Cookin’ with Grill Boy
In this new addition to OU Insider I put a bow on the previous game then transition to the upcoming game. Since it is Week 1, we will discuss our opening week opponent a bit, take a stab at the score, make some bold predictions, and lock in some final records!
Meal Prep
1. Much has been made of this being a “new look” Arkansas State team. So much so that it’s reportedly been a bit difficult to watch last year’s film and prepare soundly for this Saturday’s matchup. This is largely because the Red Wolves have brought in 18 transfers since the end of last season. According to Arkansas State, these additions lift their number of total transfers to 32, which makes up 26% of their roster. It’s easy to become numb to large roster turnover in 2023, but expect some growing pains to become evident in Week 1 for Butch Jones’s squad. The Red Wolves are 2-15 against the Big 12. The most recent win was over the Kansas State Wildcats in 2020, apparently pissing the 'Cats off just enough to beat Oklahoma the following week. Their only other win? You likely guessed it. In 2008, Arkansas State marched into Kyle Field and beat Texas A&M.
2. Arkansas State, despite their record, doesn’t have the typical Sun Belt Conference talent one might expect. Their 2022 class ranked second in the SBC, while they signed the top class in the 2023 cycle. Butch Jones has always been an above average recruiter at stops like Cincinnati and Tennessee. They’ve also attracted some former highly thought of prospects. Eddie Smith signed in 2018 with the Alabama Crimson Tide. After a stop in Illinois, he finds himself starting at safety for the Red Wolves. Another member of that 2018 class, Brian Snead, is now playing running back for Arkansas State. Snead originally signed with the Ohio State Buckeyes out of high school when he was ranked the #4 RB in the country. Two of their starting offensive linemen were brought in from Ole Miss. Their starting quarterback J.T. Shrout was a member of the Tennessee Volunteers 2018 class, before transferring to Colorado where Coach Prime showed him the door.
3. Arkansas State’s depth has been their Achilles heel since Butch Jones took over. After winning only a pair of games in 2021, the Red Wolves won a trio of games in 2022. That doesn’t sound like much improvement, until you realize they were doing their best Nebraska impression last season. Arkansas State led in 4th Quarter in 8 of the 12 games that they played. It hasn’t shown up in the win/loss columns yet, but this is a program that is improving. The problem is that it might not be improving quickly enough for Butch Jones to retain his employment, and a game against Oklahoma is not what his agent ordered. Arkansas State has played two games agains the Sooners and lost both with a combined score of 106-7. Butch Jones is also 0-3 against Oklahoma as a head coach.
4. A team of Arkansas State’s stature does not have a ton of “strengths”, but instead has areas where they’re “less weak”. That area of less weakness is indisputably their secondary. Joining the aforementioned Eddie Smith at safety is senior captain Justin Parks, with Trevian Thomas rounding out an experience safety room. The Red Wolves feel good about their corners as well. On one side you have fourth-year starter Samy Johnson and they added Justin Hodges on the other. Hodges started the previous two years for the University of Central Florida before ending up in Jonesboro a few weeks ago. Senior Leon Jones adds experienced depth to the corner room. A combination of Dillon Gabriel and Jackson Arnold should have no problem working against this secondary, but look for Oklahoma to put up a simply gaudy rushing total. Last season, Oklahoma’s offense ranked 10th nationally in rushing yards per game while Arkansas State’s defense ranked 81st in rushing yards allowed. I tend to believe we’ll rank even higher than 10th this season.
5. Among the bevy of transfers added by Butch Jones, none may be more important than former UT Martin running back Zak Wallace. The Benton product returns to his home state for what he hopes is a springboard to a professional career. The former two-star recruit rushed for a 1,012 yards and 16 touchdowns a season ago. He rushed for 807 yards and 15 touchdowns in 2021. Both of these performances earned him All-Ohio Valley Conference selections before leaving UT Martin for Jonesboro. Oklahoma will need to shore up their porous run defense if it wants to sniff double digit wins, but also if they want to corral Wallace. The Sooner run defense ranked 105th in the country a season ago, and will surely be thrilled to not see Bijan Robinson or Duece Vaughn on their schedule.
Arkansas State Score Prediction
Each week we’ll see if anyone can nail the exact score. If you do, I’ll try and get Parker to send you a can of Olipop or something. (I have not discussed this with him, but I can at least try!)
My prediction:
Oklahoma 52
Arkansas State 10
Bold Predictions
Throughout the season we will do bold predictions for each game. I will start us off, and then I will ask the members to give me some bold predictions in the comments. From the member-produced predictions, I’ll add any that came true to the next article.
Final Record Prediction
It’s finally here. We’ve waited months for football season, and its finally here. That means it's time to put some final record predictions on the table. I will add mine and I’d love to see yours added in the replies.
This is the format:
Regular Season Record (name losses)
Conference Championship Game result and opponent (if applicable)
Postseason result(s)
This is mine:
11-1 (loss to Texas)
Big 12 Championship Game over Kansas State
Lose in College Football Playoff
Reminder: Please add your score prediction, bold prediction for the game, and final record prediction to the comments
Boomer Sooner!
Beat Arkansas State!
In this new addition to OU Insider I put a bow on the previous game then transition to the upcoming game. Since it is Week 1, we will discuss our opening week opponent a bit, take a stab at the score, make some bold predictions, and lock in some final records!
