OSU Power Lunch Chat with Cowboys writer Gina Mizell
Oklahoma State Football Practice Report – April 9
STILLWATER, Okla. – The Oklahoma State football team held an approximately 100-play scrimmage – its first of the spring – on Monday in Boone Pickens Stadium, with the defense getting the upper hand for most of the session. Coach Mike Gundy talked about what he saw from his team. Read his thoughts below, or scroll down to listen to the audio.
Oklahoma State Coach Mike Gundy
On Monday’s scrimmage:
“The defense really played well. We’ve got a number of guys that can run to the football and they show up fast. Offensively, we could never get into a rhythm. Really, none of the three quarterbacks did much, but I kind of expected that with a more mature defense. I expected them to play well and the offense to be a little slow at times – that happens in the spring. As a team, some things that we’ve got to correct are that offensively, we’ve got to get into a rhythm better and guys who can make big plays have to step up and make big plays. Defensively, we’ve got to find a way to force more turnovers and get the ball on the ground.”
On if any position group stood out during Monday’s scrimmage:
“Defensively as a group, they all ran to the ball well. One thing I noticed is that our linebackers run sideways real well and they show up fast. Shaun Lewis, Lyndell Johnson and Joe Mitchell and those guys really run well side to side and show up. I think that’s going to pay great dividends for us during the season.”
On if the team’s intensity is where he wants it to be at this point:
“Not really. One thing that happens during the spring is they’ve now gone against each other enough that you lose a little bit of that, but they certainly need to be self-starters and do a better job of getting out here and playing at a high level and trying to put themselves into a situation that they’d be in on gameday. It takes a little time, but I wasn’t as happy as I was with last Friday, when we had a little bit of a scrimmage situation.”
Among the offensive highlights of the scrimmage was a J.W. Walsh-to-Blake Jackson touchdown pass. An inside receiver/tight end, Jackson chose to enroll at Oklahoma State after an outstanding 2011 season at Scottsdale CC that led to him earning scholarship offers from schools such as Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas, among others. His position coach, Doug Meacham, talked about Jackson and the Cowboy inside receivers:
Inside Receivers Coach Doug Meacham
On if Josh Stewart can replace the productivity of Josh Cooper:
“Yes, I would say so. Stewart has an innate ability to be in the right spot. He’s got really good body twitch and ball skills. Some guys are naturals at getting in the right spots. He’s a guy that naturally has a great feel for the void areas and the holes and where to bounce. He’s super-twitchy. It’s hard to get a glove on him. It’s hard to wall him or collision him or re-route him because he’s got such good twitch. He can get in and out on you, he can stem you and get in spots.
“His ball skills are off the charts and his hand-eye coordination is unbelievable. He’s not quite as big as Josh Cooper, but I think in a year or so – maybe a couple years – he’ll get close to that. In terms of body twitch and control, he may have more than anybody else that I have. As time goes on, he’s only going to get better with the feel of the game and what we do offensively. I’m really high on him right now.”
On how Blake Jackson and others can fill the statistical void left by Justin Blackmon:
“Tracy Moore has moved outside this spring and Tracy has had a lot of reps. We’re trying to find another guy that can get in there and absorb the offense and what we’re trying to accomplish. I wouldn’t say that anyone else has just blown me away. However, Blake has a really good body. He’s real long. He’s older, whereas a Torrance Carr is a true freshman and trying to figure out what we want at that position. I wouldn’t say either one of those guys has separated himself from the other, so we’re still trying to find the right guy. If we were playing tomorrow, it would be Blake, based on his experience and his age. With time, they will understand what we want and give us the quality reps that Tracy gave us.
On the inside receivers as a whole:
“For whatever reason, my guys have always been laid-back types. My meeting room is not very rigid. It’s not run like an English room or a math room. We have a lot of fun, but I would say that they understand at what point they need to get serious. There’s a time and a place for everything. I try not to make it so rigid that it’s not any fun, so in that room, it’s more of a lighter feel – it always has been, especially last year with some of the characters we had like Colton Chelf, Josh Cooper and Charlie Moore. We like to have fun, but at the same time, we like to compete. We play hard when it’s time to play hard. We understand what we’re trying to accomplish as a position group.”
