Sooners News Daily 8.19.15
Posted on: August 19, 2015
FOOTBALL
‘Could running back depth keep the Air Raid grounded?’ (TW)
Oklahoma's quarterbacks give a new meaning to "friendly competition." http://t.co/wmpxNQ2CKN #Sooners pic.twitter.com/IfBzROAgNy
— OU Daily Sports (@OUDailySports) August 18, 2015
Audible: Why @OU_Football is a great sleeper pick to win Big 12. @joelklatt makes his case: http://t.co/0Xsyqm0J2k
— Teddy Mitrosilis (@TMitrosilis) August 18, 2015
#Sooners sophomore Jordan Thomas ready to shake off "embarrassing" 2014 season http://t.co/63D6AAM2lc pic.twitter.com/jyeX7gmR88
— Joe Buettner (@JoeBuettner) August 18, 2015
Snapshots from @SOOklahoma's visit to @OU_Football practice. Complete coverage: http://t.co/rENjeV6Joh pic.twitter.com/UoApd1lVOx
— Sooner Sports Network (@SoonerSportsTV) August 19, 2015
Four Sooners included.
Check out the 375 names on our official 'Watch List' for the 2016 Reese's Senior Bowl >> http://t.co/9Nc0ZeYonA pic.twitter.com/J1bt3tgtfY
— Reese's Senior Bowl (@seniorbowl) August 18, 2015
#Fried piper: @StateFairOfTX announces wacky Big Tex Choice Award finalists | @GuideLive http://t.co/4qUyE6UAIs pic.twitter.com/tJOXHddxps
— Dallas Morning News (@dallasnews) August 18, 2015
CBS Sports 2015 Preseason College Football All-America Team, awardshttp://t.co/AkqwVck7d1 pic.twitter.com/nlery24wVP
— CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB) August 18, 2015
BASKETBALL
BREAKING: #Sooners’ regular season opener at Memphis on Tues., Nov. 17 will tip at 4 p.m. CT and air on ESPN as part of #TipOffMarathon.
— Oklahoma Basketball (@OU_MBBall) August 18, 2015
OTHER
Latest update to First Serve: Meet the New Class. Check it out here -> http://t.co/gyD4o4gEdg #OUVB pic.twitter.com/Ne4O3LkMx3
— Oklahoma Volleyball (@OU_Volleyball) August 18, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZgTyUg9qBA
Some NSFW language (you’ve been warned).
169 Comments
Sure wish one of the QBs would separate themselves from the pack.
They may all be really good. Never know
Don’t sweat the QB slot as we are going to have three great ones. There can’t be a lot of difference among the three. The recent past QB issues weren’t the players as it was the lack of an offensive scheme/identity and the Coach who was in charge of the QBs.
Trust me as I know things.
I agree. While the QBs did have some issues, I think most of it stemmed from having no offensive identity, or being really predictable.
I’m thinking and hoping it was mostly about not getting as much one on one development from a guy who was also the O coordinator. But I’m not sure how much a QB coach can fix not going through progressions and staring down receivers/panic pick 6 throws. Kind of been an OU QB staple since Bradford. And we still have the O coordinator as QB coach unless I’m mistaken. I hope to hell Riley is delegating a lot of his responsibilities so that he can focus on their development. Seems that way. Having a simpler system should also do wonders.
I think one of the biggest problems you mentioned is staring down receivers. It seems that problem stemmed all the way back with Landry. It seemed to me, that after JH got promoted, our QBs stared down receivers and didn’t go through their reads. Maybe JH was calling pass plays to designated receivers. Maybe Shepard or Broyles knew they were getting thrown to before the ball is snapped.
That’s what I’ve thought too. I think all three can run this just fine.
Have faith. One will. I would bet its the guy who not only can move the sticks, but is the best leader as well. In this context, I trust LR to make the right choice. He knows his system, and he knows what he needs at QB to make it work.
Don’t doubt this a bit. Just a little surprised one hasn’t stepped forward is all. Like Lane says though, it may be a three horse race.
Personally, I think it will be TK due to leadership — at least for the opener. Guess we’ll see in about a week, huh?
Yeah. The competition will have to resolve into a one-horse here soon as the chosen one will need to get a ton of reps to prep for Akron. Like you, I’m thinking next week sometime.
