Post Game Notes | OU vs. Kent State – Super K – Posted on: September 10, 2022
***First, good win again by the Sooners against a team who we sensed would be tougher than many expected. Kent State not only knows the Sooners offense inside and out but they’ve had a top five offense themselves for the past couple years.
***Last week I noted that DG was up and down in terms of his accuracy and I wanted to see if that was just first game issues (I figured it was). At least for now, DG has answered that. He was exceptionally accurate today.
***The issue this week, however, in the first half was rhythm. This is a rhythm offense and early on his timing on throws seemed delayed. Even on stop routes he was throwing late. Again, that’s another issue that you figure is just going to work itself out as DG gets back in the groove.
***In fact, that two minute drive to end the first half seemed to help him get in a rhythm and trust his eyes. The second half he was throwing when he saw it.
***First half run game was pretty rough. A couple things I saw on a first watch. OL would get some movement but wouldn’t sustain the block.
***Second issue was something I saw from Bama earlier in the day. Too much dancing in the hole and not enough decisive attack-minded runs. In these zone schemes you don’t necessarily know where the hole will be, so when you see it, you’ve got to explode through. Additionally, you’re going to find yourself in a lot of one on one situations. That’s by design. Too much dancing right now. If you’re dancing in the hole, you’re not going to make that LB miss a tackle. You’re just slowing down so that he can square you up.
***You’ve got to punish those guys so that they start to leave their feet on tackles. Then you’ll break tackles and then you’ll break their will. I chalk that up to more of the old mentality – a little too much patience and little too much dancing.
***What you have to love though is how Lebby stayed with the run in the first half. Early on, the Sooners had two three and outs. Nothing was working including the run. So on the third drive, having watched Lincoln, you wanted to see if they were going to continue with the body blows and let the OL find their footing or if they’d come out and go three straight passes. Again, you figure that’s what Lincoln would’ve done.
***Instead, Lebby stuck with the run. And it paid dividends in the second half.
***Another thing I noted, watching Kent State I was reminded of how much these Briles offenses like to run their QB and the Sooners lack of depth at the position might be handicapping them a bit in that area. The QB run game is nice early on to cover some issues and to keep the defense honest to give you a little more space on those short rhythm throws. I do wonder if Lebby is going to bring a little bit of that QB run game out later in the season – especially earlier in games.
***Defensively, holding Kent State’s offense to three points is impressive.
***Saw a lot more defensive linemen getting off blocks throughout the game.
***As far as I could tell on initial viewing, I’d like to see the Sooners clean up some of the tackling. A lot of missed opportunities especially in the run game and on the QB scampers. Just giving guys unnecessary yards. But again, holding a team like Kent State to three is great.
***One of my biggest takeaways was if the offense does begin to find its rhythm in both the run and the pass more consistently throughout the game, these extra snaps that the defense is getting when the offense struggles, is really going to pay dividends as the season continues.
***That first half, those three and outs and the amount of time that the Sooners defense was on the field is just more and more snaps for a defense that needs as many as they can get under this new system. So, I think some of the offensive inconsistencies at this point may be a blessing in disguise.
Sooners Sunday Brunch | Something to Chew On – Charlie S – Posted on: September 11, 2022
Last night the Sooners beat Kent State 33-3 to move to 2-0 on the season.
The 30 point win over Kent State followed their season opening 45-13 (32 point) win over UTEP.
OU has beaten two FBS teams, who participated in bowl games in 2021 by a combined score of 78 – 16.
Over their first two games, the Sooners have allowed an average of 8 points and have averaged scoring 39 points.
College Football is not transitive from game to game or opponent to opponent, but on certain Saturdays, you count your blessings when you get an easy win when you look around at how the rest of the country faired.
There were some stunners yesterday, and there were some comparable victories by teams of OU’s stature against teams similar (or not as in good shape) to Kent State.
