A DREAM COME TRUE

George Stoia · @GeorgeStoia

TRE BROWN sat next to his dad, Richard Prince, in former Oklahoma defensive backs coach Kerry Cooks’ office. The then-17-year-old Brown was in Norman for Junior Day, hoping to receive a scholarship offer from his dream school. Cooks and Oklahoma offered just that, making Brown’s dream come true.
“This is the one I’ve been waiting for,” Brown told his father as tears streamed down his face. “This is the one.”

Born in Tulsa, Brown grew up a Sooner all on his own. Prince recalls Brown rooting for Oklahoma from a young age for no apparent reason — Prince, at the time, openly cheered against the Sooners. But Brown dreamed of one day playing in the crimson and cream.

Brown, like his father, became a highly touted prospect at one of the most decorated high school football programs in the state by breaking records and helping lead his team to a state title his senior year. (Brown attended Union High School, while Prince graduated from Booker T. Washington.) For Brown, who bled crimson and cream, it made sense to make his second home a roughly two-hour, 127-mile drive down to Norman.

But Brown didn’t commit to the Sooners that day. Instead, when Cooks asked Brown if his tears were a commitment, Brown responded by quickly wiping his face and saying, “Not yet.” Brown, despite loving Oklahoma and knowing that’s where he wanted to be, wanted to make sure the Sooners truly valued his talent.

But, as Prince recalls, Brown’s decision was all but made that day.

“Those tears were probably as good of a commitment as any,” Prince said four years later with a laugh. “I always knew, since he was 2 years old, he would go to Oklahoma.”

A month after he given the offer, Brown announced his commitment to Oklahoma on March 11, 2016. Now, Brown is one of 21 players on OU’s 91-man roster from the state of Oklahoma. He’s fueled by the death of his mother and love for his hometown, and with his junior season quickly approaching, he’s bound to be a key component in Oklahoma’s new-look defense. It’s something he’s ready for, something he’s prepared his entire life for.

“It’s a dream,” Brown said. “Growing up, I always wanted to be an OU player. I grew up an OU fan.

“And now that I’m here making plays … It’s surreal.”

PRINCE found Brown crying on the couch in their living room his sophomore year of high school.

Many of Brown’s Union teammates, mostly seniors, had been receiving Division I offers, while Brown, two years younger than them, hadn’t received one.

Prince told his son he had to be patient, his time would come. Soon after, Prince signed Brown up for multiple football camps, including Oklahoma’s Junior Day. Before his trip to Norman, Brown was flooded with offers thanks to those camps he attended the summer ahead of his junior season. Tulsa, Houston, Iowa State and others quickly took notice of Brown’s elite speed and agility.

But not Oklahoma.

Brown grew frustrated, wondering why OU hadn’t expressed much interest in him. At Union, he was becoming a shutdown cornerback, the best kick returner in the state and a lethal offensive weapon.

“From the moment I saw the way Tre moved, I knew he had a chance to be special,” said Clay Mack, who trained Brown in high school. “He played on varsity and was also killing it on the track. With everything he brought to the table, he should have been a kid that was looked at early. I really don’t get it why he wasn’t being looked at.

“Sometimes, as Oklahoma kids, you do have to work a little harder to put yourself out there. And Tre knew and did that.”

It wasn’t until his workout at Junior Day that Oklahoma truly showed interest. Prince recalls Brown running a near 4.3 40-yard dash at the camp, leaving the Sooner coaches in awe. After Brown finished running, Prince, like any other proud dad would, subtly bragged about his kid.

“Man, that kid’s pretty fast, isn’t he?” Brown recalled saying while standing right behind the coaches. “I knew right then, he was going to start getting offers from everywhere. And, of course, he did.”

Oklahoma made an offer to Brown that day. The rest is history.

He went on to have a memorable senior year. He broke the school record for career kick return yards at 922, helped Union beat its crosstown rival, Jenks, in the state semifinals with a 99-yard kick return for a touchdown, and then caught a 53-yard touchdown pass in a 57-43 win over Norman North for the the state championship. Along the way, he formed bonds with other Oklahoma commits and in-state products, Levi Draper (Collinsville) and Justin Broiles (Midwest City), who are still some of his closest friends today.

