For Oklahoma's Four New Freshmen, Bowl Practices Let Them 'Pull Back the Curtain'

Kalib Hicks, Ashton Sanders, Derrick LeBlanc and Chapman McKown practiced with their future team this week, which Brent Venables said "was fun" for players and coaches.

ORLANDO — All the practices are in the books. By all accounts, Oklahoma’s newest newcomers — the four incoming freshmen who enrolled early and chose to begin their college football careers — are holding their own.

Running back Kalib Hicks, defensive tackle Ashton Sanders, defensive end Derrick LeBlanc and running back Chapman McKown are in Orlando with their future teammates, and they all apparently had a good week of practice.

“It’s good for them,” senior cornerback C.J. Coldon said Tuesday, “and good for us too, because we need guys, we need depth. It’s good for them so they can learn the system, how practice is before they really get into is and actually use — not just on scout team — but it’s really good for those younger guys that are here early to get in and get a good workout with us.”

On Wednesday, OU coach Brent Venables was also asked about the new guys.

“Yeah, that was fun, to get them, just to be able to pull the curtain back for them,” Venables said. “Give them exposure to what to expect, get our players to get their arms around them and welcome them. Helping them in their transition.

“That was a lot of fun for us as a staff to be able to watch these guys we have been recruiting relentlessly the last several months, and to be able to have them here as part of the bowl experience is really cool.”

Venables said each one of the 13 new enrollees were invited to come out and start practice, but they’d have had to give up their high school all-star games to do it.

Eight future Sooners are actually in Orlando at next week’s Under Armour All-American game. Three others will be in San Antonio from the Adidas on Jan. 7. Sanders played last week in the U.S. Army All-American game in Frisco, TX, so he was able to join the OU roster.

“We invited all of them,” Venables said. “ … if you come to the bowl game, you are not allowed to play in your postseason all-star game. That is something that they would have to be willing to give up. One of our guys wasn't able to play in the all-star game because of injury. He just chose to come hang out with his new teammates. So, it was really cool.

“For us, (we) didn’t necessarily need to see anything from them. Get them exposure from fundamentals and how we practice, how we prepare, what the bowl experience is like and transitioning relationship-wise with their teammates. I thought it is a cool thing for them to be able to experience. It is more about them and their experience than it was for us as a coaching staff.”