Oklahoma, long known as a bastion of defensive prowess, has expanded its expertise to the other side of the ball.
On Saturday the top-ranked Sooners will take a six-pack of wide receivers that coach Bob Stoops calls “by far and away the best we’ve ever had” against a Texas pass defense that ranks No. 1 in the country.
The six-pack is Mark Clayton, Jejuan Rankins, Brandon Jones, Travis Wilson, Will Peoples and Mark Bradley.
Clayton leads the Sooners (5-0) in yards (389), in average gain per catch among those with more than 10 catches (17.7 yards), in touchdowns (4) and in average yards a game (77.8). He is the first OU receiver to have five 100-yard games, something he’s done twice this season.
In 30 games, he has 93 catches for 1,324 yards and 12 touchdowns.
“Mark Clayton is really dangerous,” said cornerback Nathan Vasher of 11th-ranked Texas (4-1), which will host the game at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
No one gets open better than Clayton, quarterback Jason White agreed.
“You see it in every route,” White said. “Even if he’s not going to get the ball, he’s working hard to get open. He’s learning new moves every day. One thing about Mark, you can never outwork him.
“It’s fun to just watch him when you’re going back and watching film of the previous game. Sometimes it’s like, how did he do that?”
Clayton doesn’t have the definitive answer to that question. But being between the lines, he said, is akin to a transcendental experience.
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“I shut my mouth, my eyes are wide open,” he said. “I feel like I’m part of the field, part of the ball. I’m just on another level. [The field] is my stage. My place.”
He is one of the best at turning a short catch into a long gain.
“Mark is one of those guys who when he catches the ball, it’s not over,” offensive coordinator Chuck Long said. “In fact, when he catches the ball, it’s usually just begun.”
Stoops is one of Clayton’s biggest admirers.
“What I love is that he is so competitive,” Stoops said. “Watching him not allow people to catch him, to tackle him, fighting for everything he gets. He is a fighter out on the field.”
Clayton’s philosophy is simple: Go get it.
“That’s something we preach here all the time,” he said. “We had it put on the back of our shirts this summer. It’s pretty influential. After the catch, it’s just not wanting to go down. The determination of wanting to get to the end zone. Desire definitely separates players.”
Clayton said that Texas’ secondary is yearly one of the best he faces.
“They stack their secondary full of athletes,” he said. “But we’ve studied them long and hard, and we’ve found different things in their defense we feel we can execute against.”