Throwing the freshman in to the fire not a bad thing

Football is less than 60 days away. While a National Championship is uncertain, a few things are clear. The Sooners return a skilled offensive tandem in Landry Jones, Dominique Whaley, and Kenny Stills.

After Jones, you’ve got Drew Allen and “The Belldozer.” After Whaley, you have Roy Finch and Brennan Clay. However, who is going to step up to the plate behind Stills?

Jaz Reynolds, Kameel Jackson, and Trey Franks have been suspended indefinitely, leaving Kenny Stills as the lone Sooner with any collegiate experience. However, if there was any year to have suspensions fall on the wide receivers, then this would be the year.

Oklahoma brings in an exciting group of receivers that could be on the field a lot quicker than they may have expected.

Behind Kenny Stills, Trey Metoyer seems to be a solid second option for Landry. Metoyer, a 6-2, five-star receiver out of Whitehouse, Texas, is a tough kid who has great hands and can really go up and get it.

The Sooners, also, bring in Durron Neal and Derrick Woods, who both could make early impacts at Oklahoma. Though, one guy that really intrigues me is Sterling Shepard.

Metoyer, Neal, and Woods all are from out-of-state, and there recruiting tapes and performances during the spring have sold me. However, Shepard is a guy I have seen live and in-person.

He’s not as big those guys, but Shepard is a true playmaker. I didn’t expect him to be in the receiving rotation his freshman year, but it’s looking a lot better for the Heritage Hall product.

Now with Reynolds, Franks, and Jackson, it is great these young guys will get their chance at making a name for themselves early in their careers. It may be hard at first, growing pains will happen. College is a totally different ball game from high school.

However, the early playing time will do wonders for these guys. It may look rough at times. It may not be pretty. However, guys like Ryan Broyles and Kenny Stills learned by doing. They were asked to strap on the helmet and get out in to the action early in their college careers, and made huge catches that helped Oklahoma win ball games.

Not it is time for these young guys to step up to the challenge, and show why they earned all those stars next to their name. They need to show why Oklahoma wanted them to sign of a letter-of-intent so bad. These guys have an opportunity to earn their stripes early, and they better take full advantage of it.