On where David Glidden fits in:
“He’s like Josh Cooper, just smaller. There again, Glidden has an innate ability to be in the right spot, but he does it with a whole lot less reps. That comes from catching a million balls in high school in somewhat of a similar offense. He just gets it. He takes what we talk about in the meeting room and applies it on the field. He’s not a rep guy. He’s a guy that hears it once, then does it once, then he’s got it. That’s really big because not everyone can be that way. Some require more time, so because of his ability to do that fast and learn fast, it allows me to spend a little more time with some of the other guys that don’t.”
On the rise of Oklahoma State football in recent years and his appreciation of it as an Oklahoma State graduate:
“It’s incredible. When you’re here every day, you somewhat get used to it. It’s interesting to me when the former players come by or when the coaches clinics come through here and they’re just blown away and I remember how I felt when I first walked in here and I look around and think yeah, this is really, really good. I remember not having a lot of these things that we have right now. It’s a definite advantage in recruiting and it’s a definite advantage in being comfortable here and letting your guys be comfortable. They can come over here with all the tools and be in a great learning environment with all the nice things you can possibly have in football. It’s just a great place to be.”
On his favorite moment from the 2011 season:
“Bedlam. Period. End of story. The whole thing. The game in general, what it meant to the fans, what it meant to me both as a coach and as an alum. The fact that the game meant everything – everything was on the line. To play them at home and to play the way we did, it was the greatest football moment of my 24-year career.”
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Oklahoma State defense “dominates” first spring scrimmage
In the words of Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy, the defense “dominated” the Cowboys’ first scrimmage of the spring on Monday evening at Boone Pickens Stadium.
The line was active throughout, whether it was getting a hand up to swat a pass away or getting into the backfield for a “sack.” The linebackers were quick running horizontally, highlighted by an athletic 90-plus-yard interception return for a touchdown by sophomore Lyndell Johnson when he jumped in front of on a J.W. Walsh bubble screen pass near the goal line. That all aided the play of the defensive backs, as well.
“The defense really ran to the ball well,” Gundy said. “Our second-level defenders really went sideways and eliminated some speed on the perimeter, whether it was a quick throw or a running play. And then our defensive line controlled the scrimmage, which forced the quarterback to make decisions quicker than what they needed to. You’ve got three quarterbacks that haven’t played much.
“And so you tie all that together, and the defense dominates the scrimmage.”
All three starting quarterback contenders — Walsh, junior Clint Chelf and true freshman Wes Lunt — alternated between running the first-team and second-team offense during the scrimmage.
And it doesn’t appear we’re any closer to Gundy naming a starter, though he maintains he would like to by the end of spring practice.
“Not one of the three quarterbacks played any better than the other,” Gundy said. “One, because they played very average. And two, because the defense controlled the scrimmage. That’s really what happened.
“Just standing there watching … nobody did anything to impress me. Part of it was self-inflicted, and part of it wasn’t.”
Here are some other comments from Gundy following the scrimmage.
On the rest of the offense’s performance:
“The running backs ran well. There just really wasn’t anywhere for them to go. Tracy Moore played well. Josh Stewart didn’t touch the ball very much. (Torrance) Carr made a couple catches. Blake Jackson realized it wasn’t junior college. Things like that. Typical things.”
On Lyndell Johnson’s interception return for a touchdown:
“Him and Joe Mitchell and Shaun (Lewis) and Alex (Elkins) and those guys are range-y and long, and that’s exciting for me. That (play) looked like what you see in the NFL. (Johnson’s) not an NFL player, I’m not saying that. But when he took off running, nobody was going to catch him. He’s taking two steps every five yards. He gained about 3 1/2 yards a step. That’s an encouraging and exciting thing for me, because in order for us to maintain a high level of play here for a number of years, we have to play like that on defense, and then we have to get our offense up and going.”
On if he’s discouraged that not one of the three starting quarterback contenders has distanced himself from the other two with 10 spring practices completed:
“I didn’t really expect them to. The second part of what’s happening out here is we’ve gone through some practices out here in the spring with (Brandon) Weeden and not scored. They’ve seen this for 10 (sessions) now and they know the offensive line calls. That’s not an excuse, but it’s going to be slower, and then it’s going to be even (slower) because (the quarterbacks) don’t have experience. Am I discouraged? No. Do I wish we would have played better on offense? Yes. We won’t change our (quarterback) reps for Wednesday’s practice, but we just have to keep going. Ultimately, at the end of the spring, I would like to name a starting quarterback.”
