Open Post | Tuesday, May 17th

Portal Post Coaching Change | Call Me Impressed
– Charlie S – Posted on: May 11, 2022

The easiest way to sum up the Sooners program since the morning after Bedlam would be to borrow a phrase from The Grateful Dead…’What a long strange trip it’s been’

We have covered the entire transition from Lincoln Riley to Brent Venables from just about every angle, but as I sit here on May 11th, fresh off the closing (at least out-going) of the Portal for this cycle, I cannot be anything but incredibly impressed by the retention of the current roster by the new staff.

When Riley left there were worries that the Sooners roster would fall apart and there would be a mass exodus…while some major players did leave, it was not as cut and dried as some may have thought.

I can confidently say that if Riley had STAYED, the exodus would have looked a lot different, but I believe it would have been larger, at least numbers-wise.

Following the bowl game and the expected departure of Caleb Williams and the disappointing (but understandable) departure of Mario Williams…the Sooners, in my opinion, actually won the retention game by a pretty wide margin.

There are guys currently on the roster that we know would have left if Lincoln Riley and his staff were still in Norman. Guys like Stripling, Wease, Mims, Brey Walker and several more that we never discussed but knew where they were heavily leaning…like the entire seconday.

As I said in the comment section of a recent post, I was 80% confident that a guy like Clayton Smith would have been poached by an aggressive booster.

We flat out know kids were approached, directly, by boosters from other programs…yet the only surprise portal entry was Cody Jackson. Jackson was a guy who went through spring and apparently didn’t like what he saw. Whether that was based on his position on the depth chart or whether someone else approached him and he took the bait, it is irrelevant now as he is no longer with the porgram.

But that is it. Cody Jackson.

What does that tell me? That tells me that the sourced notes we have been passing along since the minute Brent Venables took over about the coaches feeling that the ‘buy in’ of the team was very high were very accurate.

That tells me that Jerry Schmidt working with these young men throughout the winter helped instill a sense of personal accountability and pride. That comes when one is working hard and seeing results. A bond and trust are formed. This team has already grown in basically 5 months.

We hear about leaders emerging organically.

We hear about guys who were not exactly ‘excelling’ in the classroom being named ‘Scholars of the week’ and such.

We hear about a different level of cohesiveness among the teammates and a deeper sense of brotherhood.

That all comes from the top down.

I really do not think the transition could have conceivably gone any better for Oklahoma and I truly believe they are in a better position moving forward following the necessary disaster of Lincoln Riley deciding to leave Norman for LA after a few hours of sleep (I kid).

For us at TFB, this change has been invigorating. Under the previous regime, we heard all sorts of superlatives about the progress the team was making every offseason. And every year, at least for the past 3 years, the team has gotten progressively worse. The attention to detail, the lack of accountability, the me-first culture that was engulfing the program sometimes went unnoticed as the wins piled up.

I am hear to tell you that we have seen more tangible evidence to back up the sourced notes we have gotten in 5 months than we had seen in the last 3 years. Yes, we were spot on with position moves and schemes and guys coming in and out of the program, but we bought in in large part, as all of you did, to the promise of ‘this year will be different.’

I think it is easy to say, even if OU were to stumble this year and wind up with a 9-4 or 10-3 record, that ‘This year will be different’…for all the right reasons.

The program looks very different than it did 6 months ago…and it looks like it is on much better footing. I am impressed.


Sourced | Team Defense | Notes
– Super K – Posted on: May 12, 2022

Spoke with a source about the potential of this Sooners defense and wanted to pass along a few highlights from the conversation.

***We all know how good BV’s defenses were at Clemson but the question I’m sure many of us are asking is how does OU’s talent compare to what he had at Clemson.

***Obviously very difficult to know what BV actually thinks but I have been told that he’s expressed to folks inside the program that he believes this current Oklahoma defense has better athletes at a number of positions than he had at Clemson.

***I know that might be hard to believe because of how many defensive draft picks he was developing at Clemson but I’ll remind you again of a guy like Tony Jefferson. Under BV Jefferson was on his way to being a top draft pick (and once he got to the NFL proved he should have been) but once Mike left, Jefferson’s college career suffered so badly that he went undrafted.

