Hot Links: Wildcats come to town, David Hicks sets commitment date

Sep 23, 2022 - 11:34 PM

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What’s good?

Man, what a fun week of Oklahoma football storylines. We have a lot to unpack.

The Oklahoma Sooners come back home this week to take on the Kansas State Wildcats. Does anyone have a fear of this team? In spite of last week’s result, I think you should. Kansas State presents an interesting problem that I will line out in the game preview later for you.

From a little bit more of 30,000-foot view, the Sooners are playing their first conference game of the season with a late home kickoff. Does it get any sweeter than that? Now, tomorrow will be hot — mid-90’s most the day, but hopefully the late kick helps make it easier to handle during the game. The Sooners are going to need a packed house, and they’ll have just that.

I think all this (gestures to the paragraph above) presents a perfect storm for a coming-out party. Seriously, an opponent that garners respect, a prime time game, a packed house.... and a game the Sooners could potentially win big. It’s all there. Now, I am not the chef here, obviously, just the guy reading the list of ingredients. It will be interesting to see if the Sooners can seize the opportunity.

OU Links

• Oklahoma hopes to create a home environment that, frankly, over the years has been a little stale. I don’t mean to be harsh, but not much innovation has been brought to the table, and the best idea as of late has been the LED lights. For what it’s worth, the players seem to love it, writes John Hoover.
• On the recruiting front, we have an announcement date for crucial DL target David Hicks. The five-star prospect has been considered an OU lean for a while, and that sentiment has grown even stronger in recent weeks. If it goes in OU’s favor (and it’s looking that way), this will be OU’s biggest defensive commitment since... Brent Venables was last in Norman?

• Oklahoma has decided that it actually wants to play the third phase of the game this season. After years of the previous head man not even really acknowledging that you could return punts and kicks, we have Marvin Mims making massive gains in the kicking game. How does that affect this team and its identity? Ryan Aber lays it out.
• Oklahoma’s defense game in with a scheme to attack Nebraska’s offense. Yeah. I can’t believe it, either. Maybe Eric can explain it to us.
• Speaking of the defensive game plan, our Allen Kenney had some nice analysis of Brent Venables taking a page out of a conference foe’s book.
• This is such a cool event happening Saturday. Frankly, it should’ve happened earlier, but better late than never. If you get down there early tomorrow, the ceremony starts at 3:30. I think it would be killer to pack the event to support such an awesome group of guys who left an impact on this community and team — the Selmon Brothers.

• I am really shaky, and will remain that way on this offensive line. Bob Przybylo thinks that meshing and time can heal some wounds, especially with the addition of Wanya Morris back to the starting lineup.
• Yeah, I tucked this one later into the article. Why? Because we didn’t actually learn anything new. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State likely will play the last bedlam for some time between now and 2025. Your guess is as good as mine on when, but I just want to hit one point — “no” now does not mean “no” forever. Yeah, we could miss some years, but I have a suspicion that we will see another Bedlam after OU leaves the SEC. It’s just a matter of when.
• Oklahoma has been very aggressive on fourth down calls, but Lebby and Venables aren’t just shooting from the hip. There is a plan with each drive, each set of downs, and each situation. I am not saying that the coaching staff is the only one in the country that does it this way, but there are a ton who do it wrong. Looking at you, Nathaniel Hackett.
• I mean... presented without context:

• Late addition, also presented without context.

Anything else going on?

• This went viral this week, and honestly I don’t know why. However, I will say, the honeymoon is over for Shane Beamer, whether it’s his fault or not. The only bad thing about doing a good job is, eventually, people expect you to do a great one.

• I only wish I could radio this good. What an all-time performance. Rocky Top by a billion.

Can I talk about things that aren’t sports? Ya know what? Better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

• So, this emerged this week. I can’t explain this other than saying this — I watched this video and when it started I thought it was dumb. 10 seconds in, I chuckled a little. 20 seconds in, I let out a small laugh. After a full two minutes, I was grinning from ear to ear on something that I still thought was stupid.

Talk to you knuckleheads on Monday.