Open Post | Weekend, October 14th – 16th
Posted on: October 14, 2022
Official Visitors and a Note on Recruiting
– Charlie S – Posted on: October 12, 2022
***The Sooners are scheduled to host several official visitors this week.
As you know we have previously mentioned that ’23 DL target Kayden McDonald (6’3 310), ’23 EDGE Tausili Akana (6’4 225) and ’23 DL commit Derrick LeBlanc (6’4 270) will be in town for their official visits for the Kansas weekend.
I would also expect a handful of unofficial visitors and perhaps another official visitor or two (no surprises, just trying to track down any commits who may be visiting).
***With that said, I wanted to touch on the state of recruiting, particularly when it comes to gauging the temperature of the current commits.
Right now is not the time for us to be reaching out constantly and asking the commits how they are feeling about OU’s struggles or where things stand with their recruitment.
It does nobody any favors…the kids, the program, us…nobody. What are the kids supposed to say? The program doesn’t need us pestering the kids and reminding them how poorly the state of play is right now.
OU is working their messaging with the commits and likely doesn’t need/want a bunch of people adding a perception of concern into the equation. Of course others will do that, but it is just not our style.
The way we are approaching this is to monitor our sources around the commits to get a sense if there is anything to worry about. If there is, we will bring that news to you all as we always have.
’23 Early Enrollees
– Charlie S – Posted on: October 13, 2022
The Sooners currently have 22 commits in the ‘CHO23N’ class.
Right now, a high percentage of those commits plan on being early enrollees, which is a great thing.
Here are the names that have indicated that they plan on being early enrollees:
DE/EDGE – PJ Adebawore
QB – Jackson Arnold
WR – Keyon Brown
OL – Josh Bates
WR – Anthony Evans
OL – Cayden Green
RB – Kalib Hicks
DL – Derrick Leblanc
DB – Erik McCarty
LB – Phil Picciotti
RB – Daylan Smothers
ATH – Kaleb Spencer
DE – Colton Vasek
DB – Makari Vickers
DB – Jasiah Wagoner *Likely
OU vs Kansas | Throw the Talent Argument to the Wind
– Charlie S – Posted on: October 13, 2022
The Sooners take on the Kansas Jayhawks this weekend and they are currently 9 point favorites in the game.
Don’t ask me how or why the Sooners are the betting favorite, but I’m not here to squabble with Vegas, that town has financially destroyed men much smarter than me.
The Jayhawks come into the game at 5-1 with wins over West Virginia, Duke, Houston, and Iowa State They only allowed 11 points to Iowa State.
I just do not happen to agree with the line and right now, based on what we have seen the last 3 weeks, I actually would have Kansas as the favorite.
However, I would not have Kansas favored based on the talent of both rosters.
In fact, when it comes to the rosters, on paper, it is a decided mismatch in favor of the Sooners.
OU has at least 54 players on their roster that were ranked as 4 stars or above.
Kansas has…carry the one…divide by 3…add the outliers…yeah…Kansas has a total of 3 players that were ranked as 4 stars or above. (a backup running back in Sevion Morrison, and two defensive backs).
On paper, the Sooners have the decided advantage, particularly in the trenches.
As we all know, the game isn’t played on paper and right now, Kansas looks to be the much better football team.
However this game plays out, there is no way it can be argued that Kansas has ‘more talent’ than OU.
Lance Leipold would gladly trade rosters with Brent Venables, I don’t thnk that is even up for debate.
Throw out the ‘OU talent isn’t up to par’ for this contest.
Where is the Physicality? Here’s an Answer
– Super K – Posted on: October 13, 2022
Earlier this week, I mentioned that a long time friend and staffer at TCU (who was there under the Patterson) regime told me he’s never faced a less physical OU team.
This lack of physicality runs completely counter to how coach Venables prepares and coaches his guys. Of all the things you’d imagine could be going wrong, lack of physicality wouldn’t have been one of them.
So, what’s going on?
Well, I mentioned that my theory is that the lack of physicality is coming from pure hesitation in the defense.
But when they react to what they’re seeing the way they’re taught, then they put themselves in a position to strike first.
Alex King posted a clip of Jaden Davis coming downhill in the Texas game and flipping the Texas running back over. Alex praised Davis’ physicality in the clip.
In fact, this season, despite being a smaller guy and someone a lot of people were concerned about in the preseason, Davis is one of the few guys who seems to show up over and over again in these kinds of plays.
But I think the clip Alex posted illustrates exactly how following instructions and reacting immediately makes being physical even possible. If a back gets going, he’s going to hit you or make you miss. These backs are 220 lbs so even for a big linebacker, if he has time to get moving or set you up, he’s going to push you backward or make you miss.
But Davis doesn’t allow that to happen. The Texas running back can’t get any momentum moving forward.
So what triggers Davis in the play. Well, the first thing you see is number one WR (Whittington) motion to the other side. Now Davis knows that unless one of the backs flares out, he has no pass coverage assignments. And even if the back flares out, you can see a contain man on the end who would likely slow that back down. So, given Davis’ vantage point, he can’t react to that quickly anyway.
But what happens is the second back simply climbs up looking to block. Another key Davis’ probably looks at is the pullers coming his direction. By itself that isn’t enough to trigger but with the other information, it is.
And so the play becomes easy. He comes from much farther away than Stutsman but he easily beats Stutsman to the running back and flips the back over.
Great play.
If Davis’ hesitates, Stutsman would’ve been the first to meet him. But another step or two and where Stutsman would’ve met him as he scrapes, it’s likely Stutsman would’ve fallen backwards. Not because he’s weak – quite the contrary – but it’s just physics.
One of the things to keep in mind is that even at Clemson, Brent isn’t one to have five star guys all over his defense. If you can learn his defense and react well, you don’t need to be. As I’ve said before, you want two or three unicorns – preferably one or two are upfront and the rest of the guys need to be roll players that do their job, well.
I still strongly believe that what we are seeing right now isn’t a lack of talent or want to, it’s just guys hesitating too much and when they don’t, it yields a good result. Sure there are other issues but I think this is the biggest issue.
Quick Visit Note | Jackson Arnold
– Charlie S – Posted on: October 13, 2022
…will be in Norman this weekend on another unofficial visit.
No plans to visit elsewhere either at this time.