No. 1 Alabama beat Texas – 20-19 – (Texas was 5-7 non bowl team in 2021) No. 2 Georgia beat Samford – 33-0 – (Samford was 4-7 non bowl team in 2021) No. 3 Ohio State beat Arkansas State – 45-12 – (Ark State was 2-10 non bowl team 2021) No. 4 Michigan beat Hawai’i – 56-10 – (Hawaii was 6-7 qualified for bowl in 2021) No. 5 Clemson beat Furman – 35-12 – (Furman is an FCS team who was 6-5 in 2021) No. 6 Texas A&M lost to Appalachian State – 14-17 (App State was 10-4 in 2021 No. 7 Oklahoma beat Kent State – 33-3 – (Kent State was 7-7 bowl participant in 2021) No. 8 Notre Dame lost to Marshall – 21-26 – (Marshall was 7-6 bowl participant in 2021) No. 9 Baylor lost to No. 21 BYU – 20-26 – (BYU was 10-3 bowl participant in 2021) No. 10 USC beat Stanford – 41-28 – (Stanford was 3-9 non bowl participant in 2021) No. 11 Oklahoma State beat Arizona State – 34-17 – (ASU was 8-5 bowl participant in 2021) No. 12 Florida lost to No. 20 Kentucky – 16-26 – (Kentucky was 10-3 bowl participant in 2021) No. 13 Utah beat Southern Utah – 73-7 – (Southern Utah was 1-10 non bowl participant in 2021 No. 14 Michigan State beat Akron – 52-0 – (Akron was 2-10 non bowl participant 2021) No. 15 Miami (Fla.) beat Southern Miss – 30-7 – (Southern Miss was 3-9 non bowl participant 21) No. 16 Arkansas beat South Carolina – 44-30 – (South Carolina was 7-6 bowl participant in 21) No. 17 Pitt (OT) lost to No. 24 Tennessee – 27-34 – (Tenn was 7-6 bowl participant in 21) No. 18 NC State beat Charleston Southern – 55-3 – (Ch Southern was 4-6 non bowl in 21) No. 19 Wisconsin lost to Washington State – 14-17 – (Wazzu was 7-6 bowl participant in 21) No. 22 Ole Miss beat Central Arkansas – 59-3 – (C Ark was 5-6 non bowl participant in 21) No. 23 Wake Forest beat Vanderbilt – 45-25 – (Vanderbilt was 2-10 non bowl participant in 21) No. 25 Houston (2OT) lost to Texas Tech – 30-33 – (TTU was 7-6 bowl participant in 21)
Sooner fans do not have to look back too far in their history to see how easy it is to struggle with inferior opponents…just look at their own 2021 season and in particular their opening game when they beat Tulane 40-35.
So far, in 2022, the Sooners have done what they are supposed to do. They have pummeled two teams who should not be on the field with them.
Any way you slice it, victories by more than 30 points are pummelings. Noncompetitive games where the outcome is basically predetermined.
OU beat UTEP and Kent State in a very similar fashion to the way Georgia beat Samford, the way Ohio State beat Arkansas State, and the way Clemson beat Furman.
Alabama struggled with a Texas team that was 5-7 in 2021, which included a loss to Kansas. The Tide needed a last-second field goal to sneak out of Austin with a win against a team who had their backup QB in. Their backup QB was also hobbled yet they pushed Alabama to the brink.
Notre Dame lost to Marshall, Texas A&M lost to App State, and Nebraska lost to Georgia Southern…the mighty SUN BELT conference rises!!!
OU did what they were supposed to do. Keep that in mind as there were several other teams who could not follow suit yesterday and their seasons took a massive hit and an embarrassing loss.
The idea for a football program is to get better play to play, series by series, quarter by quarter, game by game. So far, OU has accomplished that while also dealing with some self-inflicted adversity.
The college football season is 12 weeks long…the Sooners have made it through the first two of those weeks in rather impressive fashion. Some other teams cannot say the same.
Yes, OU has a lot of things to work on. Yes, Sooner fans demand excellence. Yes, there are weaknesses on this OU team.
Every other team in the country has its weaknesses and every fan base of teams worth their salt demand and expect more from their programs.
Sometimes it is nice just to wake up in the morning and not be one of those teams who suffered that embarrassing loss while knowing your squad did what they needed to do…even if you expect more.
Teams Without a Head Coach can be… – Super K – Posted on: September 12, 2022
Dangerous. You see it time and time again, a team fires their head coach during the season and suddenly the team and the assistants play with a renewed sense of passion.
Last year TCU fired Gary Patterson and in the very next game, TCU beat the Baylor Bears. Baylor, as you know, went on to win the Big 12 championship.
This game is going to be at Nebraska and the fan base will have a renewed sense of hope now that Frost is gone. They’ll be there to support their players. And the players are going to play hard.
