quigley

OU and ND are the two big openings right now. Would be comedy to see two playoff teams (Cincy and Ok St) without coaches because their coaches left to take jobs at school the respective schools beat that same season (Fickell from Cincy to ND and Mike Gundy from Ok St to OU). Not that I'm wishing for either, but it would cap the absurdity that is this season. Everyone assumes Cale Gundy will stay at OU, but if doesn't like the new OU head coach, he's not even being mentioned as a possible candidate, I wonder if he could end up in Stillwater?

Manning had no track record of DB coaching, but his CBs overperformed expectations. I was hoping he'd stay, but he had no ties to OU. This is obviously a particularly bad look.

The shirt is the shirt. First Ok St win in so many year so fans should get to celebrate. The Pokes have among the top 5 coaches in the country. Gundy's no longer 40, but he's still only 54. I'm surprised that his name didn't get mentioned in the FL or LSU searches.

From a Sooner fan, congrats on the win. The Pokes played a great game for 4 quarters. Good luck in JerryWorld.

I heard Drake Stoops is thinking of portaling.

Are the rumors true and current?

Why doesn't Holgorsen get a look a bigger job?

Doubt he goes to USC 🤣🤣 Behind only Caleb Williams in importance as a skill player in OU's offense.

Last year the first wave didn't really crest until after the second signing period. Apparently Florida State has staffing in Oklahoma recruiting for the portal 🤣🤪 https://247sports.com/college/oklahoma/Article/SCOOP-Florida-State-staff-in-Oklahoma-meeting-with-transfer-targets-176825130/

Wow How prescient was this post? 🤣🤣🤣

Not just Rambo. Jaylon Robinson caught 55 passes for 979 in 2020 for UCF. I don't think he had a single catch at OU. Please tell me why Dennis Simmons is considered a good WR coach.

OU didn't have that. In fact, LB change of direction improved and injuries were generally minimal. Quickness didn't really get better. Overall, I thought he was ok.

Specifically about Haselwood, there were rumblings about him portaling last year after the season. The thought this year was that he'd go the draft if he had a good year or the portal if he had a bad year. He had on 23 catches in 3 years at OU. He was a willing and good blocker at the WR position but not irreplaceable.

Don't know who they'll get for S&C. I know Schmidt was Stoops guy, but I don't know if BV had similar feelings. Related question about Wiley. I was dubious about Wiley for early on based on the negative feelings about him on this board, but OU's strength and conditioning seems to have been OK with him. Specifically, OL and DL had very few injuries. I disagree with the strategy of larding guys up on the OL, but he seemed to do it. The DL wanted to get quicker, and they seemed to do that. Why is Wiley bad? Could Wiley have improved between his UT and OU tenure?

Sark is safe

@golfclap OU's scrubbed Riley, Simmons, Grinch, and football operations director Clarke Stroud from the university webpage. Bob Stoops has been added as interim coach. Interestingly, Bedenbaugh is still on the OU website. Bedenbaugh came to OU before Riley, and Bedenbaugh's wife is from Oklahoma. Maybe he stays for now and sees who the new head coach will be. Maybe we'll learn if OU's declining run game efficiency is due to Riley or Bedenbaugh. If Bedenbaugh leaves, OU should target Sherrone Moore, former OU OL and current Michigan OL coach.

All 3 of the 2019 5-star WR recruits are now gone. Wease had 45 catches for 666 yds. Haselwood had 23 for 337 yds. These are the career stats for both players. Neither displayed great separation ability or hands. Haselwood was a good down-field blocker. Best of luck to them both. The only two OU receivers that are important to keep are Mims and Mario Williams. I hope they stay. I'm really baffled as to why people consider Dennis Simmons a top flight WR coach at this point. His success early, Shepard (who was good pre-Simmons), Westbrook, Brown, Lamb, has been tempered by disappointment over the last two years. The uneven recruiting has left OU with depth issues in the WR room.

This is all it took to get you back? (hope you're well)

Yeah, I remember the discussions. Someone else was asking. I think we largely agree. Bendenbaugh is a Leach disciple also. Bill played for Leach and also coached on his staff at Tech while Riley was there so I don't think it's just one has Leach influence and the other doesn't. The interesting thing is that there are guys that fit the mold of the early Bedenbaugh lines at OU (Nate Anderson, eg) that don't seem to be getting any run. OL portaling out would be a massive loss because of low OL numbers last year and likely low recruiting numbers this year.

Take DeMarco Murray too please.

Bedenbaugh and DeMarco Murray are the two guys I hope leave. OU OL regression in the running game has been massive. It's on these guy's plates.

The OL pass blocking is generally good, despite a high sack rate. There have been some issues this year with blitz pick up. The blitz issue is attributable to OU rolling out a RS-Fr center and RB blitz pick up issues. The Sooner QBs also have had a tendency to hold the ball forever and leave clean pockets, frustratingly. Run blocking has regressed, partly due to development and partly due to scheme. A lot of the really good offensive linemen OU's had weren't highly rated recruits but program guys that Bedenbaugh developed. That development basically stopped from the 2018 class on. From that class on, OU's gotten contributions from 2 out of 15 (!) OL recruits. Included in that are 4 top 100 recruits (1 5-star, 9 total 4-stars). So talent acquisition isn't the problem, but several of these presumably highly talented players have gotten ZERO run yet are still in the program. I was hoping that some of the seniors would opt out of the bowl game so we could see what we've got in some of the younger OL in live action. The GT counter is the Sooners bread and butter play, the play that sets up so much their neat misdirection. The strength of the Sooners from mid 2015 - 2018 was OU could tell you that that play was coming and still get 6 yds off it most of the time. Defenses caught up, the pullers aren't as nimble, and Riley's been slow to vary the play design. OU's success running the ball this year has been with zone blocking schemes. OU hasn't had a back with great wiggle/run-after-contact + long speed since 2017 also so some of those 80 yd runs have now become 30 yd runs.

I tried to like your post, but I've run out of rep. I'm not a "blame the refs" type, but last night there was some home cooking in Stillwater.

Not last night. The holding is working less well too. OL regression was one of the most glaring problems with the Sooners.

What is that?