Q&A: OU defensive tackle Jamarkus McFarland
The top-rated recruit in Oklahoma’s 2009 recruiting class didn’t disappoint during his first season on campus. After waiting in the wings for weeks behind OU’s defensive tackle twosome of Gerald McCoy and Adrian Taylor, Jamarkus McFarland emerged late in the season.
After Taylor was injured in the Sun Bowl, McFarland filled in admirably as OU shut down Stanford’s power rushing in the second half of a 31-27 win.
Now, with McCoy preparing for the NFL Draft, and Taylor still rehabbing from a gruesome broken ankle he suffered in the Sun Bowl, McFarland is OU’s main man in the middle.
McFarland took time after OU’s spring practice to answer a few questions:
Talk about replacing the leadership that left with Gerald McCoy?
“When someone leaves then you have to fill those shoes. Automatically when you come into Oklahoma you have that leadership role branded in you somewhere. You just have to bring it out when the time is needed. Now is kind of my time but a lot of those guys from last year aren’t completely gone though. Gerald is still available whenever I need to call him and Adrian is also there in practice every day telling me what I need to do during plays. Hopefully we can get him back and he can be beside me and the others again. I don’t know if I could take that role yet. I’m younger than a lot of those guys playing with me so I don’t look at myself above any of them. I’m still in a learning phase. I’m not a leader right now. I’m still following Travis Lewis and those guys.”
Are you surprised that at this point, you’re really the only defensive tackle that has played significant snaps and who’s currently healthy?
“Yeah, you’re kind of surprised coming into this program, but all those guys who haven’t gotten the snaps doesn’t mean they don’t have the potential. They’ve been doing everything I’ve done in practice, drills and meetings. They’ve gone through everything I’ve been through. They’re bringing the same abilities and the same mental attitude that I have, I’ve just had the opportunities. I don’t look at it as we’re lacking any potential. We’re bringing in guys like [db]Stacey McGee, Casey Walker and Justin Chaisson.”
How important is it for at least two of those guys to step up because you probably can’t play every snap of every game, not to mention Adrian Taylor’s return still a bit of a question?
“It’s very important and it’s also important for me to step up right now despite being in a learning phase. Like I said, I don’t have a spot in front of those guys yet. We’re all out here busting it. Like I said, there are guys out here older than me too and I don’t put myself in front of them. They have potential just like I do. We’re all different players with all different techniques and we bring different things to use in the games. So we might swap it up with different personnel, I don’t know. I look at those guys as the same as me and they’re stepping up right now as well. We’re all going through the same thing.”
How big was it for you to get that game experience like you did in the Sun Bowl?
“It was real good. But I’ve been going against some of the best guys in practice. You still have the tingles because you’re going into a big game but you can’t look at it like you’re beneath them. You’re playing against guys with the same potential in practice. You’re going against the same speed and the same size. So I just approached it as that was my turn and I had to step up.”
When you sit behind a guy like Gerald McCoy, how often did you just stand and stare at what he did, and what can you learn from him?
“I look at him as his whole person not just practice. I look at everything, I take what he does in the games, I take what he does in practice, what he does in the locker room, what he does at home, what he does in the media, everything and I piece it piece by piece and see what I can take out of it to take his personality that’s got him to where he wants to be right now. He was known just as much on campus as he was on the field, and that’s the way I want to be; not just a number, I don’t want to be 97. I want to be known as Jamarkus McFarland as a good person off the field just as on the field like he was.”
What advice has he given you about succeeding in college?
He just told me to approach everything with the right mindset. He told me, “You’re here and you can’t change anything about it. It’s going to be hard but it’s going to make you the best. Coach Shipp is going to be hard on you but he’s the best. You’re going to be the last one to leave the field, but it’s all going to get you to a better place. The main thing he told me is to approach every day with the right attitude.
-JT
Follow Jake Trotter on Twitter: @Jake_Trotter.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
jamarkus, good luck in your 2010 season with your teammates. do what ever it takes too be a leader and role player. you guys hit the weights and sprints too get even better for the upcoming season. have fun and always encourage others around you. look forward too the spring game, when it comes around. you guys bond together too get back too the big-12 title game and also a bigger bowl game. i don,t want too see you guys with your heads down or pointing fingers at each other, just go out there and make it happen in 2010, play relentless oklahoma football on every down like its your last. boomer-sooner. ou-johnny.