Venables Vibes: Oklahoma Gives Billy Bowman Update, Sheds Light on Graham's Move to WR

Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables recapped the work the Sooners put in on the open week to prepare for the final five games of the season on Tuesday.

NORMAN — Coming off the open week, Oklahoma is ready to attack the final five games of the regular season.

OU head coach Brent Venables maintained that his 2022 Sooners would be judged by how they close the current campaign.

Sitting at 4-3, Venables’ team will travel north to face the Iowa State Cyclones (3-4).

Despite dropping all four games by a combined 14 points, Iowa State is winless in four tries in Big 12 action.

The Sooners are feeling refreshed after the bye week, but still could be missing a key piece ahead of this weekend’s battle.

Bowman on the Mend

Oklahoma safety Billy Bowman hasn't played since exiting the TCU game with an injury :: SARAH PHIPPS / THE OKLAHOMAN -USA TODAY NETWORK

Standout safety Billy Bowman hasn’t seen any action since leaving early in the TCU contest at the start of October.

Thankfully, Bowman didn’t need surgery, but it’s still been a process to get him back up to speed.

“That's one of those things, when you deal with a non-surgical injury, everybody is a little bit different with how they heal and how they rehab,” Venables said. “Billy attacks. If anything, you have to slow Billy down. 

"He's incredibly prideful, really tough, anxious to get back on the field, great, great worker. Sometimes for him, less is more and he'll push himself to exhaustion and you have to stay within the framework of rehab.”

Venables didn’t confirm that Bowman would be back this week, only saying the team is “hopeful he will get back sooner rather than later.”

Bowman has returned to practice, but it's unclear if he will be cleared to play against the Cyclones on Saturday. 

In the meantime, Key Lawrence, Justin Broiles and Trey Morrison will need to continue to give the Sooners production on the back end. Any continued absences from Bowman could also allow true freshman Robert Spears-Jennings to carve out a larger role for himself.

Switching Positions

D.J. Graham is officially a wide receiver after making the position change from cornerback ahead of the bye week :: BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK

Ahead of OU’s last contest against Kansas, junior D.J. Graham announced on social media that he would be making the move from defensive back over to wide receiver.

A dual-threat in high school, Graham flashed his playmaking abilities last year against Nebraska with his show-stopping one-handed interception.

Now, Venables and the coaching staff will give him an opportunity to make an impact on offense.

“My understanding, D.J. and his dad visited when I got here briefly,” said Venables, “he was signed as an athlete, with the opportunity to play either side. They preferred him to try defense.

“He said he’d give it a try. His love is on offense and at receiver. So he asked if he could move back.”

There were no other position changes during the off week, Venables said, as the team focuses on finishing strong.

Scouting the Team

Bye weeks are a great time for college football teams to look within and see what the entire team needs to improve on.

Without an immediate opponent on the horizon, the Sooners were no different in diving deep on a self-scout.

Defensively, Venables said he hoped every position group will have a good response to the heightened focus during the bye week.

“It's a hard thing to quantify whether one position group benefitted maybe more so than the others,” he said. “I think the test of time will show that. I'm hopeful that everybody equally benefited. Every single group has both its strengths and its weaknesses and things we've got to get better at.

“I’m just hopeful that collectively we're able to make the kind of improvement that we need to but there's a lot of work to be done, and I believe that our guys got the willingness to continue to put the work in.”

While the results on the field this Saturday will ultimately determine if the bye week was a success, Venables said there was a good response on the practice field.

“We've had a great week of practice the week of the Kansas game and it showed and our guys had a great bye week,” he said. “Just a tremendous attitude and perspective, had a great practice last night. I'll be the first to tell you when the practice doesn't meet the standards and the expectations.

“Our guys have been hungry, they've been humble, and they've been hard-working. Hopefully there'll be improvement between now and the end of the season.”

Oklahoma will see if the hard work will pay off on Saturday at 11 a.m. when the Sooners kickoff against Iowa State, and the game will be broadcast on FS1.

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