Additionally, Nebraska has some players.
This is going to present an interesting challenge for OU. They’ll be tested with better play along the line of scrimmage. But also the emotional test could be one to watch.
If the Sooners can impose their will on what will be a very hyped up Nebraska team in a hostile environment, I think it’ll say more than people realize.
Recruiting Quick Hitters Following Kent State Visits – Charlie S – Posted on: September 12, 2022
Not a whole lot to update you all on in regard to the 3 main guys who visited this week but we do have plans to bring you some more in-depth thoughts later in the week once we have a chance to gather some intel from the other side of the equation…
***Spoke to a source who was around the Denton, TX safeties Peyton Bown and Ryan Yaites. Source said that both were enjoying themselves and OU came away feeling like they put on a good show for the recruits. OU knows that until they make a move, in particular for Peyton Bown, in regard to their current commitment status (Notre Dame and LSU respectively) there is not much to talk about. Source said OU still has a lot of confidence in Bowen and the Sooners being a match, and they even said ‘I think Yaites has a lot more interest in OU at this time than he lets on, but he will be back in Baton Rouge soon so it was a good thing to get him on campus at this point’. So the waiting game here continues, but OU feels like they had a productive weekend, particularly with Bowen.
***As for ’23 DL Jordan Renaud, source said ‘Things went really well with him, Bates and company put their best foot forward and that’s all they could hope for’. However, following the trip K touched base with an Alabama source who mentioned that the Crimson Tide is feeling good…and obviously that’s not a good sign for OU as they just hosted the kid. As I mentioned at the top, we are hoping to get more in depth info from the Renaud camp at some point this week, but with his commitment date set for Monday, and Alabama having confidence despite the OU visit, this one feels like it is trending back towards Bama, but we will make that call and update you once we see what we can get later this week.
Position Group Progress Report | 2022 Game 2: Kent State – Charlie S – Posted on: September 13, 2022
Checking out how the position groups performed in the Sooners win against Kent State. Coming into the game, OU was the heavy favorite over the Golden Flashes.
This will be the second progress report of the season and I will be including the prior games ranking for each position in their header.
Let’s see how things shook out against Kent State.
QB: Low 4* (Last week: Low 4*)
Statistically, Dillon Gabriel had a better week against Kent State than he did against UTEP, yet he received the same grade. Why is that you may ask?
While Gabriel went 21 of 28 (with 4 drops) for 296 and 3 touchdowns…he was not good in the first half of the game, and you can’t really get a better grade if you aren’t good for almost an entire half.
It is not that Gabriel was reckless with the ball or not accurate. He made solid decisions and his accuracy was very, very good…he was just a tad off in the first half with his timing and choices.
Things finally clicked for him late in the first half when OU ran their 2-minute offense. Maybe they should have started the game in a simulated 2-minute drill because after that drive, Gabriel played pretty much flawlessly and you could see how comfortable he was with his timing and decisions.
Coulda been the first 5* performance of the season if he did anything constructive in the first 28 minutes.
Another example of a tale of two halves.
The backs spent their limited opportunities in the first half not only picking the incorrect holes, they were then spending time going east and west. As K put it, they were looking like Michael Jackson out there with all the dancing they were doing.
Eric Gray had 10 carries on the night which went for 71 yards which was good for a 7.1 yard per carry average. He had a 44 yard burst to help pad those stats.
Jovantae Barnes had 9 carries for 21 yards which was good for a paltry 2.3 yards per carry average. He looked like an indecisive freshman…and that will actually help him in the future if he uses it to his advantage.
Marcus Major carried the ball 5 times for 38 yards and 1 TD. His 7.6 yard per carry average led the team.
So the Sooners had their two experienced featured backs run for over 7 yards per carry…the vast majority of which was gained in the second half.
While OC Jeff Lebby conceded that he was ‘too stubborn’ early on in the game in respect to trying to force the run game, the backs did him and the rest of the squad no favors with their indecision and dance moves.
WR/TE: 4* (Last week 4*)
Marvin Mims was the star here and his effort largely contributed to the repeated 4* ranking.
Mims’ night: 7 catches for 163 yards which was good for 23.3 yards per reception with 2 touchdowns and a long of 58 yards.
