BẢN CHÉP ÂM THANH 🔗
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Speaker 1: I think he blocked me on Twitter, which I am innocent. I am innocent. I won't have say anything what happened. I just I might have said that I was worried about Caitlin and the girls because he's a psychopath. But I said that. I said that as a joke.
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Speaker 2: It's a metaphor. Lincoln, welcome to the solid Verbal'll.
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Speaker 3: That for me.
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Speaker 1: I'm a man, I'm for I've heard so many players say what I want to be happy? You want to be happy for a day at a steak? Is that woo woom?
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Speaker 3: And Dan and Tie welcome back to the Cliberber boys and girls. My name is Ty hilden Brand, Tie hilden Brand joining me over there, the one, the only, still, the incomparable Dan Rubinstein in Chicago, Illinois. Sir, did you like me holding that note? Are you comfortable with me holding that note? Now?
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Speaker 1: Yeah?
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Speaker 2: I want you to keep adding flair to your introduction. This is Big Tie hilden Brands from Big Tie Chevrolet Harris Idding, Yeah, No, I like it. Ty, You know I always like a little bit of az excellent.
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Speaker 3: Well, speaking of Zaz, we've got an Oklahoma show in front of us that we're both very excited to do. For those who are joining in for the first time, welcome, Thank you for stopping by. If you are interested in other coaches, We've been doing a year one debrief on a bunch of first year guys, be it Brian Kelly and Ellisu, Billy Napier in Florida, Lincoln Riley, and USC. Perhaps topical here as we get set to talk about Brent Vvenables and Oklahoma. We've been learning a lot. We've been having fun talking to subject matter experts who could teach us a thing or two about their respective teams. Eddie Rodosovich gonna join us here momentarily from soonerscoop dot Com from the franchise one oh seven seven in Oklahoma City, does a great job covering the Sooners. Excited to hear what he has to say about year one for mister Brent Venables.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's one of those things where there was a lot of dramatic swings in terms of year one coaches. Right USC goes from down to up. Sorry, Oklahoma fans, I know this is it can be quite triggering, but I think Oklahoma fans rightfully should be optimistic about the future of Oklahoma football. Under Brent Venables, but you know Miami craters. Am I gonna say much to my delight? No, I don't like to see people sad and angry about the college football.
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Speaker 3: I hate to see it.
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Speaker 2: Washington makes that huge move up post Jimmy Lake to Kaylin de boor so it was. It was dramatic swings. Notre Dame was right there with Marshall, as we've said, Ty right there with Marshall, and Marcus Freeman's first year LSU wins the West kind of out of nowhere in terms of people's expectations with Brian Kelly, and we just had Jordi Kalada on the show to talk about that. So it's in an especially fun year to do a year one debrief, I would say for a lot of these guys, I don't know how we feel about Brent Key being a year one debrief because he got that job, but I think we got to do it. It wasn't officially his job last year. He didn't have the team all year, didn't have a recruiting class to himself for a full year as.
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Speaker 1: The head coach.
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Speaker 2: So I don't know, whatever the case, fun year one debrief in Oklahoma not the least of which to just figure out what the hell happened.
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Speaker 3: Figure out what the hell happened. Hopefully Eddie can help us do just that. Don't forget if you are tuning in for the first time, or I don't know, if you've been tuning in for a while, you just haven't hit subscribe or follow yet. We would encourage you to do so. We do two public episodes every week, which we release on a Tuesday and Thursday. If you want access to those episodes a little bit earlier. If you also want to get bonus content, which we do every Thursday morning as part of our Brew and A, you can go on out to Verbaalers dot com. We've got bonus content, We've got discord server, We've got additional off topic content that we're going to start ratcheting up here as we get into the coldest months of the off season. A lot to come here in Solid Verbalville. Just going out too, Verbulers dot com. Dan, shall we dive right in? I'm ready, Dan, Let's talk Oklahoma. Eddie Rodosovich joining us now. He lists himself as a zero time award winning correspondent for Sooner scoop dot Com, where you cannot only read his work, but hear his voice on the unofficial forty podcast. You can also hear him on the radio four hours every morning Eddie on the franchise one oh seven seven in Oklahoma.
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Speaker 1: Cit Traction contractually obligated to do the fourth hour. But yes, it is. Uh, it's a long time on the radio.
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Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, award eligible. Award eligible by the way, zero time award winning award eligible.
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Speaker 3: That's great.
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Speaker 1: Are award eligible, but certainly not going to probably be getting anything from the Oklahmore Broadcasters Association. I go after them on the daily. So time. Don't expect to be invited to any of the any of the events. But yes, no, I appreciate it. Guys. It's good to talk to you. Longtime fan, longtime listener. And this is I mean this, this is like one of the highlights of nervous. Thank you you being nervous at all.
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Speaker 3: Don't be nervous around us, my gosh.
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Speaker 1: Sure.
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Speaker 3: So look, let's let's set the stage here. Everyone is a few days like this in their lives where you're gonna remember it like it was yesterday. I have to believe you had one of those days in late November twenty twenty one, because rumors start to fly about Lincoln Riley is he going elsewhere? Then we hear USC. Then Lincoln does go to USC. I know on this end for Dan and I, it caused the shockwave. We're doing live streams, everyone's doing live streams, tweeting up a storm. What was Eddie's day? Like, like, what you have?
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What'd you have for dinner? Did you have dinner? Walk me through that experience for you as an Oklahoma guy, it was.