***And when you look at the kinds of athletes Oklahoma has, it’s pretty eye-opening. OU’s safety tandem is freakishly athletic. Key Lawerence absolutely has first-round size and athleticism. Billy Bowman is a fantastic athlete, as well.

***At the corner position you’ve got young men like Jaden Davis who was heavily pursued by BV at Clemson. As a freshman, Davis looked like he would be an AA or at least all-conference. Under the previous regime, he continued to decline. But Davis is a true 4.4 guy.

***Kendall Dennis is a freak with ball skills that are out of this world. Source said that Kendall has grown more in a few months under this staff than he grew the entire year under the previous staff.

***And of course Woodi Washington has been pretty good and the new staff really like him.

***At LB, OU is packed with athletes.

***The defensive tackle position may be a question mark but we know that EDGE guys like Marcus Stripling and Clayton Smith are fantastic athletes and despite not playing much under the previous regime, even Grinch’s staff saw Stripling and Smith as guys with tremendous unrealized potential.

***When you consider all that and you add in a better nutrition program and a superior S&C program and a better culture, you’re adding to the physical and mental development across the board.

***But the source said the area that will make a massive difference in game situations (and is certainly relatable to the Tony Jefferson example) is Venables scheme.

***Source said, “Grinch’s defense was so basic that it was on the player to make the play. But, in this defense, the defense puts you in the position to make the play.”

***Source said the scheme is certainly more complex and that has its own issues – you have to make sure your guys are studying their playbooks, are focused, etc (that’s where the culture comes in). I was told the defense has like 10 times more calls than they had under the previous staff. But the sense is that scheme and the player development is going to yield far greater individual and team results.

***The philosophy of the staff seems to be, you do what we tell you and you can trust that you’ll make plays and you’ll get drafted. The previous staff had a simple scheme which was good in that you could get a lot of guys on the field. The problem, again, was players weren’t schemed into a position to create turnovers or make plays. If they didn’t create a play for themselves, there was no play to be made.

***That philosophy forces Grinch to recruit ultra athletic players but even then making plays is about more than being a freakish athlete. But that recruiting philosophy combined with this new staff’s scheme and development could be a magical combination. Fortunately, the previous staff didn’t recruit guys with low football IQs.

***The players didn’t get much in the way of football IQ development under the previous staff. But they’re sharp kids who are able to pick up the calls.

***Bottom line, there is a lot of trust from the players and the staff that the defense can be really good right out of the gate.


Sunday Quick Hitter | ’23 TE Reid Mikeska
Charlie S – Posted on: May 15, 2022

Hope you all are having a great weekend.

In between getting my ‘Honey-Do’ list completed, I was able to touch base with former Clemson TE commit Reid Mikeska who was in Norman on an unofficial visit this weekend.

I asked Reid what, if anything, stood out to him and he said ‘The thing that really stood out was the staff. The staff was so well connected and the whole team was a brotherhood’.

He added ‘I was able to spend all day with a ton of the coaches and they left a great impression’.

As for what’s next for Mikeska, he let me know that he will be taking his official visit to OU for the BBQ on June 3rd – 5th.

We will see if the visits which are currently scheduled take place following his official. I, personally, am leaning towards him being a candidate to lock things down at the BBQ based on the atmosphere that I expect. We will see though!


Why all the Quarterback Additions?
– Super K – Posted on: May 16, 2022

As you know, the Sooners have now added a transfer quarterback along with a JUCO quarterback.

In case anyone was having some concerns (like I was), I asked to confirm whether these sudden additions had anything to do with a possible issue with Dillon Gabriel.

Source said, “Nothing is wrong with him. We have just have issues with quarterback depth.”

So, it’s as expected but wanted to offer that as confirmation.

James will have more on the QB room in a bit.


Lebby’s QB Room | A Departure from Riley’s way
– James Hale – Posted on: May 16, 2022

***There have been quite a few changes from the Lincoln Riley era to the Brent Venables era, among those have been the pursuit of quarterbacks.