He seemed fully ready to start his career at Oklahoma. Until he wasn’t.

“It looked a little uncertain there toward the end,” Prince said. “But then coach Stoops showed up.”

BOB STOOPS jumped out of the passenger seat of Mike Stoops’ car when he saw Brown walking across Union’s campus. Just days earlier, Brown had decided he would visit Florida the weekend before national signing day. The then-Oklahoma commit was frustrated that the Sooners continued to offer other cornerbacks, despite his own strong commitment.

When Stoops got word of Brown reconsidering his commitment, he, Mike and Cooks decided to make a trip to Tulsa to see Brown. Wearing an OU pullover and a pair of penny loafers that Prince will never forget, Stoops hopped out of Mike’s moving car and jogged over to Brown and his dad.

“Those damn penny loafers,” Prince said. “When he couldn’t wait for the car to stop and then came running over to see us in those shoes, I knew how bad they wanted Tre.”

Brown still went to Florida that weekend. He left Oklahoma fans on edge the following days, sending a couple one-word tweets the night before signing day: Business and Stressed.

But Prince said Stoops’ last-minute visit stayed in the back of Brown’s mind, ultimately leading to his final decision, which came early on the morning of national signing day — Feb. 1, 2017.

“Do I want to leave? Do I want to leave? Do I want to leave?” Brown told the Tulsa World on signing day. “I was like, ‘I know if I keep thinking like this, I don’t want to leave. I know this is home.’”

For Brown, it came down to being a simple a choice — it was clear that Oklahoma was where he wanted to be. He knew he wanted to be in Norman and knew he wanted to represent his city and state. He just had to make it official.

“For most Oklahoma kids, it’s more about that name on the front of their jersey and not the name on their back. They want to represent their town and where they come from,” said Dwayne Whittaker, one of Brown’s youth football coaches and still mentor to this day. “That meant more to Tre because he’s an Oklahoma kid. He grew up a Sooner. So he takes that ‘Sooners’ on his chest with pride.”

Brown’s freshman season started with him on the bench, sitting behind then-sophomore Parnell Motley and then-senior Jordan Thomas. He watched from the sidelines as then-senior quarterback Baker Mayfield led Oklahoma on what would eventually be a run to the College Football Playoff in 2017.

But before the Sooners could make that run, maybe the biggest game of the year — against Oklahoma State — stood in their way. And that was the first time Brown’s name was called.

Following an interception by Mayfield, with 2:58 remaining and OU up 55-52, Brown entered a game he always dreamed of as an Oklahoma kid: Bedlam.

“That’s a game he grew up watching,” Prince said. “I had feeling he would get in. But no one could have predicted what he did.”

Oklahoma State faced a 3rd-and-20 at its own 45 yard line with two minutes to go when Brown made the play of the game. The pass was tipped into the air, falling into the hands of Brown to seal the Sooners’ fate, until a 15-yard targeting penalty on then-senior Will Johnson took away Brown’s heroics and kept the Cowboys alive.

Four plays later, Brown helped stop OSU on fourth down, running stride-for-stride with his man — the intended target on the play. Brown would later catch another interception with 11 seconds left, but it also got called back, this time for defensive holding on Motley.

Despite both his game-winning interceptions being called back, Brown made a name for himself that day. And it couldn’t have come in a more perfect game.

“That was something special. Making those type of plays in that game? That’s what you dream about,” Whittaker said. “Tre played with a chip on his shoulder that night. And he hasn’t looked back since.”

BEVERLY BREWER had been sick for some time. She was terminally ill, and Brown, Brewer’s son, tried his best to prepare for losing his mother.

“Losing your mom, of course, is really, really hard,” Prince said. “Tre was devastated.”

Brewer died Oct. 14, 2018, just five days before Brown and Oklahoma played TCU. Many of Brown’s OU teammates attended the funeral, and some even served as pallbearers.

After Brewer’s death, Brown, searching for advice, called Whittaker — he had also recently lost his mother.

“I told him, ‘It’s OK to cry,’” Whittaker recalled. “I said, ‘She’s your angel. She’s in a better place now. She has no more pain. She’s smiling down on you. Every time you go out on the field, play with her on your side.’”