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Speaker 1: It was incredible, And you know, it kind of goes back to the first couple of weeks before even leading up into that Bedlam game where the LSU rovers were rampant and I was talking to people down Baton Rouge and they were basically saying, there's a contract on the table. Not only has Lincoln somewhat agreed to a contract down in Baton Rouge, but it's just gonna happened. So like those weeks leading up to that, And you got to remember too, Okaholm's coming out of a bye week. They're nine and oh at the time, Uh, there's a lot of you know, questions about you know, obviously people around here weren't happy with how the defense was playing. That was kind of an underlying story of everything that went into the season, but at the same time, it was like, holy crap, how's this team nine to oh? And then you come out of the bye week. Lincoln Riley misses the press conference during the bye week, and I think that's when everything started kind of going down this hill that you know, slowly would never recover from in a way. Uh, but they you know, they obviously they lose the Baylor coming out of the bye week. It looked terrible doing it down in Waco. You go back into uh, you know, finally into the Bedlom week, and it's you know, everything on the Oklahoma side is no. Not only is Lincoln Riley not thinking about going or anywhere, but you know, there were murmurs about SEC stuff possibly moving forward, and everybody kind of thought he was on the same wavelength. And so, you know, one of my colleagues at soonerscoop dot com fast forward to after the Bedlom game, he straight up asked him. And we're still doing zoom interviews at the time, so it's still weird. It's like it's still awkward in that post COVID phase, and the question was Lincoln, are you going to be the head coach at LSU next year? And it's kind of one of those things that we joke about now. It's like, you know, if we would have been in person, maybe things go differently. He stops Carrie mid sentence, basically cuts him off, says, yes, I'm going to be enormous. So we come back from what was a Bedlam kickoff in a seven o'clock start that Sunday morning, I think it was the twenty eight, thinking, okay, we're going to reconvene in the afternoon. We're going to do our end of the Year unofficial forty podcast. It's obviously been a disappointment, but you know, the future of Oklahoma football seems well under Lincoln Riley. Everybody's going to be happy about it. They've gone all these college football playoffs, historically awesome offenses, and everything kind of seemed to be calmed down. And I went to bed that night thinking, we're going to have to do the end of the year podcast. It's going to suck having to talk about Bedlam, Boss and the way that that game went up and still water. But at the same time, it felt like you had dodged this bullet and then you know,
by ten thirty, Bruce Feldman to come out with the report that USC's targeting Lincoln Riley, and it was just it was almost kind of like, this is what you've waited for, because you know, from a Oklahoma standpoint, we hadn't been through a coaching search. We hadn't been through kind of that unknown of what was next. Because when Bob retired back in the summer of twenty sixteen, which was a surprise to a lot of people, at the same time, it was well, everything's going to be okay because not only is Bob retiring, but Lincoln's taken over immediately, and they had like that passing of the Baton press conference. The day of it was like a Saturday afternoon, it was. It was the strangest thing. So this was even more just it encapsulated everything that was like the craziness of the last couple of years in Norman. And then you know, ultimately the news comes out that he's going to take the job, and from that day forward it was like, I remember we went over Jason Curzy used to work at the athletic Ryan Aber from the Oklahoma and we all kind of convened outside of the Switzer Center, and it was just one of the strangest afternoons in Norman, not only because the season was over and the way that the season had ended from what was a promising start, but I mean I remember talking to an assistant coach that's still on staff now that's pulling out of the Switzer Center, and he's like, I don't have a job. I don't know what's next for myself. So it was it was wild. It was so unexpected, I think because there was that Okay, he's not going to LSU, everything's going to be calm as we progress into what was going to be a bull season or whatever you know was to come next, and recruiting things like that, and for it to kind of be swept I think from the rug, swept from a lot of people underneath the feet. It just it was it was shocking. But the next like you know, fifteen sixteen days that would come you know, that went through the search and spending a lot of time out at Max west Timer and uh, you know, back and forth from Wiley Post to Max Westeimer and seeing who that you know was going to come in on the next plane. It was it was kind of It was. I've said that it's a lot like a fraternity rush in that I don't know if I'd ever want to do it again, but it was a lot of fun at the time, just from a I guess journalistic standpoint.
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Speaker 3: From from a journalistic standpoint, sure. So on that note, as you mentioned the days that followed the quote unquote search, it seemed at least from the jump like Brent Venables was going to be the top target. Obviously, they bring him home, so he's been the coach. That's why we're here to discuss. But what did that look like bringing Brent Venables over from Clemson? And then as we look back on what he did in year one, how would you grade him out from A through F.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. It was kind of unbelievable, just because I think that at the beginning of the search process, a lot of people connected the
dots back to Brent. You know, there wasn't that one candidate out there that you just really kind of circled, and you kept going back to Brent Vinables because of his previous relationships, you know, certainly because of the things that Bob said in the interim when he took over for the Alimable. But then again there were moments like and especially in that last week before they brought him in, that it was like, well, if it's not done now, why hasn't it been? And you start doubting yourself, like what whatever, what's out there that we're missing in a way, And you know, it kind of culminated with the big thing on Sunday night when they flew him in on mister Headington's plane, and it was a scene that I truly don't think anybody was ready for. You know, we were there at like noon that day because he was supposed to fly in around four o'clock and ultimately it ended up being like ten eleven o'clock at night before they got him in from South Carolina. And I mean you're talking a very smallish airport in Max Westeimer down in Norman, and there were people on It was like one of those scenes that you saw like when the Beatles would come over to America and play you know, five thousand and six thousand people standing outside an airport, people standing on top of the airports like roof they had to make people get off the roof that they're like just like people were trying to literally just see this guy get off the airport.
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Speaker 3: Is that against the law?
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Speaker 1: Probably? Yeah. But when it comes to Oklahboa football, there's, like, I think, some things that you can get around in Norman and particular that like nobody kind of they kind of turned the blind eye to. So it was wild and it was almost kind of a rebirth. I know that President Joe Harris from the University of Oklahoma, he made the comments in a border regents meeting in the week in the weeks after Lincoln left that alumni and boosters were more invigorated than ever and you saw that in a monetary standpoint, you saw that and supported the of the football program just with what they were able to build. And then obviously with the spring game a year ago, you know, with the Baker statue and things like that, they got eighty five thousand into the stadium. So it's been cool. But at the same time, I think that when you start talking about on field performances and the disappointment that comes with the six and seven season, particularly you know at a school like Oklahoma where they're used to winning and competing for at least college football playoffs and historically great offenses that's where things kind of get murky, and you know there were some on field decisions that you know weren't made at times that when you're talking about the thinness of margins and losing games in which you lose four of your last five on literally the last possession of the game, all that stuff adds up. I mean, I don't have to tell you guys, it's kind of preaching to the choir on that type of stuff. So going into year number two, it's super interesting. I think that you know, obviously, everybody wants to see something of a defense take a next step, and historically and year two of print Vinnables, all those teams have taken those steps. And that's why it's so interesting right now going into the spring as Oklahoma's kind of in the middle of their spring. We've been out to practice a couple of times now, which I'm not complaining about. That was like being asked to go to a pctice in the Lincoln Riley era was not the easiest thing to go about. So Brent's been completely open about that kind of stuff, and you know, it's just kind of a wait and see mode. Unfortunately for Oklahoma fans, that's not gonna happen for another five months, but you would think that they're progressing for it. So I guess letter grade, I don't know. I mean, you don't want to give anything too glowing. I think that there were some much needed changes that you probably didn't see on the field that came off the field. But at the same time, they're six and seven, So I maybe a cnus C plus at best, that's fair. That would probably be somewhere that you know, you would go as far as A as a letter grade. And it's certainly an interesting time when you talk about Oklahoma football as far as you know, leaving the Big twelve, getting ready to go to the SEC and all that kind of stuff.
