For Oklahoma WR Jayden Gibson, 'There's Satisfaction In Me Doing What I'm Supposed to Do'

Among those “weaknesses,” Gibson says, is his size. It sounds counterintuitive, but being 6-foot-5 and 195 pounds isn’t an automatic advantage for a receiver. Gibson had nothing but success with his stature before college, but now he’s having to learn to play at that size. Moving without the football, getting in and out of breaks, being smooth in the route — it all comes easier for smaller wideouts. Jones has been invaluable in that area.

“Obviously I’m a lankier guy,” Gibson said. “The second he got here, (Jones said), ‘Get stronger, get faster, get bigger.’ I put on weight this summer. I was with Schmitty (strength coach Jerry Schmidt). I started taking Creatine, trying to put on muscle. All of that stuff was really influenced by him because when he came, he just came with a passion and energy that makes you wanna do what he’s saying.”

The long, arduous process of adding muscle and refining tiny edges of one’s game can and learning the nuances of the position through film study can seem like it's taking forever for a high-level athlete — for whom playing sports has always come easy. Gibson said he’s had to be patient.

“It’s definitely tough,” he said, “because you want to be great so bad for your family and for the fans and for everyone who supports you. It’s kind of like who I was. In Florida, when I was back at home, ‘He’s a dog, he’s a baller. That’s what he do.’ So it’s kind of hard when that identity is — not taken from you — but put on hold. They say you wanna separate yourself from football, football shouldn’t determine who you are and all that type of stuff that people say. But people don’t realize that football, some of us, this is what we do. That’s what we’re doing our whole life. This is the thing we’ve put our time and energy and whatnot into.

“So it takes a real man, it takes becoming a man, to be able to take a step back from that and be like, regardless of how much I love the game and regardless of how hard I go for it, I gotta be patient and I gotta know I’m still me. I’m still Jayden Gibson, I’m still the same guy, My family’s still gonna love me, my mom’s still gonna love me, God’s still gonna love me regardless of all that.”

Oklahoma needs receivers. It’s been said a million times that only Drake Stoops and Jalil Farooq have major game experience. Gibson, with his long frame and big body and usually reliable hands and breakaway speed, can go a long way toward filling any void. He and fellow sophomore Nic Anderson have reportedly had a good training camp with the No. 2 offense.

But preseason camp is over. The season starts next week. The Sooners are now installing and game-planning for Arkansas State and beyond.

“Camp is going great, man. No complaints,” Gibson said. “I’ve been working hard. Getting use to everything. Getting used to a new receivers coach. New drills. Just everything – how he approaches game week is, you know, different how previous coaches went about it with how we scout and how we study and whatnot. So, really just getting used to how coach Jones like to go about game week and how he likes to go about practice during the season and whatnot, I feel like, was a big thing today with it being the first real day of practice.”

What’s been new for Gibson has been new for the rest of the corps as well. And every day it seems someone steps up and elevates his game and makes a play. Gibson has seen it with his own eyes.

“That’s the truth. Every day, someone new is making a play,” Gibson said. “ … There’s gonna be some days where you might be open, but Andrel Anthony is running by somebody (with) 4.2 speed. Like, I can’t get the ball. If I’m five yards past my defender and he’s 15 past his, gotta throw him the ball, you know what I’m saying?

“And I feel like having so many higher-level guys around me I feel is another reason why I feel like I’ve been able to mature so well. Because you have no choice. You won’t last at a great university like Oklahoma.”

Gibson said no matter what, he’ll “continue to work hard” and “bring a positive attitude to the building.”

“I know I’ll have an opportunity to go out there and be a real asset to the team,” he said. “And that’s all I ever wanted. That’s all I ever dreamed of. I tell people all the time, ‘I didn’t dream of being a college football player, I dreamed of being a college football star.’ Obviously, that has a bit of a non-humble tone to it but it really is humble, because there is no satisfaction in (just) being here. There’s no satisfaction in me (simply) being at OU. There’s satisfaction in me doing what I’m supposed to do here for the fans, for my family, for everyone who’s put so much belief and put so much effort into me growing up.

“There’s no satisfaction in (just) being here. I would never wake up and be like, ‘Man, I’m so satisfied that I’m at OU.’ Because guess what? There’s so many people that are going to be at OU next year that ain’t here right now. Coach V says it every day, we got 63 players — some number like that that — have not been on the home sideline yet, that have not played a game. So I feel like satisfaction is one step away from taking it for granted. And I don’t ever want to be that close. I just want to stay on the edge, keep working, keep praising God and giving all the thanks to people around me because they’ve really allowed me to do all this mental growing up.” 

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