Reed admits it hasn’t yet.

“I don’t know what it is. I think in practice I do a little bit too much focusing on what I need to do as far as being a technician,” he said. “I’m more of a robot.”

There’s no doubt Reed can play football. He was a tackling machine at Yuba (Calif.) Community College.

However, the system Reed played in junior college was tailored for him. At OU the players are tailored for the system.

“In junior college, they just let me go out there and play. I just went out there and found the ball,” Reed said. “Here you have more responsibilities and if you don’t take care of those responsibilities you’re lost.”

Getting lost too often is the reason Reed is behind Curtis Lofton on the middle linebacker depth chart. Most figured that would be the other way around.

That’s probably a slight to Lofton, but junior college players are brought in to make an immediate impact.

Venables believes Reed will make one. But it won’t happen until Reed proves he can do it on a consistent basis.

Go into the linebackers’ meeting room inside the Switzer Center, and there’s pictures of Butkus Award winners, All-Americans and Big 12 defensive players of the year.

There’s a standard in that room that whoever is playing linebacker is expected to live up to.

“We’re asking you to do things the same way they did,” Venables said. “When you do, we feed you opportunities.”

Reed is still working on getting up to that standard.

O-line moves

The offensive line is shifting around its depth chart after backup center Chase Beeler’s decision to quit football.