Zion Kearney Spring Media Day (3-6-24)
Sooners' wide receiver Zion Kearney speaks to the media at OU Spring media day on March 6, 2024.
Transcript
00:00 He's very exposed to the spotlight. He's going to be that guy.
00:02 He does a lot of things you don't see other quarterbacks do.
00:05 He's definitely a different breed.
00:08 How amped are you to play in the SEC?
00:10 I'm very amped. That's the best conference in the nation.
00:13 Very amped.
00:14 We have a lot of good competition.
00:17 We got to see a lot of good players.
00:19 So it's going to be great.
00:20 Thanks man. I appreciate you. Be well.
00:22 I appreciate you.
00:23 So you just kind of touched on playing in the SEC.
00:25 Is there any matchups on the calendar that you have circled?
00:28 I don't have any circled right now, but I'm pretty sure closer to this season I will.
00:32 So going to Death Valley, that's kind of towards the Houston area,
00:36 which I know is where you're from.
00:37 Do you anticipate having any family there for that one?
00:39 Probably. I'll probably have family and friends come to that game.
00:44 So what's obviously in the recruiting process, you were committed to Emmitt Jones.
00:48 Now getting to be coached by him, how has that been?
00:51 It's been great. I've been able to learn a lot of different things from him.
00:54 He's taught me a lot of different things.
00:55 In only the few weeks, few months I've been here, he's a really cool person to be around too.
01:01 He's a really good person.
01:02 So just learning different things from him and the wide receiver group every day is just getting me better.
01:07 You touched on the wide receiver group.
01:09 Have any of the older guys kind of taken you under their wing?
01:11 Obviously there's some guys with a lot of experience.
01:13 Yeah, I can say Jahliel and Jaden Gibson.
01:17 Both of them really have helped me out just learning different things,
01:22 being able to learn how to do different drills,
01:25 being able to learn how to do different things that a receiver has to do to be the best that I can be.
01:30 So I've been able to throw around and do a lot of stuff,
01:34 but we've really been building a bond off the field too, just being around each other, really cool guys.
01:39 Just being able to talk and learn about where we're from,
01:42 learn about another person forever.
01:45 That's just what I like to talk about with them.
01:49 So now that Brent Venables is recruiting you, he's your head coach now,
01:54 how's that been? What's it been like playing under him?
01:57 I get to see how our head coach really operates.
02:01 I see where he comes from and where he wants us to be at,
02:06 where he wants us to be at, where he wants us to be at individually too,
02:09 where he wants us to work.
02:11 He knows what we need to dominate this season.
02:16 I've seen your high school film, of course, but from your perspective,
02:20 what do you think you add to Oklahoma's offense?
02:22 Really, I could say it's a lot of different areas I could say I would add to,
02:27 but it really just depends on the coaches,
02:29 wherever I'm the best fit for the team, because that's what's the most important.
02:33 Good luck in the season.
02:35 You too.
02:37 How you doing, man?
02:39 So just talk about your relationship with Coach Jones and your decision to become the A-Line.
02:43 Coach Jones, he's really, really a standout person.
02:47 He really knows how to get stuff out of us, how to make us the best player that we can be,
02:52 just teaching us different stuff like in the wide receiver room, different movements,
02:57 learning to be a better receiver.
03:00 What did you know about Oklahoma before you got through the process?
03:04 So actually, I really never even watched the league, in like no sports.
03:09 I kind of never watched the league, but you know,
03:12 City of Lamb is like maybe like 30 minutes to like an hour from where I live at,
03:19 and that's when I really kind of first found out about OU when I seen he was going there,
03:23 and that really just kind of attracted me here.
03:27 So what coaches do you watch for, like throwing up things like that?
03:30 Really just like LSU.
03:32 Oh, yeah?
03:33 Yeah, really just LSU.
03:35 I really never--I watch football a lot, but it was really just kind of LSU,
03:39 if I turned on the TV, if I turned on football.
03:42 Is there like a player that you get your inspiration from,
03:45 or maybe who you look up to?
03:47 Jamar Chase.
03:48 That's kind of that LSU era.
03:50 Yeah, that's--I used to look up to Jamar Chase and City of Lamb, too,
03:53 those two receivers I like.
03:55 What kind of skill sets do you think we better bring to this program?
04:00 The speed.
04:01 You know, we have to have speed being a receiver, especially being here at OU.
04:05 That's one big thing.
04:07 It really, you know, stand out.
04:10 Obviously in high school you were trained by some really high-level trainers.
04:14 You had some other guys that were really high-level high school players
04:17 trained by that.
04:18 How do you think that prepared you for this moment?
04:20 I feel like it really prepared me well because, you know,
04:22 a lot of things that other people may not notice or work on,
04:26 I've been able to work on,
04:27 and they've just been teaching me different stuff before I even came up here.
04:30 Like, you're going to have to know what this is,
04:32 you're going to have to know what that is,
04:33 you're going to have to know how to read a defense,
04:35 you're going to have to do this move against this.
04:37 So, you know, it's a lot of different things that I learned,
04:39 and I just really appreciate them for that, too.
04:43 What about your high school offense?
04:44 How do you think that kind of prepared you or helped you grow?
04:48 Yeah, I'd say we had a kind of big playbook, so it was kind of like--
04:54 it's kind of how it is in college, so, you know, just kind of studying the same,
04:58 just have to apply a little bit more studying habits, you know,
05:01 just getting through the playbook, that's what it did.
05:03 How has the adjustment been to, you know, just being a college student in general?
05:06 Obviously, it's very different from high school.
05:08 Yeah, like I said, it was pretty much like--it's a lot more people in college, you know,
05:12 the classrooms are bigger and stuff like that,
05:15 and it's kind of like, you know, you're not just--
05:18 the teacher can't really help you no more, so it's all you, you know,
05:21 it's just me becoming a man, that's really what it's about.
05:25 Had you ever been to Oklahoma before you kind of were being recruited by OU?
05:28 No, I've never been to Oklahoma.
05:31 That's the only thing I was just saying, I actually never like even watched Oklahoma football,
05:36 I didn't, you know, see a lot about Oklahoma because I never just, you know--
05:42 Now that you're here, what are your impressions of Oklahoma, the university, the area?
05:46 Yeah, I can see the culture now that I'm here a lot better,
05:50 even in the recruiting process, I've seen the culture a lot,
05:54 and, you know, it really means something to be a Sooner,
05:58 to not only the football program, but anybody that's from Oklahoma,
06:01 it really means something to be a Sooner, you know,
06:03 that really means something to me that I'm able to be a Sooner.