Oklahoma Early Enrollees: Why 'Old Soul' DL Derrick LeBlanc 'Can See Past Tomorrow'

The Sooners' freshman has the versatility and talent to play a variety of positions, and he has the focus and determination to set goals and get them accomplished.

John E. Hoover | Jan 31, 2023

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Oklahoma Sooners

Editor’s Note: This is Part 13 of a 14-part series on Oklahoma’s early enrollees in the 2023 recruiting class.

Many times, graduating high school early and launching one’s college football career pays off. Many times, it doesn’t.

While early enrollees are navigating new realms of pain and commitment, a lot of their friends are back home — playing basketball, running track or just hanging out and taking full advantage of the affliction known as “senioritis.”

In Oklahoma’s case, 14 newcomers have chosen to make that sudden transition from boys to men. Jerry Schmidt’s winter workouts might seem impossible at first, and then the summer grind is even harder. In between, the coaching staff takes over, and spring football practice puts them ahead of their summer counterparts.

In this series, AllSooners examines each of the 14 newcomers and projects their impact on Brent Venables’ football team in 2023.

— — — —

Not only did Derrick LeBlanc graduate high school early to get a head start on his college football career. He even gave up a week at the Under Armour All-America Game in Orlando so he could join the Oklahoma football team at practice for the Cheez-It Bowl.

Both are examples of just how focused and driven the Sooners’ new defensive tackle is.

“He’s a kid that can see past tomorrow,” said LeBlanc’s high school position coach, Robert Vansickle. “A lot of kids that age can’t in today’s world. But he can see past tomorrow. He can see down the line. And that’s huge as far as his goal-setting skills and everything, that’s a big deal for a kid that age.”

Vansickle coaches defensive line at Osceola High School in Kissimmee, FL, right up the road from where LeBlanc officially launched his college just days ahead of the bowl game.

Vansickle and Kowboys defensive coordinator Brad Lennox are convinced LeBlanc’s skills — those that are apparent on the football field as well as those that are less tangible — will translate well at OU.

“Great kid. Hard worker,” Lennox told AllSooners. “Everything’s ‘Yes sir, no sir.’ Works his tail off and does everything you ask.”

DL Derrick LeBlanc

6-4, 265
Kissimmee, FL
247 Sports: 4-star, No. 244 overall, No. 33 DL
Rivals: 3-star, unranked overall, No. 51 DE
On3: 4-star, No. 285 overall, No. 33 DL
ESPN: 4-star, No. 125 overall, No. 10 DL
Background: LeBlanc played multiple positions across the defensive line for Osceola High School in the Orlando suburb of Kissimmee. As a sophomore, LeBlanc helped lead the Kowboys to the state championship game, and as a senior, they made the state semifinals. LeBlanc was the No. 12 prospect in Florida and rated the nation’s No. 51 overall recruit by ESPN. He landed a spot in the Under Armour All-America Game, but gave that up so he could join the Sooners for Cheez-It Bowl practices in Orlando. In his high school career, LeBlanc totaled 136 tackles, 32 tackles for loss, 28 quarterback sacks, three forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and two passes defensed. LeBlanc chose OU over offers from Florida, Miami, Penn State and others.
2023 Projection: LeBlanc projects as a 3-technique defensive tackle in college, but even though the offseason process has no doubt already begun, he’ll need to add some mass to play inside. Still, he’s versatile and talented enough to play somewhere on the defensive front in 2023, even if it’s as a d-end in Brent Venables’ 3-man front. The Sooners need to replace Jalen Redmond, Josh Ellison and Jeffery Johnson inside, so if LeBlanc puts the winter and spring to good use, there may be a place for him to get snaps this fall.

LeBlanc was a four-year starter at Osceola, and when it came time to step into his future in Norman, he did so boldly — even if meant giving up his final semester of high school, even if it meant not playing in the All-America Game.

“Not surprised at all,” Lennox said. “He had talked about that since the year before. Been one of his goals for a while that he wanted to get out and get to college as soon as possible. That’s always been a dream of his, and he’s been able to do it.”

He even had to sacrifice a little of his high school football to pull it off — although not much.

