BudaSooner

Amazing, right???

. . . And they did. A really poor game, blame to be share in multiple places. Coaches, players, officials. Give KU some credit, too, although both teams tried to give it away, KU was more opportunistic.

LOL, there are a number of "Glass half empty" Sooner fans on my home message board which I most often frequent. I, on the other hand, tend to be a "Glass mostly full" type of guy, although last year's horrible result had me wondering from time to time whether BV could make the transition from great assistant coach to a winning HC. He still has some growth to achieve, I believe, though. I share your reticence about Lebby, his play-calling sometimes leaves me scratching my head. Yesterday's game does not a season make, and the accusations of a "soft" 5-0 schedule heading into the RRR had merit. But mark me among those who have mostly completely drunk the Crimson Koolaid under Brent. Agree that OU needs to clean up the special teams and especially the kicking game! OU could drop one or two games between now and the end of the year... or we COULD run the table and do a re-match in the CCG in Arlington with an enraged Horn team sporting n 11-1 record, and thirsting for revenge. I like OU's chances to do the latter. Injuries, of course, could always throw a wrench into the works. If Gabriel should go down with injury like he did last year, I have HIGH hopes that we will see the advent of the Jackson Arnold era... Looking forward to it! But obviously hope that Gabriel can stay healthy.

And I'll add that Texas is probably the more talented team if you compare rosters. But I absolutely LOVE how Brent Venables has transformed the OU defense! This Sooner fan is very glad that Lincoln Riley left and took Grinch with him! See ya in Arlington at the Conference Championship!

Don't post here often anymore (used to post under BlackwellSooner handle) but let me echo Vahalla: OU avenged last year's butt-whooping and showed up in Big D with something to prove! Congrats to the Horns for a hard-played game (would you expect anything different for the Red River Rivalry?). I agree that the officials sucked, but they missed calls against BOTH teams, I don't believe either team enjoyed an advantage or disadvantage. Just a parting note to Mr. P's post on page 1: ******************************* Exactly. OU will lose, and by a considerable margin, thus they will return to the high teens or low 20s, where they belong. We've looked pretty good against relative nobodies. Not bad for Year 1 of a near-complete rebuild (2022 was "Year Zero"). Miss me with that "Hurr durr, anything can happen in rivalry!" Texas is at least a year or two ahead of us in their development. They got depth and buy-in that just isn't there for us, at least not yet. RRS might be "close" early on, but gradually UT will pull away. A couple late scores will punctuate the win. And that is what voters are looking at. (Really, Mr. P? You REALLY BELEIVE all that ****?) ******************************* I lurk over here on this board occasionally, so I understand that Mr. P is a Sooner fan, or at least that is my impression... if that is so, let me lay huge plaudits on him for his successful job of reverse-mojo on the Horns. Of course, Lee Corso did his part too, at GameDay with his Bevo headgear! LOL...

Venables says he wants his players to be "all in"! If not, there's the door!

OU has handed out lots of these butt-kickings over the years. Looks like it's our turn today. Totally inept OU defense, Brent has his work cut out for him. Better get it done soon, too, what with the SEC move coming soon..

Sadly, I think that it's a done deal. I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that Gundy (whether because he was hacked off or not, doesn't matter) read those words off of the player's tablet. NOBODY who has been in coaching as long as Cale has knows better than he that there are certain words that a 50 year old white man cannot utter in a room full of black athletes. Can't believe that he did that! Like it or not, it's the world that we live in... and he knew that once uttered, that the incident would go public, so he self-reported to BV, and it got ran up the chain of command, with the choice of resign or be fired. Sad. I've read that Gundy could be a hot-head and mouthed off at times, but he was a good coach as was proven by the support that he is receiving. But as Brent said, our actions have consequences. One of the consequences, besides Cale losing his job, is that OU recruiting, will take a hit.

https://twitter.com/Joe_MainMixon/status/1556498749362413571/photo/1

If Muleshoe can't fill the Coliseum with SC fans, how is he gonna get 'em to journey to faraway Lincoln and Minneapolis, let alone places like Ann Arbor or State College? LOL... Rutgers and/or Maryland? FUHGEDDABOUDIT!!!