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Speaker 2: So what context should we know about last year? It's easy to watch, you know, forty nine to nothing and say, man, Oklahoma just fell apart and they couldn't figure out defense and they're getting worse and worse, and you know, the TCU game another low point where TCU just did whatever they wanted. But when you look at close losses, big losses, close wins which there were, what is the important context to know about the twenty twenty two team beyond everything being new and in terms of how that context may be changing as we speak. What should we know?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's super interesting. It's almost kind of an extent of they just didn't get away. They weren't able to get away with some of the stuff that they had been able to get away with in seventeen eighteen nineteen, especially on the defensive side of the football, when you're not scoring every time, and you know, when you don't have a Baker Mayfield or where you don't have a Kyler Murray or you don't have a Jalen Hurts, that can truly change the dynamics of a game with one possession. Every time they touch the ball, everything gets highlighted a little bit more, whether it be not being able to get off the field on third and fifteen or a third and thirteen, or you have a personal foul that extends a drive and then all of a sudden, West Virginia is driving to tie the game, or you drop an interception. So they just weren't able to get away with that. And I think that you know, those are if you talk to some segments of the fan base, it's in the back of the brain. As much as they want Oklahoma to win. I
think that there were some people that were cheering in eighteen and nineteen that maybe they did get caught in some context and lose some of those games to force change on the defensive side of the football. And you know, obviously they just don't have what you need to compete with the upper echelon of college football, whether you be a Georgia or an Alabama or you know, a Clemson for that matter, from where a lot of these guys on this staff have come from. They have to get better on the defensive side of the football, particularly on the defensive line. And you know, obviously a good defensive line will make everybody's life a lot better on the defensive side of the football. So it's been a kind of a trying time of understanding and really I guess contextualizing like where this thing is at, because I don't think that they're as bad as that six and seven record is right, but at the same time, you are what your record is. I mean, they they went out and there were some embarrassing performances a year ago, particularly on the back end, where you go to Morgantown and lose, you go to Lubbock and you're up twenty four to three with like six minutes eleven, then all of a sudden, you look up at it's twenty four to twenty one, all of a sudden. So offensively it really I you know, maybe I'd have a soft bot for Jeff Levy and what Dylan Gabriel has been able to produce. But you know, I think Oklahoma fans got a little bit irrational just as far as what was to be expected offensively, and because Kyler and because Baker and because those Jalen Hurts offenses were so elite, so good, and we said at the time back in seventeen eighteen nineteen, like cherish what you have, Appreciate what you have. This isn't normal. And I think people just became accustomed to scoring forty five points a game and being able to get out of there, whether it be a seven point win in you know, Lubbock or Waco or wherever. They were just able to get away with so much more. And when you don't have an offense that is as explosive as they had been, historically, great offenses caught up with them. So you know, I think that that's where you kind of enter this next season. Obviously, they need to make some steps both on the sidelines and on the field as far as decisions, whether that be marrying the up tempo style that Jeff Levy wants to play, and this got him into trouble quite a bit last season, was you'd go all you go three and out all of a sudden, and then you're throwing out a defense that's historically or statistically worse than that some of the teams that you put out in eighteen and nineteen, and you just never really had any chance. So it's gonna be kind of interesting how they marry those two sides of the football. Brent's talked about it quite a bit here early on in spring. We've only talked to him truly one time, hoping to maybe this week or next week before the spring game. So it's gonna be kind of interesting. But there are some pieces that they return in this team. You like what they have at the linebacker corps, just looking at what they had a year ago. You know, Danny Stufman is a perfect case example of what this program is right now in that there were times where I think a lot of people wanted him to get off the field, but at the same time he led the Big twelve and tackles a year ago as a sophomore. So it's gonna be kind of fun to see how they evolved. They went out and got some guys in the portal. You know, Brent's kind of warned people, and I think that we've tried to warn people as well that there's a reason why guys are in the portal. You're not gonna go find a Negersky winner, a Bucket winner, or a Jim Thorpe winner even in the portal. There's a reason why those guys are transferring out. But that's not to say that Desaun McCulloch, who's a freshman All American in Indiana can't come in and help. It's not to say that Rondell Bothoyd can't help on the defensive line at the defensive end position, or a Trace Ford if he can stay healthy coming down from Oklahoma State. So they went out and got really some really nice pieces to come in and to contribute to help this defense continue to grow. But you know, Brent wants the basis of this program to come through the recruiting ranks and if last year and what they were able to sign is any indication of what's to come, and being able to close with the Peyton Bowen. I mean, if a pj Adda bore from the Kansas City area, It's it's kind of fascinating too. It's like if you would have said that they were going to go six and seven and they were going to be able to hold on to some of the guys that they did. I think midway through the season people would have thought you were crazy. And for them to be able to go six and seven, I guess it is a little bit of a glimpse of what this program can be, what it could be moving forward. You just got to start winning on Saturdays. Nobody's going to give a damn what they're recruiting or who they're bringing in. If it doesn't matter on the thirteen Saturdays in the fall.
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Speaker 2: Whose defense is it? Right? It's Brent Venables comes over and his fingerprints are all over the Clemson defense. You see him speeding up and changing things quickly before the snap, always adjusting, always reading, always trying to confuse offenses. But now this is not his defense, this is his team. And so he hires Ted Roof and a lot of people said, huh, that's that's a little bit interesting given ted Roofs perhaps lack of consistent success calling defenses, and then Oklahoma comes out and for a number of reasons. Obviously talent is an issue, and the offense getting off the field too quickly is an issue, and there's a lot of context to why the defense struggled, which as you mentioned, has been addressed in the portal and on the in the recruiting ranks. But whose defense was it? Is it still that person's defense? What is the status of vision and fingerprints for this Oklahoma defense?
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Speaker 1: Million dollar question around here,
And I think that, like to a certain extent, ted Ruf has just become a scapegoat. I think a lot of people want to be able to blame him. But at the same time, you see what happens on Saturdays, You see what happens on you know, on the sidelines during a game. Brient Ventibles is the one called him the shots, I mean, I think that, And that's what's so interesting, particularly when you're talking about when to use timeouts, decisions that come in game. It's almost like Brent had to explore who he was as a head coach and let Ted or whoever, Todd Bates or Branden Hall, whoever that on the defensive side of the football take more of the reins of what he wants this defense to look like so he can be the head coach and you know, I guess in a way, and Oklahoma fans are probably gonna like this. I think that that's one of the things that Lincoln Riley did so well is that there was a seamless transition as far as you didn't see the head scratching decisions coming from the sidelines and you know, ultimately costing you games. Now, did they get away with that because they were just so damn good offensively? Sure? I think that there's a little bit to that. But at the same time, it is going to be interesting going into year number two how much of that has changed and if they can get back to, you know, Brent just being the head coach, being able to let whoever make those decisions, let whoever, you know, make the calls defensively. And I think that that's one of the more like intriguing underlying storylines of the twenty twenty three season is just how all this is going to I guess coalesce over the next couple of years, because they are going to give them time. I mean, it's not going to be now again, like you look up and all of a sudden they're two and ten. Maybe that's that tune changes with the border regions and obviously the alumni. But you know, and you guys will have to pray for me if that happens, because I might be assassinated by the time. But it is going to be kind of interesting to see how it all comes together in year number two. You would expect to see some type of step in progression to you know, closer to what a defense should resemble. Because the and you talk to the recruits all the time, and guys that are coming in, there is a belief that they can turn this thing around. There is a belief in the resume of what these guys have been able to produce, whether it be at Clemson or just Brent Vinables track record in general, at every stop that he's made, he's been synonymous with good defense. So, you know, there were some elements last year where there was just I think almost kind of head scratching, and I think that you know, there was a lot of people too that as soon as Brent stepped off that airplane, you know, in the weeks after Lincoln left. They just thought that at the snap of a finger, everything was going to be okay because Brent Vinables is the defensive guy and they were going to be able to figure it out. The linebacker for all the sudden going to be buckets guys, Teddy Lahman was going to be playing towards Marshall was going to be sure. And it just it never came together. And that was frustrating to a certain extent, But I think it also speaks to the drop off defensively and just the drastic measure of territory that they had to cover. You know, it was striking hearing Brent talk about, you know, Deshaun White and Deshaun White and Danny Stutsman and guys that you would think are veterans of the program that had been around it for a long time, and just simply teaching him how to study tape, how to come in on a Sunday and break down the tape from a Saturday that they hadn't been doing before. And I think that that was kind of like a siren. You go back and you listen to some of the stuff they said in August and September, particularly when you know, oh, you had just opened camp and they were going through two days and stuff like that, and Brent was telling us. He was basically warning, this could be a long season defensively, and I think that you hear his tones. Stort need to change a little bit as they get experience, as they get guys into the program that they feel can take them to the next level defensively. So it's I think there's a cautious optimism that they can make at least some steps in the right direction where they get out of the triple digits in almost every defensive category.
