OUInsider staff writers Brandon Drumm and RJ Young discussed the news to come out Friday. Oklahoma Sooners coach Lincoln Riley announced defensive back Tre Norwood has suffered a lower leg injury that will ensure he misses the 2019 season.

"He'll miss the season," Riley said. "So tough injury, tough for him, tough for our team. You know, he's such a valuable guy, can play so many positions, [has] great experience. Certainly we'll miss him not only defensively, but special teams, too. He's a guy that was really a jack-of-all-trades for us. But that's part of this game. That's gonna happen. We've had a couple already, and that's why you recruit hard, that's why you develop hard.

"In some ways, there's probably some silver lining in the fact that it happened early enough that we're able to adjust and able to get a lot of guys reps. These things are a lot tougher if they happen during the season or right before a season opener. So it's given us time to do that. And everybody was disappointed for Tre, but anybody that knows him knows he'll handle it well and he'll come back better than ever."

Norwood was OU's most versatile defensive back headed into the 2019 season. His experience at every position in the defensive backfield allowed for beefed secondary that needs to improve on a pass defense ranking of 129. With Norwood working mostly at the nickel back position, Brendan Radley-Hiles is expected to lead the depth chart at the position. But he is in competition with Justin Broiles and Jeremiah Criddell among others.

Young and Drumm also discussed players making an impact in camp, including offensive lineman Marquise Hayes, running back T.J. Pledger, defensive end Marcus Stripling and rush end David Ugwoegbu.

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