First of all, I'll just say that Ole Miss deserved the MCWS title, they played clean baseball, had timely hits and OU hurt themselves in the Championship Series with errors and poor play not typical of their late-season play. So hats off to the Ole Miss team. But there was a couple of turning points in Game 2 that had they gone OU's way, might have led to an OU win and a Game 3, where anything could have happened. The HUGE momentum swing at the top of the 6th inning comes to mind... I know the rules on runner interference, and the umpires applied the rule correctly. Whether the rule should be re-written is up for debate, on at least a couple of different points: 1. What a change of momentum, and all for a rule that, IMO, and apparently the announcers agreed, desperately needs to be rewritten to allow an exception to the rule of runner interference when the runner is within a step of the base. 2. Ole Miss got the interference call because their pitcher made a bad throw to first - - the ball hit Spikerman in the leg (which was in foul territory). Had the pitcher's throw been what would be regarded as a "normal" throw i.e. to the "field-side of the base - - there would have been no interference. Whether Spikerman would have been thrown out or not, the run would have scored - in fact, it had ALREADY scored. 3. The part of the rule that negates the run on runner interference should be revised. Whether Spikerman was out at first or not, interference or no interference, the run should have been allowed, as the runner from third had already crossed the plate and only one out at the time. It's a punitive rule and should be corrected. Here is something else to ponder while discussing the controversial call on the Spikerman bunt: We all (at least most of us) know the rule on interference, and that's what's mostly been discussed, but did anyone notice how Skip Johnson was berating the umpire after the replay decision was announced? Let's assume that Skip is, more than anyone on this board, cognizant of the rules and their application. So why was he so vehement after the ruling from the review booth came down? Here is a suggestion that I'd reckon had a good chance of being on-target: The rule on challenges is that the challenge must be registered to the umpire before 30 seconds have elapsed after the play, and that the challenging entity (Ole Miss coach) must not have watched the replay. Watching the replay on my DVR, it seemed to me more than 30 seconds passed before Ole Miss challenged the call, and THAT is what pissed Skip off! The challenge should not have been allowed due to expiration of the time limit (I have it on good authority that the Ole Miss coach watched two replays on the JumboTron before challenging). OU got hosed. Would it have made a difference in the eventual outcome? Who knows, but BIG MO climbed on top of the Ole Miss contingent bigtime after that call. The score would have been 1-0 OU's favor, one out and men on 2nd and 3rd, - - Instead, it wound up ending the inning with Graham flying to RF for the 3rd out, 0-0 at the end of 6.

As the #4 seed, the Hogs will host their own Super Regional, hosting the Longhorns. Could be a bit spicy in Fayetteville. The Horns were just one of two teams to hang a L on the Sooners this season, (in Austin) the other being Okie State.

Heard a rumor that Dart is eyeballing OU as a destination, now that he is in the Portal. Basically two 5 star quarterbacks swapping teams. If true, who would win the quarterback competition between Gabriel and Dart? Dart has better physical characteristics (6-3 & 210 lbs) vs Gabriel (5-11 & 186), but Jeff Lebby is really high on Gabriel, in that he is very familiar with the Offense that Lebby likes to run.

Hopefully, Smitty will have mellowed a bit over the last few years as far as some of his sideline antics are concerned. I remember that when he was at OU previously he sometimes went absolutely nuts on the sideline, screaming at the players on the opposing team, etc... Sometimes a bit of an embarrassment. He will be an asset, though to the team in regard to bringing toughness to the team and getting rid of some of the soft players. There will probably be a winnowing out process, no doubt...

Not to mention likely a black eye recruiting-wise. OU had a number of highly-rated recruits at the game. We'll see if/how much it hurt from a recruiting standpoint.

Yep, I agree. Any rivalry worthy of the name features two teams that hate each other's guts, and play accordingly. I used to love to watch tOSU & Michigan tee it up back in the Woody and Bo days.

Not betting on much happening in terms of a "merger". The best scenario would be, from the PAC's perspective, taking KU for basketball, and Okie State for football. I'll be very surprised if the PAC expands beyond 16.

...but not recently. UT built their series edge in the years pre-WWII. Not so much this century.

Off-topic,but a quick question: Whatever happened to Immortal13? I only visit occasionally, but I remember that he used to be a regular on SDC. Sometimes a bit hard to get along with, at least IMO. Anyway, back to the regular programming... somebody might give a quick response, thanks.

