Football question

[BoulderSooner]

You're right, it is Sexton who is the OR at LT, and he also missed way more time than Fasusi, correct? I guess I forgot that Howland also missed time at RT -- hard to keep up with all the people who missed time on our supposedly healthy team.

What's the word on RSJ not being the clear starter? Also injury related?

reward for bogo

 

[BoulderSooner]

I shouldn't be as bothered by the bowl loss as I am, but there were so many coaching mistakes made that afternoon that it just jades the hell out of me. I don't know if this group can put together all the variables required to get us back to where we want to be. Up 14-0 with a chance to take a three-possession lead against a ball-control squad? No, let's pass on the chip-shot field goal. 27 different wideouts are unavailable due to various circumstances? Let's have Hawkins attempt 43 passes.

I'm a big fan of Brent Venables. I want him to be successful here. I dread starting over. OK, so we go 8-4......then what? Yikes.
And I've been posting on boards alongside WTSooner for at least 20 years, so color me SHOCKED at his positive slant as to the trajectory of the program.
Awesome! Hope he's right!

OU returns a bunch in 2026 against an easier schedule

 

[WichitaSooner]

reward for bogo

Reward for what? Being the better player? I genuinely am not trying to be obtuse. I just don’t understand. Is this like the Little League World Series and everyone gets to bat, or is it D-1 and you play the best guys? If RSJ is healthy and the better player, he should start. If he isn’t healthy, then Brent should stop saying we are a healthy roster heading into the opener.

 

[WichitaSooner]

OU returns a bunch in 2026 against an easier schedule

Who knows who will/won’t return? And the schedule remains to be seen.

My worst nightmare is an 8-4 season and the new AD deciding that’s good enough to warrant a fifth year with a DC masquerading as a head coach. Especially if that 8-4 record is full of coaching errors and roster misevaluations.

 

[WTSooner]

Who knows who will/won’t return? And the schedule remains to be seen.

My worst nightmare is an 8-4 season and the new AD deciding that’s good enough to warrant a fifth year with a DC masquerading as a head coach. Especially if that 8-4 record is full of coaching errors and roster misevaluations.

And what if that isn't what happens? What if we go 9-3 and we're VERY competitive in the three losses?

8-4 is the floor this season in my mind, saving something crazy happening with injuries. If they make it to the RRS undefeated (which they should), I think 9-3 becomes the floor.

 

[BoulderSooner]

Reward for what? Being the better player? I genuinely am not trying to be obtuse. I just don’t understand. Is this like the Little League World Series and everyone gets to bat, or is it D-1 and you play the best guys? If RSJ is healthy and the better player, he should start. If he isn’t healthy, then Brent should stop saying we are a healthy roster heading into the opener.

depth charts have been used by just about every coach of all time to motivate and reward players ...

RSJ is listed as the starter .. he is also one of the captains .. OU is going to play a bunch of guys on defense ..

 

[WTSooner]

OU returns a bunch in 2026 against an easier schedule

Hopefully the SEC doesn't screw us with the change to a 9 game schedule, but I think we'll get a much easier schedule next year.

Which is why I'm okay with 9-3 this year as long as we're competitive in the losses. Bring back the core, get the easier schedule, and 2026 could easily be a Playoff year.

Offense - I think we'll return about everybody that matters. I expect Mateer back. We'll lose Ott, Burks, and a couple from the OL, but the OL has plenty of non-Seniors that will play. RB and WR are some of the easiest positions to recruit (Portal).

Defense - We'll lose Williams and Halton up front. And RMT. Jackson and Stone will be back. Kobie and Kip should probably be back. Most all of the secondary except Dolby will be back (I think).

BV has done a good job of keeping the guys we've needed to keep. If we win 9 games this year, I don't see that changing.

 

[Sooner04]

And what if that isn't what happens? What if we go 9-3 and we're VERY competitive in the three losses?

I would consider that a successful season because I still think we're operating at a disadvantage in talent. The only hang-up would be a boneheaded decision late that adversely affects us. 9-3 would be a damn good run against this slate.

 

[WichitaSooner]

And what if that isn't what happens? What if we go 9-3 and we're VERY competitive in the three losses?

8-4 is the floor this season in my mind, saving something crazy happening with injuries. If they make it to the RRS undefeated (which they should), I think 9-3 becomes the floor.

