just for fodder- if none of Rattler, Morris or Mordecai transfer out, would any of those guys start in front of Gabriel?

if yes, then assume all 3 are here and thus DG doesn't transfer in. what do yall think that pecking order looks like?

I may have missed it, but has there been any discussion about what Jason Bean did to us last year in Lawrence?

17/23 for 246 and a TD passing and 14 carries for 59 yards rushing

Their backup is no Davis Beville, we better show up ready to play some football.

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Good news is needed.

247 updated their player rankings. Biggest boost was Vasek going into the top 200 after being unranked. With the updates, we officially have the number 3 class.

Are we developing the man? Because we sure as hell aren’t developing the football player.

Buuuuutttttt fiiiirrrsssttttt

As I wasn't able to be a part of yesterday's pod - have listened and so should you, good stuff from Eddie and Carey - and I've heard from several of you that would rather me skip the MMI I thought I'd just post some thoughts and maybe that way I won't have to drag us all back through it when we record the U40.

*First, I want to be clear before I say anything else any talk of 'firing Brent Venables' is so short-sighted it's hard to put into words. Think you're upset now? Remove the only thing holding the most complete recruiting class in 15 years.

It will go real bad, real fast and you're talking about setting your program back 3-4 years.

I'm not here to tell you that I know this staff will get it right, I don't and I don't know how anyone could act that confident about it - there are valid questions (I'll get to mine in a minute) but there's a world where Oklahoma emulates 2019/2021 Baylor or hell...how about 2022 Texas?

But you let this recruiting class implode and you'll find out about REAL pain and ACTUAL talent deficiencies.

**And that last little jab takes me to my next thoughts...the chicken or the egg argument that is wheee the problem comes from - players or coaching?

The simple answer?

Both.

I know that hurts the ability to focus blame but it's just a more complex problem than 'that player/position group/side of the ball isn't doing what it should' or 'the scheme is bad'.

I'll start with the part I feel most strongly about, the talent question. Is Oklahoma as overwhelmingly talented as they once were - compared to other groups who have spent several years playing together? No. Not just no, but HECK no.

Are they still more naturally gifted than all but Texas? You can scream at me until you're blue in the face and you'll never change my stance that the answer is yes.

Need an explanation of why?

Look at Kansas, look how they fared against TCU - who just annihilated Oklahoma 9 days ago - we really arguing they are more talented than Oklahoma? They are comfortable in what they are doing and are well organized.

Now does that mean 'oh this is coaching'? Not exactly.

What Oklahoma is learning on defense is complex but does that really matter when even simple mistakes (angles, etc.) are not being avoided? I mean guys are ignoring things they know better than to do. Add in a numbers crunch at several positions and the absence of clearly Oklahoma's best defender - Billy Bowman - and you get an unmitigated disaster on defense.

So, the answer of what is the problem on defense..."it's complicated" but I do think it can improve.

***Offensively, I'm less concerned, I feel like a lot of people are choosing to ignore what we all knew - the loss of Dillon Gabriel was the one loss Oklahoma just COULD NOT afford. We said it and were far from the only ones. But when he went out it feels like OU was already down so much to TCU and then Texas going so badly it's like people were too emotional to see the reality.

Without Dillon Gabriel there isn't a guy on this team that is capable of winning games. And I agree with the idea that the wildcat was probably Oklahoma's best option for playing offense.

Now, that's a reality. It's also something that you feel Oklahoma could have been addressing. The idea that the Sooners had no one they felt could run an even stripped down version of their offense with Lebby being on campus for 10 months?

In the words of Venables..."It ain't good enough."

****As for what's next?

Time to focus on the future, the question in just about EVERYTHING - 'what would be best for 2023?'. THAT's where the focus is - we're thinking about next year, the future, that is ALL THAT MATTERS.



You think a guy could be ready to help you next year, I'm not saying he needs to be taking every snap but he needs SNAPS - get him on the field, let him get a little understanding and (if you're lucky) build a little confidence in what he is seeing.

Again, no one is calling for 'start the entire freshman class' but you do sound things to avoid having the same conversations next year of 'we've got a lot of guys learning'. Of course they will always be learning but the faster you can get them up to a 'reasonable' speed, the faster you can get moving.

Guys that have earned a chance to be on the field a lot more between now and the end of whatever the final six games will be...