On the saying that if you have three quarterbacks, you really don’t have one:
“I think there’s some truth to that, (but) not now. Honestly, our quarterbacks need to train all summer and then 29 practices in the fall. We don’t have anybody that can just call it off. They need a lot of work. But when it comes time to play, we’ll have somebody ready. And then all the other areas that we’ve talked about need to help those guys along. … They’re a little more vulnerable at this stage and at this point than what we would normally be, because we’re just opening the (playbook) up and letting them play. Let them make all their mistakes and correct them.
On Wes Lunt’s development:
“He’s doing fine. He made some plays out here today. And what you have to remember is he’s supposed to be getting out (of his senior year of high school) at 11:30 a.m. and going to hang out with some girl and going to baseball practice or something. And he’s out here trying to figure all this out. He’s pretty far along for a guy that’s not been out here very long. He’ll be better next week than he is now. I think the summer’s huge for him. The development that he gets — the three or four months that he’ll in the weight room and then the reps that he’ll get out here mentally. You’ll see a considerable development with him, just from understanding what’s going on. He doesn’t throw with enough velocity on the ball at times right now. Part of that is because he can’t formulate and think fast enough to know where to go, so he’s just hesitant.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney picks up spring practice schedule tip from Oklahoma State
A few weeks ago, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney and the Tigers’ offensive staff came to Stillwater to visit with Mike Gundy and the OSU staff.
Looks like one of the biggest things Swinney picked up from Gundy was a scheduling tip for spring practice, according to this report from OrangeandWhite.com.
OSU’s only Saturday practice this spring will be the public “finale” on April 21, and Clemson is following a similar model. Both schools have gone with a Monday-Wednesday-Friday practice schedule (with the exception of OSU’s first week, when the Cowboys went Monday-Wednesday-Thursday so that players got Friday off for spring break). Clemson was originally going to go with a Wednesday-Friday-Saturday schedule until the trip to OSU.
“Listen, do you ever sit down and count up how many weekends your coaches and players don’t have something they’re doing, that they’re not involved in something?” Swinney said. “If you look at it, there’s very few. Very few weekends you’re not doing something, you’re not preparing for a game. Now you’re in the spring, you’re looking at it, we just made a decision. We’re going to go hard on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. It’s really made our Friday practices great.”
Gundy’s staff has become known for its unique practice philosophies. OSU did not have any full-fledged scrimmages, where players are taken all the way to the ground, during fall camp last season. The Cowboys are carrying that same strategy over to this year’s spring workouts. OSU also practices fairly lightly during the season, especially on Thursdays.
OSU Hoops: Future Pokes Spur Optimism
OSU recruit Marcus Smart shines on.
Still seeking optimism for Cowboys basketball?
It keeps coming.
OSU’s Flower Mound Marcus duo – Marcus Smart and Phil Forte – hasn’t slowed down since winning a second straightTexasprep state title.
Over the weekend, they played in the Kentucky Derby Festival Basketball Classic and starred, even with their team losing 130-127.
Smart scored eight points, grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds and handed out 11 assists for the Black squad. Forte scored 12 points, all coming on 3-pointers, as he finished 4 of 7 from beyond the arc.
Smart also won the slam-dunk competition, taking the title in a “dunk off.” A 6-4 guard, Smart did a back flip at the foul line, then caught a pass off the backboard for a reverse dunk.
Forte won the 3-point contest, scoring 19 points in the finals. It was Forte’s second national 3-point competition in a week, after he won a title at the Final Four inNew Orleans.
Brandon Weeden on “Jon Gruden’s QB Camp”
Brandon Weeden’s episode of “Jon Gruden’s QB Camp” premiered Saturday evening. He broke down film, got on the board and worked out for Gruden during the 30-minute show.
Weeden, as expected, shined in the media/interview setting. Here’s a quick breakdown of the show.
The show opened with Gruden labeling each tapes from each quarterback he’s meeting with this season. He labeled Weeden’s “Weedeater.” I laughed, mostly because that was a popular nickname thrown out after Weeden’s rushing touchdown in the Fiesta Bowl.
Gruden’s opening comments about Weeden: “He has a cannon, he’s productive every week, and he beat some of the best quarterbacks college football has to offer.”