Good morning Sooners!!!!! Jordan or K, how is our new walk-on WR Baxter doing? Any reports or news would be appreciated.
Not Jordan or K, but I’ve heard from multiple sources that he is doing great and will be in the receiver rotation possibly as early as Game 1.
What a difference a year makes with almost every position. good stuff, thanks
Thanks, I was just curious, some of his film looks a lot like Jalen Saunders.
We are going to eventually hear about one of the QBs getting more reps
Baker Mayfield is the guy, that’s why they are giving the other 2 a little more reps. They are actually trying to see who the back up QB is, and also make sure Baker does not wear out that shoulder.
Such a vote of confidence. We are sitting our starter out of more reps so his shoulder doesn’t get too tired.
Like Lincoln Riley said they are managing it, but he has no limitations. Come game week, they will let the ball fly with Baker
Yes but these are the same coaches that tweeted he was throwing all summer long and that nothing was wrong with Baker. Also you don’t hear anything like that being said of TK and CT. I have never heard of QB sitting because of shoulder fatigue in a summer workout program. If it truly is fatigue he is not going to hold up through a season. Just me being an arm chair coach.
By how long this competition has played out, I am losing more confidence in BM. I think he was given an opportunity to put himself ahead of TK and CT, but he has not been able to do that. In my opinion, I would be more shocked to see BM named starter over TK and CT. Just my opinion though. I will support whoever Riley picks to lead.
I agree. I think the longer it goes, the more likely it is that TK is the starter. I think Riley knows what he is doing and no matter who he picks we will be fine so long as they understand their job is to get the ball into the hands of the play-makers and not take a lot of chances.
You may be right but if they’re worried about the shoulder and holding him back partially because of the shoulder then I don’t like that approach. I really don’t think it will hold up all season.
Just being cautious. Nothing wrong with being cautions until game week
Bad logic, if they knew he was the guy he would be getting more reps than the others because that makes the most football sense. If they were that concerned about his shoulder that they would give him less reps, then he would not be the guy bc he has health issues.
not true, its not game week yet. He doesn’t need to be getting more reps especially when they want to make sure he does not have any shoulder issues when game week comes about.
So what’s the point in taking reps at all?
Why do athletes warm up or stretch b4 a game or go through rehab when coming back from an injury?
I don’t think you understand rehab if this is a serious question.
Same could be said to you sir
im quite sure you edited your post and on top of that you aren’t making much sense, so I am going to go ahead and just stop replying to you.
Ok i happened to have the old window open before you edited and your original post said
“Why go through rehab when coming back from and injury? Why not just sit around and wait for it to heal?”
Now you have changed it to something more sensible and tried to deflect my response back to me, feels like you are just a troll at this point.
If he’s not fully healthy then he shouldn’t be out there. My thinking is the injury is going to get worse the more work he does. So I don’t see him being healthy all season.
Seriously? Reps are just as critical now, if not more so than game week. Game week will be more focused on the opponent and specific play packages. Now is when you are installing those plays and building rapport with your receivers.
The QB that gets the job will be the most accurate passer.
he makes with his feet.. extending the play and such.
Is Baker the best passer? Can he make all throws, accuracy, deep ball?
I was leading towards CT because I figured he had the best arm.
thoughts?
The air raid is about quick drops and quick passes. Having to leave the pocket, extending plays, and etc. does not sound like a fit for an air raid QB. I personally think of Baker as a “highlight” guy. He will gamble a lot to make a “highlight” play. While it’s always awesome when it pays off, the times it doesn’t pay off frustrate me beyond belief.
I think the QB that gets the job is the one who makes the best decisions. Of course you need to be accurate as well but they’re probably all pretty even there. This offense is all about getting the ball into the hands of your playmakers ( Shep, Westbrook, Perine and Mixon ) and making the fewest mistakes.
I dont care who that guy is but I trust Riley to know and make the correct choice.
You waffle more than politicians. You keep saying Mayfield with his dance moves and accuracy but Knight with promo videos and elusiveness but watch out for Thomas. Don’t worry, come 1st game you can say that you were right. It’s not that big a deal
Mmmmmm….waffles
…with BACON.
