Marvin Mims addresses outside noise, fear of failure

Oklahoma is not off to a typical start for their program. Just five games into the season, the Sooners have already picked up two losses and are long shots to even make the Big 12 Championship game. But junior wideout Marvin Mims isn’t throwing in the towel on the season just because of a sour start. The Sooners still have the majority of the season ahead of them and time to right the ship in year one of the Brent Venables era.

But the heat is on after the 3-2 start to the year. However, Mims shared at a press conference this week ahead of the Red River Rivalry that he and the other OU players aren’t letting the chatter get in their heads.

“I mean, there’s a lot of outside noise. I wouldn’t call it pressure. Like honestly, like us inside these walls, I mean, we don’t care,” Mims declared. “We know who we are. We know what we can do and, you know, we’re just worried about ourselves, you know. We’re not worried about what everybody else is saying about us. I wouldn’t.”

At least the talented wideout isn’t letting the “outside noise” affect him on the field or in the locker room. Though he did reveal he thinks the team as a whole is letting the bad start loom a little too large on them.

“We’re overthinking a little bit, stuff like that,” he also shared. “Just from watching film you know, just a lot of little things. You know, those little things add up and now we’re just focusing on, you know, going out there and playing football. Just like we did when we were kids, you know. We’re going out there to play freely. At this level, I mean, everybody knows how to play football. So we got to do it to the level that we’re most comfortable at.”

Lastly, Marvin Mims explained how football isn’t a game of black and white. That the ideal balance when playing is a gray area of focus and physicality.

“This is a sport where you can do that. It’s not either black or white. It’s more of like a lot of gray, where you have to be smart and you have to be cautious and you have to be measured. But you still have to play 100 miles an hour.

“I mean, it’s a lot of gray, you know. Not everybody can play college football, especially here. In other schools, too. I mean, it’s a lot of gray. You have a good mixture of both. It’s all about what you do in life, you know. How you treat everything. But yeah, it’s a lot of gray. It’s not as simple as black and white.”