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Speaker 2: I think the mainstream Oklahoma warrior says, man, how do we figure out this defense? I think the hipster Oklahoma warrior says, where's this offense going?
00:25:31
Speaker 1: Right?
00:25:32
Speaker 2: So I think there was that, and correct me if I'm wrong. And you kind of mentioned this that there was this assumption that Dylan Gabriel would be plug and play, that he has the success at UCF and he's going to have more resources and better coaches and better receivers at Oklahoma. He's only going to grow and be the next very good, at the very least quarterback in Norman. And now he gets beat up and when he's in there, he looks solid to very good at times. Receiving Cork clearly drops off for both recruiting and injury reasons last year. But Marvin Mims was, you know, continues to be a bright spot. He's off to the NFL. Eric Gray transfers in and he's a workhorse. He's off to the NFL. The bright spot is that Jackson Arnold is the five star next great Oklahoma recruit at quarterback coming in as a as a freshman this year. But what is the actual state of the offensive roster, offensive vision and you know, the expected offensive success in a conference that has you know, grown over these last few years defensively by leaps and bounds. You look at your Oklahoma State, TCU, Kansas State, Baylor, all of these Texas last year actually fielded a pretty good defense and then they moved to the SEC where they're going to see more and more of that good defense. Is it time to like kind of worry about the future of Oklahoma's offense?
00:26:50
Speaker 1: Yes, and no, and okay, I
think that there is a certain like we're talking to and we said this at the beginning at the in the middle of the year last year than Obviously at the end of the year, Dyan Gabriel did not play I think to what a lot of people thought he was going to be. He just flat out did it. They started out slow, then he had the concussion in Fort Worth against TCU, obviously missed the Texas game, never really got his footing. But I think there were moments where you look at, you know, the floor, whether it be the Florida State game, there were points at the end of the season, you know, Bedlum he played well. It just never seemed like if it was one thing, it was another. If it was you know, Dylan Gabriel early in this season missing guys later in the season, it was Marvin Mims dropping a key third down in Morgantown that could have preserved the game. Uh, it just it. It never seemed like they were on the same page. And I think that, you know, at the same time, as much as heat as Dyan Gabriel took a year ago, it probably also highlights just how spoiled Oklahoma fans have been. He was the newcomer of the Year in the Big Twelve offensively, so yeah, it was it's kind of like a fifty to fifty thing. It's like you depending on which way you want to look at it. You want to look at a glass half fuller, you want to look at a glass half empty. Sure, and they have so many guys that they're going to have to you know, particularly at the wide receiver position when you lose a Marvin Mems. They have Jalil Feruk who played really well at the end of the year. He's expected to kind of take the baton from Marvin as the number one wide receiver. They want to use him as a little bit of a drake. Stoops used the term deebo Samuel. I think he has a long ways to go before that, but kind of the same ilk as far as they can get him to the ball in different in different situations. And then there's a lot of unknown at the wide receiver position. And uh, you look at you know, two second year guys Nick Anderson and Jayden Gibson. They feel like can make progress. You know. Ardell Anthony a kid from uh or Adril Anthony a kid from Michigan that transferred in through the transfer portal. Again, why is he transferring from ann Arborg and he could he not get on the field. Does he just needed new lease on life. You lose the oise who actually ended up I think fifth or sixth on the team and catches a year ago. You lose Braden Willis. The tight end positions beat up. Right now, they have basically one guy in in camp, you know, quote unquote scholarship during the spring, because Cayden Helms and Jason Lewellin are injured right now, in Austin Stagner, who transferred back from South Carolina, which is kind of interesting. So yeah, it's it's just you know, Elvi Bunkley Shelton, kid from Arizona State that I think a lot of people thought was going to be a participant in a contributory year ago, really didn't see the field a whole lot last season. So who's going to be that guy who's going to be the number two or the number three. You have Drake Stoops and Gavin Freeman who was put on scholarship at the end of last season stepping into roles. But to sit here and say that you can list three or four guys and they're just going to be the guys that dealing Gabriel can count on. I think a lot of that is hope, right the running back situation is a little bit more, I guess, pleasing to the eye. As far as what they are going to have to replace in terms of Eric Gray, you saw a little bit of a taste of that in the in the bowl game, whether it be Javonte borr Arns, who has a boot on his foot right now, I think that's a broken toe. We'll see, and then Gavit saw Chunk. They were both great in the bowl game. On offensive line has to replace two tackles. So, like you start listing things, and unless you are just looking at this through a crimson and cream colored glasses, there are a lot of questions to be asked about what this offense is. There is a belief in Jeff Levy, there is a belief in what they are trying to do offensively. And then, oh, by the way, you have you know, Jackson Arnold, who's in here, who you know? I think everybody feels like is going to be kind of the next savior at the quarterback position. But to say that, I you know, you're going to look up and he's all of a sudden starting in the Cotton Bowl in game four or five next year, I think that's probably a little much Dylan Gabriel's this is his team. He's the the you know, air apparent at that of that quarterback position coming or the incumbent coming back in and you just at the end of the day need him to play better than he did a year ago. And I think that there's a belief that he's got a little bit more comfortable in the system. And because of his relationship with Jeff Lebby, going all the way back to the days in Orlands, you hope that you get the guy that you saw down at the chiez of Boy.
00:31:04
Speaker 2: Is the line in a good place? Obviously they have one of the most decorated offensive line coaches in the country who decides not to go to USC and Bill bed and Bow. But where is that moving forward, especially as they make the transition in a year.
00:31:17
Speaker 1: There's a lot of guys that I think that they feel really good about, you know. I think that like, for instance, a guy that could be this next year's Anton Harrison, who played himself into the first round, Tyler Geydon. There's a lot of talk about what he could be on that offensive line. He played sparingly throughout the year, started some games at the end of the year, specifically when juan Ye Morris was injured, you know, and both those book and tackles are going to be drafted at some point. Anton obviously going to probably go somewhere in the first round or you know, obviously in the second round. So they feel confident about it. They like Andrew Raim, he returns, he missed the bowl game because the shoulder surgery. At the end of the season, they have mckayde Matower back. Saveon Bird's a guy that I
think a lot of people feel like is in a spot in the within the program. He started in the bowl game, and I think there's a lot to like he's just pretty raw coming out of the DFW area. And then obviously they were able to get the late flip of Walter Rouse, a kid that was going to go from Stanford to Nebraska ended up at Oklahoma, and it was another one of those late wins that it's like a kind of not necessarily reinvigorated anybody, but it did make you think, like, Okay, like maybe there is a selling point of what this staff is trying to do out on the recruiting trail. People are buying into it at some point. I'm sure in il I think had a little bit to do with that as well. But at the same time, they feel like they have a bunch of bodies. How's that come together? The offensive one was probably a little bit better than people wanted to give credit for a season ago. But you know, I think as good as Bill Beatambo's groups have been over the last couple of years, you know, dating back all the way back to the Joe Moore team that wanted in seventeen eighteen, they start slow, and that's where people get a little bit antsy and a little bit impatient with that thing coming together, and you know they're going to have to come out for a lack of better terms, guns blazing a little bit earlier this season. It's not the hardest non conference schedule in the entire world with Tulsa, Arkansas State and SMU, but sim you did go out and get some guys from the SEC. They have a good coaching staff, and you know that game could be one of those games that you look up that Oklahoma's been kind of become known for. Where how the hell is this a game? In the fourth quarter?