I wish I shared your optimism and I hope you’re right. I just think people are putting a lot of faith in reports that all our players are “dogs” and studs. A team with one guy likely to be picked in the first three rounds certainly has a lower floor than 8-4 in the SEC, unless you think Brent has suddenly turned into a master tactician who will help us win a lot of the 50/50 games.

 

[WTSooner]

And I've been posting on boards alongside WTSooner for at least 20 years, so color me SHOCKED at his positive slant as to the trajectory of the program.
Awesome! Hope he's right!

I'm generally not an overly negative person regarding the sports teams that I like/support.

I think that is how I'm viewed around here, because I've been very vocal about some of the recent OU basketball coaches. I'm glad Riley is gone, but I wasn't as down on him as some. I keep thinking my Bengals can win a Super Bowl purely on the back of Joe "Cool" Burrow. My STL Cardinals were REALLY good for a number of years. Everything is cyclical, so I'm not bashing the current state of their ball club.

I did support Capel at the very beginning and Lon (I was always in the middle on that hire, but was ready for a change at the end). Moser is really the only one I just didn't like. But with football, I just think BV can still be the man. I read today that BV said when he got to OU the cumulative GPA was something like 2.2 and the players were failing way too many drug tests. We know the S&C program was trash. We know the defensive coaching was trash. The offense had started to slide a little. And then we moved to the SEC on top of that. BV isn't without mistakes, but I pretty clearly see a path for him being successful. The D is going to be really good this year. The O should be MUCH improved. The O being improved makes the D's job that much easier. I just struggle, tough schedule and all, seeing us not have a successful season. We'll know pretty quickly, I think. Put me on record that I think we're going to handle Michigan rather easily. Not suggesting a complete blowout, but we'll control the game and win it pretty easily.

 

[WTSooner]

I wish I shared your optimism and I hope you’re right. I just think people are putting a lot of faith in reports that all our players are “dogs” and studs. A team with one guy likely to be picked in the first three rounds certainly has a lower floor than 8-4 in the SEC, unless you think Brent has suddenly turned into a master tactician who will help us win a lot of the 50/50 games.

I'd bet there is more than one player on the roster that gets drafted in the top 3 rounds.

But even if not, so what? You do realize with even a mediocre offense last year, we probably win 8 regular season games, right?

But back to your point. Where did Josh Heupel play in the NFL? There are a lot of good college players that never sniff the NFL. You can still win with those guys. I know the TFB site quoted a site the other day, and they were showing way more than just one top three round NFL picks. They had our upperclassmen talent rated very high in the SEC. Above Tennessee. Not far behind Bama. Above Ole Miss (this year).

What positions do you feel like we are just way behind in talent? Not production. But talent.

 

[WichitaSooner]

I'd bet there is more than one player on the roster that gets drafted in the top 3 rounds.

But even if not, so what? You do realize with even a mediocre offense last year, we probably win 8 regular season games, right?

But back to your point. Where did Josh Heupel play in the NFL? There are a lot of good college players that never sniff the NFL. You can still win with those guys. I know the TFB site quoted a site the other day, and they were showing way more than just one top three round NFL picks. They had our upperclassmen talent rated very high in the SEC. Above Tennessee. Not far behind Bama. Above Ole Miss (this year).

What positions do you feel like we are just way behind in talent? Not production. But talent.

TE is awful. Running back remains to be seen outside (hopefully) Ott. We know what Barnes is at this point. Tatum is going to have to make huge strides with ball security and blocking to ever be a factor. Robinson showed promise but needs to show he can do it consistently. And despite the reports on the receivers, not many of those guys were extremely high on most lists of portal players. O-line ... I think the two freshmen are our most talented guys and I hope Bill plays them a lot. I could see that unit being solid but will need to see them show they can be more than that.

On defense, I think it'll be interesting to see how the LBs and secondary shake out. We gave up a lot of big plays last year. In one of the draft blurbs I read about Thomas, the writer even commented on that.

