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OU Recruiting 2025: Truck Balls and Broken Dreams


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  • 2 weeks later...

https://www.ncaa.org/news/2024/8/27/media-center-violations-occurred-in-oklahoma-football-track-and-field-programs.aspx

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Recruiting violations occurred in the Oklahoma football program when assistant coach DeMarco Murray impermissibly contacted prospects and their families prior to the permissible time period, according to an agreement released by the Division I Committee on Infractions. Additional violations occurred in the track and field program when former head coach Tim Langford directed a female student-athlete to provide some of her scholarship funds to two student-athletes in the men's track and field program. As a result of the violations in their respective programs, the parties agreed that football head coach Brent Venables and Langford violated head coach responsibility rules.

The school, Murray and the enforcement staff agreed that the violations in the football program occurred when Murray impermissibly contacted 17 prospects over 16 months, including 65 impermissible phone calls and 36 impermissible text messages. Murray indicated that he was not aware that a COVID-19 waiver of recruiting contact rules had expired.  During the investigation, the enforcement staff determined that the school had properly educated football coaches on the applicable recruiting rules and the timing of changes to them.

Head coaches are presumed responsible for the actions of their staff, and as a result, Venables violated head coach responsibility rules. In this case, however, some of the violations occurred prior to rules changes effective in January 2023 that shifted head coach responsibility rules from a rebuttable presumption to automatic. Because Venables was not personally involved in the violations and demonstrated that he promoted an atmosphere of compliance and monitored his staff, Venables rebutted his presumed responsibility for some of the earlier violations. For the same reasons, the parties also agreed that a suspension penalty for Venables was not appropriate.

The school, enforcement staff and Langford agreed that the violations in the track and field program occurred in April 2023 when Langford directed a student-athlete to redistribute a total of $2,020 of her cost-of-attendance increase in scholarship funds to two men's track and field student-athletes ($1,010 was provided to each) to help them pay rent. As a result of the impermissible benefits provided to the student-athletes receiving the funds, those student-athletes went on to compete in four and five competitions, respectively, while ineligible and the men's track and field program exceeded scholarship limits.

In addition to the underlying violations, Langford violated ethical conduct rules when he knowingly arranged for the provision of impermissible benefits.  Due to his personal involvement in the violations, Langford also violated head coach responsibility rules.

Following his separation from the university, Langford denied involvement in the violations during an interview with the enforcement staff. However, each of the student-athletes reported hearing Langford on speakerphone providing the directions to the student-athlete as she transferred the funds, and the student-athlete's account reflected the electronic transfers. As a result, the parties agreed that Langford failed to cooperate when he provided false or misleading information.

Finally, the enforcement staff and school agreed that the school promptly disclosed the violations when they were detected and completed a thorough review of the conduct. The school self-imposed recruiting penalties for Murray as the case was processed. Additionally, the enforcement staff determined that the compliance department had adequate monitoring systems relating to phone conversations, but in this case, football recruiting staff had not uploaded the respective prospects' recruiting profiles since they were not yet of recruiting age, and the phone recruiting software included an unavoidable two-month lag in producing phone records.

The parties used ranges identified by the Division I membership-approved infractions penalty guidelines to agree upon Level II-mitigated penalties for the university, Venables and Murray, and Level I-aggravated penalties for Langford. The decision contains the full list of penalties as approved by the Committee on Infractions, including:

One year of probation.
A $5,000 fine.
A one-game suspension for Murray during the 2024 football season.
A four-year show-cause order for Langford. During the first two years of the show-cause order, Langford is restricted from all athletically related duties, and any employing member school will suspend Langford for 50% of his first season. During the last two years of the show-cause order, Langford is restricted from off-campus recruiting. The show-cause order also requires Langford to attend an NCAA Regional Rules Seminar and restricts his involvement with financial aid offers.
A reduction in men's track and field scholarships by 0.1 for the 2023-24 season (self-imposed).
A prohibition against football staff calling the involved prospects during the May 29-June 11, 2022, and April 15-May 31, 2023, periods (self-imposed).
A 20% reduction in football recruiting days in spring 2023 (self-imposed).
A prohibition against football staff from calling or corresponding with involved prospects from Aug. 1-31, 2023 (self-imposed).
A limitation of Murray's 2023 football recruiting days to eight, down from an average 16.4 per recruiting coach (self-imposed).
A prohibition from off-campus recruiting for Murray during the 2023 fall evaluation period (self-imposed).
A three-week ban on recruiting phone and electronic correspondence for the football program from Dec. 8, 2024, to March 31, 2025.
A prohibition against unofficial visits during the first game of the 2024 season.
A vacation of all team track and field records in which student-athletes competed while ineligible.
Members of the Committee on Infractions are drawn from the NCAA membership and members of the public. The members of the panel who reviewed this case are Kay Norton, president emerita of Northern Colorado and chief hearing officer for the panel; Amy Parsons, president of Colorado State University; and Stephen Madva, attorney in private practice.

