Open Post | Tuesday, June 2nd
Posted on: June 2, 2020
Quick-Hitters | 5-Star Visitor, Daymon David and Fatheree
– Super K
***Had heard this morning that 2021 Reuben Fatheree would be committing to TAMU and it looks like he has now announced.
I will say that, this may seem like bad news to OU but there for the Sooners, there is more to the story and the “more” is good news.
***As you know, Sooners 2021 DB target, Daymon David recently released his list of top schools which included OU, Miami, Louisville, Indiana, Michigan, and Boston College.
I’m told the teams to beat here are OU and Boston College. It does sound like, if the Sooners really push here, they could perhaps reel David in. They have had him on a virtual visit and are clearly interested (he’s been offered) but it doesn’t sound like (at least as of late last week) that they were pushing to close the deal.
***Also, am told Sooners hosted 5-star DL, JT Tuimoloau (Sammamish, WA) for a virtual visit, this past Saturday.
The not so great news is I was told not to get any hopes on this one. Not to say the visit didn’t go well but I did not get the vibe that there was a ton of confidence in the Sooners being a big player here.
Sooners Make Top 5 for 2021 DB Donovan McMillon
– Charlie S
The Sooners made the top 5 for 2021 DB Donovan McMillon (6’2″ 193) out of Canonsburg, PA.
When McMillon tweeted out that he was making an announcement two days ago, I mentioned that I expected Oklahoma to be in his top five.
Super K has also previously mentioned that we feel that McMillon is Grinch’s ‘Bryson Washington’ this cycle…meaning that he is a top priority for the defensive coordinator and safeties coach.
Oregon, Virginia Tech, Texas A&M and Florida join OU in his top five.
At initial glance, I think OU will have to compete the hardest with Florida and perhaps Oregon, but we will be checking on where OU stands in the hierarchy over time.
Snippet from: Monday Notebook | Where’s the Beef?
– James Hale
As OU prepares to come back from COVID-19 and we get ready to get into who the Sooners going to be this season I’m not the only one that looks at the size of the Sooners defensive line and wonder how they are going to make a run at the National Title with one of the smallest defensive lines among the elite in college football.
Bill Connelly is a writer for ESPN and covers college football for the Network and he recently put out a chart on twitter that brought out quite a bit of angst from OU fans.
Connelly is wrong about Josh Ellison’s weight as he was listed on the spring depth chart a 6’2, 279 and we can only hope he shows up ready to roll this season at 6-foot-2 and 293 pounds because not only to do the Sooners not have defensive lineman over 300 pounds but they barely have any over 290.
Now, I realize these weights will change and we will see growth in some of these players by the time they play Southwest Missouri State on September 5th, but we all have to understand this is a philosophy of Defensive Coordinator Alex Grinch.
“We call it ‘Speed D’ for a reason,” said OU Head Football Coach Lincoln Riley. “Look, we love big guys. We just want them to be able to move and play with quickness. Yes, they need to be powerful and to be able to move, but look at Neville (Gallimore) he is a big guy who can move. He’s not the biggest guy playing college football, but he was plenty big enough to play the nose and his athletic ability was as good as any defensive tackle or defensive end.”
“Also, when we get defensive lineman we believe we can make them bigger and stronger, but first we go through a process of helping them lose their baby fat so to speak and help them get to their peak performance. We want to build them up and help make them the best players that they can be. We will be big enough and within our concept of ‘Speed D’ with guys playing as hard as they can play, running sideline to sideline, we will have a very good, active defensive line this year.”
I agree that OU can run sideline-to-sideline win their ‘Speed D’ but can they handle a team that is running right at them? OU’s lone loss during the regular season last year was too Kansas State that caught OU slanting the wrong way more often than not, keeping OU’s offense off the field for the most part of the game. The Wildcats rushed for 213 yards on the day at 4.7 yards per carry with running backs that would be considered world-class.
OU ranked 32nd in the nation in run defense last season giving up 134.1 yards per game however, Connelly pointed out that OU was only 80th in rushing success rate, 103rd in rushing marginal explosiveness, and 24th in success inside the 10 and 127th in success rate on first-and-goal. He also points out that OU was disruptive everywhere outside of the Red Zone coming in 6th in stuff rate and15th in havoc rate.
