No surgar coating and really good article.

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Have you heard anything at all about the likelihood that Burks and/or Tatum will play this weekend? Do you know if either practiced yesterday?

There has been a lot of back and forth on X/Sports Talk Radio about how the Dillon Gabriel situation was handled, particularly if he was "run off" or not.
Can one of you please remind me what occurred according to your sources?
Thank you.

Just finished watching today’s presser with BV. Maybe I’m over-analyzing, but after listening to that presser I think his confidence in the offensive coaching staff is shot. Matching most of our fan base’s sentiment, he seems to have great disdain for the current use of RPOs in the offense. Made multiple mentions of simplifying the scheme, making it easier for players to communicate and be successful, etc.

Some of that was directed at JA for poor decision making, but I think most of it was towards the offensive staff. The hypothetical comparison he gave with giving his defensive players too much info and too many ways to fit a gap stood out as well.

Don’t want too be negative and assume the worst. There’s lots of season left, a new QB, hopefully some newfound help as the OL can potentially heal up. But I think BV is going to make whatever change is necessary offensively at the end of the season.

It was a helluva 53-minute press conference from Venables, who explained why he made the quick decision to announce Mike Hawkins as the starting QB.

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Time Stamps





0:00 — Opening statement


19:05 — On the importance of maturity amidst turmoil


22:18 — On the QB evaluation over the weekend


25:32 — On what factors into a QB change


27:45 — On how to ease Michael Hawkins into the role


29:01 — On the RPO and how to simplify it


31:43 — On lack of consistency/experience offensively


33:21 — #TalkAbout Auburn’s offense


35:34 — On Davon Mitchell and the tight ends


38:20 — On Jacobe Johnson’s position switch


43:43 — On past experiences at Auburn


44:36 — On the circumstances surrounding the QB play


46:47 — On offensive gameplanning


51:24 — On Casey Thompson’s value to the QB room

Go listen to his analysis of our offense. Our offensive coaching is just terrible. Our poor QB play is a symptom of poor coaching. So is our OL scheme, receiver blocking, and play calling. This is a coaching problem. Klatt thinks our offensive execution and game plan is perhaps the worst he has seen in his career. I believe him. My bet is that we win 5 games, and Venables gets one more shot to hire a good offensive coordinator.

Good morning Sooner friends. Sooner born and bred longtime lurker here. Holieway to Jackson in the ‘85 OB stole my heart as a 9 year old growing up in Lawton and have been hooked on Sooner Magic ever since.

Moved to CO following college in the 90s and have made my life here. But, my family and I have made it to Dallas or Norman or places between (Boulder and Lincoln and Stoolwater now in a different life) once a year.

This year’s trip was this past weekend back to OklaHOMEa. What an incredible atmosphere Saturday was, in Gaylord, on campus, in and around the Corner…this move to the SEC was the shot in the arm this fan base deserved and needed IMHO. No more trying to get hyped playing basketball schools on the gridiron.

My thoughts on the game and our season thus far: in a nutshell, like so many of you, the frustration is significant balancing the joy of finally getting to appreciate an elite defense with what is an inexplicably bad O.

BUT comma space I will opine this: if Jr. had started the entire game, we’d be undefeated this morning. I see nothing in retrospect to indicate otherwise. His impact on the flow and effectiveness of the offense was obvious IMO.

To that point: we certainly have significant challenges remaining in the schedule, but me thinks our defense will contain ANYone we play and, combined with even a marginal offensive effort each game (20-30 points), we should have a legitimate shot to win out the regular season.

So, from a lurker to now a poster, take my pointed pontifications for what they’re worth. BOOMER.

As noted in the title, the Sooners have a few five-stars in town, but it's the depth of the Rivals250 talent that takes this list over the edge. Who will be in town? We have the FULL LIST below in the 2025, 2026 and 2027 classes...

2025 :

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I will be in NYC this week on vacation and just received approval from the wife to go to Haswell Greens for the game (home of the Sooners in NYC). Anybody have experiences watching there or going to be there on Saturday?

Good Tuesday morning, Fam!

Previously, we have dealt with the injury of Andrel Anthony and I discussed several different circumstances that may be contributing to his inability to return to the Sooner lineup.

I have seen a few takes on the web/radio/podcasts where people have said that Anderson “quit on the team.” While I’m certain that these things do happen with players from time to time, we also need to understand injuries and why Anderson may “appear to be okay” but not be able to perform.

All indications point to the injury being a possible quadricep issue.

If this is the case, we need to first understand the function of the Quad as it relates to athletic movement.