 

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40 minutes ago, Machinator said:

 

Unfortunate that he couldn't have as much contact with the football as he did with those recruits because Cowboys are probably in the Super Bowl in 2014 without his fumble in GB.

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Wasn’t Murray hooking up with the wife of one of his former OU teammates at the end his NFL career? The details are a little fuzzy but I remember him being put on blast on twitter with text screenshots.

He isn’t even a good recruiter so him being slapped with NCAA penalties is hilarious. Same guy who “lost” Camar Wheaton’s phone number in the two weeks leading up to signing day.

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7 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

Wasn’t Murray hooking up with the wife of one of his former OU teammates at the end his NFL career? The details are a little fuzzy but I remember him being put on blast on twitter with text screenshots.

He isn’t even a good recruiter so him being slapped with NCAA penalties is hilarious. Same guy who “lost” Camar Wheaton’s phone number in the two weeks leading up to signing day.

Yeah, he slept with teammate Brennan Clay's wife.

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1 hour ago, Scholz said:

Yeah, he slept with teammate Brennan Clay's wife.

It really is hard to top the 1978 story of (married) HC Switzer screwing DC Larry Lacewell’s wife. That part is established. The speculative part is where Lacewell quits after the season and gives Arkansas info on tendencies that helped the Hogs pull off the upset in the Orange Bowl. 

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On 8/27/2024 at 12:42 PM, Scholz said:

Yeah, he slept with teammate Brennan Clay's wife.

..and then Brennan got arrest for "allegedly" beating her up a month later

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Ex-Oklahoma RB Brennan Clay -- who famously accused ex-OU teammate DeMarco Murray of banging his wife -- was arrested for assault after allegedly terrorizing his spouse ... TMZ Sports has learned.

We've learned ... Clay was arrested in Dallas County, TX on January 27th after his estranged wife Gina told cops he kicked down her door and proceeded to beat the crap out of her.

According to the police report, obtained by TMZ Sports, Gina claimed Clay threw her on the kitchen counter, dragged her downstairs, dragged her through shrubbery and then began to choke her.

Gina says he brought her back into the house and "began punching and throwing her around the residence."

Eventually, Gina was able to call police ... and when they arrived, officers noticed her right leg was bleeding with several cuts. They later located Clay in a nearby alley and arrested him for assault.

Clay filed for divorce a few months ago after accusing Gina of sleeping with Murray ... an allegation that Murray adamantly denied. Clay eventually recanted his accusation and apologized.

We reached out to Clay -- but he had no comment.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Let’s talk Jackson Arnold. Probably the most overrated 5 star QB since Haynes King. OU fan adamantly argued he was better than Arch because he played in a better district. 
 

Cracky Venables and OU told anybody that would listen that they upgraded at QB after Gabriel left. The national podcasters lapped it up and repeated it over and over again on season previews without any analysis. 
 

And here we are. Disastrous bowl game. 93rd in QBR against Temple and U of H. Staring down the barrel of a bad loss against Tulane and a daunting SEC schedule. Textbook fuck around and find out situation. 

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1 hour ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Let’s talk Jackson Arnold. Probably the most overrated 5 star QB since Haynes King. OU fan adamantly argued he was better than Arch because he played in a better district. 
 

Cracky Venables and OU told anybody that would listen that they upgraded at QB after Gabriel left. The national podcasters lapped it up and repeated it over and over again on season previews without any analysis. 
 

And here we are. Disastrous bowl game. 93rd in QBR against Temple and U of H. Staring down the barrel of a bad loss against Tulane and a daunting SEC schedule. Textbook fuck around and find out situation. 