Nate Anderson
Nic Anderson
Jovontae Barnes
Savion Byrd
Jayden Gibson
Gracen Halton
Jaren Kanak
Jacob Sexton
Clayton Smith
Robert Spears-Jennings
Jake Taylor
R Mason Thomas
Kani Walker
Gentry Williams

Hey guys, our 12U baseball team is doing a college pick’em the rest of the year to raise money for our season. Weekly payouts. All done on ESPN so you will be able to see who wins. Pay through Venmo or PayPal. $10 entries. Each week 50% goes to winner. If interested this is the link. Send me a message and I can get you the password.

Rawlings Tigers 12U college pick’em

C’mon, Shaker, test Jacobe lol.

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Had this ready to roll Tuesday afternoon, but PFF didn't update special teams for OU-UT until Thursday morning. Taking a look at freshmen and two areas why OU is struggling.

Let's roll.

Play for the future? OK, let’s do that. A look at the snap counts for the 2022 freshmen class on offense, defense and special teams and the number of games played.

Offense

No. 17 Jovantae Barnes – 100 snaps (five games)

No. 18 Jayden Gibson – 86 (four games)

No. 20 Jacob Sexton – 62 (five games)

No. 24 Jake Taylor – 35 (five games)

No. 26 Jason Llewelyn – 32 (five games)

No. 28 Kaden Helms – 31 (two games)

No. 29 Gavin Freeman – 19 (five games)

No. 32 Nic Anderson – 11 (two games)

No. 34 Nick Evers – 6 (one game)

No. 36 Gavin Sawchuk – 3 (two games)

Defense

No. 20 Jaren Kanak – 110 snaps (five games)

No. 23 R Mason Thomas - 71 (three games)

No. 29 Gracen Halton – 52 (five games)

No. 32 Gentry Williams – 44 (five games)

No. 33 Robert Spears-Jennings – 20 (two games)

No. 35 Jayden Rowe – 13 (three games)

No. 36 (tie) Jamarrien Burt – 3 (one game)

No. 36 (tie) Kip Lewis – 3 (one game)

Special Teams

No. 3 Jaren Kanak – 88 (six games)

No. 6 Gentry Williams – 81 (six games)

No. 22 Jason Llewelyn – 44 (six games)

No. 25 Jovantae Barnes – 34 (six games)

No. 31 Gavin Freeman – 28 (five games)

No. 34 R Mason Thomas – 27 (three games)

No. 36 Gracen Halton – 25 (five games)

No. 37 Jayden Rowe – 19 (three games)

No. 44 Robert Spears-Jennings – 11 (two games)

No. 48 Jamarrien Burt – 8 (one game)

No. 57 Kip Lewis – 3 (one game)

No. 57 Peter Schuh – 3 (two games)

No. 61 Kaden Helms – 1 (one game)

Top Five Overall:

1. Jaren Kanak 198 (110 defense, 88 special teams)

2. Jovantae Barnes 134 (100 offense, 34 special teams)

3. Gentry Williams 125 (44 def, 81 special teams)

4. R Mason Thomas 98 (71 def, 27 special teams)

5. Jayden Gibson 86 (all off)

You get an idea there. Kanak has been the No. 1 special teams guy for the entire team until the Texas game and has seen the most snaps defensively. Jayden Gibson’s numbers are why I think Texas was just a blip on the radar for him and Theo Wease. Just not a game plan they could fully attack.

You’re starting to see those DB numbers go up for Williams, RSJ and Rowe. And no surprise with how well Barnes has played to see him leading the way offensively.

Here’s what DaShaun White said about Kip Lewis earlier this week:

“Really happy for Kip. I really was. He got got in there, got in the backfield, he’s playing fast. He didn’t get a lot of snaps. But he made the most of ‘em. It’s one of those deals like, a few weeks ago, I didn't know if I would be able to tell you that he would get in there and he just playing that fast, looking that good? We called him up, you could kind of see he was he's more ready than any of us kind of thought.”

Most improved?

“I would say just knowing where he's supposed to be at. I’m telling you, a few weeks ago, I wouldn't have been able to tell you that he'd be this confident and just doing his job and stuff like that. And so I'm super proud of him. And he's kind of really becoming like a young guy that we can really trust. If you gotta get out there, you got to get out there.”

Portal duds

OK, maybe that’s too harsh. But, seriously, OU didn’t hit as much from the transfer portal as what it looked like in the spring.

Hit

QB Dillon Gabriel

OT Tyler Guyton

Even though Gabriel hasn’t been perfect, he’s an easy hit in this department. Maybe I’m grading on a curve, but Guyton has done more than what I first thought he would be doing in 2022.