Conference realignment: Oklahoma and Texas rumors, path to joining the SEC and what it would mean for the Big 12 By The Athletic College Football Staff 31m ago ACC and SEC media days overlapped on Wednesday. The Big Ten gets its media days started on Thursday. As it turns out, however, much of the talk during the official start of talking season surrounds a conference that got its media days out of the way last week: the Big 12. The potential bombshell dropped shortly after 3:30 ET Wednesday, when the Houston Chronicle reported that Oklahoma and Texas had reached out to the SEC about joining the conference. Almost immediately, denials, non-denials and “I don’t knows” echoed throughout both Birmingham, Ala., and Charlotte, the respective sites of SEC and ACC media days. Throw this news — however serious it might be — on top of what has already been a groundbreaking summer for college athletics, and suddenly so much of what has been publicly discussed for the future could be thrown into chaos. A 12-team College Football Playoff, for one, would look significantly different with one of the Power 5 conferences down its two biggest breadwinners. There are other potential implications, too, be it the birth of a superconference in the SEC or a potential leverage play for the ACC — or something else entirely. — Matt Fortuna Oklahoma and Texas decline to comment on reports of their interest in joining SEC • Texas: “Speculation swirls around collegiate athletics. We will not address rumors or speculation.” • Oklahoma:“The college athletics landscape is shifting constantly. We don’t address every anonymous rumor.” What you should expect from the realignment rollercoaster If history is any indication, coverage of the potential moves could get pretty wild. Potential for political roadblocks As news broke about Oklahoma’s possible desire to move to the SEC, a common misunderstanding resurfaced on social media regarding the Oklahoma state legislature and its role. The Oklahoma state legislature holds no authority regarding the athletics conference of state schools. The University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University are governed independently by the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents and the OSU/A&M Board of Regents, respectively. Chad Alexander is the former Oklahoma Republican Party chairman and lobbied for the University of Oklahoma during the last round of conference realignment talks. He emphasized in a phone interview Wednesday that a lot has changed in the last 10 years. Term limits mean the legislature and boards of regents are filled with new faces. Longtime presidents David Boren (OU) and Burns Hargis (OSU) have both retired, with Hargis’ retirement coming just this month. During the 2011 realignment talks, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were attached at the hip. Any deal sending the Sooners to the Pac-12 would have included the Cowboys. Much of that was due to Boren, both because of his relationship with Hargis, and because of Boren’s general philosophy that Oklahoma and Oklahoma State should compete in the same conference. OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. worked many years for Boren, but his philosophy on that subject is unclear. Oklahoma State’s fiery statement Wednesday after news broke is a sign of just how important it is to remain attached to the Sooners — and also indicates that it might not feel protected in any legal sense should OU decide to make a move. Still, expect there to be significant political pressure from state lawmakers with ties to Oklahoma State. It’s also worth noting that Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt is an Oklahoma State alumnus, although he hasn’t made any public statements about this situation. Alexander and other sources told The Athletic that even if the state legislature were to pass a law mandating that OU and OSU remain in the same conference and even if the governor signed it, it probably wouldn’t hold up in court because of the way university governance is arranged in the state. — Jason Kersey Texas A&M’s on-the-record objection to the potential moves Texas A&M is the only school so far whose officials have offered any definitive on-the-record opinion about this possibility. Athletic director Ross Bjork made it quite clear Wednesday that Texas A&M wants to be the only SEC school in the Lone Star State. The move to break from the Big 12 also was a move to differentiate the program. Bjork reiterated this to me Wednesday night on the phone just before he and Texas A&M’s contingent took off after spending Wednesday at SEC Media Days in Hoover, Ala. But if you’re the SEC, how do you say no to adding two megabrands to an already stacked catalogue? The league needs 11 schools to vote yes to extend invitations to expand, and it’s unclear who else would be willing to vote no besides Texas A&M. Former Big 12 member Missouri? Former Southwest Conference member Arkansas? Maybe. The timing of the leak of the news seems to be an attempt to slow a very fast train. — Andy Staples What would need to happen for new schools to be admitted to the SEC? SEC bylaws being what they are, 11 of the 14 current schools would need to confirm the addition of a new member. Reality being what it is, the conference wouldn’t want expansion to pass by the skin of an 11-3 vote. The league put on a united front under the late, great commissioner Mike Slive and the vibe has continued under Greg Sankey. That’s because the SEC really takes care of its members, offering granite-solid stability and mega earnings. If Texas A&M, Arkansas and Mizzou vigorously objected to Texas and Oklahoma joining the league, their voices would carry weight. Schools like LSU, Alabama and Florida also stand to face a tougher time recruiting the state of Texas if the Longhorns get to flash the SEC brand. Ultimately, there may be financial incentives too massive to ignore in realignment — and fans of the Razorbacks and Aggies actually might welcome the rebirth of rivalries. Whatever the outcome, Sankey will work to insure a consensus. — G. Allan Taylor Adding Texas and Oklahoma could solve some of the SEC’s current scheduling issues If the SEC added Texas and Oklahoma there would be plenty of big issues to address, but one would be easy: The division setup. In fact, it would solve a lot of the conference’s current scheduling dilemmas. Texas and Oklahoma would join the West, obviously, but Missouri could join them, and along with Arkansas you’d have a mini-Big Eight/Southwest Conference reunion. Then you move Alabama and Auburn to the East, evening up the divisions, as well as solving a scheduling headache: Alabama-Tennessee and Auburn-Georgia, currently a pair of cross-division annual rivalries, are now regular division games. Voila! Or the SEC could get even more creative, and go to four divisions or pods, which would allow more scheduling flexibility. Right now the conference, wedded to division-based scheduling, has too many teams who rarely face each other: Georgia has yet to visit Texas A&M, for instance, since the Aggies joined the league in 2012. If each team only has three permanent opponents and then rotates the other five that isn’t a problem anymore. In fact, it’s a much better solution than two eight-team divisions — or the current two seven-team divisions. It may not be the sole reason to add Texas and Oklahoma, but it’s a nice byproduct. — Seth Emerson What would adding Texas and Oklahoma mean for SEC recruiting? At the moment, Texas high school stars only have one in-state option if they wanted to stay home and play in the SEC: Texas A&M. More SEC options within the region mean the Aggies would lose their Lone Star State edge. Group of 5 reaction I asked Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson if the Texas/Oklahoma news and upcoming conference TV deals could lead to another wave of conference realignment. “Texas, Oklahoma, potentially could be a tipping point,” he said. Like everyone else, Thompson didn’t know much about the news other than what he heard from associates when the report dropped. “I’ve had a couple commissioner friends ask for a chance to talk and compare notes. It’s normal business. We’re all reading this stuff like, ‘What the heck, what do you know about this?’” — Chris Vannini