Weeden’s opening comments on Gruden: “The guy’s a nut. He’s a guy I’m going to listen to and kind of be a sponge.”
Baseball days
Gruden began not with football film, but with old-school footage from Weeden’s baseball days. He even dropped that Weeden was drafted before Yankees superstar Curtis Granderson.
“I could sling it,” Weeden said. “But you realize at that level, it’s more than throwing hard and trying to blow fastballs by guys. You can’t do it.”
On the comparisons between being a pitcher and a quarterback:
“The ball’s always in your hands,” Weeden said “…You’ve got full control of the game. That’s why I think I liked playing the two as much as I did. There’s so many comparisons. You give up a bomb (home run), it’s just like throwing an interception.”
On the decision to quit baseball and try college football:
“I just wasn’t having much success,” Weeden said. “My numbers were average. I was giving up a lot of doubles in the gap. I always knew I wanted to play football if it didn’t work out, as far as my baseball career (goes). After the ’06 season, I had had enough, I decided I wanted to go back and get an education and play college football, and I think I made the right decision.
The age question
Ah, we knew it was coming soon enough. The most informational part of this section was Gruden asking Weeden how it was leading and communicating with much younger players at OSU:
“It was easy for me,” Weeden said. “Whenever I came over here (to the sideline) and was talking to the guys, they’d always listen. We were always on the same page and able to communicate. If (Justin) Blackmon or somebody saw something, they’d bring it up. …That was one of the nice things about being a little bit older — I’m not a hush-mouth guy. If I feel something, I’m going to let you know about it. Right here (showing footage of first half of Texas A&M game), I’m either ticked off about something or something’s up. But this is the way it was all the time. I think my age, it helped me from this perspective. Without a doubt.
Tempo, tempo
Weeden then broke down how he ran the Cowboys’ no-huddle offense. Lots and lots of hand signals here. Bending one finger means ace formation. Pointing to his fist or slapping his hip signals a specific play. And he always used a silent count.
“You don’t need to talk in this offense,” Gruden joked.
Because of the fast pace, Weeden revealed that the terminology of the OSU offense is pretty basic. Gruden asked how Weeden would handle rattling off a long play in the huddle, and Weeden mentioned he’ll like getting a chance to communicate with the rest of the offensive players in between plays.
Gruden asked him to call a play, to which Weeden said “Blue 80, blue 80, set, hut.”
Gruden then imitated/mocked Weeden—with major Chucky eyes. Again, I laughed.
BPS atmosphere
Gruden spent a couple minutes on the game atmosphere of Boone Pickens Stadium. He asked if Pistol Pete was Burt Reynolds. He also called the tunnel the team comes out of a stable.
Moving on…
“This is the worst football play I’ve ever seen in my life”
Here’s where Gruden starts to focus on some of Weeden’s flaws. He showed the pick-six against Kansas State, complete with Weeden’s unsuccessful dive near the sideline.
“I remember saying right here…’Listen I’m going to make a play in this game and we’re going to come back and win this football game,’” Weeden said.
Gruden also asked Weeden to explain the safety against Texas where he stepped out of the back of the end zone.
Weeden didn’t try to sugarcoat it.
“I felt pressure,” Weeden said. “Honestly, this was a bona fide brain fart right here. That’s not good. But fortunately, it was a safety and not a pick-six.”
Gruden didn’t sugarcoat it, either.
“This is going on a reel forever, because this is the worst football play I have ever seen in my life,” he said. “It’s a pick-six, backed up, and a safety on the same play. It’s a double-whammy, man. It’s going to the Hall of Shame.”
Hit the boards
Weeden was then asked to diagram a trips play from the Baylor game. Side note: as soon as the footage came up, Weeden remarked “this was stealin’.” Not sure if he meant that specific play or the entire game. The statement could have applied to both.
Weeden hit the board and explained that it was a draw play. The key to the play was watching the strongside linebacker. If he hesitated or stayed inside, Weeden threw a stick route to the Y receiver. If he went to cover the stick route, Weeden handed the ball to the running back.
Gruden also called up that long pass play to Joseph Randle late in the Arizona game that came against an all-out blitz. Gruden was impressed that Weeden audibled, recognized the blitz and who was open and lofted it perfectly out to Randle even though pressure was coming.
“You know you’re going to get hit,” Weeden said. “You just got to stand in there and make the throw.”