I’m glad there is real competition at QB. This just makes everybody sharper. It also means they’re all doing good things. I’m sure at this point, the coaches have a pretty good feeling about who it will be. If a starter was named 2 months ago, people would be saying, “well the other guys must stink, we’re in real trouble if starter gets hurt.” It’s a double edged sword.
Yeah. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. The motto of the fickle fairweathers
Another fine day to be a SOONER!!!!!!!
I am in the land of the enemy ( Austin) today eating at torchy’s tacos wearing my sooner gear lol it’s a great day to be a Sooner
Sorry to hear you have to be in such an awful place, but at least you are representing. Had some commenters get edgy about posting these kind of pics yesterday. But to each his own.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f3c9b5d4e92429b51bce52f7ce6f939145d6804d39a45454ad808d0c4e5ad228.jpg dfsfdfdf
Is it free?
Now how are they holding those signs? Sursly.
Opposable hoof?
Hoof glue? Or is that redundant?
Very underrated comment!
It might be.
It’s a great day to be a Sooner!
I find the volleyball picture amusing. Can you imagine the football team shooting a picture like that?
Well they all have nice hair
Keep posting digs like that and you will get a scholi to play volleyball too. JHF
Oh, wasn’t meant as a dig. Just find it amusing that they take a picture of football players its always scowls and flexed muscles. Take a picture of the volleyball team its a great big group hug. Interesting difference in the perception they are going for.
My post was not directed at you but was a WEAK attempt at being funny. You know Volleyball Players dig the ball (def when a player receives an attacked ball and keeps the ball in play
Oh, I got that. Just ignored it because I wanted to talk about something other than us all pooling our ignorance on who the QB will be. I expect it to be a slow day. Everyone has already written everything you can about the upcoming season until actual depth charts come out or someone gets injured/suspended. So might as well comment on something else.
ok. thanks.
cmon man.
Social experiment (because I’m that ‘bad influence’ uncle). I was clearing out the storage room preparatory to a family reunion and found not one, but two Louisville Slugger mini- souvenir bats. About 18 inches long.
First, I gave them to my daughter and niece to play with. Immediately, they were magic wands and we had tiaras and the stuffed animals were mobilized into a team, and….
Then I gave them to my nephews. They began wailing on each other and breaking things inside 10 seconds.
Vive l’difference!
Nila Kasitati and his hair would be a fabulous addition. I say the OL adopts the pose for their next #OLU graphic.
The only ones that I can think that would fit in a pic like that would be Nila and The Hulk.
Edit
Damn RR you beat me to it.
#
GreatGoofyMindsThinkAlike4 out of the 5 have almost the same hair…..bizzarro
Looks like they were recruited out of a beauty pageant. Collectively, a fine looking bunch of gals.
And then there is this guy from the football team:
http://image.cdnllnwnl.xosnetwork.com/pics33/200/CY/CYEIEDOHBVUQTSY.20140806145410.jpg
Now that’s a shampoo commercial. Or a public service announcement about playing with electricity.
For Industrial Grade Head and Shoulders.
I used to have one of these on the end of my pencil.
Remember his freshman year…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3feGJkomEUk
So cute I want to just pinch his cheeks. Awesome young man.
All Americans, I find it amusing they put a Florida guy on the marketing piece since Florida hasn’t done anything in years. Won 7 games last year and 4 the year before.
SEC! SEC! SEC! People don’t get that their run is over.
hoping Az State destroys TAMU
While I share your hope, ASU has disappointed me so many, many times over the years that I have consigned them to the same box as Italian infantry: a nice surprise when they win something, no great loss of investment if, as usual, they are treated like the family mule.
Todd Graham isn’t the same-ole coach of the past.
Wow. A WW II reference! Heh. Rare that there is any topic overlooked on here. Now’s there one less.
WWII….or anytime after, say, 414 A.D. reference.
Yeah, now that they have 2 teams come in (Mizz and A&M) that can actually score the “we play D in the SEC” is gone. Mizz has won the east both yrs with B12 players, and A&M went down to Bama and whipped up on them w/a FR QB the first yr. The yr we beat Bama, we were the 4th best team in the B12 in the worst yr ever for the b12, and we scored 45 w/a FR QB (TK). A&M scored 42 on Bama that yr. A/f that, Auburn scored 28 in regulation at home, LSU 17 and no other team scored more than 10 pts against Bama.
