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Taylor is one of my favorite players on this team for certain. He’s a good interview mixing honest comments with his knowledge of the college game.

As was the case in the Michigan game my Top 4 helmet stickers went to defensive players with neither the special team or offensive players cracking my list.

That means for two successive games nary a Sooner player outside of the defense and punter has made my top four helmet sticker list. This trend cannot continue for Brent Venables’ group.

For OU’s 14-6 completely unimpressive win over Mew Mexico my stickers went in this order…. 1 Owen Heineke, 2 David Stone who is awaiting an MRI report for his availablity in Athens, 3, Jaden Jackson and 4 fellow inside linebacker James Nesta, both of these guys had to pretty much absorb the minutes of Kip Lewis and Cole Sullivan in this game. Two very gritty performances.

I thought all four of these guys were outstanding as they literally had to carry the Sooners offense over the finish-line in a home game where OU was a Vegas 22.5 point home favorite.

The Vegas line on now 29th ranked OU with their top ten defense and putrid offense is the Sooners being a 14 point road dog inside of Sanford Stadium on Saturday at 2:30 CST.

No. 2 ranked Georgia has played three bad teams while winning three routs of no consequaent whatsover. The Sooners waltzed over cupcake UTEP 51-0, then lost to decent Michigan on the road in a one possession game decided by what was in essence a fourth period pick six by John Mateer. The Sooners’ defense without that pick six has given up one touchdown and 23 total points in their first three games combined.

But to beat a deadhorse to daeth almost like it seems…the Sooners lack of a creditable offense in the last two games has the Sooners going from 8th to 29th nationally in the polls.

And you know what? I would have to concur with the polls because if the Sooners cannot figure out their own offense to the tune of at the least averaging 21-24 points a game this college football analyst would predict 7-5 for the Sooners being an uphill slog for certain.

To the OU fans booing and calling for this and that last weekend….please either shutup or join another fanbase. I hate this segment of OU’s fanbase almost as much I disdain the LSU fanbase. Nobody to my eye is dogging it out there. Michael Fuzuzi needs to play left tackle and give this O-Line a shot of something…anything.

John Mateer as I stated last week needs to elevate his game in a major significant manner and Ben Arbuckle will be done just like Seth Littrell was after the South Carolina game if he can’t figure some things out in a hurry.

Georgia is 55-2 in their last fifty-seven home games. I would give OU at best maybe a 5% chance of winning this game… not even really a puncher’s chance because John Mateer and the entire offensive haven’t actually thrown many if any punches minus the UTEP game and that was a Murray State type of team.

This is one of those games where I’m sure Brent Venables wants to win, but more importantly wants to see an offense improve marketedly for the Texas game in two weeks.

I can’t sign off as the Love Guru Swami on this one because in all candor this OU offense doesn’t have me in loving state of mind.

OU OFFENSE…GET BETTER.

And to the defense…start creating points off turnovers like you did at Tennessee and Alabama last season. This offense needs points from the defense and special teams. DIE HARD. Be proud and die hard trying..

Start with that mantra and then go GET BETTER. One play, one series at a time.

Mike J

Unlike CNN, MSNBC, Politico, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, and even the wretched FOX Entertainment Network,… I pulled the plug on Donald Trump maybe twenty months ago.

Politics and ideology aside, he is not a human who can or should be believed or viewed in any serious manner. His presidency is a disgrace to what this country somewhat used to stand for.

What a disgrace for the Nobel Peace Prize as well as Mr. Trump has not only run the national debt to $40 trillion dollars, re-inflated our economy, completely screwed up the Strait of Hormuz, given our truckers $6 a gallon diesel, and even given us $4 dollar a gallon regular unleaded gas in the retail gasoline friendly state of Oklahoma.

Ukraine-Russia squabble…Day 1, right? Gaza beachfront condos, Day 2, right? Regime change in Iran with Epic Fury, two weeks, right? Poser Nobel Peace Prize winner, absolutely.