00:33:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, Eddie, let's zoom out for a second, because Brent Vannables was an assistant prominent assistant for like thirty years before he took this gig. For sure, he's had proximity to greatness, but it is different when the buck stops with you. I think that's part of the reason why Dan and I weren't more bullsh about Brent Vannables. We all agreed that it was a very good fit, but there is definitely a difference when you take the reins and suddenly you're the ones calling the shots. We didn't know how he would deal with that added responsibility. Do you have any sense for what that learning curve was like for him, Like, not just in terms of the on field record and what we saw from the defense or the offense specifically, but maybe from the perspective of people who work with them, assist in support staff, those around him who are kind of, I don't know, witnesses to him learning how to be this guy.
00:34:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, I think that that's kind of the uncomfortable conversation that not a lot of people around here want to have, is what if this doesn't work out right?
00:34:30
Speaker 3: Right?
00:34:30
Speaker 1: And I think that that is one of those things that when you look back at some of the in game decisions or the ways that they lost games last year. That gives
you a little bit of pause, like can he do this? And I think that it's you know, every person to a man, whether it be alumni of the school, form, players, anybody that has ever met Brent. You spend five minutes with him, and you can tell why he's a great recruiter. You can tell why everybody that comes into contact with him down in Norman loves him to death and they want him to succeed. And I think we'll probably, you know, if this thing never gets turned around, well he'll probably get some added bonus time because people believe in him so much. But I think that, you know, you take a step back, and there was I think a lot of things that as as as planned as everything is, as you know, much as he had a plan to kind of that first year, I think that there was a lot of learning and what he had to do. And I think that you know, you look at I remember coming on into the first bye week that Oklahoma had, I think it was midway through the season, and there were some guys that you know, they flat out there were murmurs, flat out just they needed to get away from football. They they were in the facility from eight am to eight pm. And you know, as much as you want those guys to be in the facility, as much as you guys, they want those guys to eat, sleep, and breathe football, there was this element of they were burnt out. And you looked up and it was the fourth or fifth fifth week of the season, and I think that Brent had to really kind of look in the mirror a little bit see what he was asking not only his players but his staff, and like, did he burn them out too quickly? And you know, they talked about being physical throughout camp so much that it was almost like you got to the first game and everybody was tired. Everybody was almost tired. And it was September first, September second. So you know, I am interested to see what kind of changes they make go moving forward, what kind of changes they're going to make to the schedule here. You know, certainly during the spring, I think that they've made some. I think that they he leaned on a lot of guys. It's kind of interesting the guys that he brought in in the support staff role, whether it be Matt Wells from a year ago, you know, from Texas Tech or you know here most recently with Seth Lutrell coming back from North Texas to Norman. So he has other guys, other head coaches that I think he can really kind of lean on trust And it's going to be kind of fun to see how this year two goes as opposed to year one that I think if they, you know, you put all true Sarah and ceremonum, he probably would have gone about doing things a little bit differently than maybe he did the first time around. And you know, I guess to a certain extent, there's only one way to learn from all of that, and that's by going through that. And you know, as much as Oklahoma fans don't want to hear it failing to a certain extent in that first year by Oklahoma.
00:37:30
Speaker 3: Standards, well, I mean, look, one of the best recent examples of a coach learning a new coach learning Dave Randa. Dave Randa's first year at Baylor, there were a lot of warts that he had to deal with in the offseason. He came out the next season, he changed his game plan. I think we talk about it often about what he did on fourth downs, how he got more aggressive, just little tweaks. He was smart enough to recognize where his shortcomings were. He put new systems in place, and Baylor was a much much better team. So there's no reason that brand Vettible's can't do something similar. But you have to have that self awareness shifting gears a little bit to the recruiting side of things if we can. I asked this question on our last episode when we talked about LSU and Brian Kelly. I think it's even more interesting for Brent Venables in Oklahoma. The recruiting, as you said earlier, has remained very very strong. Clearly recruits are buying what he's selling. I'm just wondering if the pitch has changed at all now with Brent Venables as compared to Lincoln Riley. Two very different coaches, right, what was Lincoln selling versus what is Brent selling now?
00:38:35
Speaker 1: I guess in layman's terms, it's probably a little bit more glitz and glamour with Lincoln. You know, obviously you're going to be bringing in the cars and all that kind of stuff on the field that you know, the old Oklahoma bands that reaped the wrong way. But at the same time you got to do that with what the current world of recruiting is a reliance maybe more so on the transfer portal as far as plug and play as a post to what Brent wants to do and building from the ground floor up and recruiting really good classes and getting guys that stick around for the program for three or four years. Now. Not to say that they're not going to be active in the portal because you just you simply can't do that unless you're a Georgia that's bringing in, you know, twenty five five stars every year, right. But I do think that, you know, relational is probably the word that the buzzword that gets used quite a bit right now with Brent and what they're trying to build. You know, they have a really strong staff as far as holdovers or guys that ended up staying around from the earlier staff and with Lincoln Riley, whether whether it be Bill Bidebo or DeMarco Murray Oklahoma guys if you will, and then kind of the new flavor of guys with a Todd Bates or a Miguel Shaves or Brandon Hall that came in, you know, with with Brent on the defensive side of the ball. So it's been super interesting, like the one thing that you know, and I think it's everywhere that you get a family atmosphere, but there is a true focus on that in Norman right now. The sole mission program is one of those things that I think kind of leads the charge for them that has a bunch of former players. Curtis Lofton's part of it, Josh Norman's a part of it, Caleb Kelly from years past is a part of it as well as Ryan Young. And it's kind of interesting, you know, spiritual to a certain extent that I
think speaks to a lot of parents when they come and bring in their kids for official visits, and obviously speaks to a lot of players as well. So for them to hold that class together, and you know, certainly Jackson Arnold did a good job of kind of steering that thing out of some pretty rough waters when you look up and they're you know, trying to be Bowl eligible in one of the final weeks of the season. You know, I think when when Colton vasik De committed, there was a lot of people and this is kind of in the wake of that forty nine to nothing ass whooping at the Cotton Bowl, that thought, here we go, You're going to look up and all of a sudden, this team's going to be in the mid thirties in the recruiting realm. And it went the other way and they were able to get a Peyton Bowen at the end of the cycle. Is as weird as that all ended, they were able to hold on to a PJ at a Borrey. There's something that players are buying into. I think a part of that is the pitch. Another part of that, though, is just simply the message that everything is going to be okay once you get the players in and the resume that these guys have, particularly on the defensive side of the football, there's a lot of leeway there. There's a lot of buy in that I think a lot of kids can kind of kind of relate to. And there's a lot of opportunity in Norman as well, especially on the defensive side of the ball, for somebody to be able to come in and play immediately. So it's kind of interesting, like they're pretty polar opposites as far as I think the way that they go about their recruiting pitch. But at the end of the day, you know, it's almost kind of like Texas in a way. Oklahoma recruits itself to a certain extent, and you know, with the tradition and the history that that school has, uh it's it's a pretty easy sell. I remember talking to Miguel Shaves just as far as uh, you know, like what that pitch is like and this is his first real uh position coaching job and being able to walk in with ou on the on the shoulder or you know, the Jordan brand wherever. Uh it gives a little bit of an added bonus to maybe some other places that you would try to recruit and be a little bit harder. So uh it's it's it's been kind of fun and fascinating to watch here over the you know, first, I guess a year and a half as we enter the second spring under Brent, and you know, I think that if they can keep that recruiting the level that it is right now, it would be hard to think that it's not at some point going to come together.