While I’d love you to be right, I’d tap the brakes a little bit on these results.  From what I understand this staff heavily dedicates practice time and game planning to future significant opponents with the thought that their basic offensive and defensive systems will get them past lesser opponents.  Last year they were allegedly using a portion of every other practice to prepare for the Texas game.  I’d be shocked if they weren’t doing the same thing this year to some extent (although they probably should be spending time prepping for Tennessee).

Pushing out Gabriel for Arnold is still laughable and completely indefensible.

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54 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

How the fuck is this guy affiliated with Fox Sports? Does he have a radio show or something? 

 

10 minutes ago, VirginiaLonghorn said:

He still does and he is nothing if not entertaining.


I agree. His rants are funny. "Get in the books. Get in the film room. Re-dedicate your life to him, and let's go win football games."  

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29 minutes ago, Professor Chesney said:

 

While I’d love you to be right, I’d tap the brakes a little bit on these results.  From what I understand this staff heavily dedicates practice time and game planning to future significant opponents with the thought that their basic offensive and defensive systems will get them past lesser opponents.  Last year they were allegedly using a portion of every other practice to prepare for the Texas game.  I’d be shocked if they weren’t doing the same thing this year to some extent (although they probably should be spending time prepping for Tennessee).

Pushing out Gabriel for Arnold is still laughable and completely indefensible.

I get what you’re saying, but Coug High was 1 field goal away from beating them. The hats not being vanilla, that’s almost losing to a last place Big 12 team. 

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20 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

I get what you’re saying, but Coug High was 1 field goal away from beating them. The hats not being vanilla, that’s almost losing to a last place Big 12 team. 

To make matters worse, we were given an extra possession with that phantom muffed punt, which led to a touchdown. You could argue that OU earned 9 points.

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41 minutes ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

 


I agree. His rants are funny. "Get in the books. Get in the film room. Re-dedicate your life to him, and let's go win football games."  

"What must I do with Isaac on the mountaintop to fix this?!" Lol

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32 minutes ago, Constant said:

To make matters worse, we were given an extra possession with that phantom muffed punt, which led to a touchdown. You could argue that OU earned 9 points.

And if the safety had been called the opposite way on the field, it likely stands on review also.

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To be clear, I’m not dismissing OU’s chances of beating Texas. That game is almost always a war. 
 

That said, I think they’re in for a very rough season. 
 

I’m not sure they had many good choices. If Gabriel was dead set on leaving, sure, they had to create some bullshit narrative to spin it. But if he asked for a reasonable NIL number, OU should have paid it and roll the dice with Arnold. I don’t think he had enough film to get any good offers to leave. 

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On 9/8/2024 at 6:33 PM, billfromlaketravis said:

To be clear, I’m not dismissing OU’s chances of beating Texas. That game is almost always a war. 
 

That said, I think they’re in for a very rough season. 
 

I’m not sure they had many good choices. If Gabriel was dead set on leaving, sure, they had to create some bullshit narrative to spin it. But if he asked for a reasonable NIL number, OU should have paid it and roll the dice with Arnold. I don’t think he had enough film to get any good offers to leave. 

He really wasn’t dead set on leaving.  Mistakes were made.  Bout to wander the proverbial desert.  

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35 minutes ago, Elmer_Fudd said:

Rivals mentioned a few days ago Miami was making a move.

I spend a lot more time in Miami vs Oklahoma.  And probably have more intel w their program.  I don’t really get it but they are still loaded with cash even with Ruiz struggling.  OU can’t match their money imo.  And Miami is kind of fun of you have a little cash.  Pre NIL you could say most cfb players were priced out of the fun.  Today, it’s a very attractive destination for recruits.   

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28 minutes ago, ClubWhatever said:

Except one did play at Texas

 

26 minutes ago, kevwun said:

He enrolled at Texas and then never saw the field. 

 

2 minutes ago, ClubWhatever said:

He saw it and stepped on it.  Even caught a pass in a game.

Nobody bats 1.000. It's hard to argue with how WR has been handled, particularly since Marion left.

Thompson was at Texas long enough to collect substantial NIL, never learn the playbook, whine about playing time, and then get pushed into the portal.

He then turns around after landing at OU to talk shit about Texas along with his mother. Then he fails to learn the playbook and plays little as a backup until this season, as the OU WR room continues to get worse. A starter early in 2024, he's now predictably injured and not contributing.

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