***OU got their second commitment from a quarterback in a week’s time and bringing the Sooners to seven trigger men in the quarterback room. Coach Riley would have never kept those numbers.

***This past weekend, OU took the verbal commitment from General Booty (6’3, 195) of Tyler Junior College.

***I thought OU was done with quarterbacks when Jeff Lebby pulled the trigger on Pitt transfer, Davis Beville (6’6, 235) of Greenville, South Carolina. Just wouldn’t have guessed the Sooners carry seven quarterbacks.

***If Booty ever plays, he will have one of the great names in college football. If you’re a football junkie you know the Booty name. Booty is the son of Abram Booty, who played receiver at LSU. His uncle Josh Booty was a quarterback at LSU and a Major League Baseball player. He had another uncle John David Booty, who played quarterback at USC in the Pete Carroll era.

***Booty’s path to OU was a winding one. His family moved around a lot so in his younger years, he went to four different high schools – two in Cali and two in Texas. He finished up at storied Allen High School.

***Booty’s prep career didn’t seem to garner him a ton of interest from college football programs. He had two offers, one from New Mexico and the other from Presbyterian College.

***So, he went to Tyler Junior College and had a pretty good year. You might even call it a breakout season as he threw for 3,115 yards and 25 touchdowns and ranked second in the country in throwing in the NJCAA. He proved he is capable of monster games when against Navarro Community College, he garnered national attention by passing for 528 yards and eight touchdowns with 38 completions.

***In terms of recruitment out of JUCO, Booty did take an official visit to SMU for their homecoming game with USF, and his uncle has a relationship with Steve Sarkisian at Texas, so there was some talk with him at UT.

***Even with the outstanding JUCO year though, Booty was not a hot commodity in the college football world. He had some smaller school offers: New Mexico, Austin Peay, Nicholls State, and McNeese State.

***Needless to say, when OU offered a scholarship, Booty jumped on it.

***I am sure Booty feels like he struck gold. Davis Beville, a former four-star athlete from the 2019 class, is probably feeling the same way.

***We now know, without question, that OU was unhappy with the quarterback room following spring ball.

***Coach Venables had previously noted that no backup quarterback had emerged and that they might look at the transfer portal to add some more quality arms. The Sooners have done that and then some.

***The Sooners are hoping that this infusion of depth and the competition will trigger someone to emerge as a serviceable backup.

***Beville played a little bit at Pitt last year, but remained a third-string quarterback.

***Booty has never thrown a ball above JUCO ball.

***Former 4-star QB, Nick Evers (6’3, 179) of Flower Mound, Texas enrolled early, went through spring ball. He had a very uneven spring game. The coaches were impressed with his maturity and off-the-field leadership, but while they love his potential, they aren’t sure he is ready to be the backup quarterback.

***Sophomore Micah Bowens (5’11, 187) is also on scholarship and had his best showing at OU during spring ball. He broke several long runs and proved that his speed and ability to make defenders miss would play in the Lebby offense. His throwing improved, but nobody is ready to say that he would be a big-time passer yet in college football. He is improving though.

***You also have walk-on redshirt freshmen Ralph Rucker (5’11, 203) and Ben Harris (6’3, 204).  Rucker threw two passes last season as the backup.

***Beville is the only one that has really played any college football coming off the bench in the Pitt bowl game and I would give him the inside track. When training camp starts, bring your roster sheet because OU has never had this many quarterbacks since the Wishbone days.

***In 1975, when Thomas Lott signed with the Sooners out of Jay High School in San Antonio, Texas, he arrived in Norman and found out he was tenth on the depth chart out of 11 quarterbacks.

***Coach Riley was so protective of his elite quarterback’s transition from recruit to starter that he would only have two, maybe three on scholarship and a walk-on to work with the scout team. Often, Coach Riley would only have two on scholarship but certainly would have never had seven.

***Lebby likes to turn his QB’s loose. A quarterback demanding not to run in Lebby’s system won’t fly.