Brown still practiced that week. His team members rallied around him, knowing they were going to need him on Saturday. Oklahoma was coming off its lone loss of the season — Texas — the week prior and were also handling defensive coaching staff changes with the dismissal of Mike Stoops.

There were plenty of reasons for fans to believe the Sooners’ season would go off the rails in Fort Worth. But it didn’t.

Brown had one of the best games of his career, coming up with four total tackles and two big pass breakups to help OU win, 52-27.

“An emotional win,” coach Lincoln Riley said after the game. “Tre Brown being back with us after such a tough loss in his family made it even more emotional than it would have been.

“I couldn’t have done it. I don’t know where he got his strength.”

Brown got his strength from his mom that day. It’s likely a game he’ll never forget.

“To see him go out there and play in that game, it meant so much to me and so many others,” Whittaker said.

Brown followed that emotional win with another three weeks later on Nov. 10 against Oklahoma State.

With 1:03 left and Oklahoma up 48-47, OSU lined up for a two-point conversion to try to win the game.

“I talked to my mom before (the play),” Brown said after the game. “My faith is really high, so when I lined up, I talked to my mom before the play even happened. I knew the play was coming to me.”

Oklahoma State quarterback Taylor Cornelius rolled right, throwing for the right corner of the end zone. But standing in his way was Brown, who batted the ball down to seal the in-state rivalry for the second year in a row.

Brown was overcome with emotion after the game.

“I felt like it was written for me,” Brown said. “Being an Oklahoma kid and playing in Bedlam, it’s like, ‘When am I going to get to make a play?’ So being able to make that play, was something special.”

SAM EHLINGER dropped back into his own end zone, looking left, his team — Texas — trailing Oklahoma 30-27 with 8:32 remaining in the 2018 Big 12 Championship game. Sooner Nation knows what happens next.
Brown came sprinting off the right edge, unblocked and heading straight for Ehlinger. He never saw it coming. Sack. Safety. Oklahoma went on to win its fourth straight Big 12 title, 39-27 over Texas.

“Everybody around me was hugging me, high-fiving me,” Prince said. “It was in that moment that everything he’d been through, everything he worked for, came together.”

In Brown’s first two seasons at Oklahoma, he’s made more memorable plays than most players make in their entire careers.

Now, entering his junior season, he’s expected to be a key component in Alex Grinch’s new-look defense. Prince said Brown is enjoying the new coaching staff, especially new cornerbacks coach Roy Manning.

Brown likes the intensity that Grinch and Manning bring to the field. He, like many others, has high hopes for the Sooner defense.

He’s made plenty of memorable plays donning the crimson and cream already, but he knows there’s more to come.

“He’s living out his dream,” Prince said, “but the dream ain’t over yet.”

HOME GROWN

Caleb McCourry · @CalebMac21

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hen Creed Humphrey, one of the Oklahoma’s most dynamic offensive players, showed up on campus in 2017, it wasn’t his first time at Owen Field. The 6-foot-5, 325 pound center had already spent years of his childhood in the stands watching the Sooners throughout the years.

Now as a redshirt sophomore, Humphrey is already viewed as a leader of the Sooners.

“He’s a leader on the offensive line, he pushes us,” redshirt sophomore Kennedy Brooks said. “He gets us going when we’re struggling. He’s a great leader.”

But Humphrey, one of college football’s best centers, stands out beyond just his size and talent. It’s also the connection he has to the college he plays for, which started when he attended OU home games as a kid with his grandparents.

Humphrey was born in Midwest City — at a whopping 9 pounds and 5 ounces — and was raised in Shawnee, where his brother, Gage Humphrey, introduced him to the game of football. He lived just under 50 miles from a destination he hoped for: Norman. By the time he arrived on campus, he had already been an OU fan for years.

“You don’t take (his commitment) for granted just because guys grew up OU fans in this area like so many of these guys do from here,” head coach Lincoln Riley said. “You just don’t take it for granted. They still are getting recruited by the really good schools. Creed was no different.”

