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For OU walk-ons, spring is the time to shine
NORMAN — Can you stand being a nobody?
Carter Whitson figures that's the indubitable test for a football walk-on, the guys who come to school without a scholarship or a prayer and try to get their name on the depth chart, or at least their coach's brain.
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Oklahoma's Eric Mensik runs after a catch during the Sooners' scrimmage in Norman on Saturday.
by STEVE SISNEY, The Oklahoman
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Making a name for yourself. "That's what spring is for,” said Whitson.
That's what the flanker did last year, catching a 23-yard touchdown pass from Sam Bradford in the Red-White Game, hurling Whitson into temporary Sooner fame, And maybe that's what Trent Ratterree did Saturday at Owen Field. The walkon tight end from Weatherford had three catches for 34 yards in a 92-play Sooner scrimmage.
Whitson playfully calls Ratterree a "walkon pledge.” And no doubt the spring, when gameplans and first-teamers' repetitions aren't paramount, and when injuries mount, can be a time for walkons to shine.
"Being an Oklahoma boy, to come out here and play, it's a great feeling,” said Ratterree, who with a mop of old-school dark hair is a Joe Jon Finley lookalike and who is trying to take over the slot left by the departed Finley.
OU last season used three tight ends. Receiving star Jermaine Gresham. Uber blocker Brody Eldridge. And Finley, who could do quite a bit of both.
Ratterree, a true freshman who redshirted last autumn, is competing with scholarship sophomore Eric Mensik for that third tight end position. Playing mostly with the second-team offense, Ratterree not only had the three catches but got open for two others behind the OU secondary, though the passes were overthrown.
Mensek is bigger than Ratterree, but Mensek was recruited primarily to be a deep snapper, so Ratterree's walkon status doesn't put him too far behind.
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