Miss

QB Davis Beville

RB Beno Thompson

TE Daniel Parker

OL McKade Mettauer

DE Jonah Laulu

DT Jeffery Johnson

DB Trey Morrison

And circle Mettauer, Laulu and Johnson, for sure. All that experience at Cal, Hawaii and Tulane, and you wouldn’t recognize it at all as helping this year’s OU team. Beville is what he is. Morrison just has been too small to do anything and was beaten out for a starting spot. All that defensive experience in the portal just hasn’t paid off. Parker? Maybe it’s too early for miss, but it definitely wasn’t a hit. BenTavius just been hurt?

TBD

CB Kani Walker

WR LV Bunkley-Shelton

CB C.J. Coldon

Walker has made a play or two. Coldon might get more run, based off what he did vs. Texas. Bunkley-Shelton, for me, has been the head-scratcher. I seriously thought he was gonna play more and do more whenever he was in. Walker and LV are still so young, so you can remain optimistic about their long-term standing.

N/A

WR J.J. Hester (injury)

LB T.D. Roof (injury)

Duh. Two major injuries here so no judgment.

***

Finally caught up to OU

The quarterback strategy finally bit OU in the butt. Finally. Going after an elite quarterback every other year is obviously costing OU right now.

2018 – Tanner Mordecai (SMU)

2019 – Spencer Rattler (South Carolina)

2020 – Chandler Morris (TCU)

2021 – Caleb Williams (USC)

BV had to start from scratch at the position, even if he doesn’t wanna fully admit it.

“I’m not gonna be the one that says. I’m not the one was that here. Y’all were here so you have to start over. One of them was here in the spring and Nick Evers, who just go out of high school was here. He’s done a nice job. Like most freshmen, they come in and there’s more bad days than good days for freshmen.

“When you’re a quarterback, that’s a whole other animal. Here as of late, Nick has been doing pretty well. What I use as the evaluation is when goes against other freshmen in some of our scrimmage we set aside each week. The three of four series. He’s done pretty well in that setting. Davis and General both got here in the summer and we can’t really work with them in the summer until fall camp. That’s not ideal, but we have to make the most of it.”

Venables is gonna be a believer that you can build a quarterback room and that the portal doesn’t have to be an accepted result every single year at the position.

An interesting answer Tuesday.

“I think we understand why things took place here in that regard. I’m not writing the stories and I’m not pointing fingers. We made a move with a freshman a year ago and the other guys decided to go elsewhere. I don’t believe that it has to be that way. I’ve seen other programs that have multiple good quarterbacks. Kansas is one of them. How are they doing it? I don’t know. Maybe I need to ask coach Leipold that and get a little wisdom from him. Both of those guys were not really highly recruited guys. Maybe that has something to do with it. I don’t know. They’ve done a good job culturally.

“I want our guys to be committed and loyal. I know they want opportunities and I get that, too. Quarterback is a unique position. But I want guys to love their experience so much and feel a sense of loyalty that making a decision is incredibly difficult. I don’t want a transactional program. Losing four guys at once is pretty much unheard of. Who else has that happened to? I don’t know.

“I love college football and you don’t see that happen much. You see the guy at Georgia. I think he walked on and eventually go put on and there’s still a whole bunch of good quarterbacks on that roster and he’s the guy. He stuck to it and had some stick-to-it-ness and he became the guy and hasn’t let it go. You want to recruit to that and develop that.

“We had to figure that out in a very small amount of time.”

***

Back to the high school grind this week. Still waiting to see Jacobe Johnson forced to do something at cornerback.

Maybe?

Up next: Union at Mustang – Thursday night.

*So earlier this week, when Hayes Fawcett excited the world with #flipszn talk, rumors immediately ran wild. One of the crazier ones was talk that Denton (Texas) Guyer potential five-star quarterback Jackson Arnold could be looking for a move away from Oklahoma.

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Now Arnold has loooooong been a non-entity in the recruiting world outside of the Sooners. Since his commitment he has focused the entirety of his efforts on helping build the 2023 class and truly has shut down pretty much all outside interest.

But the one school that always seemed to make the most sense - even if there was no reason to consider it - was Texas A&M. The Aggies need a 2023 quarterback and obviously have the means to make that possible.

Still though, Arnold has never seemed interested.

So I wanted to just check around in College Station and Denton circles and see if anything was cooking.

As expected? Nothing.

"I think A&M would love to make that happen but there's been no real door opening there," an Aggie source said.

Right now you have to kind of keep checking on everything but Arnold seems like a guy who believes in what the Sooners are doing even if it's not always pretty at the moment.

**I know there has been a lot of excitement about Ardmore, Okla. 2023 athlete Eric Fields.

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I've spoken to some sources and it seems that there is a grade issue to clear before a lot of schools can get involved - though it does not seem like an impossibility to happen. Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Kansas State, and North Texas are among some who have very real interest and Fields is highly regarded by his coaching staff.

