Oklahoma State University Athletics
Coaches Corner: Joe DeForest
August 13, 2010 | Cowboy Football
Aug. 13, 2010
STILLWATER, Okla. - Okstate.com sat down with Oklahoma State associate head coach Joe DeForest on Friday to talk about the Cowboy safeties and special teams. His thoughts:
Regarding Markelle Martin and what makes him the player that he is:
"Markelle is playing like the veteran that we all hoped he would. He's been a great leader for us through the summer and he's continued that throughout camp. I think he's got a chance to be really, really special. He's the best I've ever coached at that position and there's no question. He's long. He can run. He's got great ball skills and everybody knows that he'll hit you, so I'm very excited about him."
Regarding the leadership that Markelle Martin provides:
"Markelle had a hiccup after his freshman year. He didn't get to go to the bowl game because of academics. That was probably the best thing that ever happened to him. It opened his eyes and he recognized how important school was and doing what he was supposed to do. From that point on, he has become a leader. He pulls the young guys with him and he corrals the older guys. He's the guy we need back there to get everybody lined up and to get everybody calmed down. His freshman year, he played corner, then we moved him to safety last year, so the fact that he understands corner play and safety play - having that experience and that knowledge has definitely helped him in the big scheme of things."
Regarding the rest of the safety corps:
"Johnny Thomas and Victor Johnson will be at the other safety spot, depending obviously on Victor's situation. We feel like both of those guys have played a lot of football, too. They're going into their third year so they're in the time where they need to not make mistakes and start playing the ball better and start being a factor for our defense."
Regarding his observations on the group of true freshman safeties:
"As far as the young guys go, I think we've got three good ones in Lavocheya Cooper, Zack Craig and Deion Imade. I think right now, Deion is ahead of those other two, but they're all swimming right now. They'll all play this year. They'll play on special teams for sure. We have to use them. There's no doubt that we have to use them, just because of the lack of numbers that we have and we lost some depth from last year."
Regarding his philosophy on playing starters and other key players on special teams:
"You have to be careful. Special teams is a delicate unit because as soon as you put starters on there, then you take away from other areas of the team, but you want to have them on there so the young guys can see how important it is. There's got to be a fine mix."
Regarding the Cowboy specialists:
"I feel great about our specialists. Dan Bailey and Quinn Sharp are both returning at kicker and punter. We've got our snapper, our holder, our kicker and our punter all back, so that's a nice relief. Quinn's got one of the strongest legs in the country and Dan is the all-time school leader in consecutive PATs made. I don't think anybody really recognizes Dan for being as consistent as he has been for us."
Regarding the return game:
"Right now we have five true freshmen starting on kickoff. There's going to be some work that has to be done to get these kids ready for the speed of the game. Unfortunately, the hardest thing to simulate in practice is special teams speed of the game because you don't have ones-versus-ones and twos-versus-twos. It's your best against the scout team because of numbers. I think hopefully Victor will be returning kicks. Kendall Hunter is going to return kickoffs along with some of the freshmen. Joseph Randle and Justin Gilbert may have an opportunity to return some kicks as well. Josh Cooper will return punts, along with maybe Joseph Randle."
The Cowboys take the field for their first scrimmage of the fall on Saturday.
