Open Post | Tuesday, March 19th

Updates | Noah Nelson & Trenton Simpson
– Super K

***Sooners hosted 2020 OT, Noah Nelson last week.

Noah said via text, “Wow, it’s incredible. The facilities and the player development are amazing. It’s probably been the best [visit] so far”.

Noah further noted that he plans on taking an official visit to Oklahoma in the near future.

Oklahoma is obviously looking to take a number of offensive linemen in this class and Bedenbaugh has quite a few that he has offered and recruited.

***Stopped by Mallard Creek (NC) to see 2020 Sooners LB target, Trenton Simpson, last week.

As I noted above, Trenton was teammates with current Sooners LB, Ryan Jones and Jones did call Trenton after his offer and recruit him to Norman.

It sounds like he plan is for Trenton to make it out to the Spring Game for an OV but he did say that he still needs to get final confirmation on that.

The Sooners will need to get him out on a visit soon, either way, because he plans on making an early summer decision.

I should note that, Trenton highlights the kind of athletes you see in the Deep South.

The linebackers the Sooners are recruiting in this area or out west tend to be around 6’ and sitting in the low 200 lbs.

Trenton is a solid 6’2, very wide shoulders and already sitting at 225 lbs while running a 100m in the low 11s. He will easily get to 245 lbs and retain his sideline to sideline speed. He looks almost thin at 225 lbs.

Schools to watch in this one are UNC, Georgia and Auburn. If OU gets him on campus, they’ll have a better chance than folks think, in my opinion.


Historic Offensive Line Group
– James Hale

*** I have always been a big fan of Cody Ford, a mountain of a man who is a gentle giant off the field and a mean son-of-a-gun on it. I thought one of the highlights was the work of the four Sooner offensive linemen that participated at the pro day. Ford was joined by Ben Powers (310), Dru Samia (306) and Bobby Evans (308) and when the coach running the OL drill told them to line up they lined up like they always did at with Evans at LT, Powers at LF, Samia at RG and Ford at RT.

*** “Now that you bring it up I guess we did,” laughed Ford. “I didn’t even think about it. We just did it. We have played together for so long and that now that’s just what we do.”

*** The offensive line is so close that Ford had an announcement for the media and that is that the O-line is going to get matching tattoos and that includes sophomore Creed Humphrey who could come out after this year but is not expected to come out until after his junior year.

*** “We have been thinking about what kind of tattoo we want and so, and that includes Creed who is one of us, and we think we have come up with something,” said Ford. “We are going to take part of the trophy (Joe Moore Award Trophy) and put it on us with our name and jersey number on the back and go from there.”

*** Ford loves his teammates and he has no doubts that all of them are going to have great careers in the NFL.

*** “Each one of them is going to be successful for a very long time,” said Ford. “They’re all going to have great careers and I’m positive about that. These guys, they take everything in and they take advantage of every opportunity. They never give up and are the hardest working individuals that I know and I know they will fight to the end.”

*** Ford also believes that if anybody is really criticizing Murray for being a leader and his intelligence on the football field that’s absolutely crazy.

*** “Anything about that guy is not questionable,” said Ford. “His heart, his mentality, and mindset going into the game because Kyler is a different breed. He’s a great leader, he’s a great teammate and even when he didn’t play he was pushing everybody, and pushing anybody that needed it. Even when he was sitting back and letting Baker do his thing he was taking a leadership role. So for somebody to say he’s not a leader he’s not right. They are wrong in so many ways, and plus they have never had the chance to play with the guy. When you play with a guy like Kyler you definitely respect the way he goes about his business and the way he carries himself on the field.”

This note was a small part of James’ article “Say Hale-O To The Weekend Notebook | Sourced Notes, News, and More!” James posts notebooks which include sourced notes, news, and updates on all Sooner sports twice a week on the Donor Board.


TFB Talking Point | Post-Combine NFL Draft Projections
– Charlie S

The Sooners had eight former players participate in the NFL Combine in Indianapolis and Amani Bledsoe, Myles Tease, Caron Meier, and Curtis Bolton worked out for scouts at OU’s incredibly hyped Pro-Day.

