes as competitive a catch as anyone we’ve had. He has those really strong hands.”

Shepard, meanwhile, is backing up Kenny Stills in the slot. Stoops didn’t hesitate comparing Shepard to former OU All-American slot receiver Ryan Broyles.

“Sterling really has a special feel there,” Stoops said. “He’s kind of a sturdier Ryan Broyles. He has that quickness and those inside moves. He’s just so much strong body-wise.”

Quarterback Landry Jones also praised the incoming freshman class Monday. He compared it to the class of 2010, which had a dozen play as true freshmen, including Stills.

“It’s similar, as far as talent wise,” Jones said. “A lot of freshman that are going to play who are going to be great football players.”

NORMAN, Okla. -- True freshman Eric Striker made a quick impression on his teammates. And not only with his play.

"Eric Striker is a big mouth," cornerback Demontre Hurst said. “He’s loud, he’s up-tempo every minute, he reminds you of Travis [Lewis] a little bit. A lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm, just a fun guy to be around. Great personality and he’s a baller out there on the field, too. And Striker, the name is kind of catchy, too.”

Striker should make a early impact on special teams and could eventually carve out a role in OU’s defense this fall.

“Striker is a young gun, fiery kid,” linebacker Tom Wort said. “He wants to learn, wants to get better. He’s a hard-working kid with a lot of drive.”

His aggressiveness, explosiveness and pass-rush abilities will be difficult to keep off the field if he earns the trust of the coaching staff as the season progresses.

One of Oklahoma’s most effective defensive schemes in 2011 was the “Endy” package, which placed four defensive ends on the line simultaneously in obvious passing situations.

With Frank Alexander and David King coming up the middle and Ronnell Lewis and R.J. Washington breaking around the edge, the set was a handful for offenses to deal with.

But with Alexander and Lewis now in the NFL, ends coach Bobby Jack Wright said the Sooners are not in a position at the moment to use the set.

Only King has made a career start at defensive end, and he’s been moved inside to tackle to compensate for the suspension to Stacy McGee. Defensive end starters Washington and sophomore Chuka Ndulue will be making their first starts against UTEP.

Wright, however, didn’t close the door on OU installing it sometime later this season thanks to the rapid development of converted linebacker Rashod Favors and true freshmen Charles Tapper and Michael Onuoha.

“We had four guys that could really rush the quarterback, so that was good,” Wright said. “But who knows? Before conference play, we’ve got [several] days plus two games. By that time we may have those young pups ready to go.”

Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones talks about his expectations for this season and how he looks at life now as a married man.

With injuries to Ben Habern and Tyler Evans, and Austin Woods still going through chemo treatments, guard/center Nila Kasitati has become an invaluable piece of the offensive line rotation. But he, too, had a scare this summer.

Since middle school, Kasitati has had episodes where he couldn’t catch his breath and his heart would race. A “heavy chest,” he called it. Sometimes he’d get out of a chair and “it felt like I’d ran a mile.” Finally this summer, it became too much to bear. He woke up for a July workout with a racing heart. It never slowed, and Kasitati had to eventually excuse himself from the workout.

“I wasn’t sure what it was,” he said. "Before, I didn’t think it was anything. I never saw it as anything. But I guess one workout – and the work I was doing wasn’t even hard – it just hit me as I woke up. It bothered me the whole day and I went into workouts and I just couldn’t do it.”

Kasitati met with the training staff, who performed an EKG on him. He was diagnosed with arrhythmia.

“They did this procedure where they actually go through up your groin, the main arteries, and just go up,” he said.

Kasitati had to stay away from football for a couple of weeks, missing the first days of practice. But he has since returned, feels great and is just days away from getting all of his conditioning back.

“I’m fine,” he said. “The surgery was a success so I’m good right now. There’s nothing holding me back from being better or getting a chance to play.”

NORMAN, Okla. -- Five cities have submitted bids to be the host of the new Champions Bowl, which was created by the SEC and Big 12 as a postseason home for each league's champion beginning with the 2014 season.

Among those to bid is Arlington, Texas, home to Cowboys Stadium. Arlington is considered one of the favorites along with New Orleans.

Bob Stoops, who has played three national championship games in opponents’ home states, is rooting hard for Arlington to land the game.

“It would be awesome,” he said. “Anything here closer by, in Arlington, it’s a great stadium and for us, that’d be a great advantage, I would like to think. It would be a great venue to play in.”

If the SEC or Big 12 champion advances to the national semifinals, each conference would then provide another team for the Champions Bowl. The Champions Bowl also will be part of the national playoff semifinal rotation four times during the 12-year term, starting after the 2014 regular season.

“Anything closer,” Stoops said, “where we could have opportunities to have more fans and collect more tickets, like we’ve been on the opposite side of that in big games, it makes a difference.”