...coming out of high school, I thought Durron Neal was going to be better than Sterling Shepherd.

Sorry for the click-through prompt. Made more sense to format this as an actual story rather than a note. But here's the skinny.

I have been told that Sooners hosted Jacksonville State transfer DL Chris Hardie over the last 24-48hrs.

Still waiting to hear if OU will make a strong push here, but was told the visit went well and that decisions on things are being to moving forward or not.

Let me expound on that: What we have heard is that Ole Miss may be trying to push the ante on the NIL side. For now, I’m unsure if the Sooners will push there because of how they operate. They do things like a pro team would. There is value in how they pay. An example would be the Damonic William’s’ situation, where the Sooners felt the bang was worth the buck, it is still being deciphered in this situation.

Naturally, the Sooners would love to be able to pull this one off and use DC Zac Alley’s relationship as a conduit to facilitate an easier commitment of sorts, but in today’s NIL world, that sometimes isn’t the case and relationships are deemed less relevant in some recruitments — even if Alley coached him a few years.

We are digging here to see if it will be this time around, but I do expect a decision from Hardie by “this weekend,” per a source.

Lastly, a team to watch for here is UCLA, but that was buzz on Sunday that I couldn’t get more info on. Still, wanted to pass that along, as I was told the Bruins were hopeful to get a visit if they could get one lined up.

*** I know you saw DL Adin Huntington commit to Tulane. Huntington was in the portal for a bit and that was, from what I have been told, due to some NIL “overreach” by his representatives.

Huntington took some visits to some big schools, but in the end didn’t end up taking a big step forward, despite his stats and film. Size could have played a role as well.

We are still digging on Hardie and where OU is at there but wanted a note on him nonetheless.

I do not donate

Name your starting 11 on offense going into summer and why. We stir up good convo and we'll discuss defense next. You can add a blurb discussing why if u so choose.

👀

FIRST PITCH​

• Top-seeded and No. 8 nationally OU (34-18, 23-7) opens the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship Wednesday at Globe Life Field in Arlington vs. nine-seed TCU (32-19, 14-16).

• First pitch of OU's opening round matchup is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. CT Wednesday as the No. 1 seed Sooners received a first-round bye and awaited the lowest-seeded winner from two of Tuesday's matchups.

• The game can be seen via Big 12 NOW on ESPN+ with Keith Moreland and Mike Rooney on the call.

• All games can heard locally in Oklahoma on SportsTalk 1400 AM/99.3 FM or nationwide on The Varsity app with OU play-by-play voice Toby Rowland calling the action with analysts Ross Hubbard and Carly Murray.

• The Sooners enter the postseason with a 34-18 record and 23-7 mark in conference play, winning their first Big 12 regular season title in program history by three games.

• OU is looking for its second Big 12 tournament title in the past three years and fourth overall, previously winning the conference tourney in 1997, 2013 and 2022.

LEADING OFF​

• The Sooners have put together an historic season, highlighted by a top-10 win over then-No. 9, and current No. 1, Tennessee, four ranked victories, six Big 12 sweeps for the first time and the first Big 12 regular season crown in program history.

• The Sooners hold the No. 10 SOS entering conference tournament week and No. 15 RPI, going 11-6 in Quad 1 games and a combined 20-12 in matchups vs. Q1 and Q2. OU's non-conference SOS ranks sixth in the country.

• OU's six conference sweeps are the most in the program's history in the Big 12 era and the most across conference play since 1994 (6, Big 8).

• OU won 23 games in Big 12 play, the most for the program in the Big 12 era and tying the most in program history with the 1994 and '95 teams. The Sooners were one win shy of tying the Big 12's all-time record for league wins in a season (Texas, 2010)

• The Sooners won 14 of their last 16 conference games, including sweeps in four of the last six weekend series.
• Oklahoma had a wire-to-wire lead over the Big 12 standings, sitting in first or a tie for first place after every weekend of Big 12 play.

• Oklahoma is in its seventh season under the direction of head coach Skip Johnson. Johnson, who spent the 2017 season on staff as an assistant coach, has led the Sooners to a 223-150 record, three NCAA Tournament appearances, the 2024 Big 12 regular season title, 2022 Big 12 tournament championship and the 2022 College World Series finals since taking over as head coach prior to the 2018 season.

After committing to transfer to OU.

This is premium content. Please subscribe to view.

Coach Venables has consistently said that college football is a game of development. That who you are as an underclassman does not define who you are down the road in your career.

Walker is a player who really jumped off the screen for me in the spring game with how he was moving.

Without getting too deep into the weeds, our anthropometrics will dictate our genetic potential and also dictates what areas may take longer to develop.

