MIAMI GARDENS, Florida — The No. 4 Sooners gathered in a club room in Hard Rock Stadium Thursday morning to address the media ahead of their playoff game against No. 1 Alabama in the Orange Bowl on Saturday.
Among the team were players who had yet to talk to the media -- mostly freshmen.
Here are a few of those freshmen, what they had to say about the season, what they’ve learned and what their future looks like ahead of the team’s biggest game to date.
Brendan Radley-Hiles, DB
A highly touted recruit since day one, Brendan “Bookie” Radley-Hiles found significant minutes since the first game of the season against FAU back in September, and has started at the nickel position for most games this season. He's one of the very few true freshmen who has started on the team.
“It’s been a great process,” Radley-Hiles said. “It’s a great learning experience coming in young and just being able to learn from the guys that are older in the room. It’s just been a great humbling experience.”
Being on Oklahoma’s defense has not been easy, and it is especially difficult being a true freshman during a defensive coordinator change halfway through the season. Radley-Hiles experienced a painful 48-45 loss to then-No.19 Texas in the Cotton Bowl back in October, and watched interim defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill take the helm of the defense after Mike Stoops was fired from the job. Radley-Hiles decided to focus on the positives.
“It was a big critical moment in our season,” Radley-Hiles said. “Midway through the season it felt as if we started over a lot of things, but it was a great time in the middle of all that, that ‘crisis’ everybody calls it. We found a lot of good things out of that. We got to sit back and redefine ourselves and I feel as if we’re doing really good.”
Radley-Hiles is prone to finding the positives in his struggles. In halftime of Oklahoma’s 59-56 win at West Virginia, Radley-Hiles was benched for the second half after a disappointing performance.
“That was the biggest blessing for me honestly," Radley-Hiles said. "I was a kid that was overly hyped, I guess you could say, at least that’s what everyone else thinks. But I feel as if it was a humbling experience. I had to re-look at myself in the mirror and make sure I was who I thought I was. I had to get back in the lab and I’ve learned from those mistakes and I’ve learned from my technique and things like that and I’m ready to play in this game.”
Radley-Hiles has accumulated 39 tackles so far this season. Spending a whole season learning to transition to the nickel position, Radley-Hiles says he's more comfortable on the field.
"I’ve learned how to play the safety position with confidence. That was a big deal," Radley-Hiles said. "[Until] spring ball, fall camp I had never played the position before. I was trying to find if I was going to play nickel only, safety only, corner only this year. When I finally settled in and played nickel and safety this year, the biggest thing was really to play with confidence and understand that, like our coach says, ‘the safeties are the drivers of the defense.’ So, really I was learning how to play the role with confidence. So I would say that — for the most part — really was my biggest learning curve of the year.”
Ronnie Perkins, DE
Another Sooner who found minutes early, defensive end Ronnie Perkins got his first start in Oklahoma’s 52-27 win over TCU. As an early enrollee Perkins started practicing for the Sooners in the Spring, a move he thinks contributes to his early appearance on the field.
“I think coming in in the spring, coming in early, I think it really helped me a lot because, going back and watching my spring tape throughout the summer, it showed me a lot, what I had to work on and what I had to do to get it to the level that I’m playing at now. Hopefully in this next coming off season I’ll go look back on this season and see what I could do to get better for next season too.”
Perkins racked up two sacks in Oklahoma’s 66-33 win over Baylor, and has five on the season. But, like Radley-Hiles, has found adversity as a true freshman dealing with Oklahoma’s defensive struggles.
“Yeah, most definitely it’s difficult,” Perkins said when asked about giving up points as a defense. “But at the same time, I know the rest of the on the defense, they’re like ‘ we could do something, we could play better, we could tackle better, we could do whatever. We’ll change this.’ I can guarantee the points y’all see on the board now, it won’t be like this for long. I can guarantee that.”
T.J. Pledger, RB
T.J. Pledger has only appeared in six games this season, the last being a 91-yard, seven yards-per-carry performance in Oklahoma’s 51-14 win against Kansas State. The running back -- who sits behind backs sophomore Trey Sermon and redshirt freshman Kennedy Brooks -- has 179 yards and is averaging six yards-per-carry on the season, a promising sign that the future holds more for the true freshman.
“(Kennedy) and Trey definitely took me under their wings, showing me the work, being older guys - just following their lead because they’ve been around this offense and they know all of this well,” Pledger said. “Just being able to follow after these guys is definitely going to be good for the future.
“It’s been a blessing. Getting these reps in is going to be key to my development in the future. It’s been a good first year.”
Delarrin Turner-Yell, S
In four total games played, safety Delarrin Turner-Yell has racked up 12 tackles, and has even played snaps in Oklahoma’s 59-56 win over West Virginia. He’s spent most of the season on the bench, but that’s not stopping him from making the most of his chances.
“It’s been a dream come true,” Turner-Yell said. “Of course I didn’t want to come here and sit on the bench, so getting quality playing time has been a great deal for me.
“I’m just gonna play the game of football the way I know how to play it. Whenever I get my opportunity to showcase it I will do that.”
Nike Bonitto, DE
Fort Lauderdale native Nik Bonitto has only played in the first two games of the season, but will be in familiar terrain as he represents Oklahoma in front of where he used to spend a number of Sundays watching the Miami Dolphins play. The linebacker will have about friends and family in attendance, he says.
“Yeah it was really cool, especially when I found out we were going to Miami I was really excited,” Bonitto said. “My family, I haven’t seen them in a while so they’re excited to come to the game and it was just really good news.”
Since he hasn’t played four total games this season, Bonitto will redshirt.
“It’s been good and challenging,” Bonitto said on redshirting. “Redshirting, you know, obviously wasn’t the plan when I first came here but I just [keep] going on down, just keep working with the scout guys and practicing against the best everyday.”
