Brody who?
OU football
Eldridge may be team's best player
Brody who? Eldridge may be OU's best player

By John Helsley

Published: August 27, 2008

NORMAN – One by one, players peeled themselves from a pile during the 2007 Red-White game, revealing a fallen teammate left on the ground amid fears of an apparent knee injury.

Watching from the press box that spring day, Oklahoma offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson felt helpless, trying to will Brody Eldridge to his feet.

"I was up there beating the wall the whole time, saying, ‘C'mon, c'mon, c'mon,'” Wilson said at the time.

"He's my guy.”

Still is.

So much so that Wilson – and he's not alone – calls Eldridge, get this, OU's best player.

Not best tight end. Or best blocker.

Best player.

And Eldridge just may be what coaches call a "glue” player, that guy with the ability to help bond a team chasing championships. A team like the Sooners.

"I don't know how many times he has a bad play,” Wilson said. "He's just rock solid. Every day.

"That's why a lot of times I'll say he's our best player. Because he's a great practice player. He's great in the offseason. He's great in the winter. He's good in the spring.

"He just loves to play. He's a very competitive kid. And he's a very driven kid.”

Driven to drive defenders into the turf.

Driven, too, to steer teammates toward a high bar of expectations.

That's Eldridge's deal, which isn't all that sexy to the outside world, yet plays big on the sidelines and in the weight room and in film study where blow-up blocks are a hit.

Officially, Eldridge is a tight end. He's got the number, 83, and the occasional receptions – seven in two seasons – as verification.

So he's the anti-Jermaine Gresham, although Gresham has pledged to learn from Eldridge's every-day intensity.

"It makes me want to step up my game, play on his level,” Gresham said.

Gresham gets the ball and the glamour.

A converted defensive end, Eldridge gets down and gets nasty.

"Brody is really a key figure in about everything we do,” said Sooners coach Bob Stoops.

"I've said it a lot, he's one of our most valuable players in the way he plays.”

The Eldridge fan club keeps gaining avid followers.

Teammates just voted Eldridge one of five Sooner captains. Last season, league coaches voted him first-team All-Big 12 – at fullback, a position he sometimes fills.

Technically, Eldridge isn't even a starter at either of his two spots, with the depth chart listing him as the backup at tight end and fullback.

Consider it a technicality.

Eldridge plays somewhere regularly. He bounced back from that injury of two springs ago – not a knee, but a broken ankle – with a work ethic that made everyone take notice.

"I take pride in everything I do,” Eldridge said. "Because I know that what I do helps the team. And that's the only thing that matters.

"I don't care about the individual stuff. As long as I help the team, that's what matters.”

Certainly, with Eldridge, there's more than meets the stat sheet.

Basically, he blocks. Or more descriptively, he bullies.

"He's the best blocker on the team,” said Sooner running back Chris Brown. "The best.”

Jon Cooper, the center on an OU offensive line lauded as one of the nation's best, doesn't dispute the claim.

"He's one of us,” Cooper said. "I give him a hard time, tell him he's a guard at heart. If he put on 30 pounds, he'd be a guard. He's just a skinny guard, really.”

Where the offensive stars collect yards and catches and touchdowns, Eldridge tallies up knockdowns of opposing players.

In last year's Miami game alone, he totaled 15.

"Almost always, he's putting somebody on the ground,” Cooper said. "Not a lot of people watch him. But just try watching him.

"Just watch him for a whole series and see how many people he gets on the ground. It's incredible.”

And it's constant.

"He's just so relentless all the time,” Wilson said. "I've gotten to where I don't even watch him, because I know he's going to do his job and I'm watching other guys.

"And when he does get beat, I'm like, ‘What happened?' Not that I take him for granted, I just don't know that I've seen a guy who was so relentless. Every day, every play, he'll block guys 10, 20, 30 yards. He'll just stay on a guy.”

If fans and the media don't notice, coaches and teammates do. His relentlessness carries over to everything he does.

"Brody's one of those guys,” Clayton said, "when somebody's tired and bent over, he'll say, ‘Hey, we don't do that around here. If we want to win national championship and play for another Big 12 championship, we've got to stand strong.'

"That's the kind of guy Brody is. You see guys like Brody doing that and other guys feed off that.”

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