The quad is a prime mover, a knee extensor and hip flexor. If there is an injury to this muscle group it will inhibit your turnover and force production into the ground during top speed and acceleration. There are plays in the game where you can clearly see his inability to accelerate in his normal manner.

It is used on every play in football. There’s no escaping it which makes it hard to recover from. Even though we aren’t positive which area of the upper leg is injured, there are a few interesting things we can take note of:

1. It is going to continue to be a “Day to Day” scenario because it comes down to pain tolerance and movement ability. Some days will be really good and others not so much. This is why he may feel like playing in Tuesday but be a no-go on Friday.

2. It’s hard to heal without rest. Unfortunately this is one of those injuries that just needs rest to get right and OU just doesn’t have that kind of time on their hands. Maybe this Jacobe Johnson move confirms that Anderson may be shutting it down but it’s really tough to know for sure.

Provided below is a clip showing the quad actions during acceleration. You literally can’t escape its usage and OU has to figure out how to best navigate this issue with Nic.

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So I just have a lot of confusing thoughts going on. Hearing Hawkins was better and outperforming Arnold all offseason is the rumor. Is that true? I hear it is, but then I hear it isn’t. But if it was true, why didn’t OU start Hawkins then? I know Arnold played a little last year and did alright but I just don’t know how after seeing 4 weeks of play by Arnold, idk how there wasn’t signs of this happening. I thought no matter what, you play the best player at that position regardless whether it’s game 1, to the last game. I just have been thinking about this lately. Thank you!

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Embarrassing for OU to look this foolish on national media. The sad thing is that many of us fans saw the issues with the QB and the OL and things did not get fixed.

Brent has his plate full to prove he is Head Coach material. I love the guy and his defense is stout ,but this is not a defense only game.

Had Hawkins started during one of the last three games he would have made a tremendous difference in how this line plays. What lineman wants to give 110 Percent when he knows no matter how well he blocks the defense his quarterback will mess up the play?
On another note what better test could Hawkins have than being put into a game with millions of TV watchers and the number 6 team in the nation as an adversary? I may be wrong about my observations, but I noticed after Hawkins came into the game Tennessee only scored three more points, WHY, because Hawkins's play gave our fine defense time to rest up and stop the opposing offense.

All it took was one loss for folk to start mixing it up in here. I like a lil spice. It never hurt anyone.
Let's jump right into it.

QB: There's a rumor going around that I don't like jfa, or am a hater. That's so far from the truth considering I was a "hater" of DG last season. In reality I don't like mediocre qb play (DG) but i loathe bad qb play and on Saturday we objectively saw our qb hand gift the game to Hype and crew. It was bad and I can almost bet watching it on film with your peers was worse. I have zero issue with jfa. I truly want(ed) him to be the "next in line" as being the man at OU. But if he aint...he's NOT. And he's not. That said, I watched the game again. Hawkins impressed. He showed poise, he threw strikes, he beat coverage, he beat the blitz. He did all this with no practice snaps with the ones and cold off the bench. Now, before we anoint him the next heisman candidate, we need to see if he can simply consistently line us up correctly and run our offense in rhythm. Yes, I've been told by several people (after Fall Camp and before the HTown game) that Hawk was the better player but not by enough and was just inconsistent enough to keep jfa in that spot...so for what it's worth i don't think it merits us going crazy over woulda, shoulda,coulda. You do not switch to an 18yr old qb mid season while youre still undefeated. We as fans bitch and moan (and rightfully so) but I agree with that decision. Hawk played hard and well. Because of his efforts and potential I grade the qb position out high. I hope he can keep it up and put us in some positions to win some games. GRADE: 80 it'd literally be a 11 (all pun intended) if he doesn't play.

RBs: Short and sweet...very average. I think Temple may be the only team we were far and away the more talented group. Barnes has earned my respect in that he plays and runs hard. I believe he's earned the right to in the rotation, but he can't be your lead dawg. With the pup getting injured and 27 stuck in neutral we've got to incorporate a more versatile run game. I think we attack the edges and hit ppl with mis direction. GRADE: 70. As average as average can be, but they played hard and with heart.

