All it took was one play.
On Oklahoma’s first offensive call during last week’s blowout win versus Tulsa, Sooners wide receiver Sterling Shepard sprinted in motion, corralled the easy flip from quarterback Trevor Knight and took off.
The result?
A 54-yard gain that spring boarded the junior to a riveting performance against the in-state foe. Amid the 45-point drubbing of the Golden Hurricane, Shepard hauled in eight catches for a career-high 177 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown.
“Shepard is a go-to guy,” Tennessee defensive coordinator John Jancek said. “They do a lot of things with him, get the ball in his hands a lot of ways.”
Although Shepard set or tied a personal best in a pair of categories last Saturday, the Oklahoma City native is no stranger to high-end offensive production. In each of his first two seasons as a Sooner pass catcher, Shepard racked up at least 45 catches and 600 receiving yards, propelling OU to a 21-5 overall record in that time frame.
His first year on the Norman, Oklahoma, campus was particularly noteworthy. Despite starting just four games, Shepard garnered a Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year Honorable Mention as his catch (45) and yardage (621) totals respectively ranked third and fourth all-time among OU freshmen.
“Speed, elusiveness, can go up and high point the ball, play the ball in the air, can make people miss, complete wide out,” Volunteers head coach Butch Jones offered up Monday as Shepard descriptors.
“He’s not just a deep-ball individual. They can throw him a five-yard hitch, and a five-yard hitch turns into a 55-yard touchdown … I’ve been very impressed, blocks on the perimeter, complete football player.”
For the player Jones says “can do it all,” Shepard’s versatility has shone through in abundance for Bob Stoops and the No. 4 Sooners.
During the pair of blowout wins over Louisiana Tech and Tulsa, the 5-foot-10, 195-pound junior has lined up on the perimeter as well as in the slot position — all while manning OU’s punt return duties for the first time in his collegiate career.
“It makes him a lot of fun to coach because he’s very competitive, but I just think he’s added more tools in his tool kit,” Sooners co-offensive coordinator Jay Norvell told reporters. “He’s doing different things. He’s playing in the slot. He’s playing outside. He’s returning punts. He’s just doing more.
“As you become a bigger part of the offense, there’s more responsibility, and he’s taken that on.”
But even with Shepard’s significant increase in offensive relevancy this season, the process hasn’t been entirely hiccup-free.
The third-year wide receiver is still adjusting on the fly to a more integral role.
“I grabbed him a few weeks ago,” Norvell said. “He was kind of dragging at practice, and I said, ‘wait a minute. You want all this action, you got a lot of work to do.’ There’s an added bit of conditioning he has to take on, and he’s got more responsibility to handle more that we’re asking him to do.”
