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For the last two years, a pair of guys were sure to get a lion’s share of the snaps for the Oklahoma defense.

Alex Grinch ushered in the era of the Speed D, preaching effort, turnovers and rotation, yet Pat Fields and Delarrin Turner-Yell seemed to play all game as OU’s safeties on the back end.

Wether a product of their standout play, a lack of depth behind them, or a combination of the two, Fields and Turner-Yell continually led the defense in snaps.

But despite the wealth of experience, Turner-Yell he’s not satisfied with his level of play so far and that he wants to continue to push to improve.

“You can never overcome the game of football,” Turner-Yell said during a Zoom press conference on Wednesday. “So for me, with training camp and things like that, it’s just being able to commit to my technique, trying to get coaching points. Because once you’re in the program for so long, you kind of start to hear the same coaching points over and over and over. So, just trying to hear something new, even if I heard it, I still write it down and take notes because I could’ve missed it in the past.

“It could’ve been something that could’ve benefited me. So with this being my last year, I don’t want to miss anything like that so I’m just taking in all the little things and going from there.”

It’s been a different offseason for Fields as well. Missing spring practice with an injury, the veteran leader had to watch from the sidelines as the team battled to improve. Now back in the fold, Turner-Yell said his partner on the back end of the defense has done a great job of getting back up to speed.

“He handled it very well,” Turner-Yell said. “He’s one of the leaders of the defense. So with him not being able to go out and compete with us in the spring, he always kept guys uplifted and in high spirits.

“When a young guy comes off the field, if he notices that they made a mistake or anything like that, he corrects them and just kind of helps them out from that standpoint. Pat is a guy that’s always going to lead us in the right direction.”

While Fields and Turner-Yell have done an admirable job of holding the safety positions down for the past two years, they’ll both have some depth to lean on in 2021.

The addition of Key Lawrence from Tennessee by way of the transfer portal brought another talented defensive back into the fold, and by all accounts, Lawrence has done a phenomenal job of acclimating to the OU defense.

True freshman Jordan Mukes and redshirt freshman Bryson Washington also bring great length and speed to the table, and Grinch said he’s pleased about the safety depth is coming along.

“We do feel better,” Grinch said at a press conference earlier in August. “Our depth in the past has almost been, at times, manufactured as opposed to completely warranted – if that makes sense – where you’ve got to make sure that guys aren’t playing every single snap of football.

“We’ve always said that we want to play the best five guys in the secondary and then put the next five guys behind them with the idea of playing a minimum of ten guys back there throughout the course of a game.”

The addition of the depth will allow Turner-Yell and Fields to catch a breather here and there, allowing them to continue to play at a high level through all four quarters. And while no player ever wants to come off the field, Turner-Yell said he’s excited about what the added depth can do for his game.

“I feel like it can help me a lot,” Turner-Yell said. “You always want guys on the field, you know, that are fresh cause they could possibly play faster and things like that.”

Oklahoma’s defense is bought in to the depth, and what it can do for the product as a whole. And finally, the safeties can benefit from the depth too.

“Everyone can stay fresh and everyone can go out there and play to the best of their abilities and make the plays they have to make,” Turner-Yell said. 

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This article first appeared on FanNation All Sooners and was syndicated with permission.

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