To be clear, I am not saying we are way behind (other than TE). But, for example, I heard Gabe mention that three defensive linemen in the conference are projected to be among the top four in the country. So there is a lot of talent in the league, and if our talent is right on par with some or most of our opponents, I think that is where coaching really matters. The head coach, specifically, because he is the one making all the crucial game day decisions. Just like Moser's late-game and out-of-bounds plays hurt the basketball team and cost them games, I think Brent will cost us by making some bad decisions. I try to think of it this way: if we are in six or seven one-score games in the fourth quarter, do I feel confident that we will find ways to win, or do I see us making the same kind of mistakes we have the past three seasons? Going 2-4 in close games, and maybe having one clunker where you get beat by multiple scores from start to finish, is why I see something worse than 8-4 as possible.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

I shouldn't be as bothered by the bowl loss as I am, but there were so many coaching mistakes made that afternoon that it just jades the hell out of me. I don't know if this group can put together all the variables required to get us back to where we want to be. Up 14-0 with a chance to take a three-possession lead against a ball-control squad? No, let's pass on the chip-shot field goal. 27 different wideouts are unavailable due to various circumstances? Let's have Hawkins attempt 43 passes.

I'm a big fan of Brent Venables. I want him to be successful here. I dread starting over. OK, so we go 8-4......then what? Yikes.
And I've been posting on boards alongside WTSooner for at least 20 years, so color me SHOCKED at his positive slant as to the trajectory of the program.
Awesome! Hope he's right!

If that bowl game was a regular season game, those decisiions wouldn't have been made.
Don't look too far into it

 

[SoonerBounce13]

I think it is pretty clear that the position coaches put together the depth chart for their positions and they all had different criteria and rules for how they filled it out

 

[hoopsaustin]

If that bowl game was a regular season game, those decisiions wouldn't have been made.
Don't look too far into it

I was told to not read into JA and Littrell's bowl game disaster either...

 

[WaymanFan]

I was told to not read into JA and Littrell's bowl game disaster either...

I'll admit to turning a blind eye to that one. And as Sooner04 noted, the Navy game showed some terrible coaching decisions. I'll add the LSU game prior showed some terrible preparation. I'm not as pessimistic about this season as Wichita, but not as optimistic as WTSooner. I don't want BV to be another Gary Gibbs in being a top-notch d-coordinator who was mediocre as a head coach...but he's running out of chances to prove otherwise. We should know more about this team after the Michigan game. As for the depth chart, count me as someone who doesn't read much into it before the first game in regard to the starters. However, not seeing Tatum's name at all is disconcerting. I believe he was our highest-rated RB since Joe Mixon...certainly expected him to land somewhere on the depth chart despite an inauspicious freshman season.

 

[WTSooner]

I'll admit to turning a blind eye to that one. And as Sooner04 noted, the Navy game showed some terrible coaching decisions. I'll add the LSU game prior showed some terrible preparation. I'm not as pessimistic about this season as Wichita, but not as optimistic as WTSooner. I don't want BV to be another Gary Gibbs in being a top-notch d-coordinator who was mediocre as a head coach...but he's running out of chances to prove otherwise. We should know more about this team after the Michigan game. As for the depth chart, count me as someone who doesn't read much into it before the first game in regard to the starters. However, not seeing Tatum's name at all is disconcerting. I believe he was our highest-rated RB since Joe Mixon...certainly expected him to land somewhere on the depth chart despite an inauspicious freshman season.

Tatum isn't a hard worker and hasn't bought in to being a college athlete.

I wouldn't count on him at this point. Maybe the light bulb comes on at some point, but I'm guessing he leaves the program after the season.

RB is a pretty easy position to recruit to. We all know what Ott can do. No worries there. I saw enough of Robinson, even though he really only had the one really good game, to know he is capable. And many people have raved about Blaylock. Maybe we have to hit the Portal again this offseason if Tatum flames out, but we have some good players there.

 

[WichitaSooner]

So which guys do we expect not to play tomorrow due to injuries? I suspect the list is much longer than Brent suggested it would be when he downplayed injuries throughout camp. Gibson, Gibson, Eli were the ones we expected, but I have heard some speculation that a couple offensive linemen might be held out, and Dolby, and that Ott may hardly play on offense. Anyone else?

 

[Sooner04]

So which guys do we expect not to play tomorrow due to injuries? I suspect the list is much longer than Brent suggested it would be when he downplayed injuries throughout camp. Gibson, Gibson, Eli were the ones we expected, but I have heard some speculation that a couple offensive linemen might be held out, and Dolby, and that Ott may hardly play on offense. Anyone else?

I don't believe you'll be able to take a thing from tomorrow night. Season starts opening drive, next Saturday.

 

[Boom Soon]

I don't believe you'll be able to take a thing from tomorrow night. Season starts opening drive, next Saturday.

I want to believe this but it’s hard after last year.