Football question

[CoachTalk]

And there is a logical reason for the difference. With so many injuries in football, teams are far more likely to have to use backups who otherwise wouldn’t play. The four-game rule allows those guys to play without burning a season. It’s much less likely in other sports that you’d need to do that. I won’t be surprised if at some point they do apply a similar rule to other sports, but I understand why they started off just doing it for football.

I agree. Gotta be a little grace period imo.

 

[WTSooner]

15 mins of lacrosse.

I think like 4 football games. There should be a rs limit.
Why does football get 25-40% of their season and still redshirt but 1 second of any other sport is a year counted.

The lacrosse doesn't matter.

Again, he could have played ZERO sports that year at tOSU, and the rule would be applied the same way.

 

[WTSooner]

Time to just do away with redshirting. Five years to play five years. Starts the minute you enroll at college. There should be VERY FEW exceptions. Just make it easy. All sports.

 

[Eielson]

And there is a logical reason for the difference.

Lol no

 

[BCSooners]

Time to just do away with redshirting. Five years to play five years. Starts the minute you enroll at college. There should be VERY FEW exceptions. Just make it easy. All sports.

I agree with everything except 2 things:
1) no few exceptions, 5 in 5 is the rule no matter what. You’re going to get crazy exceptions that should be granted, but if that’s the rule no one can take advantage of the rule.
2) shouldn’t start when you start college. Should start when you start playing college athletics. If you sign a professional contract you are automatically banned from playing college in that sport.

 

[WTSooner]

I agree with everything except 2 things:
1) no few exceptions, 5 in 5 is the rule no matter what. You’re going to get crazy exceptions that should be granted, but if that’s the rule no one can take advantage of the rule.
2) shouldn’t start when you start college. Should start when you start playing college athletics. If you sign a professional contract you are automatically banned from playing college in that sport.

1. Nothing should be that hard lined. If a kid misses two full seasons due to an injury, or injuries, I don't hate giving him another year. But none of the JUCO stuff, I agree.

2. It absolutely should start when they enroll in college. I don't want to watch a bunch of guys in their late 20's or 30's returning to school to play college sports. Unless they are mormon. lol

 

[BCSooners]

1. Nothing should be that hard lined. If a kid misses two full seasons due to an injury, or injuries, I don't hate giving him another year. But none of the JUCO stuff, I agree.

2. It absolutely should start when they enroll in college. I don't want to watch a bunch of guys in their late 20's or 30's returning to school to play college sports. Unless they are mormon. lol

1) if it’s hard lined then there’s no exceptions. No exceptions then people can’t manipulate the system.

2) if you don’t attend college then you can come as a 30 year old and play. What’s the difference?

 

[Eielson]

1. Nothing should be that hard lined. If a kid misses two full seasons due to an injury, or injuries, I don't hate giving him another year. But none of the JUCO stuff, I agree.

Injuries are part of the game, and by adding the 5th year, you've already accounted for a year of injury. 3 years is plenty of time to play historically.

 

[Eielson]

2) if you don’t attend college then you can come as a 30 year old and play. What’s the difference?

The fact age limits have never been implemented is absurd. I think under 25 should he a hard cutoff outside of situations like WW2.

 

[WichitaSooner]

Blaylock out for the entire spring. Rinse and repeat with the RBs. We all know how this goes. The staff and media will downplay it for months, but if/when he doesn’t play well in the fall, they will point to the injury and missed practice time. So we essentially have one running back with any experience practicing this spring (assuming X is practicing). So glad we didn’t address that position in the portal.

 

[BoulderSooner]

Blaylock out for the entire spring. Rinse and repeat with the RBs. We all know how this goes. The staff and media will downplay it for months, but if/when he doesn’t play well in the fall, they will point to the injury and missed practice time. So we essentially have one running back with any experience practicing this spring (assuming X is practicing). So glad we didn’t address that position in the portal.

he had shoulder surgery right after the season (the injury was in august and he played with it)

 

[WichitaSooner]

he had shoulder surgery right after the season (the injury was in august and he played with it)

I assumed it was the shoulder but it’s still bad news. It’s just happened too much recently not to make me nervous.

 

[Eielson]

Blaylock out for the entire spring. Rinse and repeat with the RBs. We all know how this goes. The staff and media will downplay it for months, but if/when he doesn’t play well in the fall, they will point to the injury and missed practice time. So we essentially have one running back with any experience practicing this spring (assuming X is practicing). So glad we didn’t address that position in the portal.

