Open Post | Tuesday, December 6th
Posted on: December 6, 2022
Update | ’23 DL Enow Etta
– Charlie S – Posted on: December 2, 2022
Back on the Bedlam weekend, the Sooners hosted ’23 Michigan DL commit Enow Etta (6’4.5 260) out of Colleyville, Tx.
Following the trip, we had heard from the OU side that they felt like they did a good job on the trip and felt that Etta and his bunch enjoyed the visit, but they were not really sure of how much of an impact they made in regard to his commitment status.
Early last week, Darius reached out to his source around Etta, the one who confirmed the visit for us, and he didn’t hear back, which was odd. Darius reached out again later in the week and once again, things were pretty quiet which prompted Darius to say in our group text this morning that “I’ll reiterate that I do believe something is up with Etta and OU” and I asked him what prompted that and he said ‘Just reading the tea leaves. I’ve never had an issue getting info from this source until now’.
Fast forward to this afternoon when Etta himself confirmed with Darius that he really enjoyed the visit and had nice things to say.
While that is really nothing earth-shattering if you combine that with his future planned roommate at Michigan flipping to Miami, it does appear that OU is at least somewhat on his mind.
I reached out to a source in the area a few minutes ago who told me that they believed that OU is more involved than what I have believed them to be and they wouldn’t be shocked to see OU really make things interesting with an in-home in the coming days.
This is one I’ll move forward on the stovetop as it appears something could be simmering at the very least.
Quick Hitters | Notes From CenTex
– CJ Vogel – Posted on: December 3, 2022
How is it going my friends from north of the Red River. Long time, no chat.
But I bring some quick updates from central Texas.
I was at the Austin Vandegrift and Dripping Springs game last night which featured some really intriguing 2024 prospects that may have some recruiting implications to Oklahoma down the road.
2024 Vandegrift OL Blake Frazier
A newer name to the recruiting trail is Vandegrift’s Blake Frazier. The 6’5″ prospect visited Norman on November 5 where he returned home with an offer from the Sooners and Bill Bedenbaugh. Since the visit, communication between the two has been basically everyday per Frazier.
Right now, Frazier mentioned the three schools leading the charge for him include Michigan, Clemson and Oklahoma. Though he is focused on his current playoff run for Vandegrift, Frazier mentioned he could see himself wrapping things up over the summer and before his senior season.
Frazier’s father, Steve, was an offensive lineman for Michigan from 1995-1999, and the Wolverines were obviously a school he grew up watching as a kid.
2024 Dripping Springs DE Tomsen Vickery
Vickery is listed at 6’5″ and 220 lbs and was an impressive presence off the edge tonight going against both Blake Frazier and Clemson 2023 OL commit Ian Reed. He has plenty of room to add weight and moves extremely well.
So far, Texas Tech, SMU and SDSU have all shown interest in the lengthy end.
2024 Vandegrift TE Jase Skoglund
Another big bodied prospect in the 2024 class was Vandegrift tight end Jase Skoglund. The Vandegrift tight end was mostly used as a blocker tonight but at 6’5″ and 235 lbs, he was a force in the blocking game. He has interest from a number of schools early on and I expect him to be a name that is one we check around on in a few months.
Coaches on the Trail
In home visits are starting to pick up a bit more.
Brent Venables spent the afternoon with Cayden Green Friday morning and is expected to make the quick trip over to Tennessee over the weekend to meet with Taylor Wein on an in-home in the next couple of days.
Oklahoma will also have a couple of coaches on the sidelines for Denton Guyer’s playoff game Saturday. The push for five-star safety Peyton Bowen remains of the highest priority. The efforts of Jackson Arnold have not gone unnoticed as well.
Sunday Brunch | Random Offerings from Championship Weekend
– Charlie S – Posted on: December 4, 2022
While the coaching search speculation rages and the portal is exploding, there was actually a really fun weekend of football that was played as the conference championships were decided.
***Lets’s start with the PAC Championship game where you had Utah taking on USC…Utah came into the game at 9-3 while USC was 11-1 with their only loss coming to…wait for it…Utah.
The Utes had beaten the Trojans earlier in the year by one point and the USC faithful cried ref bias at that time as they believed there were a number of calls that changed the outcome of the game. Utah needed no help from the refs this weekend as they used and abused Alex Grinch and his defense and found out what we all already knew about Rileys offense which is if he doesn’t have a QB who is ready to run, it’s not all that difficult to stop. Utah won by a dominating score of 47-24.
Utah will go to the Rose Bowl and USC will head to the Cotton Bowl to take on Tulane…we already know how much Riley and Grinch like playing Tulane based on how decisively they took care of them last year in Norman…wait…
***The Big 12 Championship was a great game. Kansas State beat TCU in overtime 31-28 but Max Duggan really won over the college football world with a gutsy performance as he seemingly was the only thing keeping TCU in the game.
