The Football Brainiacs

Continuing with our plan to share some content that a couple members of our community have been creating for close to a year now!

I am happy to be able to announce that TFB supports The Champion Standard Podcast!

Our guys @soonerbrad and @Birddawg have been pumping out some high-quality podcasts that talk about Xs and Os, hot topics, and OU football talk in general. This podcast represents the views and opinions of Rob and Brad and TFB is not part of their operation, but we do endorse it wholeheartedly!

Each time a new podcast drops I will post it here for the community. Give the guys a listen, sub to their YouTube channel, and include their pods on your mobile devices!

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Game week! Time to Believe.

Champion Standard’s latest show landed like the first clap of pads in September: equal parts logistics, optimism, and granular scheme talk. The hosts framed the week around a simple motto — “believe” — then toggled from a detailed tailgating plan to roster questions, metric dashboards, and a win-total debate that keeps snapping back to the same hinge game in Dallas. 

The tailgate, mapped like a two-minute drill

If you’re going, you’ve been given GPS-grade directions. The crew’s setup is in parking lot CE5, by Cross Village and the Boomer Outreach building — a shade-rich pocket they like because the postgame exit is quick. You walk farther in, but you skip the traffic on the way out, cutting to Timberdell and south to Highway 9. Expect $30 OU parking on site; free parking at Lloyd Noble with a short walk is the budget play. 

Beyond the map pins, the pitch is creature comforts: big trees for shade (sometimes negating the need for a canopy), plenty of restrooms nearby, and even workable Wi-Fi. North Star is “Sooner Pako’s OU ambulance” — a tricked-out gear locker on wheels, not a medical unit. Chairs are the only real BYO request. 

Timing and menu? Sooner Pako is slated for an 8 a.m. arrival; Rob plans to roll in around 11 with a 20-plus-pound brisket (“choice,” and notably from the left side, the one the steers favor when they lie down). Expect beer, water, some whiskey, and — yes — jello shots. Koozies courtesy of TFB, which is helping with food and drink money. 

Health, reset, and Illinois State as runway

On the football front, the tone is cautious optimism. Compared with last year’s camp, the hosts noted no major injuries this time around, aside from an expectation that Eli Bowen will miss a bit of time. Illinois State is framed as a chance to settle nerves, get young players live reps, and — above all — come out clean. 

The dashboards: pressure, coverage, and the “why”

Champion Standard plans a steady cadence: a Sunday show most weeks and a midweek look-ahead, buttressed by an expanded analytics “dashboard” built off SIS Data’s Hub Pro. They’ll track the stuff that predicts wins — pressures, sacks, coverage family usage, blitz rate, EPA/Play — and marry it to film breakdowns, aiming to explain not just what happened but why it happened. Expect completion percentage under pressure to be a headline number for the quarterback, plus cut-ups and blitz tags on their site. Rob and Brad plan to push out content through the year on their FREE newsletter. Subscribe at www.championstandard.com

A few early data crumbs were shared: last year’s pass-pro efficiency was called “ugly,” with a stat that Jackson Arnold “threw himself into pressure” roughly 20 percent of the time on true dropbacks; the hosts also tweak win-rate models to count batted passes as wins. The promise is to keep that level of granularity weekly. 

The win-total debate that keeps circling back to Texas

Brad keeps landing around 9–3, with one host staying firm at nine wins and another toggling between 8–4 and 10–2 before settling on nine. The dividing line? Red River. Beat Texas and 9–2 into LSU is the vision; lose in Dallas and you’re stealing one of the tough roadies (Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina) to stay on pace. In either case, the LSU date in Norman looms as either validation or course correction. 

Rob has Oklahoma 8–3 rolling into LSU and grabbing the win — less an upset by then than a résumé maker — largely because of skepticism about LSU’s defense and how much Garrett Nussmeier’s efficiency dips when moved off his spot without his two first round OTS. 

The argument: by November, the OU line should be gelled and a receiver will have popped. 

Brad and Rob also paint a plausible 4–0 start through Michigan and Auburn (Kent State in between), note the gantlet that follows, and basically treat 10–2 as a de facto SEC title trip. The spine of the optimism is less schedule math than roster maturity: roughly 15 seniors in the two-deep chasing NFL futures, with a couple of high-ceiling underclassmen who could jump after big years. Contract-year urgency travels. 

Personnel and the positions that swing the ceiling

Corner remains the ache point from 2023 (“abysmal” before Eli Bowen came on late, per the pod), but there’s hope in internal moves — Kendall Dolby’s shift, Gentry Williams’ health — and in more aggressive structures under Brent Venables retaking defensive play-calling. If the opposite edge of RMT hits and the corner room stabilizes, they think this defense can sniff top-10 territory. 

On the offensive line, the show leans toward playing the talented freshman at left tackle if he’s earned it, pairing him with a young right tackle option and keeping seasoned bodies like Sexton/Taylor/Simmons in reserve — the kind of depth you don’t always have. The tone on Bill Bedenbaugh’s group is defiant: last season’s taste still lingers, and this unit wants to erase it. 

Scheme notes to watch in September

Venables’ fingerprints: expect more nickel/creeper looks, with the nickel asked to cover and blitz — a flexibility boost that lets you heat the pocket without tipping leverage. RSJ drew specific praise for timing blitzes from depth. The show wants to see that multiplicity pop early as a proof of concept for the secondary overhaul. 

Offensively, there’s a mild cat-and-mouse suggestion for the opener: keep the quarterback’s legs holstered when possible, put clean, on-schedule pocket reps on film, and build rhythm rather than fireworks. The expectation against Illinois State is controlled dominance — especially up front — but no panic if the first two drives are choppy. Settle, then stack. 

The bottom line

So here we are: clean slate, new edges, same expectation. The schedule won’t wait, and neither will the league. But if the fronts play like grown men and the quarterback stacks answers, Oklahoma’s not wishing. They’re building. Week by week, four-minute drills and third-down wins. It’s not blind faith. It’s earned. It’s time to believe.. 

“Pads pop, lights come up, and the noise finds its level. Oklahoma’s older, meaner, surer of itself.” – Brad

Tailgate Information:

Tailgating

TFB is sponsoring a tailgate at every OU home game this year and you’re invited!

Where: Boomer Outreach Building

SoonerPako’s OU ambulance is your North Star!
GPS: 35.197140269528816, -97.44582809258502

Asp Avenue and Timberdell.
We’ll have music bumpin’ all day from hype playlists to country tailgate vibes. 

Easy access to Hwy 9, tons of parking, shade, and even OU’s WiFi!

Brisket is on the Menu. 

Plus: Free Tailgate Merch!

Please join us!

Boomer!!!!