This has been known for months.

 

[WTSooner]

Blaylock out for the entire spring. Rinse and repeat with the RBs. We all know how this goes. The staff and media will downplay it for months, but if/when he doesn’t play well in the fall, they will point to the injury and missed practice time. So we essentially have one running back with any experience practicing this spring (assuming X is practicing). So glad we didn’t address that position in the portal.

They did grab a Portal RB, and signed two kids out of HS that they really like, one of which should be playable day 1.

 

[WichitaSooner]

They did grab a Portal RB, and signed two kids out of HS that they really like, one of which should be playable day 1.

They grabbed a small portal special teams player who put up very mediocre numbers as a platoon running back at a lower level. As for the high school kids, seems to me they also really liked Tatum. We haven’t had a productive, difference-making back in three years, so until someone actually shows something on the field (in games, not the practice field hype from the writers), I’m not going to buy into any hype. We needed a proven, high level D-1 guy and apparently didn’t even try for any.

 

[WTSooner]

They grabbed a small portal special teams player who put up very mediocre numbers as a platoon running back at a lower level. As for the high school kids, seems to me they also really liked Tatum. We haven’t had a productive, difference-making back in three years, so until someone actually shows something on the field (in games, not the practice field hype from the writers), I’m not going to buy into any hype. We needed a proven, high level D-1 guy and apparently didn’t even try for any.

The actual running backs (outside of health) were pretty low on the list of reasons why the running game hasn't been very good the past couple of years.

I'm not saying we have elite guys, but we have plenty of talent at the position. It's the OL, the TE's, and the scheme that need work.

 

[WichitaSooner]

The actual running backs (outside of health) were pretty low on the list of reasons why the running game hasn't been very good the past couple of years.

I'm not saying we have elite guys, but we have plenty of talent at the position. It's the OL, the TE's, and the scheme that need work.

Totally disagree on the talent. It’s a struggle to come up with more than three or four plays where any back we have had has looked impressive even when a play is blocked well. They don’t make guys miss in space, they don’t run away from guys, they don’t turn 10 yard plays into 20 yard plays. The most talented guy we have had since Gray left is Ott.

 

[BoulderSooner]

The actual running backs (outside of health) were pretty low on the list of reasons why the running game hasn't been very good the past couple of years.

I'm not saying we have elite guys, but we have plenty of talent at the position. It's the OL, the TE's, and the scheme that need work.

very much this

 

[SoonerDutch]

They grabbed a small portal special teams player who put up very mediocre numbers as a platoon running back at a lower level. As for the high school kids, seems to me they also really liked Tatum. We haven’t had a productive, difference-making back in three years, so until someone actually shows something on the field (in games, not the practice field hype from the writers), I’m not going to buy into any hype. We needed a proven, high level D-1 guy and apparently didn’t even try for any.

Is this your description of Avant? Like because he’s 5’10 or because you think he will have a small role on special teams?

It’s your prerogative to project out Hatton as lackluster under a new position coach based on Tatum not hitting his potential under a previous coach, but that seems pretty lazy to me.

I’m a little more bearish than most on the portal additions especially relative to other peer programs but OU was unlikely to get involved for Smothers or Brown who I guess are the most likely to meet your goal of a “high level D-1 guy.” Do you have specific alternatives?

Personally think OU will reap dividends in the run game with the TE room changes most, obviously recruiting at a higher clip but Hansen sounds like a competent blocker especially compared to recent disasters.

 

[WTSooner]

Totally disagree on the talent. It’s a struggle to come up with more than three or four plays where any back we have had has looked impressive even when a play is blocked well. They don’t make guys miss in space, they don’t run away from guys, they don’t turn 10 yard plays into 20 yard plays. The most talented guy we have had since Gray left is Ott.

Feels like you are forgetting some pretty big, nice, important runs by X over the years. I know he's had a few against Bama that were big.

This is the SEC not the Big 12. RB's aren't going to run wild like Mixon, Perine, and Anderson did. Their were 5 SEC RB's in the top 50 of the NCAA last year in rushing yards. Four of which got over 1,000 yards.

Let's see what things look like this year. Hatton, the HS kid, was the #6 RB in the 2026 class according to 247.