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Gabe Ikard was sitting in an offensive line meeting for No. 2 Oklahoma, calling out his responsibilities just like he always has since he earned his spot as a starting offensive guard.
Then assistant coach James Patton had to turn around with a reminder: ''You're the center.''
Ikard finds himself in an unwanted position after his buddy Ben Habern broke his right forearm in a 38-28 win against Missouri on Saturday night.
Ikard shuffled over a spot to take over at center, and he'll make the first start of his life at the position this Saturday night against Ball State.
''It's not something I wanted to do. You never want to see someone like Ben go down,'' Ikard said after practice Tuesday night. ''It's not that much different than guard when it comes to blocking. But you have some more responsibilities.
''I'm working at it. I'll be ready to go by Saturday.''
Beyond snapping the ball to quarterback Landry Jones, Ikard also must adjust to being one of the pacesetters for Oklahoma's speedy offense.
It's his job to make sure the line is on the same page and get the ball snapped, preferably before the defense has time to react and get lined up.
''You can't be freakin' out. You've got to calm down, get the snap back there,'' Ikard said. ''But once you snap and you follow through, then it's just you've got to go play.''
Coach Bob Stoops said there were a few times after Ikard replaced Habern in the third quarter last week that he was ''a hair late'' with the snap.
''That's a big part of it, just the timing of it, Landry and he being on the same page with the rest of the line,'' Stoops said. ''But I trust through all the hard work here this week we can get that sharpened up with Gabe.''
Instead of being a follower, Ikard now must be on alert for when coaches are calling for the Sooners to go up-tempo.
He's got to see that everyone knows what they're doing and then be ready to snap the ball just as soon as the umpire gets out of the way.
As offensive line coach James Patton said, Ikard is now the one who ''gets it all started.''
''Part of setting that tempo is you can't be frantic,'' Patton said. ''You've got to be calm enough to get everybody else set. You've got to play at a pace, play fast but play under control.''
Patton said he believes Ikard has the poise to handle the position, and the smarts, too. The zoology major was an all-Big 12 academic selection with a 4.0 grade-point average last season.
''I've got to get over the ball, get my feet set, key in, turn and look and see what Landry's saying,'' Ikard said. ''And if it's tempo, I've got to get down and got to get my hand set on the ball and ready to snap it rather than just put my hand in the dirt.''
Ikard had never played center at all until last year. He had been a tight end in high school and stayed in that position until he got roped into scout team duty as a center, trying to block eventual NFL first-round draft pick Gerald McCoy and Adrian Taylor.
''And that was a lot of fun,'' Ikard said sarcastically.
But eventually a move to the offensive line provided Ikard with his best chance to get playing time with the Sooners. He started eating more, gained 30 pounds and hit the weight room to turn those pounds into muscle.
He worked out some at center through the spring, but wound up earning a starting spot at guard with Habern entrenched in the middle.
When Habern missed a couple weeks during training camp, Ikard moved in as the front-line center, but then he yielded the job back.
''It's not like I haven't played the position at all recently. It's just I haven't been taking many snaps during the season because obviously Ben was getting those,'' Ikard said. ''I've just got to sharpen some things up and get back into the groove.''
''I know what I'm doing, so it's not like I'm just clueless out there,'' he added.
The Sooners, usually at their best when they speed up the pace, struggled when they tried to go at their fastest speed against Missouri.
Ikard said the Tigers were using automatic blitzes, and the offensive linemen were getting mixed up on their blocking responsibilities.
Losing Habern didn't help either.
''Ben's our best lineman, so we definitely missed him making the calls and just being out there because of his talent,'' Ikard said. ''We went on a nice touchdown drive without him, moved the ball pretty well, but we were a little out of sync. Some guys were a step late.''
Senior Stephen Good, who started nine games over the 2009 and 2010 seasons, moved into Ikard's vacated spot at left guard.
Patton said tackle Jarvis Jones, who could make his season debut this week after offseason knee surgery, may join Adam Shead and Bronson Irwin as potential backups at guard. Austin Woods, the team's deep snapper on placekicks, is the new No. 2 center.