Meal Prep
1. Much has been made of this being a “new look” Arkansas State team. So much so that it’s reportedly been a bit difficult to watch last year’s film and prepare soundly for this Saturday’s matchup. This is largely because the Red Wolves have brought in 18 transfers since the end of last season. According to Arkansas State, these additions lift their number of total transfers to 32, which makes up 26% of their roster. It’s easy to become numb to large roster turnover in 2023, but expect some growing pains to become evident in Week 1 for Butch Jones’s squad. The Red Wolves are 2-15 against the Big 12. The most recent win was over the Kansas State Wildcats in 2020, apparently pissing the 'Cats off just enough to beat Oklahoma the following week. Their only other win? You likely guessed it. In 2008, Arkansas State marched into Kyle Field and beat Texas A&M.
2. Arkansas State, despite their record, doesn’t have the typical Sun Belt Conference talent one might expect. Their 2022 class ranked second in the SBC, while they signed the top class in the 2023 cycle. Butch Jones has always been an above average recruiter at stops like Cincinnati and Tennessee. They’ve also attracted some former highly thought of prospects. Eddie Smith signed in 2018 with the Alabama Crimson Tide. After a stop in Illinois, he finds himself starting at safety for the Red Wolves. Another member of that 2018 class, Brian Snead, is now playing running back for Arkansas State. Snead originally signed with the Ohio State Buckeyes out of high school when he was ranked the #4 RB in the country. Two of their starting offensive linemen were brought in from Ole Miss. Their starting quarterback J.T. Shrout was a member of the Tennessee Volunteers 2018 class, before transferring to Colorado where Coach Prime showed him the door.
3. Arkansas State’s depth has been their Achilles heel since Butch Jones took over. After winning only a pair of games in 2021, the Red Wolves won a trio of games in 2022. That doesn’t sound like much improvement, until you realize they were doing their best Nebraska impression last season. Arkansas State led in 4th Quarter in 8 of the 12 games that they played. It hasn’t shown up in the win/loss columns yet, but this is a program that is improving. The problem is that it might not be improving quickly enough for Butch Jones to retain his employment, and a game against Oklahoma is not what his agent ordered. Arkansas State has played two games agains the Sooners and lost both with a combined score of 106-7. Butch Jones is also 0-3 against Oklahoma as a head coach.
4. A team of Arkansas State’s stature does not have a ton of “strengths”, but instead has areas where they’re “less weak”. That area of less weakness is indisputably their secondary. Joining the aforementioned Eddie Smith at safety is senior captain Justin Parks, with Trevian Thomas rounding out an experience safety room. The Red Wolves feel good about their corners as well. On one side you have fourth-year starter Samy Johnson and they added Justin Hodges on the other. Hodges started the previous two years for the University of Central Florida before ending up in Jonesboro a few weeks ago. Senior Leon Jones adds experienced depth to the corner room. A combination of Dillon Gabriel and Jackson Arnold should have no problem working against this secondary, but look for Oklahoma to put up a simply gaudy rushing total. Last season, Oklahoma’s offense ranked 10th nationally in rushing yards per game while Arkansas State’s defense ranked 81st in rushing yards allowed. I tend to believe we’ll rank even higher than 10th this season.
5. Among the bevy of transfers added by Butch Jones, none may be more important than former UT Martin running back Zak Wallace. The Benton product returns to his home state for what he hopes is a springboard to a professional career. The former two-star recruit rushed for a 1,012 yards and 16 touchdowns a season ago. He rushed for 807 yards and 15 touchdowns in 2021. Both of these performances earned him All-Ohio Valley Conference selections before leaving UT Martin for Jonesboro. Oklahoma will need to shore up their porous run defense if it wants to sniff double digit wins, but also if they want to corral Wallace. The Sooner run defense ranked 105th in the country a season ago, and will surely be thrilled to not see Bijan Robinson or Duece Vaughn on their schedule.
Arkansas State Score Prediction
Each week we’ll see if anyone can nail the exact score. If you do, I’ll try and get Parker to send you a can of Olipop or something. (I have not discussed this with him, but I can at least try!)
My prediction:
Oklahoma 52
Arkansas State 10
Bold Predictions
Throughout the season we will do bold predictions for each game. I will start us off, and then I will ask the members to give me some bold predictions in the comments. From the member-produced predictions, I’ll add any that came true to the next article.
- Someone other than a QB will attempt a pass. I think that after a long offseason of 6-7 talk, Lebby lets his hair down a bit and has some fun.
- Two true freshmen other than Jackson Arnold will score a touchdown. This could get ugly, so Hicks, Smothers, Pettaway, and McIntyre, will all likely see some time. I won’t rule out a D/ST touchdown from somebody like Peyton Bowen or Jasiah Wagoner.
- Oklahoma’s defense will draw three or more offensive holding penalties. I know Sooner fans don’t expect to see many of those calls in conference play, so I am taking the opportunity to predict these now.
Final Record Prediction
It’s finally here. We’ve waited months for football season, and its finally here. That means it's time to put some final record predictions on the table. I will add mine and I’d love to see yours added in the replies.
This is the format:
Regular Season Record (name losses)
Conference Championship Game result and opponent (if applicable)
Postseason result(s)
This is mine:
11-1 (loss to Texas)
Big 12 Championship Game over Kansas State
Lose in College Football Playoff
Reminder: Please add your score prediction, bold prediction for the game, and final record prediction to the comments
Boomer Sooner!
Beat Arkansas State!