WRs/TEs: 4 comes out, drops a ball and jogs back into the tunnel. I dont know the details of his injury or the situation, but it's not good for optics to casually jog into the tunnel after one possession. 6 played well then got hurt. 15 and 81 gave good effort, but they both look to be 5'9 165 soaking wet and when you see Tenn roll out dudes who are 6'3 215 you see a distinct disadvantage for us. 17 showed up when Hawk did...and he looked GOOD. Aside from that I dont have much more to say. TEs 😬 Alot of the grief oline has received should be shared with the TEs. We aren't moving blame, but more so sharing blame. We are brutal blocking on the edge. Brutal when in motion. And average as pass catchers. I saw 1 or 2 solid inline blocks from 10 and 87 but far too often they look to be playing slow...thinking about what to do. GRADE: 70/60

OLINE: it was bad. Qb did not favors, RPOs did no favors, but man there are at least 10 plays where one of our guys gets ragged dolled by Tenn defenders. Instead of being harsh (again) I'm going to just say...there are going to be games our crew is over matched. I dont have a lot of good to say. I can't pick a number within the unit who "got the better" of their counterpart consistently. I am NOT a oline guru (I'll go heads with ANYONE on wrs and pass combos/schemes) but everyone saw the game be played in our qbs lap all night. Im not a BB hater, but at OU, injuries or not, you can't expect to roll that out there on Saturdays and hope to play winning football. Especially when u had 3 yrs to prep for SEC ball. I imagine he knows that and is pissed. For me...its on him to figure it out. He absolutely has to. This defense and the qb deserve it. I'll be watching closely 👀
GRADE: 45

OFFENSIVE SCHEME: This would be a 10 grade for me...naww 11 if young Hawk 🐶 (the pup) doesnt go out there and perform AND if I didn't know first hand why the majority of the calls were rpo based to provide continuity for the qb. It's still a failing grade for me, but I did notice some clear changes in play design and cohesion (aside from running up the middle 😬) once 9 came in. I also have to state. A total of 3 drives either at mid field or in their red zone ended in 1 play and idc if u think me speaking truth is hating, but on all three occasions it's solely on the qb. We sucked enough in play: call, design and execution already. The qb liferally killing drives and momentum is very hard to overcome. That said 9 made some throws on the run, throws in the pocket...Quick game and true drop back (in gun i guess you can't call it that but the protection is still the same).

This is PUT UP season for Seth. THIS qb was recruited on his watch and frankly..at ou you gotta win now and our fans are spoiled on offense...is what it is. GRADE: 50 woulda been much worse without the qb change.

DLINE: Them boys came to play. Best game of the year by the ends. Ford was a menace in the 2pt stance. RMT was winning in his match up and Downs proly wishes he tried to scoop and score or at least pushed the ball into the endzone for a safety or defensive TD had he known he'd be on the field again in two plays 😩. The tackles were equally effective. The strength of Tenn's line was the gcg and I still felt our 4 guys out played them. The one area i saw concern is when they ran lead into the A gap on short yardage. They wedged a hole 2 or 3 nice runs on the group. Otherwise they showed up BIGTIME and forced bigtime turnovers. GRADE: 86

BACKERS: These guys were put in compromising situations all night. Idk if people understand how difficult it is to react and read keys where you have three sometimes four keys that say..if this, you do that on the flyyyy. However, this group has high end talent and experience so we expect greatness. 10, 11 and 28 all played hard, fast and were physical. I saw 10 miss a few tackles on the inside Zone, but man was he bigtime on other plays. I hate 28 missed the goalline tackle but otherwise he played hard. 11 was blowing some things up and was also playing winning football. Even 20 stuck his nose in there and made some good plays. Interestingly enough we still rotated 4 backers most of the game and 7 even got in i believe 1 possession a half. Thats the definition of quality depth. I also have to add 15 and 24. 15 was balling before his injury. I saw 24 maintain the edge well a few times. Again...two levels of the defense playing winning football. And that's really good. I will say...there's just something about the way a few of our backers tackle (especially 28) that makes me wonder about tackling drills. Backers and safeties are usually the most sure tacklers on the team and a few of our entrenched starters struggle at times on plays you would think they'd have the advantage (Danny just happens to do enough other things really well to get away with it. 2 😬 not so much). GRADE: 82

