How Oklahoma WR coach Emmett Jones handled an injured position group

Emmet Jones has certainly had to make a living this season as Oklahoma’s wide receivers coach.

During Jones’ second season In this position, the Sooners have been without their original top five receivers since Week 4. Jayden Gibson just weeks before the season started, he suffered a season-ending injury. Nick Anderson has also been dealing with injury since the preseason, and when he finally returned in Week 4 against Tennessee, Anderson played essentially one series before injuring his thigh and hasn’t returned since.

Than, Jalil Farooq went down in the Sooners’ season opener against Temple, and Andrel Anthony hasn’t played much since the season opener as he works back from the ACL injury that prematurely ended his 2023 season.

OU coach Brent Venables has not given a timetable for Anthony’s return, but he does expect Farooq to be back soon as it has been nine weeks and Farooq was initially expected to miss six to eight weeks after undergoing surgery for a broken foot.

“He’s a great competitor, cares about this program, cares about his teammates,” Venables said of Farooq during Tuesday’s weekly press conference. “He feels like his mission, his journey is not over here in Oklahoma. He wants to have a legacy here. I think that’s important for Jalil. He has gone through a lot of growth, development and transformation. He’ll be the first to tell you that since he got here. He likes to compete when you watch him play. If you never talked to him but watched him play, you’d say a lot of those things.

“A man who cares a lot, plays with a lot of power and an edge. He is wide open and can do a lot as a receiver. Both explosive and vertically challenging in the touch game. We’ve missed that part since him and Deion (Burks) have been out. I know he worked hard. I know he has high expectations to contribute quickly.”

With four receivers sidelined after one play, Purdue is transferring Deion Burks quickly emerged as OU’s best receiving option. He caught three touchdowns in his OU debut as Farooq and Anthony went down. In four games, Burks caught 26 passes for 201 yards, both of which led the team at the time. But in Week 4 against Tennessee, Burks suffered a soft tissue injury and has been out since.

“Kind of like our offensive line, the next group of guys that will be available for (Jones),” Venables said Wednesday on the SEC coaches teleconference. “He’s done a great job from a mentality standpoint and from a development standpoint.”

Jones has had to turn to young sophomores and true freshmen to step up and catch passes, even while OU has been shuffling two other young guys at the quarterback. Running freshmen Jacob Jordaan has come out of nowhere since recording six receptions for 86 yards against South Carolina three games ago. He also caught his first career touchdown against Ole Miss the following week.

Brenen Thompsona junior who had only started a game this season had to fill in for Burks. JJ Hestera redshirt senior with just one start before 2024, now leads the Sooners with 265 receiving yards. True freshmen Zion Ragins, Zion Kearney And Ivan Carreon have also had to play enough important snaps this season, they have burned their redshirts.

“He’s done a really good job of developing leadership and perseverance and improving the boys with all the little things,” Venables said. guys are doing it and how to do it with the power and precision that that requires, and how to identify people and things that are changing, and then get the guys involved from an execution standpoint, throwing the football.

“He did a really good job and they adopted Coach Jones’ personality.”

However, reinforcements could arrive for the Sooners before they play No. 24 Missouri on Saturday at 6:45 p.m. The first SEC availability report won’t be out until Wednesday night, but Venables and quarterback Jackson Arnold both sounded optimistic on Tuesday about Burks and Farooq returning against the Tigers.

So because Jones has quickly developed young talent and helped the offense survive without its top receivers, the receivers who resigned earlier than expected could now be united with the experience and talent they’ve been missing.

“We’re going into this week like, ‘Damn, we got two of our studs back at receiver,’” Arnold said. “We’ve had guys play great, but when you get two leaders and two studs coming back, it’s a big confidence booster for the offense.”