The Football Brainiacs

Morning TFB readers! As most of you know I’m in the U.K. on business, but have been trying to keep up with college football. I had a few notes I wanted to pass along this morning. I did manage to watch the first half of the OU vs. Texas Tech game.

– Trevor Speights | Recruiting Note: 2016 RB Trevor Speights made his way to Oklahoma this past weekend for an official visit. Being out of the country on business, I obviously wasn’t able to speak to him on the phone but I did manage to exchange a few messages with him regarding the visit. The most interesting thing he mentioned was when I asked him if the Oklahoma visit met his expectations and he responded by saying, “I had a blast. I can’t imagine a better official visit.”

Speights did mention prior to the visit that he still plans on taking four more officials, but it’ll be interesting to see if that holds up…especially if Oklahoma can get a visit out of Stanford commit, Brandon Stephens. I think OU just needs a little leverage to give recruits a sense of urgency at the RB position. Based on what I saw from the first half, the game was certainly a great showcase for a running back prospect to see.

– Kerry Cooks and Competition: Can I just say, this fella has exceeded expectations. I will be quite honest with you, OU had essentially pushed Dakota Austin to the side and then Cooks comes in and Austin is given a chance. I’m not intending this note to be a commentary on how well he or any of the other cornerbacks have played. I really just want to applaud Cooks for creating real competition, and for allowing these guys to prove it on the field.

There has been marked improvement from last year in the secondary and the statistics certainly back that up. And obviously coach Cooks has done a great job recruiting in his first year (though you never know what you’ve got until they’re on campus). But I really just love to see these new coaches giving everyone a chance and creating regular competition throughout the season. Even on the other side of the ball, I saw Dahu Green (a true freshman) get a ball thrown to him that, had he caught, would have been a touchdown (by the way…drop or not, I love the way he turned and attacked that ball).

– The Defense: OU continued their quarters look defense from last week. As I mentioned my previous notes, OU was running some of that palms coverage early but not nearly as much. They’re also running out of different pre-snap look. It’s really interesting to see how quickly they shifted their defensive looks and calls during the season and, to be honest, I think it gives them their best chance of winning out.

OU still isn’t the most talented defense, but I do believe as a unit Mike Stoops is putting them in the right position. He’s giving up things where it’s necessary, but still trying to mask the areas he’s willing to sacrifice in. We always talk about players needing competition to push them to be better. I think all the new coaches on board have brought out, or maybe reinvigorated Mike Stoops. I know some of you may look back at this in a couple weeks and deride my comments if Baylor blows through Oklahoma. But if they play structurally/schematically how they’re playing now, then it gives them the best chance to slow Baylor’s attack.

Again I don’t know if OU has the talent to match Baylor (I know at certain positions they do not, which is why I think this structure works best), but talent can be acquired over time but you need to know that you’ve got a good foundation to recruit to and an emphasis on technique (which is clearly something Kerry Cooks & co. are doing right now).

– The Baylor Game: With OU bouncing back after the Texas loss beating both Kansas State and Texas Tech, it’s looking more and more like the Baylor game is going to be a Top 10 match-up (unless there is an epic slip up by one of these squads in the next couple weeks). OU is going to have a rough stretch at the end, but I think they’ve put themselves in a great position.

I know a lot of people wish OU wouldn’t have lost to Texas, but for the purpose of the playoffs I’m not sure it really matters. Had OU been undefeated right now but dropped one of the last three games, I’d reckon that late loss would put them out of the Top 4 anyway. And if they win out from this point on, it’s hard to imagine them not being in the playoffs.

In other words, I think OU really needed to win the last three games regardless. What they couldn’t do was drop a game to Texas Tech or Kansas State and they didn’t. What is more, they looked impressive winning.