Open Post | Tuesday, August 10th
Posted on: August 10, 2021
Fall Camp Sourced Notes
– The Football Brainiacs – Posted on: August 7, 2021
Fall camp is only two days old, so a lot of the stuff is pretty basic coming out.
Just wanted to share a few sourced notes that we have picked up…
*** Source said that Arkansas transfer Woods has looked good. Said his experience in college obviously has helped him make the adjustment and he goes hard in practice. Sounds like he is pretty business-like which gives him an advantage early on over the younger guys as he has been through all this before.
*** Was told Haselwood has been an early standout and looks to be moving very well which is good news.
*** Source said early on the Offense has had the better of the defense…but that is almost to be expected without full contact and it’s pretty much 7v7.
*** Another source brought up Theo Wease. Said he looks focused and much stronger than he did last year. May be something you can attribute to his injury, as Riley mentioned in his presser, and the work he was able to put in.
Cody Jackson & Drake Stoops also were pointed out as having been impressive early on.
*** At linebacker, was told that Caleb Kelly has been quite vocal and has performed well. Source really raved about the depth at inside linebacker overall and pointed out that Shane Whitter is a guy who has looked very impressive and continues to make strides, yet he is running with the 2’3 and 3’s for the most part.
*** Source brought up Key Lawrence and mentioned he has been turning some heads. At this point, he is rotating in at both safety spots. Source said he could see a scenario where Lawrence and DTY are your starters and Fields could be the swing guy at both spots at the end of the day. Of course, that is speculation, but so far, it sounds like Lawrence is making a splash.
*** Was told that Gabe Brkic looks like a million bucks. Apparently, he has not missed a kick and made several from over 50.
Catching Up With Bob Stoops
– James Hale
It’s great when I get a chance to catch up with Coach Bob Stoops. The legendary head coach is getting ready to be part of the Big Noon Kickoff on Fox and when he came on my radio show recently, he had just listened to an interview that I did with OU Women’s Gymnastics Coach K.J. Kindler. Coach Kindler talked about what the great Simone Biles went through at the Tokyo Olympics when she battled the Twisties throughout the games.
Some thought Biles had quit on Team USA, but this reporter has covered too many women’s gymnastics meets, and I knew better, and now that he is in the media, Coach Stoops has opinions on a lot of different topics.
“Oh, man, Women’s Gymnastics is so challenging,” said Coach Stoops. “They are so talented that they are incredible. What Simone Biles has done through the years, I mean come on. I am all for her, and what happened here in this Olympics does not tarnish her image one bit.”
“She is the best of all time. She is the G.O.A.T, and there is no doubt that she is the best of all time. She should be proud of that, and I think she is incredible.”
There are athletes in every sport that run into puzzling troubles with their game, including football.
“It’s hard to meet everyone’s expectations all the time,” said Coach Stoops. “Nobody should be expected to. As you go through life, you just keep trying to do the best you can, and that is all you can do. I have coached quarterbacks, receivers, and kickers who suddenly can’t do what they normally do. It happens, and you have to support them, keep working with them, and work them back to their usual selves.”
“College players need to find a way to enjoy the game and not let all the outside things about the sport get to them.”
Coach Stoops wrote an op-ed to the Tulsa World and the Oklahoman giving his opinion on Sooners move to the SEC.
“I did it because sometimes the facts are what they are,” said Coach Stoops. “Not everybody has them, and there is a lot of speculation, and I just thought why not clear the air. Once people sometimes know what’s what, there is nothing to speculate about. This is what it is.””
“The opportunities for Oklahoma State is where I think a lot of the problems come from. Opportunity for them just wasn’t there, and we just can’t dictate things for them all the time. In this world, not everything stays the same.”
“I just wanted to make sure the air was clear, and I wanted to present exactly what’s what. That was it, and I just wanted to make sure that everybody knew what was what.”
OU tried to take Oklahoma State with them, but the SEC wanted none of it.
“I can promise you that I would love it, and we all would love it,” said Coach Stoops. “Definitely. They are a great athletic program. I will be the first to say it. Even though our record against them in football is incredibly positive, they are a challenge, man. They are good every year, and they have been a top 20 program going on 20 years.”
“They have been good several years now. I agree that they should go with us to the SEC, but we (OU) can’t dictate everything that we want in this world. We could not take a chance of not moving to the SEC, and someone else fills those spots, and then where do we go then?”
“We are an SEC-type school. If we don’t go there and would have gone to any of these other conferences, that would have hurt our brand and hurt us going forward.”
Interesting that Coach Stoops said that OU is an SEC-type school because he certainly doesn’t think OU will struggle to play in the SEC.