Mind you, Theo Wease, and Drake Stoops had their moments and I thought JJ Hester had a big play when he held onto that ball over the middle knowing that a big hit was coming.
Daniel Parker carried the TE groups in receptions with 2 but Brayden Willis had a rough game with multiple drops.
Everyone keeps looking for Jalil Farooq to make an impact, and he did his part in getting open several times, Gabriel just couldn’t find him on those occasions but he did have some really nice blocking (see Majors TD run). Also, Jayden Gibson has yet to make his impact felt.
Good performance overall from this group, just too many drops to raise their ranking.
OL: High 3* (Last week: High 3*)
Y’all don’t want to read my thoughts as a large contingent of Sooner fans have their minds made up about this group.
I’ll just say, they were not ‘good’ in the first half, but they were not as bad as many wanted them to be, and they were flat out very good in the second half in both Pass Pro (the entire game) and run blocking. When the run game is not clicking, it is not always solely the OL to blame for the issues.
More on that to come in the next podcast with a special contributor who actually validated what I have been seeing and saying.
DL: High 4* (Last week: 4*)
Feel like this may be a tad high for them, but not only did I see tremendous effort, I didn’t really see anyone who was the ‘weak link’ if you will.
Jalen Redmond, who didn’t start, really flashed a couple times and it felt like you saw a bit more ‘dog’ in him as he was playing at a high level on the majority of his snaps.
Reggie Grimes had another big day and you can tell he is playing with a ton of confidence.
Really liked what I saw from Isaiah Coe in his first start and Jeffery johnson is just steady Eddie who excels in defending the run.
Another really solid, if not spectacular outing for this group.
Danny Stutsman has put together very good games back to back now and it feels like he took his game to a different level against Ket State.
Stutsman had 12 tackles, 1 sack, and 4 tackles for a loss. The kid was all over the field and seeing the continued growth has got to leave OU fans feeling some type of way.
Ugwoegbu played well enough as he picked up 6 tackles of his own to go along with a tackle for loss.
Jaren Kanak came in during the 4th quarter and flashed in his limited opportunity. As I said on Twitter…that kid is going to be sooooo good.
Nice job by the backers…but what else would you expect from a Ted Roof coached room.
While Justin Harrington saw increased snaps this week, not many of them were at the Cheetah spot as he played a lot of DB in a sort of dime package.
DaShaun White played 62 snaps at Cheetah (Bowman and Broiles led the team with 64 snaps at their respective positions) so he was your Cheetah over 90% of the time.
I’m not going to pretend to be smarter than the coaches, but I just don’t see the fit here with White and the responsibilities of the Cheetah spot. He is in coverage on smaller quicker guys much more than he should be and that isn’t really working too well at this time.
It is what it is, and I defer to the coaching staff, but this is not what I pictured when Brent was talking about how important the Cheetah spot is within his defense.
DB: High 4* (Last week: 4*)
Again, another impressive outing for this group for the second week in a row.
The longest play the Sooners have given up on the year has been 24 yards. The DBs are not allowing guys to run 10 yards free as we saw at times last year.
They are rallying to make tackles, stripping balls, and picking off errant passes.
Kent State QB was 11 for 19 against the Sooners and you can’t complain about the secondary when they only allow 11 receptions.
I thought the windows in the zone closed up a little from game 1 in game 2 and that is exactly what you are looking for.
Felt their tackling remained solid for the most part and they never really were challenged. Show me some more PBUs and a couple DB blitzes getting home and you’re talking 5* territory.
What a breath of fresh air this group has been over the first two weeks, here is to hoping they continue on this trajectory.
Based solely on Marvin Mims and Billy Bowman looking like they will eventually break a return to the house.
Turk was OK. Kicks were solid. Coverage was good.
Accentuate the Positive and Enjoy the Process – Super K – Posted on: September 13, 2022
When Lincoln Riley left, a large contingent of the fan base and almost all of the media said it was over for the Sooners. We preached patience.
When the “NIL” payments were rolling out like pizza dough, some said the NCAA won’t do anything and the Sooners can’t compete. We preached patience.
Back in June, when recruiting was dry, there were a lot of folks thinking BV can’t recruit. Again, we preached patience.
And now here we are again, where the doubters and the naysayers are out in droves. To be fair, our community has for the most part remained optimistic.
