NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -Jeremy Beal is the bookworm. Gerald McCoy and Adrian Taylor provide the muscle. Auston English brings a burst of speed.
Together, they give No. 8 Oklahoma (2-1) one of the most feared defensive lines in the country and this week they’re gunning for one of college football’s new stars, Jacory Harris of No. 17 Miami (2-1).
A mixture of some of the team’s most outspoken players and guys who prefer not to say a word, all four can wreak havoc in an opponent’s backfield.
“Everybody has something different about them, bringing it to the table,” said Taylor, who makes up half of Oklahoma’s talkative tackle tandem. “Some guys are smarter, some guys are stronger, some guys are faster.”
None of them can be ignored.
urth-best mark in the country.
“They’ve got guys everywhere,” Miami center A.J. Trump said. “They’ve got two guys inside who are good, two ends that are All-American caliber. They’ve just got guys. They’re tough.”
They know how to have fun, too. McCoy, Beal and Taylor share a house in Norman with backup defensive tackle Pryce Macon, and the rest of the linemen are frequent guests for video games and what Taylor calls “comedy all the time.”
“We’ve grown closer over the years because for the most part all of our line kind of came in together,” McCoy said. “For the most part, we’re pretty much the same age. As the years went by, we’ve just grown closer and closer and closer. Now we’re just real tight.”
Taylor says he and McCoy are the funny men of the group, while Beal has earned the nickname “Caveman” for hiding out in his room. English, well, he’s somewhere in the middle.
“He’s confused,” Taylor said. “Sometimes he’s nervous to say what he wants to say because he doesn’t know if he’ll get a laugh or not.”
Their bond, though, is indisputable.
“We don’t even call each other friends any more,” Taylor said. “It’s just we’re all brothers. … Camaraderie is a big part of our team. On and off the field, you can definitely feel the family aspect of the team.”
On the field, Taylor describes the rest of the group this way:
has speed and strength with “legs like a tree trunk” providing his sturdy foundation;
– Beal outsmarts the competition and knows to use his raw power and when to speed past;
– English, who also played running back in high school, uses his reflexes and speed to get off the ball and into the backfield first. “A-Town,” as he’s known, led the Big 12 with 9 1/2 sacks in 2007 before injuries and an appendectomy got in his way.
That leaves Taylor to do his dirty work, collapsing the pocket with his 6-foot-4, 291-pound frame.
Defensive coordinator Brent Venables has made the most of the group’s skills, devising ways to use the same players to convert Oklahoma’s usual 4-3 defense into a 3-4 look. Beal and English have proven they can stand up and serve as a temporary linebacker, and McCoy lined up at end instead of tackle against Tulsa.
“I’ve never looked at it as a luxury. I’ve looked at it as more of a necessity to try to continue to keep pace with the change of the game,” Venables said. “It gives you a little bit more flexibility.”
Their task this week is to disrupt Harris, who threw for 656 yards and ranked third in the nation in passing efficiency through his first two starts of the season. Virginia Tech may have provided a formula for handling Harris in its 31-7 win over Miami last week, holding him to only 150 yards on 9 for 25 passing with an interception and a fumble.
just kept him uncomfortable,” McCoy said. “He never could really just get set and look at what he wanted to. Once he got a little uncomfortable, he made a few bad mistakes. But that could change this week. We could come out this week, pressure him and he could handle the pressure well and make some big plays.”
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AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds contributed to this report from Coral Gables, Fla.
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