On the health of the team

“We're probably 99% healthy. Nothing that that we're really concerned about with that other 1%. Hopefully, within the first couple of weeks, we'll have everybody ready to go. But I feel great about the health of our team. The gains that we've made in the weight room. Our strength, our size. A bunch of guys that have PR-ed through the course of the summer and have trimmed up, lost body fat, gained muscle, you know, mission accomplished. So, I think our guys are in a really good confident, strong position going into camp position.”

On any position changes

“I mean, defensive guys stayed on defense. Offensive guy stayed on offense. We might have some guys that play tackle or moving inside or guys inside playing a little bit outside, but nothing major.”

On difficulty of off-the-field development with players

“I don't think the conversations are hard at all. You know, people know your motives and you have relationships that are built. I think the conversations are very easy. And I think in order to create change, there's got to be awareness, there's got to be action. And then there's got to be accountability. And for us as a staff to be changing anything like, whether it has to do a football or not, but there's a real transformation that takes place when these young guys come here and they go to college. There's a maturation process that we've got to help facilitate. That's part of it. That's actually one of the funnest parts of it. To be, you know, intimately involved with that change and try to help them accomplish all of their goals. But you got to have awareness and you got to put together a plan of action and then you got to have accountability after that. So, again, I don't see the difficult-ness of or the difficulty of having those conversations. That's part of helping them and take them to places that they can't go on their own.”

On special teams

“I'm really excited. Through the course of the spring for us, whether it's our long snappers, short snappers or for field goal or Turk, our battle going on at the placekicker, we have felt really good. With consistency, Turk is the model of exactly that. He's a pro in every way, in regards to his mindset and work that he puts in every day. He's an over-deliverer when it comes to managing his time the right way and then bringing out the best in others. He leads the whole group of specialists. He's tough and he's demanding.

“And placekicker, I really like the battle that we have there. Again, through the course of the spring, putting the ball deep into the end zone, or again, the the placekicking battle, you know, I'm excited to go into fall and watching that play out. Our coaches have complimented them. I'm not one to throw a whole bunch of compliments out but I complimented them through our elite meetings here the last week, just in regards to the focused approach that our guys have had and the energy and enthusiasm that they got out of our guys. Organization, the detail, all of those types of things was really spot on. I'm anxious to watch the variety of competitions and development with some of our new personnel to add to the group that we have.”

On getting team ready for first game

“I would just say to continue to build on the momentum that we had through spring ball and over the course of the summer. We've spent, me personally, spent more time with the players in the summertime more than than I ever have. We as a staff, I'm not sure what guys have done. I don't want to speak for other coaches. But what we decided to do collectively, you got to split it up between eight hours a week. We chose to continue to educate and develop our guys with the x's in the o's and fundamentals and things of that nature. We spent a little bit more time to try to, again continue to create momentum and confidence and those types of things going into the season. It's very simple in regards to expectations every day to put one in front of the other from a development standpoint and improving or getting guys, again continue to build their confidence, their assuredness, their aggressiveness through the work that we put in. But just again, daily focus of improvement.

“More than anything else, you know, we're constantly developing mindset and trying to create vision for what we want our guys to focus on. And I think that in order for us to really to be at our best, we've got to create a vision for what we want the season to look like positionally as a unit and certainly as a football team. We've worked hard to try to do exactly that, you know, create this vision, what's the target, what are we aiming at? Instead of 'Oh, it's the season.' Some of it is centered on your opener, you know, to try to continue to buy in into one game at a time. It literally is that and most important game of the year. All the work that goes into having a great season you want to develop and create a catalogue of depth of understanding and trying to build. The thing that we have going against us is we have this lack of experience in the new schemes and some guys in playing college football and certainly playing football here at Oklahoma. So what can we do to try to bridge that gap? We've worked really hard and intentional trying to bridge that gap to create a level of comfort.

“Like we talked about at Big 12 Media Days, we have 40% of our roster that has never taken a snap in an Oklahoma uniform. What can we do to help bridge that gap and then utilize a bunch of those guys who do have a tremendous amount of experience playing college football. That was with some of the transfers that we brought in. So, how can we best utilize that experience? Those are things from ... what are we trying to get accomplished? We want a confident, physical, tough, blue-collar, work-ethic type of team coming out of fall camp. I want our guys to be incredibly confident through the work that we put in over the last several months and certainly fall camp is a huge part of that. You continue to develop your fundamentals and still maintain strength and all those types of things through fall camp with a good detailed, organized schedule. And, again, our job is to bring them out you know better prepared than when we went into fall camp and so a lot of intentionality that goes into that.”

On state of recruiting following summer

“Really that's our first opportunity, other than the unofficial visits as we talked about, you're competing now once you get into the month of June and and last part of July. But in June, in particular, for official visits, you're competing to get guys on campus. Getting the right ones and having a narrow focus through the course of the spring to figure out the guys that we really wanted to target, on guys that were a great fit for how we're trying to build our program and get them on campus and create a vision for them and their families that they could buy into. Have some perseverance and endurance, having that mindset. I had to prepare our staff to have exactly that. There's a patience that goes with that, but also a game plan that you're ready to execute if things don't go your way. And then again, for us, to have long-term commitment to try to encourage guys to get to a bunch of spots, so that they could really have peace and confirmation in their their final decision.

“We really felt great that, although maybe some other people got more commitments earlier, that we would get the right ones at the right time. That had the the depth of what commitment really looks like and where it really had roots. Just because they commit doesn't mean everything's over. For us, you got to continue to recruit them like they're not committed, because you don't sign until December. But you feel really good about where we're at right now, now it's a dead period. As we get into our season and you start getting busy, how to manage all of that still, you know, recruiting doesn't end. We feel like we're in a really strong position that every position across the board that we've recruited and we're continuing to recruit where we're at relationship-wise with these recruits and their families.”

On who sticks out in terms of improved strength

“I'm gonna do some people some disservice if I don't bring guys up, but I would just say collectively, you'll see when you get a chance to see, you might have seen some already. A lot of guys have been putting a lot of work in and I think that you're gonna see a lot of improvement. Some of these young guys that maybe played the last year or so that didn't have as much time to develop that you're seeing really them take off now and be a real transformation. We're gonna have a weigh-in here in a couple of days and really be able to put some stuff out there, where you'll see some guys and see the transformation that we're talking about to highlight.

“I really just want to highlight our whole football team and be honest, if I didn't feel like it was warranted, I certainly wouldn't promote it. But our guys have worked incredibly hard. They've invested like we've asked them to. I think most teams are on an [upward trajectory], people can say that about their own team. But for us, I've seen great leadership through the course of the summer. A lot of sweat equity that's been put in to this season. I see our guys that are really confident right now, because of the work that they've put in more than anything else. Really been pleased, proud of the guys. And a lot of things that they've done, too, that have been player-led that I'm aware of, that they've done as well that it's gonna take that extra commitment. You can't just do the bare minimum and there's got to be a consistency that goes along with it and you're developing habits. You're developing culture you're developing mindset when you have the player-led things that have been going on. Really impressed and pleased with where our guys are at mentally, emotionally, physically.”

On what he thinks of team’s speed

“I think it's good. We got good speed and skill across the board. We got big guys that can run. I like our team speed. You want to see if they can play fast, too. We'll see when we start playing this fall, but sometimes guys run fast but they don't play fast. Sometimes guys don't maybe test well, but they run really fast. Game speed is important and you want to be able to play guys that can take the top off of a defense on offense and guys that can get to the football. We want our guys defensively fast and physical, and on offense, man, we want to be able to run by people. I believe that we have that personnel-wise.”