NORMAN, Okla. — Travis Lewis can’t help but chuckle when he plops in the video of Oklahoma’s season opener and sees the linebacker charging in to make the tackle on a run play, only to realize how badly he had just bit on a play-action fake.
And then, on the very next play, there he is again, fooled by another faked handoff.
Ten games later, the same redshirt freshman who was making those silly mistakes can be seen on the tapes of the Sooners’ last few games making big plays instead.
“I like to go back and just laugh at myself,” Lewis said. “Sometimes the stuff I was doing was ridiculous.”
What he’s doing now is just as ridiculous, but in a good way.
He’s tied for eighth in the nation with 10.7 tackles per game and he tied for the team lead with his fourth interception last Saturday off Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell. He returned that one to the 2-yard line — a fact that, as a former high-school running back, he hasn’t been able to live down among his teammates.
But the third-ranked Sooners (10-1, 6-1 Big 12) sure are glad to have Lewis leading a linebacking corps that was a major preseason question mark following Curtis Lofton’s early jump to the NFL.
“He’s a really sharp kid and he’s so incredibly competitive,” defensive coordinator Brent Venables said. “He wants to do things right, and he’s overcome some of his lack of experience and technique and fundamentals of the game because he does compete really hard. He plays really hard and it covers up mistakes.”
Lewis wasn’t expected to be a factor this season, but made a sudden move into the starting lineup when fellow redshirt freshman Austin Box was hurt in preseason camp. Even in raw form, Lewis did enough to hold off Box for the job at outside linebacker and the team came to rely on him as a leader when middle linebacker Ryan Reynolds, the lone experienced player at the position, went out with a season-ending injury in the loss to Texas.
Venables shifted defensive captain Nic Harris from safety to linebacker for a week until Box could get up to speed, and Box then became the team’s starting middle linebacker against Kansas State.
For him, watching those old videotapes doesn’t seem so funny.
After all, his first start was the first time since 1999 that Oklahoma had given up 550 yards in a game.
“With the standards that I have, seeing me play that first game at Kansas State, it’s some bad memories that I don’t want to dwell on,” Box said. “I’m focused on the future, excited for the future and know what our team can do this year.”
