NORMAN —Enid’s Austin Box was announced as Oklahoma’s starting linebacker before the Sooners’ Big 12 contest with No. 16 Kansas at Owen Field Saturday.

He would never leave the sidelines.

The Sooners chose to move strong safety Nic Harris to the spot vacated by Ryan Reynolds, who tore his ACL against Texas.

Harris had a solid game for the Sooners with two solo and three assisted tackles in a 45-31 OU victory.

OU defensive coordinator Brent Venables said Harris was a better fit for the position against the Jayhawks’ spread offense.

Box, Venables said, could get his chance next Saturday against Kansas State because the Wildcats run more of a two-back offense.

“Austin has a great future ahead of him,’’ Venables said. “That might be next week, but that being said, we had to go with what serves us best today. With the short amount of time to get someone ready to play a new position, we felt that was Nic.’’

Box, who had been a backup weakside linebacker, got a large number of reps last week.

“The more reps he gets,’’ Venables said, “the more comfortable he will be.’’

The idea of moving the 6-foot-3, 235-pound Harris to middle linebacker was conceived on OU’s trip home from the Texas game. Harris’ size and athleticism, Venables said, was what OU needed to combat the spread.

“He gives us the best chance to win,’’ Venables said. “It was a slam dunk decision. Nobody was going to be better than him as far as his speed and athleticism.’’

Harris, Venables said, allowed OU to take away KU receiver Kerry Meier.

“He works in space and leverage off of a linebacker most of the time,’’ Venables said. “We had Nic try to take that away and also a guy down in the box to complement Travis (Lewis).’’

Harris has played weakside and strongside linebacker for the Sooners before. He had a positive attitude about making the switch.

“It was rocky at times,’’ he said. “I do what I need to do for the team. This week it was to play middle linebacker so that’s what I did.’’

The switch especially was challenging for him mentally.

“They say talent is about 10 percent ability and 90 percent mental,’’ he said. “It was 99 percent mental today. There were a lot of things going through my head. Right now I have a headache, but we came out with a win, so I’m happy.’’

Playing the middle was different than the other two linebacker spots.

“It’s extremely difficult to play,’’ Harris said. “This is the center of where everything happens. You got to know exactly what’s going on and who’s doing what over the course of the game.

“I don’t feel like a middle linebacker right now. I just want to go home and get to bed.’’

The Jayhawks had 491 yards of total offense overall, but the Sooners stopped Kansas on six of its first seven possessions of the second half.

“We’re extremely disappointed about that,’’ Harris said.

“It leaves a sour taste in your mouth. But at the end of the day, you got to be happy with the win. Nobody counts how many yards you gave up. They just count the wins and losses and this was a win.’’

The OU coaches said they wanted to make sure Harris was good mentally about the move. He was.

“I felt if the coaches had enough trust in me to put me there, I had to trust myself to play the position,’’ Harris said.