We had a talking point about where I felt they would get drafter ‘Pre-Combine’, this will be about where I feel they get drafted following their workouts.

Where do you think they will eventually get drafted now following their workouts?

Here is the way I see things right now:

QB Kyler Murray: – Pre-Combine: Top 10 – Post-Combine: Number 1 overall. It’s just gonna happen. Whether it is to Arizona or someone trading up for him, he will be the first selection in my opinion.

WR Marquise Brown: – Pre-Combine: Mid first-round – Post Combine: 2nd round. Why the change? He didn’t do anything, as we knew he wouldn’t, but I was already leaning towards having him too high. I just don’t see a team taking him with their first-round pick when he hasn’t been able to show off his skills and others have. Completely a hunch.

OL Cody Ford: – Pre-Combine: Mid first-round – Post Combine: Mid first round. Could be one of the first OL taken as he performed well enough to not hurt his stock and his film from last season is ridiculous.

RB Rodney Anderson: – Pre-Combine: 3rd or 4th round – Post-combine: 3rd or 4th round. Same as Hollywood, he didn’t do much other than lift (and he did extremely well at that). Will be a steal for someone.

OL Ben Powers: – Pre-Combine: 3rd or 4th round – Post-Combine: 3rd or 4th round. Someone will get a 10-year pro in the middle rounds.

OL Dru Samia: – Pre-Combine: 4th or 5th round – Post-Combine: 3rd or 4th round. Samia is one guy who put in the work in the offseason and it showed. He did very well at the combine and his versatility along the line will be very attractive. Stock up for sure in my opinion.

OL Bobby Evans: – Pre-Combine: 6th or 7th round – Post-Combine: 6th-7th round. Close to calling him an undrafted free agent as he did nothing to stand out at the combine and when we say ‘watch the film’…his won’t be the best. However, the potential is there and I could get surprised and see Bobby picked earlier. I hope he does!

P/K Austin Seibert: – Pre-Combine: 5th or 6th round – Post-Combine: 5th or 6th round. Legatron will get drafted. Speak it into existence.

DL Amani Bledsoe: – Pre-Pro Day: 6th or 7th round – Post-Pro Day: 5th or 6th round. Could be off on this but I think he did enough to help himself and assure a draft spot. He never got to flourish in OU’s system but he has the measurables for someone to give him a shot.

LB Curtis Bolton: Pre-Pro day: N/A – Post-Pro day: I think Buzzy may have gotten himself an invite to a camp as an undrafted free agent based on his performance, however, his film will do him no favors at the LB position. He could be a candidate for the AAF and XFL for sure though.

WR Myles Tease: Pre-Pro day: N/A – Post-Pro day: I would be surprised if he gets an invite to a camp. I hope he does, but If he wants to play more football, he will most likely have to check out the CFL/AAF/XFL. Really didn’t do anything to stand out.

TE/FB Carson Meier: Pre-Pro day: N/A – Post-Pro day: Meier is a football player. Just gets the job done. He showed some nice receiving skills but didn’t do a heckuva lot in the workout that stands out, as you would assume with him being a man without a true position. He is a tweener on the field which will make it difficult for him to get an invite as I view him as a slightly less athletic version of Dimitri Flowers who got an invite to a camp, but couldn’t stick. Carson has an uphill battle for that camp invite.

What are your thoughts? Feel free to disagree with my thoughts as they are just that, thoughts!


Visit Reaction | Initial Update | Jalen McMillan
– Super K

I’ll have a full update for you but wanted to pass on a few highlights from my phone conversation with Jalen McMillan and his mother, Belinda.

As you all know by now, the elite 2020 WR made his way to Norman for a visit to OU this weekend.

***Both Jalen and his mother highlighted the fact that OU was extremely comfortable. As a first visit, I think they expected to like it but I don’t think they were prepared for just how much like home it would feel.

***OU was already sitting very high in this race. They knocked the visit out the park. My sense is that the Sooners are currently the team to beat.