Duggans efforts fell short and TCU’s perfect season came to a halt.
Hats off to Kansas State, who happened to lose to Tulane (good luck USC) earlier in the season and they dropped a couple of other games along the way. Did they sink the Big 12’s chances at the playoffs by beating TCU? I doubt it, but you never know with the committee as we know they are infatuated with big market teams.
Neither team is an elite team but they were the best of a very level conference this year.
***The SEC championship was more of a coronation than a contest as Georgia easily took care of a bipolar LSU team. Georgia is clearly the best team in college football and they really have been all year in my opinion. They may not be the sexiest offense or quite the defense they were last year, but they are the most complete team out there.
They took care of LSU by a score of 50-30 and the score was closer than the game actually was. The one thing Georgia does better than anyone in the country right now is play complementary football. They will head into the playoffs as the overwhelming favorite.
***The Big 10 championship game pitted Michigan against the mighty Purdue Boilermakers who came into the game at 8-4. Big 10 football is still pretty boring and the teams played a forgettable first half and went to the locker room at halftime with Michigan leading by a single point 14-13.
Purdue had just delayed the inevitable in the first half and Michigan took full control during the second half and wound up winning by a score of 43-22.
I have Michigan as the second best team in the country and I expect them to take the 2nd seed in the upcoming playoff.
***The ACC matchup was a battle of two very ‘meh’ teams coming into the game as North Carolina, who was also very much of a Jekyl and Hyde type of team all year, came into the game at 8-4 going up against an offensively challenged Clemson team who was 10-2.
Clemson dominated the game as they put up 39 points in three quarters and ended up winning the game 39-10. The game also featured a move that Clemson fans had been calling for all year as the Tigers finally benched inept quarterback DJ Uiagalelei in favor of true freshman Cade Klubnik after two series and then the Clemson offense caught fire. Last week against South Carolina DJU was 8-29 with 99 yards in Clemsons second loss…which cost them any shot at the playoffs.
Following the game, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney is probably looking back and realizing that his reluctance (along with his OC Brandon Streeter) to make the move away from DJU cost his program a likely spot in the playoffs and the opportunity to play for the national championship.
My view of the playoff picture…
I see it as:
1* Georgia
2* Michigan
3* TCU
4* Ohio State by default
None of those matchups excite me…and looking at the games makes me cringe at the thought of a 12 game playoff in the future.
When the playoff expands to 12, I think the first round games will be much more exciting than the second round games as I still haven’t seen a year in all my time watching college football when there truly were more than 3 teams who deserved an opportunity to play for the natty.
Game I am looking forward to the most…
Come on…you all know I’m gonna be keyed on the Tulane vs USC matchup in the Cotton Bowl. Maybe Tulane will get the job done this year against Riley and Grinch as they fell five points short last year in Norman despite being on the road and displaced by a Hurricane.
Sourced | Notes on the Portal and How Sooners are Handling It
– Super K – Posted on: December 4, 2022
A quick Sunday evening note before we get to the madness of the week.
***Was told that BV has been absolutely brutally honest with players. Source indicated that guys who are leaving are being told to leave. Source said it’s “cut throat.”
***Apparently BV is telling guys straight up, they need to move down a level – that they aren’t good enough to play at Oklahoma. Whether BV is proven right or wrong, it is brutal but I would argue necessary honesty. It’s ultimately better for the player and better for OU.
***I’ve said this before but it’s worth repeating because I heard it again this weekend – priority is defensive linemen, defensive linemen, defensive linemen. They’re scouring the earth for them.
***There will be other positions of need (like WR) but DL is the area where they feel like they need to get some guys in there that can run and increase the overall depth and competition in the room.
Sourced Note | Shane Whitter
– Charlie S – Posted on: December 5, 2022
Over the weekend I spoke to multiple sources about Sooners linebacker Shane Whitter who missed most of the season with an injury.
Many people assumed that Whitter would be entering the portal following the season, but thanks in part to a member of our own community, I have come to find out that right now, the plan is for Whitter to return for the ’23 season.
I asked a source about Shane’s recovery from surgery and where his head was at in regard to his career going forward. Source said “Shane is doing well and he’s definitely coming back. He feels like he has something to prove”.
Source added “He feels like people thought he didn’t improve while not realizing he never should have been playing following the injury”.
That is welcomed news for the Sooners as they lose DaShaun White (Cheetah) and struggled through a season where they had little depth at linebacker.
Whitter is one of the fastest players on the defensive side of the ball, and it sounds like he is determined to make an impact and prove some folks wrong.