“He wasn’t in the weight room his senior year because he had to take a certain class to be able to graduate early,” Lennox said. “That did hurt him. But he got a lot of lifting on his own, too.”

“It was actually during the season,” Vansickle told AllSooners. “He wasn’t able to go into weight class with me before football period because he was taking an extra class to graduate. But that didn’t discount what he did on his own. He was at the gym and was able to power clean at his house and do all the stuff that he had to do. It was something that had to be, but he still put in the work. We’d get out of practice, and he’d go straight to the gym, or he’d head home to hit his cleans and stuff like that.”

That’s the kind of singularly focused athlete Oklahoma defensive line coach Todd Bates wants, and that’s what he’s getting in LeBlanc, Vansickle said — and it won’t stop there.

Oklahoma’s 2023 early enrollees

“Derrick wants to be coached. I mean, a lot,” Vansickle said. “I told Coach Bates this: he’s gonna be all over him. He’s gonna be in Coach Bates’ hip pocket, you know, wanting to watch film, wanting to this, ‘How can I do this better?’ That’s how he is, and he’s been like that since freshman year all the way to senior year — even with all the (recruiting) attention, he still wanted to learn and learn and learn. That’s the type of kid he is.”

In high school, Vansickle and Lennox played LeBlanc all across the line, from noseguard to defensive tackle to defensive end on either side.

“He played a 1-tech, he played a 3-tech, and then he either played a 5 or a 9 coming off the edge,” Lennox said. “We played him all over. We even had a package his junior year where we dropped him on a zone blitz. He loves that kind of stuff. All them big guys love to drop in the flats, you know, they think they’re little DBs or linebackers.”

Said Vansickle, “He can play the run, he can play the pass.”

LeBlanc is also a student of the game who takes a scholastic approach to the mental side of football.

“Derrick LeBlanc,” said OU coach Brent Venables, “is a technician.”

“He’s super smart,” Vansickle said. “He’s a football kid. He’s really smart, he understands the importance of game film, but he’s also on Youtube looking up stuff. He follows other coaches and the drills they’re doing. And he brings a lot of that to practice at times. We’ll talk and we’ll see if something works and fit it into our everyday drills, and sometimes we do it. There’s a couple pass rushing things that he came to me with and now that’s part of our pass rush drills.”

There’s more evidence suggesting LeBlanc may eventually be a coach when he’s done playing. For example, Vansickle had some volunteers help with coaching the defensive line last season — and sometimes those volunteers wore pads.

“He had times this year where they couldn’t come and help,” Lennox said, “so Derrick would take a group. So while coach Vansickle’s working pass rush with the ends, Derrick and John (Walker, who’s now at Central Florida) our other real good defensive tackle, would do d-tackle stuff, or if coach Vansickle was doing d-tackle stuff inside, 1- or 3-tech stuff, Derrick would take the ends and they’d work on pass rush techniques.”

Some of those techniques and drills that LeBlanc oversaw at practice last fall were among a handful of things he picked up way back when he was a freshman, when Vansickle would come over to LeBlanc’s house and impart a few additional coaching points.

“Defensive line drills, working on our hands, working on punch progression, pass rush drills,” Vansickle said.

Those sessions became, of course, much more than that. They became family time. Vansickle’s daughter and LeBlanc’s little sister would go inside and make Tik Tok videos, and when the drills were over, LeBlanc would take Vansickle’s younger son fishing in a nearby pond for bass, catfish and even gar.

“Yeah, we’re close,” Vansickle said with a laugh. “My son said Derrick wouldn’t touch one of ‘em. He wouldn’t even touch ‘em.”

“He's got an old soul to him,” Venables said. “As a young man, I think he's been here like 10 times. He's just a very relationship-driven young man.”

LeBlanc might not like getting his hands dirty with fish, but he doesn’t mind it with football.

“When it comes to the process of being a good player, he’s all over it,” Vansickle said. “When it comes to the weight room, or when it comes to wanting to drill, he’s just all the time wanting to get work in. He’s not scared of the process. That’s how I know he’s gonna be fine. He’s gonna make it happen and do everything in his power.”

“Oklahoma got a great kid,” Lennox said. “They got a kid that’s gonna come in and compete from Day 1, because that’s what he’s always done.”

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Published Jan 31, 2023

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.