“He never left the field for us in high school”

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hawnee High School head coach Billy Brown and defensive ends coach Randy Henshaw first saw Humphrey play at Shawnee Middle School. What they saw was a kid with size who had a knack for any position he wanted to play.

“His physical presence was what was really amazing, what really impressed people,” Brown said.

Sooner fans have only seen Humphrey at center, but in high school he was a threat all over the field, no matter the position. Brown put Humphrey at tight end when he arrived his ninth grade year.

“I was like ‘That can’t be their tight end,’” said Tre’Juan Shaw, who is now a senior running back for Shawnee High. When he first saw Humphrey, Shaw was at Midwest City, and had to play a 7-on-7 game against him. “He weighed like 300 pounds. He caught a pass and I had to touch him. He almost ran me over, really.”

Brown and Henshaw continued to experiment with Humphrey’s size, putting him at H-back, linebacker, defensive end and wherever else he was needed. To the coaching staff, the natural talent and understanding of the game was always present in Humphrey.

“The intangibles make him great,” Brown said. “Physically, you can tell what he is because he’s smart, he’s a good leader. But his intelligence — football intelligence — and just his overall I.Q. is just off the chart. He’s a step ahead of most of them just from film study and technique and all that good stuff.”

As time went on, the coaches’ trust in him grew, as well. Humphrey would sometimes ask to play certain positions. Coaches would listen.

“Everyday at practice he would always ask me ‘Coach let me play defensive end. Let me play defensive end,’” Henshaw said. “I started him at defensive end. His athletic ability, it really surprised the team because (he was) preparing to be a nose guard and I had him start at defensive end. He did a fantastic job in terms of not playing that position and fulfilling what he had to do. He surprised a lot of people and even me on some of his tackles and the way he was able to take that position and play it well.”

Humphrey’s size and talent seemed to make him invincible, and coaches would continue to use him for the whole duration of games. He was a workhorse, and he once had to leave a game in a stretcher because of his determination.

During his senior year, Humphrey was never taken out by his coaches if he was able to play. But in a regular season game against McAllister High School his senior year, Humphrey was playing offense and defense, working as a nose guard and then turning around and playing center when his team got the ball back.

In double overtime, after making a scoring drive, Brown didn’t know whether to tie it with a field goal or go for two to win the game. Humphrey told the coaches he had one last play left. Shawnee went for two. It didn’t work. Then Humphrey went into a full body cramp.

“He couldn’t move,” said Melisa Humphrey, Humphrey’s mother. “And he’s so big so you couldn’t just pick him up and load him somewhere. The ambulance did have to come and just give him an I.V. for fluid and then he was good to go.”

Brown recalls Humphrey sacrificing his body to finish plays and remembers times he’d lose his helmet in games. When Humphrey lost his helmet in the Orange Bowl against Alabama, allowing former Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray to find a path for an 8-yard touchdown, it reminded Brown of Humphrey’s high school athleticism.

“That’s Creed,” Brown said. “It didn’t surprise me at all.”

“He sets a goal and he goes for it”

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rown and the Shawnee coaching staff kept an eye on Humphrey’s leadership. Natural talent and physical presence aside, Humphrey always knew what he needed from his teammates and what they needed to do. Even when Humphrey was playing defense — away from his natural position at center — his teammates looked up to him.

“He was always my leader on the defensive line,” Henshaw said. “He knew where everybody was supposed to be and when they do it and when they don’t do it. He got on their case about it.”

His leadership in high school peaked during his senior year. For the first three years, Humphrey’s leadership was expressed through example. Whether it was in the weight room, watching film or the classroom, Humphrey set standards. But during his senior year, he leaned into the role even more.

“As a sophomore and junior, he wasn’t as vocal, but he’d workout twice a day and practice hard, so he led by example,” Brown said. “But his senior year, he started getting more vocal because he was just an overall leader then.”

Off the field, Humphrey stayed out of trouble and remained one of Shawnee’s top academic students all fours years of his high school career. Humphrey finished his high school career with a 4.0 grade-point average.

“He was the type of kid (who) I never had to tell him to ‘do your homework,’ and half the time I didn’t even know the class he was in because he just took care of everything,” Melisa said. “And he would wake up on his own to work out early in the morning before school or go to practice. He’s just always been just very self-disciplined. He sets a goal and he goes for it.”