00:42:51
Speaker 2: Defensively, where's the headspace of the fan base, the you know, internally within the program with regard to the moved the SEC in a year, it's obviously a major step up in terms of platform and glitz and status that comes with the SEC, which is poised obviously to be with along with the Big Ten, the two major conferences moving forward in the sports. Oklahoma has a history of being one of the two big boys everywhere that you know, Big eight, Big twelve. They have that path to the postseason that is paved with I would say slightly easier gravel, whatever you want to call it.
00:43:30
Speaker 1: They're now going to be.
00:43:31
Speaker 2: Like the seventh biggest program in their conference as opposed to one of the giants, one of the Titans. Does that weigh in at all? Or are people just excited to be, you know, moving up to the show essentially?
00:43:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I think that there'd be a lot of people that would probably say, well, now, wait a second, they're not, you know, the seventh. I think that that that I know, sure, but no, I understand what you're saying. I do think that there is a certain level of for the majority of the fan base, they feel like the passion that reigns through the Sooner State matches with what you see in Arkansas across or Alabama or Mississippi or Florida or Georgia or wherever. I think that they're maybe the ideals of the programs aligned probably better with a passionate fan base. But I think to a certain extent, there are a lot of people at the same time that are maybe a little naive to what they are getting into and thinking that this is going to be a seamless transition. There's going to be some bumpy spots, just like there were some rough patches through Brent's first year. To the same extent, though, I can't remember a time where people were more excited about the future of Oklahoma football with what's to come. Me professionally, it couldn't have gone better. I'm excited about it. If nothing else. Is just getting to new places and seeing new experiences. And that's not a hit on Ames or Manhattan or Lubbock or wherever I loved. I love going to those towns. But I'm also a little bit of a weirdo. I'm a little bit of a degenerate as far as that kind of stuff goes. But you know, I think that there is a certain excitement. You know, there was a significant amount of people that traveled down to whether it be Knoxville in twenty sixteen when Baker and that group went out there or you know, wherever, and the run ins that Oklahoma's had, you know, whether it be on the softball diamond here over the last couple of years in the WiM's College World Series with some of the SEC schools and or you know, basketball baseball and that kind of stuff. You know, I think that there was no greater example of just kind of how naive Oklahoma fans were. We're spending two weeks in Omaha this past summer for the College World Series and I mean it was ninety to ten basically old miss fans, and obviously that's a rabid fan base, you know, and I think it, you know, the fan base probably travels a little bit more differently for football than they would baseball. But at the same time, you know, I think that everybody is kind of looking around and preparing for this move, and you still are a year out, but there still is an anticipation, There still is an excitement for what's to come. And if nothing else, it's just I think to make Oklahoma fans feel like they are a
part of something that maybe they had been longing for it in a way, if that makes sense, and they just I think that Oklahoma fans truly feel like they can, you know, for the most part, go play with the big boys. And there's always been something about when Oklahoma plays an SEC school, whether it be in that Tennessee game a couple of years ago or you know, Tennessee coming here, or Alabama and the Sugar Bowl that has become kind of infamous around these parts as the Trevor Knight games. So it's just it's wild. It's it's kind of crazy, but there is I think also this this level of optimism, and Cash's optimist as far as this whole new world that is going to be college football come the year twenty twenty five with USC and UCLA and the weirdness that that's going to be in the Big Ten, as well as Oklahoma and Texas now being in the SEC. I think it's kind of a whole new world that everybody's going to still get some getting used to because Oklahoma has, you know, quote unquote ran the Big twelve for so long, and it seemed like they were always everybody kind of deferred to them as far as, you know, the favorite, whether whoever they were bringing in at quarterback or or whatever it was going to be. There was always this kind of expectancy that, yeah, Oklahoma's going to be in Arlington in the first week or second week in December, and they're going to be planning for a victual championship, and you just kind of planned around that. I don't know if you can necessarily plan that you're going to be in in Atlanta come the first week of December.
00:47:49
Speaker 2: A lot of a lot of the time, when we look at teams joining new conferences, it is a smaller program joining a larger conference and they need to sort of upgrade things. Obviously, Oklahoma's is second to none in terms of being a major national program. Is there anything though, in terms of keeping up with the Joneses from a spending perspective? Were there any asks from Brent Vennables before he was hired that, you know, is a process still? Is there anything you know two point oh three point zero for Oklahoma as do they need to upgrade anything as they make this shift in the air.
00:48:21
Speaker 1: I think they answered me yes and yes, And you know, obviously I think that you look at the announcement that they just approved one hundred and seventy five million dollar football facility that's going to go basically right in across the street from Gaylor family OClO Memorial Stadium. And you know, I think that for as as much of college football as a little bit of a d measure for everybody out there, one hundred and seventy five million dollars is twenty more than Florida. And I think that ultimately, does that mean anything, that that means that they're going to win games on Saturday? No, probably not. But you know how college football fans are. They like to get on the message boards, they like to get on Twitter, and they like to brag about it, especially Oklahoma fans. And you know, they are building a football facility that turn up seat. Who built the you know, basically built the facility out at Clemson is going to be in charge of it. I think that that was one of the things that Brent wanted to do from day one when he took the job. And you know, whether you call it, and jokestigally on the athletic director at Oklahoma would never say it's called keeping up with the Joneses, but to a certain extent it is. I mean, you've got to be able to keep up with everybody else because as you look at the Switzer Center, that isn't that old now like less than a decade old. It's old, and you've got to be able to keep up with everybody. And you know, I think that you know, to a certain extent, it's kind of shocking in a way that Oklahoma doesn't have two one hundred yard fields that they're able to practice on. And when you get into the summer months and you start talking about compliance and how many hours you can spend with a with a group during those you know, very integral parts of building a team for that next year. You know, spending five to ten minutes to walk across the street and everybody gets set up something when you can just walk out of the football facility, be on the field and basically get after it. So, yeah, one hundred and seventy five million dollar football facility upgrade or brand new facility is kind of the main thing. And I think that they kind of want to get basically broken ground on that sooner than later. It's obviously not going to be this spring, but I think that you probably look towards the end of about this time next year, So twenty twenty four, spring of twenty twenty four is when they should break ground. Eddie.