DBs: sheesh... A lot of good and bad here. As anticipated 5 is a liability and teams see what we see and go after him. 3 is probably the best db on the team. Kid is EVERYWHERE and playing on the 1st two levels of the defense...hes REALLY good. 22 in my humble needs to be playing 2s position and probably will be the guy there next year. 26 played well..I know everyone wants to kill him on the bang 8 slant, but he needs inside help there. If 2 is where he's supposed to be, the qb never even makes the throw bcuz it's an easy pick. Even lil Bowen came in and was locking down wrs 4 inches taller than him...lol I love it. You could see the dawg in him. 2 and 5 are your most veteran guys and in my opinion the biggest liabilities. I don't want to sound like a hater, but 2 is a captain/leader or whatever, but he's also not playing well. I hope he can fix it bcuz it's hard to just bench or entrenched AA but man it's been bad. I'm talking assignment and tackling. He literally doesn't touch Nico on our last gasp effort stop at the end of the game. They meet in the hole and hes juked out of his jock strap by a 6'6 frosh qb. As an AA that's not good. However, as a group..they're solid. They really are. I was surprised to see as many subs as I did, but they're building that quality depth and it's been working. As it relates to 19...if he can help on offense and that garners him more playing time...im with it. Kid was a talented wr in high school...and if we go away from the rpo stuff that's all over the place (assuming we simplify some things for the pup) it's a natural time to get him some tick. GRADE: 80

SCHEME: A+ man. Everything I thought we might do..we did. From the 30 to the stand up Ends, to multiple presnaps fronts and pressure. They were prepared. I loved the 3 high safety look. It takes pressure off fhe dbs on islands and allows them to come downhill postsnap to clean up in the run game. They was a fun game to watch defensively. They gave effort, were consistently put in bad situations and continued to play hard. The young lad DC is earning his pay check..I guess he can split it with BV because his imprints were all over that.

FINAL THOUGHT: I don't believe in giving up on seasons, but our oline is going to be tough to overcome. For the first time in a very long time we don't have a bonafide NFL 1st rounder and it shows. Nor do we have a skill guys who's a sure fire NFL dude. That means we have to work with chemistry, discipline and playing CLEAN football bcuz the SEC is littered with studs and we lack them offensively. It's hard mid season to speak of NiL and finally playing the game like the big boys, but it looks like we're finally prepared to do so. The data is astounding and look no further than Tennessee and Ol Miss for examples. But Saturday is Auburn and ut looms. I'm excited to see what the 🐶 has as I've heard he's got the juice. I just worry about depending on an 18yr old frosh who's a dual threat. Navigating the sec with a pup is a recipe for hiccups. But i love cheering for players who leave it all on the field and if saturday was any indication...hes all in on that.

I think Seth, Murray and BB should approach the remainder of the season with a chip on their shoulder. I know they take pride in being excellent in their roles and it's time to prove it. No I don't want to fire any of them (as if my opinion matters) but I do want to see a FIRE (full pun intended) in them and their units the remainder of the year. BV said it best...we can't keep seeing the same damn mistakes week in and out. Something tells me Seth will modify some of the stuff so we literally don't see it again. Then our biggest concern will be our oline blocking 1v1 vs really good players and we'll still complain.

Overall, we played winning football on defense and even with a few heavy mismatch position groups well enough (😬 maybe maybe not) on offense to potentially be in the game if we simply value the ball. I'm 👀 at you 11. Coach had to make a switch, and now that he has, 9 has to seize the opportunity. Sooner Nation will be watching with full attention. Ready to cheer him and his teammates on OR curse everyone (proly me included 🫡) if things don't pick up.

#Boomer
Made my Monday deadline by 90mins 🥵

Sorry if this has been said already. Do we know if he’s able to play against Auburn?

Does Oklahoma win that game if Michael Hawkins starts?

I only got to see the highlights, but the highlights show a night and day difference.

Mistakes were incredible.

Oklahoma fans are really good hosts and very classy as a whole. Have heard many a story like this over the years and have never witnessed anything but stories like this on my many trips to Norman.

The Tennessee disaster is in the past. Time to get up off the floor and get pissed off about how things have developed. Time to start blocking people and making plays on offense. Hawkins is going to have to be a superstar to salvage the teams pride. But if this team gets mad and fights like hell they can stop the bleeding. In the meantime, start the search for a new set of offensive coaches and ball busting recruiters. Time to stop screwing around and living off past Sooner glories.

He posted a pic of him and Nic. I think it could mean Nic is out for either a significant time or taking a medical redshirt. I could be wrong but i’m calling my shot. (You can ignore poll)

The Sooners now rank 101st in rushing offense, 116th in sacks allowed and 114th in tackles for loss allowed.

Against Tennessee, the OL struggled with the same issues they have all season.

Brent Venables just confirmed on sooners sports talk that Jacoby Johnson will be playing some wide receiver. @Parker Thune and @Brandon Drumm have been talking about that for a few weeks. Looks like their wish is coming true

It's hard to put into words how this past weekend's game has me feeling about the rest of the 2024 season, however, I'll do my best.

With that, here's my new "Pick-Six" series. Enjoy.