From “I don’t know” to “Wow, this dude’s got a chance to be special”

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klahoma offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh didn’t know that one of college football’s best centers was in his program’s backyard.

When he first saw Humphrey as a sophomore in high school, Bedenbaugh saw talent and size, but not a lot of promise. Bedenbaugh said he is skeptical of young talent, so he wasn’t blown away by Humphrey at first.

“He was a young kid — big kid. I thought he was a little bit stiff. I thought he was a really good player. But it was just ‘I don’t know,’” Bedenbaugh said. “You’ll see a young kid that you’re kind of lukewarm on, and that’s how it was with Creed. I never got that impression out of my head until I went back again when he was going into his senior year… I thought ‘Man, he’s gotten better, he’s improved. I see the improvements.’ By that time he had a bunch of offers.”

In April of 2016, OU was the third-to-last in the pile of offers given to Creed, but he gave his commitment to Texas A&M on June 29.

“I hadn’t talked to him about it, but I think he was probably a little upset that he had all those offers when we hadn’t offered him yet,” Bedenbaugh said.

But, just over a month later, on Aug. 8, Humphrey decommitted from College Station and took Oklahoma’s offer that was given to him back in April.

“I think he was born and bred to go to OU,” Brown said. “And he was kind of waiting on that to happen.”

In December, he signed. In January of 2017, Humphrey enrolled and arrived on campus early. Humphrey’s first practice with the Sooners was when Bedenbaugh had the transition from “I don’t know” to what he described as “Wow, this dude’s got a chance to be special.”

He was special enough to start at center as a redshirt freshman — 14 total games, 12 starts — on an offensive line that won the Joe Moore Award, the award given to college football’s best offensive line, for the 2018-19 season, and a line that will see four of its starters be selected into the 2019 NFL Draft. He blocked pathways for Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Kyler Murray in the Big 12 Championship and the Orange Bowl.

Since multiple older linemen have graduated, Humphrey is now the leader of a line full of young, new faces.

“He doesn’t have a choice right now,” Riley said. “But he’s ready to (be a leader.) He does the right things, he does it the right way. He competes hard. It’s important to him.

“This school is important to him.”

UP FOR THE CHALLENGE

Vic Reynolds · @vicareynolds

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ustin Broiles was always going to be a Sooner.

That was true throughout his childhood growing up on the northside of Oklahoma City. It was true when he first played football on the fields of Edwards Park as a seven-year-old. It was true when he spent his free time having Madden NFL tournaments in his basement with his friends. It was true when he had to be the pallbearer at one of his best friend’s funerals when he was a sophomore in high school. And it was true when he signed his National Letter of Intent to play at Oklahoma.

“There were some rumors about some SEC schools,” said Keyshawn Shells, one of Broiles’ best friends and teammates at John Marshall High School. “But come on, man, that’s been my best friend since preschool, and I know that he’s always been a Boomer Sooner.”

In his football journey, the safety has won many games, made many plays and trained with many of his idols, but his passion to represent the northside of OKC motivates him in everything he does.

That motivation has helped Broiles achieve his lifelong dream of wearing crimson and cream on Saturdays.

And his story isn’t done yet.

The northside kid

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roiles wasn’t always the No. 1 ranked player in the state of Oklahoma who held over 30 Division I scholarship offers. Before that, he was just another northside kid. The player and person he is today can be attributed to his Oklahoma City roots.

“The thing about the northside of Oklahoma City is that it’s not the best, but it’s not the worst,”  Shells said. “Growing up there and being an athlete from Oklahoma, you understand that you already have that chip on your shoulder. You’re not a Texas athlete, you’re not a Florida athlete or a California athlete. You’re from hometown, good ol’ country Oklahoma and you got to work 10 times harder to even get you name out there.”

Shells said that chip is on Broiles’ shoulder in everything he does — from card games to video games to everything in between — but it manifests mostly on the football field.

The work ethic and competitiveness was something that always was present in Broiles. But a tragedy struck in 2015 that motivates him even more.