Let’s take this outside
Gruden showed a series of bubble screen plays, and Weeden compared it to turning a double play. He also said he rarely uses the laces of the football on that particular play, because it’s so fast. As someone who has never played quarterback, I thought this was really interesting, but then it made total sense once I thought about it.
Gruden wanted to see this outside.
Cue a rapid set of screens to each side, lots of times with a bad snap. Weeden said he had his fingers on the laces one time.
Then Gruden asked Weeden to make throws using a three-step drop. The slot receiver ran a five-yard stick route, and the outside guy ran a flat route. Gruden played defense, and Weeden had to throw to the right guy based on if Gruden stayed inside or went outside.
Next was a five-step drop, looking for a receiver running a 10-12-yard in route. Gruden wanted him “to put a little mustard on this, now.” Weeden definitely did.
Quotable
Here’s another thought from Gruden coming out of a commercial break: “The thing I like most about Brandon Weeden is he can throw the football. He can throw it from awkward deliveries. He has great anticipation. He’s accurate. He’s tough in the pocket. And after meeting him, he’s a very calm, cool, confident customer.”
Mental toughness
No game footage on the board now. Just the words “mental toughness.” This led the conversation back to baseball. Weeden talked about how the minor league baseball experience helped him at OSU. I’ve heard a version of this quote several times.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that’s the reason I had so much success at Oklahoma State,” Weeden said. “Mentally, I’m more tough than most guys because of what I’ve been through. If I throw a pick, you’ll never see me get pissed off. I know how to overcome it. I’ll move onto the next play. (The Kansas State game’s) a perfect example. I threw two of them, came back and ended up putting together two drives to win it.
Iowa State
OSU football players and coaches have never used the plane crash that killed OSU women’s basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistent Miranda Serna as an excuse for why the Cowboys lost the Iowa State game. Weeden revealed to Berry Tramel a few months ago how much the team’s mood was affected that day, but this show was one of the few times I’ve really seen one of the football guys open up about the circumstances surrounding that game. At least on a national scale.
Weeden: “We came out flat. They came out ready to go and hit us in the mouth. You can tell right there (showing footage of a pretty subdued huddle), we’re just kind of not real jazzed up.”
Gruden: “Why was that?”
Weeden: “We had a tragedy that day. We had the plane crash that morning. I’m not blaming on it on that. It was a tough situation. Everybody was just somber. It was just a difficult situation to play a football situation in.
“I woke up at 8 o’clock that morning and saw it. Coach Gundy addressed the team at like 9 or 9:30, so we’re sitting there and the mood, the entire day, is just completely somber. I don’t care how tough you are, to overcome something like that throughout the course of the day is tough. They came out fired up. It was their Homecoming and (they) hit us in the mouth. Turn the ball over six times like this, you can’t beat anybody. They beat us.
On the mood following that game:
“It was tough, but I think there were a lot of positives that came from it,” Weeden said. “We had a bye week the next week. We took out all our frustrations on Oklahoma. We came back and won a Big 12 championship. We still felt like we had all our goals still in front of us. We still felt like we had a chance to play for the national title if we took care of business and beat Oklahoma (side note: the look on Weeden’s face after he said that screamed “if the BCS hadn’t produced an SEC rematch.”). So that was my attitude. Yeah, it sucked, and Sunday morning was tough. But once we got back to work Sunday night, we got back to business and it was in the past.”
All he does is win
Gruden finished with rattling off that Weeden beat Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Ryan Tannehill, Landry Jones and Nick Foles in 2011. What does that say about Weeden?
“I’m a winner, man,” Weeden said. “I can win some football games. I think that’s one thing that you can’t take away from me. I can be 28 and all that other jazz, but I’ll tell you what, I win football games. There’s no doubt about it. To beat, not only (Luck in the Fiesta Bowl), but I think to beat that team (Stanford), the No. 4-reanked team in the country in a BCS Bowl…if you ask Oklahoma State fans, we’ve never been there. We’ve never been to a BCS bowl. Ever. That means a lot to us.
Final thought
Gruden’s final comments on Weeden: “Everybody at the FFCA (Fired Football Coaches of America) likes Weeden a lot as a person. He has an air of confidence about him, a swagger about him that you need at this position. I also like fact that he has a bone to pick with everybody who thinks he’s a little bit too old to play. He’s got a lot of great football ahead of him. I like him.”