***They have already scheduled their official visit for September. So, Jalen and his mother will be back.

***Dennis Simmons, Annie Hanson, Chip Viney and Lincoln Riley led the charge on this one and you could hear in Jalen and and Belinda’s voice that the team sold OU not just as an elite program but a program full of sincerity and authenticity from the top down. I could tell, very much, that this was important to Belinda.

***The visit is over. Jalen and his mom are in the airport ready to board the flight back to California.

***Again…OU went yard here. Quotes forthcoming.

Visit Update on Dontae Manning
– Super K

One of the Sooners top priorities at the DB position is 2020 DB, Dontae Manning (Kansas City, MO).

Manning has the measurables Grinch is looking for. He’s an elite 100m sprinter and a six foot athlete. He also has no issues coming down hill and striking a ball carrier.

Dontae had hoped to visit Oklahoma for the most recent junior day but that visit fell through.

He tells me that he has rescheduled the visit for March 30th. As I mentioned here a couple weeks ago, that is the same weekend the Sooners will host Princely Umanmielen.

So, next weekend is starting to turn into a pretty important visitor weekend.

Manning won’t be able to make it in for the OU Spring game as it appears he is expected to be in South Bend that weekend for a Notre Dame trip. As you know, the Sooners are in a bit of a battle with Notre Dame for regional DB, Ryan Watts, as well.


Fab Four
– James Hale

*** It is rare that any program gets four high profile freshman receivers as the Sooners did in NewWave19 like Haselwood, Wease, Bridges and four-star tight end Austin Stogner (6’6, 237) and it has been said that all have looked like the real deal.

*** “Stogner definitely belongs in that group because there was not a more highly recruited tight end in the country than him,” said Coach Riley. “Yeah, it is unique. Physically all of them are good enough to be able to help you soon, which we thought they probably would be, and they are. It will come down to mentally how do they continue to prepare, and how will they prepare their body, and how will they handle all the transition that they will have to go through at this level.”

*** “See there are still a lot of question marks out there for those guys. There is no doubt that the capability is there and we have liked what we have seen of them thus far. If they can improve on a steady rate they can be a pretty special quartet of guys there.”

*** The general thinking about the quarterback race is that Mordecai has the better arm and can run pretty well and is a better pure passer, but Hurts can pass it pretty well, can really run and has a better arm than people give him credit for.

*** “He has a good arm, and he has thrown every ball that he has needed to throw,” said Coach Riley. “He’s very capable just like we felt on tape when we were evaluating him. He is very capable of doing everyone that we want him to do in the throw game. I think now there’s nothing physically that we are concerned with. The guy can throw the ball but he just has to learn how we want everything done.”

*** “He has to get on the same page with our receivers and on the same page with our scheme and what we want. He is progressing fast, there is no doubt about it but it is going to be a race to see how far he can progress because he only has a short time here.”

*** Of course, to this reporter, what has hurt the progress of the quarterbacks some has been in the inexperience in the offensive line as that has forced the whole offense up to this point to be a work in progress.

*** “It has been interesting,” said Coach Riley. “It’s just like at this point every spring, even if you have four guys coming back, but that has been especially true this spring with Creed (Humphrey) out. We really feel that right now it’s created a void in our offensive line right now. What it’s done has forced us to move Brey Walker (6’6, 336) who has played left tackle his entire time here and he has to go in and play some guard. Or a guy like Tyrese Robinson (6’3, 326) who has been a guard his entire time here and he has to go in and play center. We have had to move Finley Felix (6’5, 311) around some and what it’s created is some movement and interrupted some of the reps that we wanted.”

*** “In the long run, it’s going to be phenomenal for these guys. In the short term, we’re going to have some tough moments especially here in the spring. Then on top of that all the things that we are doing defensively we need to get settled here on the O-line.”

*** “It will get there. There is talent and we have good coaching. We have a good scheme and it’s going to get there, but it’s going to be a process. With that group through you can turn on the film and there’s been steady progress, and we just have to keep that up.”

This note was a small part of James’ articleHale and Hearty Monday Notebook | Sourced Notes, News, & More” James posts notebooks which include sourced notes, news, and updates on all Sooner sports twice a week on the Donor Board.