On April 17, one of Broiles’ lifelong friends and teammates, Cleato “CJ” Davis, died in a single-vehicle car crash. According to Broiles’ father Mitch, his death gave Broiles a purpose bigger than football.

“In my opinion, it was another sign that turned on a drive for Justin,” Mitch said. “To lose one of his best friends in such a traumatic way, it really turned on his fire and desire to train and to want to get better so he could have an impact in CJ’s name.”

Oklahoma’s 2019 spring game is April 12, CJ’s birthday, and four days before the anniversary of his death. Broiles’ mom Tiffany said that this time of year is always important to Broiles.

“It’s one of those things that’s tough for him, and Justin always checks on CJ’s mom and dad around this time,” Tiffany said. “With the spring game right there, he’ll be more amped up because in his mind he’s playing for more.”

In his heart, Broiles is still that same northside kid. On Friday nights during football season, fans can find Broiles in the stands watching the next crop of Oklahoma City players try and make a name for themselves on the football field.

“Whenever he gets the opportunity to go back to John Marshall and support local kids, he goes,” Mitch said. “He’s very prideful in doing that. I’ve seen him go to John Marshall and I’ve seen him go to Douglas (High School), it’s that 405 ‘if one of us makes it, we all make it’ attitude.”

‘405’ is an Oklahoma area code, and the community-focused attitude that comes with it isn’t a new development. Shells said that when he and Broiles were in high school, they would look up to the stands and see the old northside football stars and appreciate their presence.

Now, Shells, who attends Langston University, and Broiles come back to serve as reminders that northside success stories are possible.

“Just being around those young guys and working with them, or even just showing up at a basketball game to show your face to be like ‘Look, I’m still from here, I’m living proof that it can be done and I want to come back and show you,’” Shells said. “Nothing’s changed. We still care about where we’re from, we still want to focus on being bigger than yourself. And that’s something that’s big in his heart.

“We all live by the idea that everything we do is bigger than us.”

The natural confidence

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he hours upon hours of work that Broiles poured into football led him to train in Dallas, where he worked with defensive back specialist Clay Mack.

Mack trains high school athletes, primarily from Texas and Oklahoma, as well as numerous elite NFL defensive backs. He knows talent when he sees it, and he sees it in Broiles.

What impresses Mack most isn’t his physical gifts, coverage ability or how hard he can hit. It’s the work that Broiles does off the field that separates him from the competition.

“I think he plays the game mentally better than a lot of what people may give him credit for. He’s a really smart kid,” Mack said. “Even when he comes down to Dallas to stay and train for a few days, he always has his playbook with him and he’s always studying a lot of old games on video to see how he can apply his defense to different formations.”

Like most young football players, Broiles spent his Sunday afternoons glued to the TV watching NFL football. He paid close attention to defensive backs, and he particularly looked up to former Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman. He even wears the No. 25, Sherman’s number, as a tribute to him.

Mack trains professional defensive backs such as New York Jets safety Jamal Adams, Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Jalen Mills and Dallas Cowboys cornerback Byron Jones. In working with Mack, Broiles has had the opportunity to work alongside these players —  the same players he used to idolize.

It would be easy for any young player to be starstruck while training with his heroes, but that is not the case for Broiles. When the kid from the northside steps into Mack’s training facility with 8,000 square-feet of turf, he’s there to work.

“He’s not afraid to challenge Jamal, Jalen, and Byron,” Mack said. “He gets in their face, he’ll get in front of them, but not to the point where they’re turned off by him. He just challenges their skill sets and football IQ.”

Broiles was once the upstart that Mack let work with the elite talents, but now he has cemented himself as one of their peers. Mack said now when the pro players see Broiles turn around the corner, they get excited because they know he is a worthy training partner.

While they are training, Broiles is a relentless worker. Mack said when the pros run through a drill once, Broiles will do it again and again until he perfects it. He expects that same level of drive from all players he works with.

“He doesn’t care who you are. He doesn’t care if you’re a high school kid that’s in the group. He doesn’t care if you’re the pro guy,” Mack said. “He holds no reservations about who you are, where you come from — none of that. He’s going to hold you accountable to whatever we’re doing. The way he looks at it, if you’re in the group and you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do, you’re getting in the way of his rep and wasting his time.”