As Kani would be considered to be longer athlete, there can be issues with hitting elite levels of agility (agility is different than COD as COD is following a predetermined path while agility is reacting in real time to what you are seeing) because of the power, mobility needed to move the body as opposed to smaller athletes with shorter bones, more compact, etc.

Kani was always really good if he is breaking out of his backpedal in rhythm or in a jump-ball scenario but struggled if caught flat footed and had to break on something he didn’t initially anticipate. Improving this area for an athlete can be tough as it takes time. Not only is agility a test of your biomechanics, it also is incredibly tied to your visual acuity, processing speed which cannot always be improved in just one offseason.

However, watching this past spring game, not only was there more “bounce” to his step but he seemed to have gotten more physical overall.

I felt he mirrored his receiving counterpart better when playing against some of the Dig concepts and had much greater body control when dealing with WR’s giving him various releases.

Athletes with elite quickness will often say they like playing against bigger, longer players because you are able to utilize their leverages against them. However, the magic of development is being able to take those longer athletes and decrease those areas of weakness to the largest degree possible. While there will be some genetic limitations, it is about getting that player as close to optimal for their size as possible.

Based on the observations from this past spring game, throw me in the camp that believes Kani Walker is in for a big season this year.

Discuss below⬇️

TOS saying OU at low end of NIL. Hopefully Parker wins this prediction war, otherwise if he’s that linked to Alfalava we probably should kiss that good bye too…

Also, follow the follows man, they are all TN

Watching BYU put 5 runs on OSU thru 5 innings. Noticed that the called strikes against OU last week are called balls today.

This week. 6’2” 275 lbs.

It has been incredible to have the opportunity to be a part of OU Insider with The Barry & Mack Show! Myself and @dmackey13 are hitting a series of deep dive topics around the “behind the scenes” pieces of a D1 program, the reality of certain things, what a general year looks like for an athlete at various stages of their career and more!

Hope you wild folks enjoy!

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

I dove into the Cydney Sanders dilemma and the pitching staff heading into this weekend's clash with Florida State:

It will be a big week in Arlington for the Sooners.

Both projections have OU coming in at No. 7 nationally, which do you prefer?

It's not often you get to celebrate 100 years of anything, let alone a century of unequivocal tradition and success.

Oklahoma football will do all of that in 2024, and it all begins on Wednesday, May 22.

Login to view embedded media
Juco kid from EMCC (powerhouse from first two seasons of Last Chance U). Crazy so many offers have gone out the last week and no one seems to know the direction OU is going in in terms of a primary target. Haven’t gotten confirmation anywhere about if Adin Huntington actually made it in to visit this past weekend either. It’s silent on 247 too

Sorry, but the SEC in softball is SOOOO overrated. One of their 1 seeds lost to a 4 seed on the first day. The starting pitcher from Omaha U, threw over 160 pitches as the game went 9 innings. It was 1-1 after the 5th, but Omaha had one homer in the first inning and a two -run homer in T9. I believe there were only five run-rules so far, and two of them were in Norman. Oregon winning 8-0 and OU starting slowly. But as Cleveland State's pitcher got over 120 inning, having entered B5 up 5-0, OU scored four with two outs including Jennings' two - run homer to end it in the run rule. Lots of special interest stories for OU-Oregon.

The two Big XII teams not seeded beat two SEC teams. Baylor beat Ole Miss 3-1. UCF got way behind Auburn, then came back from 2-6 to win 11-6. Two three run homers in the fifth inning changed the game.

I'm smiling about softball today.

Login to view embedded media
One of Alley’s boys from Jax St.

Did anything ever happen with Adin Huntington, did he make it to campus this past weekend? @Parker Thune

Takeaways, notes, postgame video and the final box score from the Sooners' win over Oregon:

Story and interview below.

Afalava is an awesome kid and there's reason for OU to be optimistic, but there's still a part of me that senses he's just really good at telling everyone what they want to hear. Maybe it's just Utah PTSD after Easton Baker last year and Tausili Akana the year before that. I feel that both those kids are cut from the same cloth as Afalava in many ways. And as you'll recall, Baker decided to commit to Illinois without even following through on his OV to Oklahoma, and the OU staff went to bed the night before signing day with an assurance that they'd get Akana's NLI... only for him to sign with Texas. Regardless, I'm still more than a little bit apprehensive on a FutureCast for Afalava. Sources on the OU side feel adequately confident, but nobody is treating it as if it's a done deal. He's a take all the way for the Sooners; there's nothing to worry about in that department.

We'll see what happens when he OV's to Norman. As noted in the story, I think Michigan State is a major wild card... and Washington also shouldn't be discounted, especially since the Huskies get the last official.

How much are season tickets less donation

Takeaways and notes from OU's 9-0 win: