'Just a baller': Drake Stoops continues to make his own name for OU football

NORMAN — Brent Venables is prone to jump into lengthy soliloquies during his press conferences.

But the OU coach has made an effort to be more concise in his second season.

That went out the window Tuesday when he was asked about Drake Stoops, the Sooners’ wide receiver and son of Bob Stoops who started his career as a walk-on and evolved into not only a fan favorite but also OU’s No. 1 receiver.

Stoops was named one of three finalists for the Burlsworth Trophy on Tuesday. The award honors college football’s top player who began his career as a walk-on.

Venables said he kept up with Drake through Twitter during Venables’ last years at Clemson, sharing exchanges with his sons when Drake started making plays.

“Just a baller,” Venables said as part of an answer that stretched on for about five minutes. “Just always doing the little things right. … Whether he’s cracking somebody to set up a run or a screen play or making the third-down catch, making the extraordinary catch look ordinary. And then his ability to run after the catch is different. He bounces off of guys.”

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Stoops showed that Saturday during his career-long 60-yard touchdown reception on the first drive of the second half of OU’s 59-20 win over West Virginia.

He took contact outside the 5, then drug Mountaineers’ defender Malachi Ruffin into the end zone as another West Virginia players tried futilely to strip the ball.

“Drake’s a dog,” fellow wide receiver Nic Anderson said. “He’s been a dog.”

Stoops was a proven commodity going into the season, having 914 yards and seven touchdowns receiving over his first five seasons.

But this year, Stoops’ production has increased significantly.

He has 62 catches for 692 yards and nine touchdowns, all team highs.

The last two weeks, Stoops has ramped his production into overdrive, with a combined 22 catches for 298 yards and four touchdowns.

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Stoops’ 62 receptions are the most for the Sooners since CeeDee Lamb hit that mark in 2019. Marquise Brown, who had 75 in 2018, and Lamb, who had 65 that same season, were the last OU players to top that mark.

Dillon Gabriel attributes Stoops’ increased numbers to their work together in the offseason, where the pair bonded even more and shared the same online class.

“He’s unreal, honestly,” Gabriel said. “He’s always open. He’s a competitor. He’s my best friend, someone I am very close to with the connection and him as a player. I’m biased a little bit, but even my bias aside, I think his play speaks for itself.

“I think just the way he plays, it’s inspiring and it’s motivating and having a guy like him right by me is something I’m really grateful for.”

While Venables raves about Stoops’ on-field skills — ”can make guys miss in a phone booth,” he says — it’s what Stoops represents off the field that took up the majority of Venables’ monologue.

“He commented in an interview about being up here 10 hours a day,” Venables said. “He’s not joking. He’s working on his body. He’s watching extra film. He’s building relationships with his teammates. He loves all of it. And he’s exhausting this moment in his life. I love that.

"As opposed to, ‘hurry up to get onto the next thing,’ like everybody else tries to get you to do, to chase the bag and to be self-centered. He’s like, ‘No, I’ve got college is too fun and I’ve got a lot of developing still to do. I can always get better. The one shot that I might have to make the NFL, the best league on the planet — I’m going to be prepared as I can possibly be.’ There are no mulligans.”

So Venables recently honored Stoops in front of the team.

“Because I didn’t want to wait until the funeral to give him flowers or the banquet,” Venables said. “In the middle of it, I want guys to have an appreciation. I hope you’ve planted a few seeds where a guy is like, ‘I wanna be like that.’ That’s a choice.”

Ryan Aber covers OU athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Ryan? He can be reached at raber@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at@RyAber. Sign up forthe OU Sooners newsletter to access more OU coverage. Support Scott’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasinga digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com or by using the link at the top of this page.

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU football's Drake Stoops keeps carving out his own path with Sooners