I had one of my media friends tell me that OU’s defense is not set up for the Red Zone or short-yardage or fourth-and-one. ‘Speed D’ set up to rush the quarterback and run sideline-to-sideline and to keep offensive teams from getting into fourth-and-ones and short-yardage against the Sooners. He has a point but it’s football and there are going to be moments in the game when OU will need to stand up and be great in the trenches and will they be big and strong enough to handle it?
OU has lost their major playmaker inside in Gallimore and recruited to replace him with the top JUCO player in the country in Perrion Winfrey who was listed at 6’4, 305 pounds at Iowa Western CC but told me he was 6-3 and 305. Now at OU, he’s listed at 6’3, 283 and much like Gallimoe before him he came in early and immediately dropped 20 pounds. It’s the process that all big guys on the defensive side of the ball seem to go through.
I fully expect Winfrey and Ellison to be bigger by the time the season rolls around but considering how OU builds athletes up in the defensive line they both will be around 290 pounds. Sophomore Jordan Kelly (6’3, 293) will be the biggest defensive lineman and it will be interesting to see if he can break through and get on the field this year.
As I have said before the fact that junior Ronnie Perkins (6’3, 247) can’t get over 250 pounds is puzzling to me. Now, he is a lean, mean fighting machine but on fourth and one against a 310-pound offensive tackle or a 270-pound tight end he is not going to win as many of those battles as we think he should. OU weights are good at defensive tackle in sophomore Jalen Redmond (6’3, 278), senior LaRon Stokes (6’4, 276), and redshirt freshman Marcus Hicks (6’5, 272). Most project Hicks to play at defensive tackle. I think Redmond has star potential, Stokes will be a very good player and could also see himself in the NFL at some point and it will be interesting to see if Hicks can put his wrestling skills to good use at OU.
Junior Isaiah Thomas (6’5, 260) is the size that most teams would look for at defensive end, but sophomore Marcus Stripling (6’3, 240) is smaller than Perkins and Thomas. OU is not sure yet where redshirt freshman Kori Roberson (6’4, 273) fits in but Coach Grinch told me last year that he thought he could play both the nose and D-tackle.
Reggie Grimes (6’3 1/2, 242) can really run and that’s what OU really wants as an edge rusher. It will be interesting to see how big he can get at OU. Noah Arinze (6’5 1/2, 240) is another edge rusher that OU is very high on that is coming into the program and he has the frame to carry to 260 to 270 pounds easily.
OU is getting taller, longer, and looking for more size at linebacker and in the secondary but they are looking for more freaks that can also run. Freshman Shane Whitter (6’0, 226) shocked everyone in camp running a sub 4.5 forty and I was told he would be on the teams 4 X 4 relay team. That is the kind of freak they are looking for and when a linebacker can run that good they will overlook the fact he is 6-foot tall.
Bill got attacked by Sooner fans pretty good on twitter and he took it all in good fun. However, he’s not the only one that’s curious how this new way of thinking is going to turn out along the defensive line. I know at Washington State Coach Grinch played with 250-pound nose tackles and held up for the most part. He has bigger, and better nose tackle types at OU but still OU is not looking for 330 pounds nose tackles unless they can run close to like Gallimore was running last year
Grinch is a very good defensive mind and was great in his first year at OU. There’s no reason to not think his way of thinking is going to work outside of the fact that at times teams ran pretty good on OU and the Sooners defensive line didn’t match up with LSU.
The OU defense is expected to be better in year two because it’s the second year under Grinch, but OU lost its three best players on defense from a year ago in Gallimore, linebacker Kenneth Murray, and corner Parnell Motely. Defensive end Kenneth Mann and defensive tackle Marquise Overton were good players as well. New stars will need to emerge and hopefully, Redmond turns out as good as advertised. OU will need Winfrey and Ellison are the real deal and that Roberson or Hicks turns out to be something special.
How good this defensive line is will be will go a long way in determining just how good OU will be on defense and just how good the Sooners will be next season.