Now that they don’t get 2 (undeserving) teams in the NC game, and actually have to play someone, people will see what they are really like–a pretty average conference w/2 good teams, about like all P5 conferences. Seriously, no one could score in the SEC so Bama and LSU had no chance of losing even on a bad day. The Pac 10 has 2 good teams also, usually the Big 10 does as well. What made it hard on the B12 is that we had so many teams that could beat you w/the McCoys, RGIII, Bradfords, etc, etc.
A&M’s average finish in the B12 their last 10 yrs in the B12=8th place (there were only 10 teams much of that time, and KU is in our league remember so it was hard to finish much lower in the B12). Go to the SEC–national heroes! Mizz an average team in the B12. Now? National heroes!
the SEC was always overrated, and if Bama or LSU had been in the B12 those yrs ESPN put them in the NC, they would have lost a couple (at least) regular season games. SEC=overrated.
My hope is that ESPN doesn’t give them twice as many chances to win the NC by putting 2 teams in the final 4. Put one in, and SEC will rarely win the NC IMO. Teams that play no one all yr and in an even weaker conference (OSU) will beat them.
Call me an armchair fan and not a coach, but I think Bama and LSU are getting beat by spread offenses that score a lot of points and NOT by superior player talent. Mizzou, A&M, and Auburn run up-tempo wide open attacks. These variations on wide open offenses are changing the game and causing Saban to recruit different types of players to counter it. I think this is the main reason Bama and LSU are having some struggles lately.
I’m a fan of Joel Klatt. I think he has one of the more open minds in the CFB commentary pool. Glad he can see us winning the conference.
One good thing is he doesn’t have that ESPN stink on him. How you doing brother?
Doing good! I’ve been lurking and watching the fan drama that always comes with QB competitions…It’s been frustrating and hilarious at the same time! How’s it with you?
Not to shabby thanks. Just stirring some pots here and there when someone gets a little big for their britches
LOL! I’ve spent many nights reading it!
Agreed. I’ve dismissed his warnings before about OU not being as good as we thought, because he was an old Colorado QB bitter about getting beat down by us, but he was right at the time. I generally find him very accurate and reasonable in his commentary.
Scout site teasing #JustWaitOnIt…. Stay tuned 12 noon CTS. Any ideas?
My assumption is it’s some promotion they’ll be running for x amount of months free or whatever. Seems to be a common theme amongst OU $ sites of late.
They should be using #JustPayForIt
Well done, sir. Upvoted.
If that’s all it is, sorry for bringing it up. I was wondering if it might be related to Lampkin. Nothing to see here.
Nah, no worries whatsoever. I mean I could be wrong, but I doubt it 😉
Kimmel and the kids vid was great. Thanks.
Al Eschbach said last night that Dalton Wood was gone. TFB reported he is actually enrolled and at OU. Can someone clarify it for me?
Well Dalton Wood is like Big Foot, only a select few have actually seen him
I think we’re getting catfished.
At this point, I seriously doubt the other players would even want him around. They have all been together bonding and working towards common goals. He has been awol.
I do have a 5 second video from about 2000 feet, where it could possibly be Dalton Wood walking across campus. Not really sure, but looks real.
I saw him in a picture from the Mars Rover the other day.
Quincy Russell?
He actually showed up and made an effort. He was just not ever able to crack the rotation and kind of lost interest. Kudos to him for actually staying and getting his degree from OU even after being dismissed from team.
Quincy Russell is now at Southern Miss, FWIW.
Yeah, I saw that. Best of luck to him. He’s a very nice young man.
Yes, he earned his degree from OU and I wish him the best.
I’m pretty sure TFB never reported that. Only a mention that he was spotted at practice one day. Again, classes don’t even start until 8/24 so if he shows up on school website as being enrolled, means nothing. Let’s just move on.
Losing Wood is never a good thing.
…….http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/outkick-the-coverage/the-most-arrested-college-football-teams-in-america-081815
Are you roommates w SD?
Never have a good thing to say about anything. Him, soonerlove, Jeff and dale might socks of socks of socks
Yeah and 2/3 of those were probably Trey Metoyer. Number of arrests is not a very useful number. How many players were arrested? What were the arrests for? How many resulted in convictions? Typical media use of statistics, reduce everything to a single number and act like it means something.