Pod 4 is most certainly much weaker than the other 3.

For some reason, I guess that I forgot that he'd opted out early, was thinking that this was a recent thing. My bad...

First it was Cosmi who decided a few days ago to opt out for the rest of the season. Now, the latest Longhorn to decide to also opt out is Caden Stearns. I wonder - - are these "opt-out" decisions unique to the unsettled situation at Texas, or could the same thing be happening at more settled colleges like OU? Sure, we've had a couple of "opt-out" situations of our own, but at the beginning of the season, not at the end, like the Horns. At least ours allowed the coaches to shuffle and make adjustments and bring along players as the season progressed. Texas' Cosmi and now Stearns smells suspiciously like rats deserting a sinking ship... and do not reflect well on the players, IMO. T'would have been far better/more unselfish to have made such a decision in the preseason, as Brooks did at OU... I think, were I a Horn fan, I would not be feeling too charitably toward these guys right now.

Yep, Faust was to the Irish as John Blake was to the Sooners!

Reading this thread, and as a Sooner fan, I am bemused by regaleagle's advocacy of Todd Dodge. Big winner at the high school level? YES, absolutely! At the NCAA level? Not so much. Huge difference from high school to the big boys... Does the name Gerry Faust ring a bell? Hint: he was a renowned high school coach at legendary (at the time) Moeller High School in Cincinnati back in the 60s and 70s. OK, here is the link on Faust. Yeah, Horn fans, I wholeheartedly think that ya oughtta hire Dodge! He might even duplicate Sherri Coale's success rate at OU, who also made the direct-from-high school-to-college jump) (BTW, lots of OU fans would like to see Sherri gone, too!)...