Rodriguez and Harper Waiting on Draft, Weigh in on Derek Mason

STILLWATER – Day two of the NFL Draft is underway and I’ve got a feeling, call it a hopeful feeling that somebody late in the third round on Friday evening will think carefully. Some team like the Arizona Cardinals, New York Jets, Miami Dolphins, Kansas City Chiefs, or Super Bowl Champion Los Angeles Rams as they all pick late in the third round would think about that high producing and very athletic and physical linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez. I would be ecstatic for Rodriguez, who is so deserving. Jalen Pitre, the Baylor safety went early in the second round to the Houston Texans. I’m sure that Rodriguez’ production in the NFL will be on par with Pitre. They are both good players.

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Rodriguez lined up against the Sooners.

This week we spoke to Rodriguez and his fellow starting linebacker last season Devin Harper. Both were back in Stillwater last weekend for The Spring Finale. Rodriguez has just been at home in Wagoner, Okla. the past few weeks except for travels to visit NFL teams. Harper was on his way to Nashville to spend the NFL Draft with family.

One thing they did while in Stillwater was pick up their Fiesta Bowl Championship rings. Rodriguez laughed when I asked if he had his. The chuckle was over the size.

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The ring.

“It is huge! I couldn’t believe how big it turned out and I like the way it looks,” Harper said of the ring.

The other question I wanted to ask each of the linebackers is whether they had met the new defensive coordinator Derek Mason. Mason is a former defensive back at Northern Arizona. He is a player’s coach. Both Rodriguez and Harper have a strong fondness to Jim Knowles, who was their coordinator and helped mold them and the Cowboys defense into a championship caliber unit. A defense that changed the reputation of the Big 12 Conference in football.

Mason has come in and accepted using Knowles’ playbook and terminology and add his own personality to it.

“I actually have. I’ve seen him up there at the facilities and I saw him at Tropical Smoothie and he came over and talked to me and told me, ‘good luck on the upcoming draft,’” Rodriguez said of his interaction with Derek Mason. “I could tell he is very energetic, and I’ve heard a lot of good feedback from the guys on how he is so hands on and enthusiastic in the meetings and all that.”

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Both linebackers like Derek Mason.

“I met him one time in the facility and then I met him again in the facility at the spring game, Harper said. “We chopped it up a little bit. I like him and I think he’s doing a good job.”

Harper will learn even more as his younger brother Thomas is still on the Cowboys team as a senior starting strike safety. He’ll get more feedback.

Rodriguez told me that he thinks the defense after watching that final practice is in good hands with Mason.

“I could tell he is a good coach, and the guys like him,” Rodriguez added. “I’m happy for the guys and for OSU to have a coach like that.”

Mason has pledged to be back in Stillwater as often as he can to continue to keep an eye and stay in touch with his Oklahoma State Cowboys family.