“Oh, no, it’s going to help us,” said Coach Stoops. “It’s really going to help and boost our recruiting. Listen, we have a good record against all these SEC teams. We have always talked about that. Believe me, we will fit in well.”
When Coach Stoops was at OU he used to spar with reporters who mentioned that they felt the SEC was a much better conference than the Big 12.
“Hey, when you look at the bottom half of their conference, and that goes for every conference, there are teams that are struggling,’ said Coach Stoops. “You have teams in the middle that have a chance to win a championship every now and then, and then you have your one, two, and three teams at the top that win it every year.”
“Truth be told, Alabama has been the team that has been carrying them through these last eight years. LSU had their great year, and heck, they were fantastic that year, but overall, its Alabama has been the one. So, if you are saying they have four teams running the league, well, it’s really been Alabama mostly.”
Many feel the move of Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC will be the start of three our four super conferences in college football.
“For me, it’s hard to tell, but I do believe that there will be more moves,” said Coach Stoops. “People will keep jockeying around, and I don’t believe that this will be the end of it.”
The pending additions to the SEC has spooked the Big Ten and the Pac 12 on the expansion of the College Football Playoff. Now everyone is debating whether to really expand the CFP or not.
“I would like eight probably instead of 12,” said Coach Stoops. “Either way, it is positive, and it’s going to make more playoff games, which will make more significant bowl games that players probably shouldn’t and won’t opt-out of. It creates more bowl games that are important, and players will have something to play for.”
“It would include the Group of Five and give them an opportunity to be in there. It would include every champion of every league, so I think it is positive.”
“I just worry and think my only hesitation of it is the length of time that it will take to play the expanded playoffs. That is just going to add several additional games and additional time that these players are working.”
“Working through December is going to be challenging. Whether people want to acknowledge it or not academics are a factor, and all of us in the sport take them seriously. The players certainly do, or they won’t be able to play the game, but with the expanded playoffs, that part of it will be challenging in December.”
Coach Stoops didn’t have to deal with the NIL when he was the coach, but he wonders if the NIL won’t hurt college football in the future.
“It’s hard to put a finger on what it’s going to be like,” said Coach Stoops. “We are just going to have to live through it and adjust as you go. It’s going to be really interesting.”
“I just don’t know how it’s going to be kept out of recruiting. That part of it will be interesting to watch. If truth be told, if some programs aren’t cheating and others are, this might just level the playing field for those that don’t cheat and recruit fairly!”
OU is picked one or two in most preseason college football polls, and it’s understood that OU has a shot to be good this year.
“I believe they are going to be good,” said Coach Stoops. “I think Spencer Rattler has really just scratched the surface, and now he gets another year of work with experience, training, and working with Lincoln Riley. I think he is really going to be special.”
“We have great running backs with Kennedy Brooks back and Eric Gray coming in. We have a great offensive line and a great receiver group.”
“I think we are going to have a stronger defense than we have had. We have experience upfront and with the added experience in the secondary. I think they have developed more talent in the secondary that is really going to make a difference.”
Coach Stoops has been in California working with all the personnel on the Big Noon Kickoff, and he will be ready to go in a couple of weeks.
“That’s going fantastic,’ said Coach Stoops. “It’s a great group of guys to work with. Bob Stone is our lead guy. Then Brady Quinn, Matt Leinart, and Reggie Bush are nice guys to be around and work with. We were filming for a day and a half the intro for the Big Noon Kickoff.”
“It’s going to be on 9-to-11 here and lead into the early game. We were filming the video that will intro each week. It’s been really fun. Fox people are great to work with, so I”m really enjoying it so far.”
Leinart and Bush were part of the USC Trojan team that rolled the Sooners 55-19 in 2005 in the BCS Championship Game. So, you wonder if those two are ganging up on Coach Stoops about the lopsided win by the Trojans on that day.
“No, they have been pretty good to me, I have to admit,” laughed Coach Stoops. “They could because of the beating they gave us that day. Don’t worry, if I try to chime in and get after them, they will bring it up here and there.”
“That game was our fault. They played great, but we did so many things wrong that day. We didn’t come close to playing like we are capable of. That’s on me. I’m the one responsible for how we play, and that is on me more than anybody else.”
Coach Stoops now has an App that all Sooner fans can download and keep up with what the former Sooner head coach is doing.
“Yes that’s right, and you can go to your App store and download my new App,” said Coach Stoops. “I have just got done speaking about the SEC move on the App. I have already loaded some things on it like my biggest game or games through the year and my biggest disappointment.”