For those closest to Broiles, his lack of fear when facing professional defensive backs comes as no surprise. The confidence that he carries himself with when going against the pros had been in him forever.

“An important thing to understand about Justin is that he had confidence even when he wasn’t the best, and that’s speaks volumes because it shows he’s always had that competitiveness and drive,” Shells said. “Justin hasn’t always been as good as he is now. There was a point in time when everyone could outrun him, could beat him or was stronger than him. His presence was still felt because he would let you know: ‘I’m still here.’ He’s always kept that same energy, he’s always been that competitor on and off the field.”

The work with Mack proved invaluable to Broiles. Shells also worked with Mack, and he said that getting to learn with the best players helped them to reach new heights on the gridiron. And like all things in Broiles’ life, his work with Mack was inspired by his Oklahoman origin.

“The stigma was always that Oklahoma athletes couldn’t hang with Texas athletes,” Shells said. “But we enabled ourselves to make it down to Texas, so now we’re training with those Texas athletes, now we’re right along with them.”

The next steps

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roiles was redshirted his freshman year in 2017, and he played in 11 games in 2018. Both years, Oklahoma went 12-2, won a Big 12 championship and made a College Football Playoff appearance.

Oklahoma also had historically great offenses. But one side of the ball held back the Sooners from reaching the national championship game in both years — the defense.

In 2017, Oklahoma fell to Georgia in the Rose Bowl 55-48. The Bulldogs’ 55 points is the second highest scoring total in the 102-year history of the Rose Bowl. In 2018, Alabama bested the Sooners 44-35 in the Orange Bowl, and Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa threw for 318 yards, four touchdowns and completed 88 percent of his passes.

Broiles was forced to watch from the side in both of those games. He redshirted in 2017, and an injury against Kansas on November 17 sidelined him for the final three games of the 2018 season.

Being injured proved difficult for Broiles. He had worked his way to being the top high school player in the state in 2016, he had worked his way to improve during his redshirt year in 2017  and he had worked his way to seeing substantial playing time in 2018. All for it to be cut short.

The injury occured three weeks before the Big 12 Championship against Texas —  what would’ve been the biggest game he’d played in at that point — and Mitch said that fact crushed his spirits.

But Broiles wouldn’t let his injury stop him from contributing. He tried to do as much as he could from the sideline. Mitch said this encapsulated helping teammates in the film room, helping them maintain the right mindset on the sidelines during games and working with coaches.

“He had to figure out what he could do as a teammate,” Mitch said.  “All he could do was help and lock in anywhere that he could. Whether it was in the coach’s offices, whether it’s on the sidelines or wherever else… he tried to become a player-coach.”

In the 2017 and 2018 seasons, the defense faced heaps of criticism from fans and media alike. Especially the secondary, which ranked last in passing yards allowed in 2018. In the age of social media, players do hear all the criticism, but the Broiles family focused on staying positive.

“The players all hear what’s going on,” Tiffany said. “But we and the rest of his support system tell him to stay focused and stay locked in. We understood how the noise was starting to infiltrate the team.”

For Broiles, criticism is nothing new for him. Over the years, he’s heard a multitude of negative comments that people have thrown his way. He uses the criticism as a means to fuel him to improve his weaknesses.

“I think he feeds off the criticism,” Shells said. “There’s been a lot of things said about him, but things like that have always driven him. He feeds off of his weakness. So it’s like if someone tells him he’s slow, he’s going to find the nearest speed training.”

As the spring game approaches, Oklahoma’s defense has a new identity. With new defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, the Sooners are looking to return to their old ways as an elite defensive force in college football.

The success that Grinch may or may not have remains to be seen. But one thing is certain — Broiles will refuse to allow himself and his defensive unit to be the reason that Oklahoma fails to bring its eighth national championship to Norman in 2019.

“He’s a big time Oklahoma kid and he doesn’t just have pride for OKC, he has pride for the whole state,” Mack said. “He feels very blessed to be at the school he dreamed of being at. His dream now is to win a national championship at the school he grew up idolizing.”