The biggest target so far has been the offensive line. Last weekend it was the offensive line and the missed tackles.
Certainly not saying that fans and media shouldn’t criticize. But some of the negativity is premature and in many cases unwarranted.
When I said that I believe the Sooners are going to be a good team this year, it was in part because we knew that through the building process, they’d have the good fortune of a favorable schedule.
UTEP was a solid team, Kent State was a step up, Nebraska will be another step up, Kansas State will be another step up and TCU will be a bigger step up (at least from talent perspective).
Additionally, did anyone think that a great program was going to be built without setbacks?
Do you remember when the Sooners faced Clemson in playoffs? Score was basically tied at half. BV came out and complete shut down the Sooners. Their response to the challenges of the game were fiercer than OU’s ability to strike back.
Do you remember when Clemson was outmatched by the talent of Ohio State in the 2020 playoffs? Every time Ohio State seemed to gain an advantage, here came Clemson hitting them in the mouth.
That isn’t even to mention the time BV goose egged Urban Meyer in a playoff game or the two national championships they won.
You can’t build a tough team without resistance and right now that’s the process that OU is in.
The run schemes are new for the running backs, they are new for the offensive line. The quarterback hasn’t played football in like a year and he’s doing it with new receivers. The defense is being revamped in a number of ways – from a team that couldn’t tackle and a team that played primarily man coverage.
And some folks are acting like the Sooners are playing on air. The other teams have players and those players want to win. And the Sooners are winning handily.
There was an entire half of good to say about OU’s run game last week and there are many reasons it wasn’t up to snuff in the first half, but the response of so many is to fixate on the negative.
OU is going to face a passionate team this upcoming weekend with some good players, but there is already this sense in some that if OU doesn’t blow out the cornhuskers it means they’re no good.
What kind of fun is that?
That’s how Bama nearly lost this past weekend. Instead of respecting their opponent, they walked in there thinking the only way they can win is if they win by 50. How do you expect players to play well when a win is a loss and a loss is a loss?
First quarter, the Alabama defense comes out in man coverage. Are you kidding me?
You’re playing a freshman quarterback with possibly the most dangerous deep threat in Xavier Worthy. You know Quinn wants to go deep because it doesn’t require him to read a defense. And you play man to man?
You make a young quarterback find the open man! But Bama clearly came out saying, we aren’t giving them anything. And they almost gave Texas the game.
And now Texas will find itself in that position over the course of the next two weeks. UTSA and Tech will play with nothing to lose and everything to gain and Texas will run the threat of putting unnecessary pressure on themselves. It’s a lot harder to win that way.
In Bama there are other lessons. Last year, Texas A&M beat Alabama, but guess who won the conference? And guess who just lost to Appalachian State?
If you don’t respect your opponents, you won’t enjoy watching your team. If you don’t contextualize your team’s progress, you’ll be miserable.
The Sooners are going to have periods of struggle this season, but they are, in my opinion, building something that will last.
Given the Sooners are in a transition, maybe do BV and the staff a favor and accentuate the positives, there are so many. Enjoy watching the team. There’s plenty of time for the criticism and the negativity later.
Colton Vasek’s Trip to Texas – CJ Vogel – Posted on: September 13, 2022
Plenty of rumblings on the board and Twitter yesterday regarding OU Commit Colton Vasek visiting the Texas and Alabama game this weekend.
Vasek confirmed with me he was in attendance for the game, though I am not yet preparing for any kind of change in recruitment status just yet.
Joining Vasek at the game was Notre Dame WR commit Jaden Greathouse who told me ahead of time he was going to support former Westlake teammates Connor Robertson and Ethan Burke who were making their second career appearances for Texas. From my conversation with Greathouse it did not appear there was any alternative motive from either player who was going to the game.
Vasek has been very firm in my conversations about why OU was the right choice for me, as recent as a week ago. I am believing the trip to the game was to see two former teammates and close friends in their first big college game.
But of course, I will be checking in again rather soon.
TFB Sooners Radio Ep. 4 | Featuring Some Trench Warfare Talk – TheFootballBrainiacs – Posted on: September 13, 2022
Oklahoma is 2-0 to start the 2022 season after a victory over Kent State Saturday at home. Ryan and Charlie are back on the mics and are joined by JY to discuss what we have seen so far, as well as a preview looking ahead to Nebraska.