“I am going to have a bunch of interviews with Big Ten coaches that are going to be loaded on there. So, there is a lot of content that involves me and all you have to do is download it from your App spore, and It’s free. I’m going to put good content on there, and on the App you can scroll through it, and there are different pages that you can go through. I just started to really load it this past week.”
Mike Stoops is back in coaching at Florida International, and younger brother Mark is the Head Coach at Kentucky, keeping the Stoops name still in college coaching.
“They are all doing great,” said Coach Stoops. “We were all recently at the beach in Florida. Our family came down from Ohio, and we had about five days to a week together. We had a lot of fun, but now we are getting into football season, and we will not be taking any more vacations for a while.”
Defensive News, Notes, Quotes
– James Hale – Posted on: August 9, 2021
Coach Riley runs the offense, and Coach Alex Grinch the defense, and while Coach Riley will peak over to the defense during practice, he never offers much more to the defense other than a pat on the butt and telling them good job. So it’s Grinch’s group, and he is always encouraging them.
He will also often call up the defense on just about every drill change.
Sounds like Senior Laron Stokes (6’4-275) is off to a good start in camp, and he is motivated by this being his last season. Stokes has played well when he has been healthy, and the defense will be better because he is on it. Sophomore Jalen Redmond (6’2, 279) will start at defensive tackle. Still, with Stokes behind him and sophomore Kori Roberson (6’3, 287) swinging both from defensive tackle to the nose, OU is in very good shape at defensive tackle.
Freshman Kelvin Gilliam (6’2, 254) is a young player who I am told plays a mature game. He is big and strong and is one of those guys that comes into camp with a body ready to play at the D-1 level. He is working at defensive end, and defensive tackle, and like Isaiah Thomas, OU feels Gilliam can play both.
I know many fans feel that Redmond should play some defensive end and defensive tackle. Still, he is so inexperienced playing along the defensive line that the coaches feel he needs to get fundamentally really good at defensive tackle. If he came back after this year, and that will be very much up in the air after this season, OU would start working him at defensive end some.
OU has never had as much depth on defense and the battle for playing time seems intense across the board.
At defensive end, senior Isaiah Thomas (6’5, 266) is the leader of this group and one of the main leaders of the defense. It would not surprise me if he is not named a team captain. I’m told Sophomore Reggie Grimes (6’4, 258) flashes often in camp, and his speed and athleticism is very apparent every time he is on the field. Sounds like Freshman Ethan Downs (6’4 257) is another young player who is far enough along athletically to play as a freshman.
The Backend
In the secondary, OU has a great mix of experience and youth and a ton of depth as the competition has picked up at all five positions in the secondary.
“Yeah, it is. It’s gone from, in some positions, especially defensively,” said Coach Lincoln Riley “It’s gone from how are we going to get this guy off the field to we’ve got to try to create reps for a lot of guys. We have to create opportunities for a lot of guys because there are so many guys I think that are able to play, that are going to be ready to play and ready to contribute.”
“So, it’s good. It creates competition. It pushes guys. It creates an opportunity to rep guys and get their very best reps in games and not have to get into survival mode. It develops guys for down the line. It’s all positive. So, you see that in a lot of positions on our football team, and you certainly in the last few years see a big jump on defensively.”
The competition on both sides of the ball has been great, and at programs like OU, iron sharpens iron.
OU has a great battle going on at the nickel back position between sophomore Jeremiah Criddell (5’11, 198) and freshman Billy Bowman (5’10, 188), and while Bowman comes in as a very celebrated recruit, he is competing against a very good player in Criddell. “
“Yeah, I told you guys at Media Days I think he was one of our most improved players this spring,” said Coach Riley. “I thought he did a fantastic job. He’s a young guy that came in as a talented player. We knew that. He’s been a hard worker from day one.”
‘You just see, like several guys in our team, you see the wires starting to connect, and you really see him starting to get in a good place physically, get in a good place mentally.”
‘He’s confident in how hard he’s worked on his body, the job he’s done learning our defense. I mean, he’s just kind of steadily improved himself in all areas, and you just see it starting to show up on the field and show up consistently. He’s an extremely hard worker. It’s very important to him. You typically get his best every day.”
‘For a young player, that’s how you improve. We’ve said it a lot—it’s not like one miracle moment where they make this magic jump. It’s just the consistency, and just if you can get their best every day, then a lot of times you see those guys really progress. All a sudden, you look up, and guys turn themselves into pretty good players.”
“So, I’m excited for him, for his opportunity. He’s been a really great team guy, just really I think, beloved on our team just with the energy he always brings for his teammates. Just you can’t get enough guys like him. So, he’s going to have a great opportunity, I really expect him to be a big part of our secondary.”