00:50:30
Speaker 3: I save the best for last. Full circle full circle. Here we go as the Oklahoma fan base forgiven Lincoln Riley? Can they forgive Lincoln Riley?
00:50:39
Speaker 2: Can they forget?
00:50:41
Speaker 3: Can they forget Lincoln?
00:50:42
Speaker 1: Right? I put it this way, I don't think I'd be able to walk the streets of Oklahoma City if I said that. Yes, no, it's and there's always going to be that venom out there. I think he blocked me on Twitter, which I am innocent. I am innocent. I would have say anything what happened. I just I might have said that I was worried about Caitlin and the girls because he's a psychopath. But I said that I said that as a joke. Lincoln. I think he knows that I had this grand plan that I was going to go out there during spring and try to get him TMZ style with the camera when he walks across the street. And I still might plan to do that, Lincoln. But you know, at the end of the day, in as crazy as it may sound, with the success that they had and as much hate watching as people did with Caleb Williams and Mario Williams and those guys a year ago, I think that there's a lot of people that were happy how it turned out, and I know that it's it's very easy to say that right now, and it probably doesn't make a lot of sense to be anybody outside of the state of
Oklahoma. But I think that when it's all said and done, everybody's happier. Hell, you look at the house that he got in the Pacific Palisades right now, to rive seems happy. I can Pacific Palisdades ain't Leke Hefner, but I know that it's a really nice place and I probably would have done the same. Damn. It's I'm happy for him, though, like it. He is an offensive genius like there is. There's there's no debate about that. I think that there was a lot of people around here, especially like after everything went down and kind of the way that it went down, a lot of people felt like, uh, he stabbed Oklahoma in the back, and you know, there probably is no good way to handle something like that. It just it kind of is what it is. But at the same time, it would also be a little bit upsetting if there wasn't that outcry from the fan base. There's a reason why Oklahoma fans are so passionate about this sport, and it's because of stuff like that. And you know obviously that nobody asked for it, nobody wanted it to happen. But at the same time, it's college football. That's kind of what makes the pageantry of all of this kind of fun.
00:52:55
Speaker 2: Look, I'm an Oregon fan one Notre Dame. We've been here recently. I've been here more than I would have liked to. Right, that's right, and you just you have to, like you obviously, look at brend Ventables. He's probably not going to leave Oklahoma if he's successful. But like you said, it's college football. There's nothing to be taken for granted.
00:53:15
Speaker 1: There's there's nothing better than you know, college football Saturdays. I stand by that was raised on it, kind of borne of bread into it. So it's a it's a way of life. And you know, the countdown begins to the start of August and camp and all that kind of stuff. But we got to get through Spring Bowl first.
00:53:32
Speaker 3: Look, if the TMZ plan doesn't work, I mean you got to put blocked by Lincoln Riley on your Twitter bio. You're an Oklahoma guy. Would that not get no instant credit?
00:53:42
Speaker 1: I think I think everybody, I think everybody knew at one point I blew it up there for a while. It just I was in it. I kept getting tagged by people that were saying some very derogatory things about the gentleman, and uh, you know I I I want to say that I was assassinated by association, but it is what it is. It's been fun.
00:54:05
Speaker 2: I think we have to parent trap Lincoln, Riley and Eddie, get them in the same room, work it all out, and everybody moves forward.
00:54:13
Speaker 1: I had a buddy that ran into Lincoln down and to Loom a couple of weeks ago, and I was like, just go tell him. I said, hi, and I guess he did and he started laughing. So, okay, I think space. If he wants to take me out to riv and we'll go play eighteen, sure, I think that that would be a good making amens to the state of Oklahoma, and I'll probably need a couple of side.
00:54:35
Speaker 2: There's very little he can say that will make you, know, Oklahoma fans feel at peace, but you get to play a nice country club that'll make you feel a piece.
00:54:43
Speaker 1: That that would bring me to piece. If he wants to throw Caleb Williams back in the deal, yeah, I think Oklahoma fans would then officially call it a safe deal. Everybody's okay, there you go.
00:54:54
Speaker 3: The Secretary of State Eddie Redosovitch joining us here on the saliver. We'll giving us all things Oklahoma to chew on. Eddie. We appreciate your wisdom. Remind the folks where they can find you.
00:55:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, just Eddie Rotto, Eddie underscore our ado on Twitter and then soonerscoop dot com. Obviously, it's kind of an interesting time right now with you know, obviously the state of the Oklahoma spring you know, basically midway through, which is kind of weird to say. It feels like this thing always kind of sneaks up on us. And then we'll be uh doing the whole Kyler Murray statue coming up at the Oklahoma spring game, kind of like they did a year ago for Baker Mayfield. And I guess it's, if nothing else, just another memory of how historically great some of those offenses were. I still think that there is a certain segment of the Oklahma fan base that goes, that's just college football, that's how they do it. That's not exactly not exactly, it was historically great, and I think everybody should be appreciative of that.
00:55:55
Speaker 3: Eddie, thank you so much for your time. We'll have to do it age.
00:55:57
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys anytime. All right, Dan, and there you go.
00:56:00
Speaker 3: Eddie Redosovich, Sooner scoop dot Com, the franchise one oh seven seven in Oklahoma City, the Unofficial forty podcast. Oklahoma went six and seven last year if you count the Bowl game. They lost to Florida State.
00:56:14
Speaker 2: In a great game, by the way, that re gayly fun game as a non you know Florida State Oklahoma fan just to watch his entertainment.
00:56:21
Speaker 3: Absolutely, as Eddie mentioned, got the absolute tar kicked out of them by Texas forty nine nil. But there were a bunch of one score games in there that very easily could have gone Oklahoma's way. So we will have to wait and see what brand Vannabils learned from twenty twenty two. The offense in terms of efficiency was still top ten, the defense, not so much. Defense was top seventy.
00:56:45
Speaker 2: Dan, Look, you lose forty nine to nothing. I don't care who the quarterback, and that is Davis Bevil. I believe in that that Texas game. It's hard to be like, well, we were top seventy doesn't matter at that point, right, It doesn't matter how you fill in the gaps afterwards you lose how many they give up fifty to fifty five to TCUE. You know, it's one of those things that's hard to be looked at as a silver lining.
00:57:06
Speaker 3: I am optimistic, though, I think there's there's plenty of reason to be hopeful that he will turn this thing around. Lord knows, he's got a great support staff around him and a good administration,
so seemingly those situations work out more often than not. The ted Roof thing, though, Look, maybe I've got PTSD. Well, we just sort of know how this is going to end, right, We know how it's gonna My friends and I still text back and forth about the so called leaky roof at Penn State in twenty twelve, that one year that Ted Roof was calling plays for the Penn State defense. It was not good, right, And I've joked on this show time and again that Brent Vennables should give him a fake headset in the same way they gave Dwhite Shirt the fake wheel on Lake Wall and Paul Pack. Let him think he's doing it, but don't actually let him do it. You want him away from this defense. I don't believe he's going to make it better. What do I know, I'm a lowly podcaster. I'm just saying that's the one thing. If there's anything that is caused for pause or favorite pet charity, right, it is a ted Roof thing in the leaky roof.