I think 3 were felonies, but they were from walkons. Some were just cited. Several were misdemeanors–DUIs, public intoxication, car accident on one, broke a guy’s laptop on another, traffic ticket on one, possession. The 3 felonies though I think were walkons, and the most serious of the misdemeanors were Mixon’s and Stephen Good assault and battery.
Now compile all those numbers for all the other schools and you start to have some meaningful statistics. Arrest is such a wide term. Anything from a traffic ticket to rape or murder.
I think counting a car accident or a speeding ticket or a mere citation (not a misdemeanor) or maybe even anyone who is a walkon who has never nor never will play is way misleading. It sounds like the scholarship players have a hard time with liquor and the law though, too much for my liking. Too many DUIs or public intoxication. Maybe a little education when they first get on campus. Cut those down and there’s really mainly Mixon and Good’s incidents that are serious among the scholarship players.
Yeah, wasn’t really speaking to our team. There may be something that needs to be cleaned up. Though Stoops seems pretty good about that.
Its just equating a parking ticket by a walk on to an armed robbery from a scholarship player means your stats aren’t very relevant to anything other than getting clicks on your article.
Yeah I saw that yesterday on Twitter. Alot of response were of the same tone, there wasn’t enough information presented, it was just a straight list.
I wonder if they included dgb for both us and mizzou? Wouldn’t surprise me in the least. Would further skew everything
SEC = 11 of top 25. That’s 44%. Now, probly Vandy wouldn’t push the number much, but Sakerlina? You just know there’s some crime happening there. So, let’s give our brethren in Dixie another coupla points and make this point:
If you eliminated the SEC, you’d cut college athlete crime by half.
See what I did there? Why, I could be a ‘journalist’ for any paper in the country.
The police in SEC land routinely let football players slide, especially for DUI and drug offenses.
It seems the practice extends a bit further in terms of offenses, in ACC land. See the case of one ‘Crablegs Rapeypants’.
I’m doing some pre-season overthinking and decided to analyze the Tennessee matchup. I don’t get why everyone is so high on Tennessee contending in the SEC this year. Here are a few interesting things I wasn’t aware of regarding their 2014 season.
0-5 vs. ranked teams 5-6 vs FBS teams 1-0 vs FCS
Gave up more yards per play on defense than OU (and we all know how great that was)
Gained nearly 100 yds less per game than the OU offense despite running more plays per game.
Not a single player with more than 900 yds rushing or 620 yds receiving and only two players with more than 500 yds from the LOS.
They went 4-1 with Dobbs at QB, but those wins were South Carolina in OT, Kentucky, Vandy, and Iowa. Not exactly running the gauntlet.
In those game, Dobbs was 112/177 for 1206 yds 9 td’s 6 int’s his QB rating was very close to the same as TK9. He did run for nearly 500 yds in those games, though. I am not knocking the guy, but he his performance wasn’t much better than Worley and came against lesser teams.
Gave up 43 sacks with a very young (and is still very young) offensive line that has already lost a starter.
They are breaking in a new OC that hasn’t coached at all in 3 years and has been out of the college ranks since 2007.
On top of all that I read an article this morning that was referring to their 17 pt win vs Iowa as a blowout and their 24 pt loss to OU as a tight contest (has nothing to do with the rest of my comment, just really annoying).
Imo Tenn has been the most hyped up overrated team this offseason. I hope we beat the brakes off of them in their own house.
I wouldn’t mind a 3-2 win either 🙂
I was hoping to see them in the top 25 though. Whether we win or lose, I still want it to be against a ranked Tenn. Doesn’t look like they will have time to get in before we play them.
I think they’re in the coaches poll.
good. didn’t know
They lost their all everything MLB. This is a big loss for them. ESecPN coined the blowout/tight contest thing as well last year. Spin doctor at its finest. If OU does not have any turn overs in this game, we pound them. IMO
I agree. I don’t hear many people talking about the Tenn defense either. They were worse play by play than the OU defense and lost a pretty significant piece yet they are supposed to stop an offense that moved the ball at will despite being disfunctional the enitre second half and only gave the ball to Perine 9 times.