Small World: Travis Ford And Shaq
Travis Ford and Shaquille O'Neal once played together at the 1990 Olympic Festival.
By John Helsley
follow on Twitter @jjhelsley
As I studied the photo of Shaquille O’Neal and Travis Ford in our paper Wednesday morning, a triangle came into view.
Last week, I interviewed former LSU coach Dale Brown for our Sunday Collected Wisdom – and it’s an all-time great one, read it here – and both Shaq and Ford were subjects of our conversation.
Brown, of course, discovered Shaq, who was a struggling 13-year-old hoops wannabe (albeit a 6-foot-9 wannabe) on a military base inGermanywhen he approached the coach in search suggestions on how to get in shape and be a better athlete.
On the spot, Brown, who was there to lift the spirits of troops, gave the young Shaq a few suggestions and promised to mail a videotape with more instruction when he returned to Baton Rouge.
I’ll let Brown tell it from here:
“We communicated back and forth and about eight weeks after that I got a letter from him and it said, ‘Coach Brown, I did everything you told me to do but my high school coach cut me off the team. He said I was too slow, too clumsy, I have too big of feet. I could never be a basketball player. What should I do?’
“I sat down, wondered what kind of profound statement I could make to a young man who just had his heart broken. I thought, ‘I’ll tell him about my life.’ So, ‘Dear Shaq, I’m real sorry what happened to you. But I found out in my life, every time I failed, felt inferior, somebody told me I couldn’t do something, I was heartbroken, I found something that worked for me and I think it’ll work for you. If you sincerely, always, try to do your very best, you never give up and persevere, sooner or later God will take care of everything else.’”
As we all know now, Shaq went to work. And became one of basketball’s all-time greats. The path, too, went through Brown and LSU, thanks to a friendship struck by chance inGermany.
“I wrote to him on a weekly basis and it was a natural thing that he come here,” Brown said. “And I’m really glad, because I love him like a son.”
As for Brown’s relationship with Ford, they were thrown together, along with Shaq, in the summer of 1990 at the Olympic Festival inMinneapolis. Brown coached a South team that featured both Shaq and Ford to the championship.
“Travis Ford scored the winning basket to win the gold medal for us,” Brown said. “Good solid little player.”
Brown, still very much on top of things while running a nonprofit organization and keeping himself highly involved in motivational speaking and charity work, asked about the down years for both OSU and OU.
He noted that he thought both Ford and Sooners coach Lon Kruger were “good coaches and good men.”
And Brown offered a suggestion of patience for fans at both schools, complete with a bit of history.
“Had John Wooden been coaching now, he probably would have been fired. Because he was at UCLA 13 years before he made his first Final Four appearance. And the rest was history from there on.”
Power Lunch: Chat with Gina Mizell
Oklahoma State women’s basketball coach Jim Littell on SportsCenter
Oklahoma State women’s basketball coach Jim Littell was on SportsCenter yesterday to talk about the Cowgirls and their emotional road road to the WNIT finals.
Justin Blackmon, Brandon Weeden working out for Cleveland Browns
We’ve all heard the scenario by now: the Weeden2Blackmon combination could live on in the NFL if the Cleveland Browns select Justin Blackmon with the fourth overall pick and Brandon Weeden with either the No. 22 pick or the No. 37 pick.
We at least know that both players will fly to Cleveland to work out for the franchise.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported Thursday that Blackmon and Weeden are two of 30 players the Browns will bring in for pre-draft workouts, according to league sources.
Other players on that list include Alabama running back Trent Richardson, LSU cornerback Morris Claiborne, Texas A&M quarterback Ryan Tannehill, Michigan State quarterback Kirk Cousins, Virginia Tech running back David Wilson and Illinois defensive end Whitney Mercilus.
An interesting tidbit from that Plain Dealer story is that Pro Football Weekly’s Nolan Nawrocksi said on a conference call Wednesday that Blackmon has “character issues” and that “many left his pro day unimpressed” even though he ran a 4.46 in the 40-yard dash. Blackmon had a DUI in 2010 and was suspended for the Cowboys’ game at Kansas State that season.
“He has shown a lot of talent, but more and more concerns are coming up about the maturity level,” Nawrocksi said. “That needs to be investigated closely.”