00:58:11
Speaker 2: Do you think that ted Roof is the goat as in the scape that he is now a professional scapegoat that you're like, look, pay me for two years and I can be the reason that you make staff changes and you buy yourself time. That he is a professional scapegoat at this point, that's a very.
00:58:29
Speaker 1: Mean thing too.
00:58:30
Speaker 3: Label dreaming. He's been all over the place, I know, all over the place in one year's stints, right.
00:58:36
Speaker 1: That he is.
00:58:37
Speaker 2: He is the kind of guy who you know you're not going to set him up for success. But when if things are inevitably going to go poorly because of you know, such a thin roster and so many new changes, when a new coach comes in, you're like, look, i'm gonna call the defense, and in two years, when it still doesn't look great but maybe improving a little but not enough, you're gonna fire me, I'm gonna make a bunch of money and onto the next place, on to Tulsa, on to Palo Alto.
00:59:04
Speaker 3: Look, I don't know if he's a scapegoat. I don't know enough about ted Rufe to know whether he's actually good at what he does, So it would be mean for me to draw any kind of conclusions based on my anecdotal evidence the one year I saw him at Penn State. Now, there have been other years elsewhere that have also not been that great. Totally okay, to be fair, but I will wait to reserve judgment and see what happens in twenty twenty two. He's going to have a lot of talent on hand, a lot of talent on hand, and obviously good, a good partner in crime and brand Venables to help get that defense into shape. But I think the thing other than the PTSD from the Penn State year that I harken back to is something that we've talked a lot about with new coaches hiring their friends, Yeah, hiring their friends, and and it seems like these two guys are pretty good pals. Brand Venables spoke glowingly about him and how he wants to learn from his wisdom, and I mean really later on thick. Sure, I hope it works out. That's not to say you can't hire your friends and be successful. But if it doesn't get successful in a hurry, how Brent Venables reacts to moving on maybe from a friend would be interesting to see.
01:00:26
Speaker 2: I hope it doesn't come to that, but I think it could. I'm optimistic about Oklahoma football. I'm optimist on Oklahoma's defense. I think it's, you know, largely a Jimmy's and Joe's thing, right, the old phrase Jimmy's and Joe's beat x's and o's. I think Brent Vnables is going to be able to recruit. We saw this class. They've got the five star edge that Eddie mentioned, the duo of safeties led by Peyton Bowen, who makes that crazy dramatic swing from Notre Dame to Oregon to Oklahoma right around signing day. And so I am confident that Oklahoma, especially if you look at the teams that Oklahoma measures itself against, both of their new conference and nationally, I am confident that Oklahoma is going to build, at the very least a very good defense. And on that same token, I think you can find offense. I think you can find five star quarterbacks geographically where Oklahoma is, you know high four star quarterbacks, and you're going to have receivers follow them. And the other thing about Oklahoma is this has been a team that been a program going back Lincoln Riley, Bob Stoops. They've recruited nationally. The Heisman Trophy winner went from DC to Norman, obviously following Lincoln Riley, but you look at what they've been able to do in California and on the West Coast all over the place. I think Oklahoma is a big enough name that you will be able to find offense. And Brent Vennable's reputation and ability recruit, to me, means that they are going to do as good, if not a better job recruiting overall than what Lincoln Riley was able to do, especially on defense because Lincoln Riley, Jamarcaine, they found guys on defense, they found blue chip players, they just didn't develop them and didn't develop defenses outside of the twenty twenty COVID year with Ronnie Perkins. So I'm confident that their transition will be by and large pretty good to the SEC because I think they're going to build up depth on defense. To me, it's just a matter of like, what does their ceiling look like playing LSU, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, if Florida comes back, you know, A and M if they're able to figure things out, Like, it's just it's a rockier street for suit.
01:02:25
Speaker 3: It's yeah, it's absolutely rockier and shorter term. It wasn't like the defense was wholesale bad. There were bright spots on the defense, but they were bad in the spots that really get you. I'm talking about things like sack rates. The pressure rates from Oklahoma actually was not horrible. They just couldn't sack the quarterback that gets you. Yeah, third downs, tackling in general, tackling was a car crash. These are the things, just a few I think fundamental things that they need to repair and if they can do that, it'll be a quantum leap forward. We'll see.
01:02:58
Speaker 2: But you also, I mean, look, it's they gave up fifty to Texas Tech to finish the season. You're also talking about a couple of programs they face where they had those nice defensive days. Was like, oh, it's an all time Iowa State catastrophic offense. Okay, that's great, but I don't know how much we can count on that this coming year with their schedule and moving forward in the SEC. So no, I still think there's a lot to be fixed, by the way, Ty, can I give a reading recommendation while we're on this top a reading recommendation? Ok I'm in the middle of reading a book called Boomtown, which has been out for a while about the history of Oklahoma and Oklahoma City specifically, and so I'm knee deep in all things Sooner State.
01:03:40
Speaker 3: It's great.
01:03:41
Speaker 2: It's a really really fun read about how Oklahoma City was just sort of constructed out of nowhere as a city and all just the weird history of Oklahoma City as a city. And it's sort of it's paralleling with the Seattle Sonics moving and becoming the thunder in Oklahoma City. It's fascinating, very.
01:03:59
Speaker 3: Really good title. You want, Boomtown, the fantastical saga of Oklahoma City. It's chaotic founding, it's perloined good word basketball team and the dream of becoming a world class metropolis.
01:04:09
Speaker 2: There you go, Yeah, No, it's it's really good. It's back and forth. There'll be one chapter about how Boeing tested supersonic aircraft over the skies of Oklahoma City and it set up sonic booms every like hour and a half and drove the people out of their minds. But because Oklahoma City wanted to be like a major international place, so like, yeah, we'll do it, We'll let you test. And then six months later they're like, we have all gone completely say and then it's like, here's what's happening with James Harden's free agent or James Harden's impending free agency and trade request kind of thing.
01:04:41
Speaker 1: It's it's a really good book.
01:04:42
Speaker 3: I like it a lot wonderful.
01:04:43
Speaker 2: That's all unsolicited recommendation for Boomtown.
01:04:46
Speaker 3: All right, big thanks again to Eddie Redosovich. Make sure you check him out over at Sooner Scoop Eddie underscore r Ad on Twitter. We will continue forging ahead. We will continue with our year one deep. We have teams yet to cover. As always, send in your suggestions, whether on social media or just play ol fashion email soliverble at gmail dot com is how you can get to We've had a bunch of people right in with various suggestions for teams that remain so excited to hear from folks and doing our best to incorporate some of those suggestions. Yes, absolutely, for that guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubinstein, for myself, Ty Hildebrand, thanks again for downloading, for listening, for playing along at a home, check us out at verballers dot com, and by all means, have a good weekend, Stay solid, peace,