TOs. And key injuries (esp. Perine, Ross, Mixon, Shep, Westbrook on O; Sanchez, Parker and perhaps Striker on D). I think we can fill in pretty admirably at about every other position. Other than that, I think we c/beat anyone. Not saying we will, but I think we can if we win the TOs and don’t lose those key players especially.
Thanks for this. I appreciate anyone who does research like this. 500 yds rushing is really good for 4 games. Wow! On top of the 300 yds passing average per game even though not the greatest teams. Plus they have a lot of returning starters which bodes well for them. OL returning, even if it is young, is helpful. I think the new O system will make them better, too. They should be a lot better this year. Just as our new O system will help us, it will them too. Did I hear that they picked to finish first in the SEC east?
I made an edit to my comment in regards to Dobbs. His stats were for the season, I didn’t look at the individual game results. I do know he didn’t average nearly 300 ypg passing as a starter and that caused me to look at my comment again. He actually had a couple of bad passing games in those last 5.
thanks. Yeah, that would be pretty good for 4 games passing, plus the 100 plus yds per game rushing. That would be over 400 yds offense a game. Thanks though for everything. I like your analysis and info. Keep it coming.
Butch Jones is a pretty good football coach though… Tennessee showed some flashes last year and they return a lot of players. Plus Hurd is a pretty good RB, probably one of the better ones on the SEC. Tennessee will contend for the East title and should have a good team next year. I think OU is the better team and will win, but Neyland will be rowdy and its going to be a tough game.
Jones is a great coach, but I don’t see the massive turnaround this year. They are on a better track than they were with Dooley and will be able to contend in the SEC lEast but that is more a result of parody than being a great team, IMO. I have them losing at least 4 (OU, Florida, Georgia, Bama) and have tough games with Arkansas and @Missouri. Their schdule isn’t nearly as stacked as some others in the SEC and that always helps.
Great coach? IMO he hasn’t done anything to deserve that label just yet.
Thanks for the research!
Great insight! Thanx! The media’s slant on a game can be more than annoying. It can be outright biased. Especially in the SEC which ESPin treats like the Holy Land. But whatever you might think of Lou Holtz as a commentator, he was a pretty fine football coach and he always said that when you play an away game, you had better pack your defense and special teams. For the Tennessee game, I would add the O-Line. We have playmakers in the backfield and at the wide outs, but pass pro and the run blocking will need to be in sync. We have to take the 107,000 spectators out of the game.
No doubt. Playing in a stadium like that is always a challenge. I tend to follow the Pat Jones mindset on home vs away. If the team is good enough it doesn’t matter. Good teams can win on the road regardless of where they are playing. We will find out a lot about OU early in the season.
Good breakdown and def makes me more optimistic. I don’t mind at all if they continue to be overvalued and our team goes in with a chip on their shoulder. Regardless of how good (or bad) they are, a win on the road in the sec early in the season will do great for the confidence and perception of our team. As well as, the perception of the Big 12.
Vols will have as much, if not more, athletic talent on the field as OU. Stats from last year mean little, as they played a large number of freshman. They have an established QB (who finished season 4-1), a VERY good pass rushing duo (which could cause problems for OU’s revamped O line), a good RB tandem, and some excellent WRs. Make no mistake – this is a talented team poised to make a run of its own, and they will be playing in front of 100K rabid fans. This will be a huge challenge. I can’t wait to see it.
There talent is getting better but stats from last year is exactly how you base the expectations for this year. OU played quite a bit of young guys last year as well, especially on defense at LB and in the secondary. While he may be established, Dobbs didn’t do all that well passing. This was his passing lines the last three games of the season vs average to poor teams.
vs. Kentucky 24/37, 195 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
vs. Vandy 11/20, 92 yards, 0 TD’s 2 INT
vs. Iowa 16/21, 129 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT
If that passes for promising, then we should stop knocking TK9.
The talented group of Tennessee WR did next to nothing last season. Outside of Pig Howard they were a huge disappointment. OU receivers played better that the Tenn WR’s in a year in which we all know they were not very good at all.
The O-Line was very young but they played horribly all year. What changes from 18 to 19 years old that will all of sudden make it a group that can stop the OU pass rush, something they didn’t come close to doing last season?
