OU football notebook: UTEP game switched to night to avoid heat

But for this year's season opener, the coach was OK with it.

Stoops said OU's Sept. 1 game at UTEP was originally scheduled for a 1:30 p.m. kick, but that he, Miners coach Mike Price and the two schools' athletic directors agreed to move it to 9:30 p.m. Central to avoid the brutal El Paso, Texas, heat.

“We had an opportunity to go earlier, but El Paso at 1:30 in the afternoon on a turf field, it'll be a 30 or 40 degree difference by the time we play in the evening,” Stoops said. “It would be 130 degrees, at least, on that turf. I get tired of the night games, but Mike Price and I talked, and our ADs are great at listening.

“I think starting the season and coming off two-a-days, for the kids' health, Mike Price and I thought, ‘Let's play late if we can.'”

GRISSOM'S MOVE TO TIGHT END WAS HIS IDEA

Geneo Grissom's move from defensive end to tight end was his idea, Stoops said.

“Geneo came and said, in his heart, he really wanted to try tight end,” Stoops said. “We're always good about our guys, if they really believe strongly in playing a different position, we always have given them the opportunity to see how it goes.

“I haven't been able to see it, but Geneo's a talented guy. Hopefully it's working well.”

Later, when asked about Grissom's character, Stoops praised him.

“He's a great young man,” Stoops said. “He's a really positive young man that we're hoping is going to have a great future. … We do believe he will. He's going to be a guy that really helps us one way or the other, offense or defense, because of his ability.”

Grissom was a third-string DE last season as a redshirt freshman, seeing action in six games.

The 6-foot-4, 247-pound sophomore, who redshirted as a true freshman because of a foot stress fracture, was expected to compete for time in the defensive end rotation this season before suffering the same injury in his other foot. He missed most of the spring because of it.