"He's the most talented guy I've been around," said one Ardmore staff member with a long history.

Fields has a chance to be a special one but he's got to do a little work before his GPA/ACT situation is ready to go. Still though, keep an eye on him, it won't shock me at all if in January his recruitment really takes off if he can show some improvement on the sliding scale.

***Finally for months now Oklahoma's offensive line has seemed set on four signees, the four players already committed, but it seems that in recent weeks the idea of an addition to the class has become more plausible than in the past.

It's not that it is set in stone but it does seem as though Oklahoma is looking at a few options if the numbers were to work out. One name that has been thrown around a little - from what I've gathered is something of a renewal of interest with Florida State commitment Lucas Simmons.

For those that don't know Simmons is an Oklahoma legacy and had a lot of early interest in the Sooners but Oklahoma kind of cooled on him back in the spring.

I am NOT saying there has been any real contact to date but he's a name I've heard could get a second look.

There are a few others that feel a bit more like fliers at this point - players with upside but who aren't big recruiting names at this point - but it does seem like Oklahoma is throwing around the idea of another lineman for 2023.

Tickets are in section 19 row 24 and have chairbacks. $50 for them both. Dm me if interested

If BV & Roof want a 3 man Front why not put 3 DT as the 3 & forget about Grimes & Downs???

I did not include Washington as he was hired as an analyst and is just an interim. Personally, I think Lebby is back unless Arnold decommits. I think it's Bedenbaugh. Brent has no particular tie to him and I just don't think he's up to The Standard Brent is looking for moving into the SEC. I think Brent wanted to reward the guys on the staff who stayed loyal but he's not going to have a whole lot of patience with a guy he didn't hire and had never coached with previously.

We're about to record the pod. I'll be here all day. Ask me anything.

I'm more than concerned about this ship. It's sinking.

I've rooted for this kid since he left, but prob not anymore. Riley is the one who benched you, genius. Not OU.

And he benched you for a guy who is possibly the top 2 best qb in college football. And he did that bc YOU were playing terribly.

I could see if Riley was still at OU and lost Saturday. And I'm sure if Rattler wanted to stay under the new staff he could have. So why talk sh*t now?

4 together sec. 19. Row 15. Seats. 13, 14, 15, & 16
$100 all 4.

@Josh_M
Please for the love of GOD don’t do an MMI this week! I ask for very little but it’s just not right to go through that again.

Has anyone seen the coaches in the last two weeks pull a player out for a mistake, or lack of effort, and get in their ass about it?? Saw it going on first three games. Remember BV grabbing Jaden Davis before he hit the sideline. I haven’t seen it, but maybe I missed it. I miss the fire

Why is it that the short slow players are always the ones that “get the playbook and show up on tuesdays etc” and the physical freaks never translate to the field (Brey Walker, Bryson Washington too many to count at this point)

And the tall fast receivers can’t catch the football but Drake stoops can?

never made sense to me why you can’t be big and smart or tall and catch

He's not getting fired. It would be program suicide to fire a first year coach. No coach would ever want to coach at OU.

You want to become Nebraska? That's how you become Nebraska.

If you're entertaining the idea of firing Brent, or even Lebby, you have the IQ of a ranch flavored corn nut and likely pee on your balls.

PETA calls for women to go on sex strike against men who eat meat​

An animal rights group is calling for a sex ban to be placed on men who eat meat.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)’s German division claims devouring sausages and schnitzel is a symptom of toxic masculinity, that it’s killing the planet.

The non-profit organization has urged women to go on a sex strike to “save the world”.

During Friday’s episode of Sky News Australia’s NewsDay, available to stream on Flash, Laura Weyman-Jones, marketing manager for PETA Australia discussed the ban.

The PETA Australia representative said its organization’s statement was designed to be a conversation starter, before adding, “we really don’t care about your sex lives”.

“What we do care about is the planet and the animals we share it with and those animals are dying by the billions in the crudest ways imaginable for burgers and sandwich filling,” she told co-host Tom Connell.

“It’s a conversation starter. Otherwise, I guess you wouldn’t have invited us on to talk about it.”

“We know that vegan men get more matches on dating apps because compassion is attractive,” she said.

“We know that artery-clogging meat increases the risk of erectile dysfunction and every meaty meal is throwing us closer to an environmental catastrophe, there’s absolutely nothing sexy about it.”

PETA Germany pointed out a study published by the scientific online journal PLOS ONE which found that men caused 41 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than women largely because they consumed more meat.