I was not one that said the game will be easy as playing in Neyland isn’t going to be an easy task but I don’t see how people are sold on Tennessee being anything more than a slightly above average team. Recruiting rankings mean nothing. Their players have to prove it on the field.
Recruiting ranking don’t mean everything, but to say they mean nothing is preposterous. Sure, anyone can break down stats and make predictions about the upcoming season. And yes, that’s how it’s usually done. Guess what? That’s why they’re so often wrong. TCU is a good case in point.
I guess I had it all wrong then. Using how a player has actually played at this level is not a good measure of how they are going to perform.
I understand what you are saying. Tennessee has potential to be really good. My point is, so far, they haven’t done much of anything to prove they are worthy of those high star rankings. Hurd had a good season last year. Other than the 4-1 record, Dobbs didn’t. He was good in two games, horrible in 3. The WR’s didn’t play well at all. The offense was in-efficient. The defense was giving up 5.5 yds per play. The o-line was one of the worst in major college football giving up 43 sacks. That is based on things that actually happened. Sure Tennessee can be better, I never said it wasn’t possible. All I was stating was that, based on how they have already played at this level, I don’t see why people are so high on them this season because they really haven’t proven they are capable yet.
I see your point, well taken, but I’m viewing it from the perspective of expectations, which is all any prognostications are at this point. I don’t rely too heavily on last year’s records or stats in regards to the coming season. That’s why I disregard OU’s record last year (and Tennessee’s) in what I anticipate they will do this year. I think they are both bound for very good seasons, but we’ll soon begin to find out.
Sorry for the sarcastic beginning to my reply, BTW. When I pulled up the comment it sounded much worse than when I wrote it. I am a sarcastic person and forget that people who don’t know me personally may not realize I don’t intend malice.
No worries. I like a spirited exchange, and rely on sarcasm on a regular basis!
TFB crew, I was wondering if you could shed any light on Jordan Smallwood. Obviously his name has not come up as someone standing out or you would have mentioned, but I was curious if you have heard why. Is work ethic, injuries, not a good route runner, or whatever. He just seems like such a physical specimen that has never put it together so would love thoughts. Thanks.
I believe he is still recovering from ACL surgery.
I did not remember that he tore an ACL. Thanks Coach
Not sure, but I believe it was early in the spring. I hope he is back soon.
G-Day minus 17
Jerry Anderson – Andre Wolfolk – Leon Crosswhite
Leon Crosswhite
Jerry Anderson
Andre Wolfolk
I have a video also, but had to post this picture. AWESOME PICK!
https://youtu.be/SPAdQ-qWQPs
THAT is what an athlete looks like!
Andre just loved to play!
Awesome picutre for an awesome player! Unless i’m mistaken Wolfolk was the last person to play both sides of the ball for OU.
Basil Banks
Gonna mention him and a good one. Also for grins – Mossis Madu,
Destroyed Missouri in the 08 Big 12 title game.
Definitely will add Mossis to my list. Liked his style.
https://youtu.be/srGKT4zo154
Adore Junior, and his brother Chika. Absolute sweethearts growing up. I always wish them much success.
Good looking group of yound Ladies joining the volleyball team! All I got to say about that! I will add that no Open Post by noon is the most depressing part of my day so far!
We need a “Sooners in the NFL – who/what to expect” article.
I was in Chicago last week and decided to grab a 35 minute flight to Green Bay and watch a Packers practice. Ripkowski pancaked a LB and is looking good on special teams coverage. Packers starting FB, Kuhn, is very popular with fans, and is a pal of Aaron Rodgers, so he’s not going away. But if Rip makes the cut he might be starting in the next year or two.
Go Pokes.
Am I the only one who dislikes “super-friendly QB battles?” I mean, of course I want the guys to get along, but I sure wouldnt mind seeing someone in the battle not really wanting to hang around the other two all the time. Put your nose down, know you’re in a helluva battle, and actually look at it that way? Maybe even show some slight distaste for his competitors, even though they are teammates? I miss the days when players just got after it, and each other…
I prefer it when the QBs support and respect and like each other. Better for them and the team.
That volleyball group… Sheesh. If they had first year money, my daughter would be in the picture. Makes me sick.