The Football Brainiacs

Image of Maea Teuhema via USA Today

Maea Teuhema: Our guy Brandon Drake caught up with a surprising visitor for Bedlam who is none other than five-star offensive tackle, Maea Teuhema. The stud offensive tackle from Keller, Texas has been committed to LSU since February.

In talking to Teuhema, we uncovered an interesting connection to the Sooners. It turns out that Maea is OU offensive lineman Nila Kasitati’s cousin! When asked if Kasitati is playing a role in his visit Teuhema said,  “Absolutely. He is one person I grew up looking up to. I saw him get out of it, doing the most for his family, and I want to do the exact same. Just someone I really looked up to…still do.”

However, most people know Maea’s brother plays for LSU, but who knows how that’s going? From the quote above it sounds like family is incredibly important to Maea, and he’d be a lot closer to his entire family in Dallas playing in Norman as opposed to Baton Rouge. Additionly, he’d be next door to a cousin, who can vouch for Bill Bedenbaugh. Plus, both starting offensive tackle spots are coming open next year at OU and perhaps Teuhema believes he can compete for one of those.

In commenting on the Sooners, Teuhema said, “OU is a great college and and great environment” and was clearly excited about the upcoming trip. We aren’t saying the Sooners are going to win out here by any stretch, but this family connection, among other things, makes this visit more interesting than we originally expected.

Darrin Kirkland: Most of you know by now that star 2015 linebacker Darrin Kirkland made the trip to Norman for the rainy Kansas game. We really didn’t give the Sooners much of a chance with Kirkland and probably still don’t, but it looks like coach Kish and coach Stoops don’t necessarily agree. The head man himself and Kish visited Kirkland on Monday, and you don’t normally make an in-home to visit players you think you don’t have a chance with.

Anthony Wheeler: We caught up with Wheeler last night, and he let us know that Oklahoma will do their in-home visit with him tomorrow. He has finalized his top schools which includes the expected teams of OU, Baylor and Texas. But he has also recently added a new school, LSU, to round out a Top 4. Wheeler said he will announce his decision at the Under Armour All-American game. An interesting development for a guy who, at one time, seriously considered committing just before the season started.

Ricky DeBerry: We spoke with two sources yesterday about stud 2015 LB Ricky DeBerry and both told us to ‘watch out’ for Oklahoma. The main competition for DeBerry is Virginia, TAMU, Alabama & Tennessee. Both sources said that they feel it’s really going to come down to OU and Alabama. DeBerry’s father really likes OU and has been fond of them for quite some time. We were also told that Tennessee is essentially out of it and that TAMU was unlikely as well. One of OU’s best recruiters, Jerry Montgomery, has been recruiting DeBerry and his family from the beginning.

The New Cali Trio: If you haven’t seen the updated visitor list for Bedlam weekend on The Original Posters, you can do so here. We caught up with 2015 CB Colin Samuel (Long Beach, CA) who let us know that he will be in town this weekend with, as he put it, “Biggie and Jojo” who are five-star 2015 CB Iman Marshall and four-star 2015 DT Joseph Wicker. UCLA is believed to be Samuel’s current favorite, but it’ll be interesting to see whether OU can make an impression this weekend. If we had to say there was a second place school…it would be OU. It’ll also be interesting to see whether UCLA holds a spot for Samuel with all the CBs they are already in on.