TFB Randoms | Coaching, Speed, Xavier and Marvin
– Super K – Posted on: December 5, 2022
***On the WR coaching front, I am told Samples has yet to make a final decision about where he is going to end up. If I had to guess, I’d guess he ends up elsewhere but things could always change. We will continue to follow it. (Update – Samples accepted the ASU job Tuesday morning)
***I mentioned yesterday that OU is looking to add speed to their DL. Was told that the staff feels like they need a lot more guys that can run. It does sound like they see what we are all seeing – that they need to upgrade speed in a lot of places.
They recognize that at certain positions (like LB) they have more speed in the younger guys. But overall, team speed has and will continue to be a big emphasis.
***I have been checking on what Marvin Mims is going to do. As of yesterday, source said that Marvin had not yet communicated his intentions. So, still waiting on that front. I would imagine we will hear any day now.
***Also, since I did mention a week or so back that we had been hearing Texas WR Xavier Worthy was likely to transfer from Texas, I want to update you and let you know that based on information we heard recently, it’s more likely that he will remain in Austin.
Quick Hitter | Austin Stogner In Portal | Why It Matters
– Charlie S – Posted on: December 5, 2022
Former Sooner tight end Austin Stogner has officially entered the transfer portal from South Carolina.
Stogner spent the first three years of his career in Norman prior to transferring to South Carolina for this season.
Why this post matters?
Last week, on November 28th to be exact, one of your very own community members reached out to me with the following tip:
‘My info on Stog has been solid in the past. Rumor has it he is coming back to OU for his Covid year. Really good source. Call it a rumor if you want to report it.’
I followed that up by reaching out to a very good source of my own around Stogner who, looking back on it, kind of debunked the rumor but did not explicitly tell me ‘No, that is not happening’. I just accepted that this was not going to happen.
Now, I’ve reached back out to the source, but I do want to have this on your radar as a possibility as the member of the community who gave me the tip was correct on one part already as they indicated that he Stogner would be leaving South Carolina.
Oh the shenanigans of Portal Season.
Will keep you posted, but again, right now this is one I will keep an eye on.
Portal Quick Hitters | WRs and TE | Update 5:40 pm
– Charlie S – Posted on: December 5, 2022
Just wanted to pass along a couple quick notes on portal entrants and OU…
***First we can confirm that OU is aware of and has an interest in Kent State WR Dante Cephus. Cephus has one year of eligibility left and while he not only has the skill set that OU covets, he is familiar with the offensive scheme as OU and Kent State run very similar offenses. Cephus will be highly sought after and he has already picked up a number of power 5 offers. I would expect the Sooners to let it be known that he has a standing offer should he reciprocate their interest.
***Second, as I mentioned in the comment section on one of the previous posts, I can confirm that Oklahoma State all purpose WR/APB Braylin Presley has interest in OU. We can also confirm that OU is aware of his interest. Where it goes from here, time will tell.
***Lastly, as we discussed earlier, former Sooner tight end Austin Stogner has hit the portal from South Carolina. This one could wrap up quickly as there is mutual interest on behalf of the parties. Nothing is done as of right now, but I wold lean towards things working themselves out and seeing Stogner make a return to Norman where he would be welcomed back by the program.
Update: 5:40 pm
Sooners getting aggressive in their pursuit of transfer portal players…
***As mentioned above, the Sooners are indeed interested in Kent State WR Dante Cephus (6’1 186) and now they have extended an offer to the talented wide receiver…
***OU has also offered Mississippi State transfer WR Rara Thomas (6’2 200)…
2022 Portal & NFL Tracker | Update December 5th 2:50 pm
– TheFootballBrainiacs – Posted on: December 5, 2022
The portal action will likely be constant and ever-changing. Here’s a list of the announced / public action over the past few weeks:
OU PLAYERS IN THE PORTAL
EDGE Clayton Smith
EDGE Kevonte Henry
DB Jordan Mukes
WR Theo Wease
DB Josh Eaton
DB Kendall Dennis
DT Alton Tarber – Added 12/2/22
QB Nick Evers – Added 12/3/22 – 10:10 am
DB Bryson Washington – Added 12/3/22 – 2:20 pm
OL Brey Walker – Added 12/4/22 – 5:30 pm
WR Brian Darby – Added 12/5/22 – 2:50 pm
DL Cedric Roberts – Added – 12/5/22 – 2:50 pm
WR Trevon West – Added – 12/5/22 – 3:20 pm
Players declaring early for the draft: (Accepting Senior Bowl Invites)
OT Anton Harrison – Declared for Draft
RB Eric Gray – Senior Bowl
OT Wanya Morris – Senior Bowl & Declared for Draft
DL Jalen Redmond – Senior Bowl
