Drake Stoops Alamo Bowl Interview
Oklahoma WR Drake Stoops speaks to the media at Alamo Bowl Media Day on Dec. 26, 2023.
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00:00 Excuse me, excuse me, Mr. Stoops. I would like to ask you who is your favorite
00:05 offensive line person, team personality on this team? Makes you laugh, makes you
00:11 smile, who you love? Probably Walter Rouse. Okay, well that's the last time I try to
00:20 do the Rocketship. Anything different about him? He's kind of the same guy, just
00:25 different title rolling along. Same guy. He's not gonna, he won't let anyone see him
00:30 sweat and that's admirable as a man and I'm sure he's going through a lot and
00:34 that feels pressure and just as we all do and self-doubt everything as a human
00:38 but he doesn't show it. He comes with confidence, he comes prepared and
00:42 testament to who he is and that he's not gonna let the people around him down.
00:45 He's gonna be ready and he's gonna do a great job. And then this season guys get
00:50 to know Coach Luttrell, kind of around the facility, all that stuff but not in the on the field coaching role.
00:55 What stood out to you about him first chunk of practices with him running
00:59 things? Yeah, just really excited to get to work with him, see how he calls plays
01:05 and how that might be a little different and I know he's very experienced as a
01:09 coach and offensive coordinator and yeah, I mean when he talks people listen and I
01:15 don't know, he's just very, very stoic, very confident. He has something about him
01:20 and it's fun to be around and it kind of bleeds off onto us and I'm excited to
01:26 work with him and then I mean to play with him on Thursday night. Yeah, I'm really excited.
01:32 And then you guys at wide receivers just bring a lot of experience. How could you guys help make life easier on Jackson as he's going through his first start on that stuff?
01:40 Yeah, I mean for one getting open as receivers should do, you leave him easy places to put the ball but then you know we can as
01:48 receivers, if he makes a bad decision, bail him out whether it's breaking up a pass or
01:53 he throws the ball behind or low, going down making that catch, you know bailing him out of
01:57 situations like that because the ball doesn't have to be perfect and then if it's in our vicinity it's our job to come down with it.
02:02 And so yeah, just getting open and winning early so we can win late and just doing our part to help him in any way that we can and make him comfortable.
02:10 Have you seen, I know you guys have a ton of confidence in him regardless, but have you seen even more growth from him over this set of practices?
02:17 Because he talked about a little bit that the first practice he was like, oh I have to make that change early, Dylan's not here, stuff like that.
02:22 Have you seen him kind of come into his own in that over this last couple weeks?
02:26 Yeah, I've seen him grow. I mean just getting this many reps with the first team now and
02:31 even with me like I just, we're starting to get more and more on the same page you know with every day that goes by and
02:36 he's getting more and more confidence and knows that we're believing in him and yeah you can see him almost just settling into the role and
02:42 yeah and like as he should and with time and experience and practice that comes and
02:47 you can see it you know kind of coming into play and I'm really excited for him.
02:51 You guys did an offense last year, I know more of an offensive line, like you had to replace the whole offensive line
02:57 and like really well, you stood strong before the state front. What kind of confidence does that give you guys just as a whole group knowing
03:03 we've done the bowl thing before, offense aren't really mad at you, so the strong performance regardless?
03:08 Yeah, I mean coach Beatonboe's great, he's a tremendous offensive line coach, one of the best in the country, so he's
03:13 going to have those guys, schematically they're going to be ready and I mean they're all big
03:17 physical you know beings, they just naturally, so they're going to be ready to go put a hat on a hat
03:23 and go to work and you got a guy like McCade who's a really experienced player that can help coach
03:27 Beatonboe out, especially on the field being a coach, coach can't be on the field but he can and so
03:32 just all working together and even you saw it last year, so I mean this year it won't be, I don't think
03:37 it has to be any different and I think if they play to their capabilities and trust the scheme that
03:41 everything will be fine and all the skilled players around them do their part and make plays.
03:46 One last spin for you, what are you most looking forward to come Thursday?
03:49 Just playing football one more time with the Sooners on my chest and
03:56 my teammates and coaches and the university behind me really. Is that sunk in yet, hit you yet, one of those things?
04:02 They got to hit me on senior day, so I knew I was going to play in the bowl game but
04:08 you know to play in Iowa field is what has really meant the most to me.
04:15 Do you have any fond memory looking back, last time you played here, dad on the sidelines, stuff like that,
04:22 that bring back anything as you rolled through? Yeah that was fun, I mean I love my dad like all people
04:26 love their dad but for me scoring a touchdown was the coolest part, if my dad was there or not I
04:30 would have loved that so I mean I like playing ball and sharing it with my dad was very cool and I'm
04:35 lucky to experience something like that but I mean it's pretty kind of self-explanatory in a way.
04:40 Appreciate you. Kind of watching some of Arizona's film, what challenges have you seen from the defensive
04:46 backs or their secondary in general? Yeah, well I sound like they're just I mean they're disciplined
04:53 and they know exactly what they're doing at all times and how to complement each other and what
04:58 they're doing. Good tacklers in the secondary, they got a good free safety who can roam sideline to
05:03 sideline, patient corners who are you know good with their feet and good with their hands late and
05:09 and a great like I said good boundary safety who's a great tackler and a good field backer who
05:15 is you know high motor, he's running all around, they're all complementing each other and
05:20 and so that I mean that's that's the challenges is that they're very disciplined and they're all
05:24 you know very talented players with with good technique and I like to think that we are too
05:29 and so we pose a challenge as well and it'll just be an opposition of wills and I think it'll go
05:35 back and forth and I'm excited for the challenge. Kind of schematically, have you seen anything
05:40 similar this season to their defense either in conference, out of conference or is it something
05:45 schematically? I mean yeah you saw in the Big 12 and teams that like to run close the middle of
05:51 the field with the high safety and whether that's running cover one cover three and then even they
05:55 like to get into some three safety some three safety with some cloud looks I mean you saw a
06:00 lot of three safety in the Big 12 from TCU, Iowa State you know who practically invented it,
06:05 K-State runs it we didn't play them but we did last year and so yeah I mean you see it
06:11 everywhere I mean authentically and defensively across country it's kind of people run similar