Welcome to my world: Defensive tackle Cory Bennett

Published: November 18, 2006

Oklahoma sophomore Cory Bennett is open about discussing his sources of motivation. Early in the season, he said he clipped stories from newspapers that criticized the Sooners' defensive tackles and hung them in his locker.

And he often enlarges photos of the blockers he'll be facing on Saturday, getting a good look at them before he sees them in real life.

It's a motivational technique that goes back to his days at Roosevelt High School in San Antonio.

My high school coach started it. We had a rivalry game, and they had one guy who was supposed to be the best on their team. He had my same number and everything. He would bump off at the mouth to the media about me. To get me motivated, my coach would put that guy's picture on the scout team guy's helmet. One day, I went to class and I seen inside my book there was a picture of him. Then I got to my locker and there was a picture of him. That was my junior year, and I've been doing it ever since.

Whenever there's somebody I really want to get at, I put their picture in my locker or have it somewhere on me, a notebook or something like that. It's something I've been doing for a while. I really didn't tell anybody about that until this year.

It's not an every-week thing. Sometimes there's guys that I remember playing against last year and I look forward to seeing them again. It's just a mental picture to get me going during the week.

Other motivation is just to go out there and play my best for people back home. Everything it took to get here, that's motivation.

By Scott Wright