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Oklahoma Linebacker Looks To Rebound From Penalty Before Family and Friends

Sooners' Jaren Kanak among leaders in several defensive categories, will travel to home state for Kansas game

Tim Willert

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NORMAN — Oklahoma's Jaren Kanak has made amends for the personal foul he committed against Central Florida, the one that negated a second goal line stand in as many games by the Sooners' defense

Now the second-year linebacker, named a captain for Saturday's game against Kansas, can focus his attention on shutting down the Jayhawks' offense in front of some familiar faces. 

It will be a homecoming for Kanak, a sophomore who grew up in Hays, about 230 miles west of Lawrence, where the Sooners (7-0, 4-0 Big 12) play the Jayhawks (5-2, 2-2) Saturday morning.

The 6-foot-2, 228-pounder, a former high school sprint champion, told reporters this week he expects between 30 family members and friends to attend the game.

"I'm definitely excited to be back in the home state and get a lot of my family and close friends to come to a game and see me play at this level in person," he said Tuesday after practice.

Kanak has started all seven games for the Sooners and has been a big contributor. He is second on the team with 40 tackles, including four tackles for loss. He is tied for the team lead with defensive end Ethan Downs with four quarterback hurries, has two sacks, broken up two passes and forced a fumble.

The Kansas game will give Kanak a chance to atone for the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty he drew for taunting a player on what was shaping up to be a goal line stand similar to the one against Texas.

"Obviously, having the unsportsmanlike conduct, that's selfish on my part. I just need to stay more poised in that moment," he said. "I was just excited for my guys, and I got too fired up in the moment.

"I just need to have more discipline. It's bigger than me in that moment, and I realize that now. That's definitely something that's not a part of my character. I apologized to my guys for that. It's definitely something that won't happen any time in the future."

On the play, Oklahoma's defense had stoned UCF running back Mark Antony Richards for a 1-yard loss from the OU 1. But instead of facing fourth and goal at the OU 2-yard line, the Knights were awarded a fresh set of downs on the penalty and scored on the next play to tie the game.

“Yeah, I mean—yeah, that’s—we can’t do that," defensive coordinator Ted Roof said after the game. "Our policy on that is when something good happens, you go find your teammates and go celebrate with your teammates. Nothing bad is going to happen with that, because usually it’s a combination of a lot of people; it’s not one person. It’s a combination when you go into stuffing a run like that, and we’ve got to celebrate with our teammates.

"Jaren will learn from that. We’ll all learn from it, and understanding that so many times the margin for error is so small, but again, we found a way to fight through it and a way to win today instead of almost coming up a little short. I’m proud of that, but at the same time, a lot to improve on, a lot to work on, and our guys will.”

OU, which had to rally late to win the game 31-29, and will face another talented offense in Kansas that features a pair of talented running backs. 

"We're very excited for the challenge," Kanak said. They do a lot of offense and show a lot of looks and do a lot of movements and things. Like I said, we're looking forward to the challenge of that. We'll strain in practice to adjust to those type of things, and we're getting good calls and adjusting to the tempo and formations. I'm excited for that challenge.

Kanak said OU will have to stay disciplined on defense to counter the looks KU's offense will throw its way.

"It's most definitely probably one of the most important things," he said. "They're going to make us play the numbers game, make sure we have our eyes and our numbers right. They're going to try to get us out of position. We just have to stay disciplined, know where to put our eyes, know what to key, know where to be and know where our help is. Stuff like that."

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Tim Willert
TIM WILLERT

AllSooners staff writer Tim Willert has covered news and sports for 29 years as a reporter and editor for daily and online publications, including The Oklahoman and The Norman Transcript. 

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