Additionally, Mr. Trump has alienenated almost all of our previous traditional friends around the globe, instituted idiotic tariffs of which he doesn’t seem to understand, screwed over our own cattle ranchers, undermined the Rule of Law, and completely blurred the lines of the three branches of government.

The recent Greenland deal? We already have a base there. We already had the basis for deal before all of the Trump bs bluster for those still wearing red baseball hats minus Majorie Taylor-Greene and Little Tucker Carlson and maybe Joe Rogan as well. Kind of like the immigration policy on the Southern border which already had bi-bartisan supprt in 2023 with Lindsey Graham of all people included.

And, yeah, the true Trump Doctrine reads… the First Amendment only applies to wealthy, white, Republican males or dumb, stupid white males who don’t know how to vote on their own economic behalf.

But I have to be careful on here…because when I stopped covering Trump on the blog and quit paying any attention to Mr. Trump’s nonsensical bullshit is when my Stage 4 cancer journey turned significantly in my favor.

I haven’t shared this train of thought with Dr. Showalter just yet, and that’s prolly one I’ll keep to myself other than here on okcthunderground.com.

But let’s not scoff at that notion because the inner spirit is a big deal in these cancer journeys. It isn’t just the chemo and radiation and pet scans. My approach to Stage 4 cancer was somewhat holistic and I think not viewing Donald Trump for the past twenty months may have been a supporting seminal cancer moment behind God, faith, my wife, family, Dr. Showalter, the inner circle, kindness, grace, mercy, and divine love.

Don’t out-think yourselves…love, humility, and forgiveness are, or what should be… our mantras every living breathing moment of existence on this plane of consciousness. I thought something MJ Yogananda-ish was needed here to start closing this down.

So back to the provocative question above..’Could Eddie Murphy as Gumby as the GOP Standard-Bearer in 2028′ be a stronger candidate for the MAGA zombies than JD Vance and Little Marco Rubio.?

Based on what MJ Yogananda has observed from the party of Lincoln and TR since 2016…sadly, my answer to the question would be sure, why not. Could he possibly be any worse than what we have in place currently?

Love first, love always.

MJ

It’s still very early in this college football season, but on Saturday night in Oxford we as college football fans got about as good as it’s going to get this season.

This was one of those ABC Game of the Weeks that met all the hype and then some. Trinidad Chambliss in essence did what I hoped he would do by taking down the boorish punk Lane Kiffen 32-24 while reminding all of us TC was the best player in college football last season and so far this season.

Since we don’t currently have offense this season in Norman, please pardon me if I vicariously live through Trinidad this college football season.

If this guy isn’t the runaway front-runner for this season’s Heisman so far…then they should stop handing out the trophy.

Yeah, so I guess Trinidad’s greatness wasn’t exclusive to the punkish Lane Kiffen being his head coach or play-caller.

It’s early in the SEC demolition phase of their season, and injuries and things like that could derail Trinidad, but I mean, this start by Ole Miss coupled with his breathtaking play in last season’s College Football Player has me emotionally okay even if OU’s offense never gets out of gate. Not really, but I can play that game if I have to.

Maybe what Ben Arbuckle should consider is taking a few wrinkles from the Ole Miss offensive playbook. John Mateer is moblie…get him out there in space rolling out right if his o-line can’t protect him. Run some delayed QB draw scramble plays. Use his legs. Those huge strong weight-lifting, squat-lift legs of his.

And blocking…that would be a nice concept to introduce to the OU players. When you block a defender…what does that generally accomplish?

Coach Mike’s answer: It in theory gives your playmakers the opportunity to have sufficient time and space to MAKE PLAYS.

You see what the Divine Love Swami has done here, right?

What I’ve done is talk about the dreadful OU offense on this Trinidad post simultaneoulsy so as it can emotionally balance my depression in relation to OU’s feeble play on the offensive side of the ball these past two weeks.

This way…I don’t even have to talk about the OU offense this week heading into the Georgia game in Athens.

One other thing before I log off on this post…in case you didn’t notice– the Tulsa Golden Hurricane blew out East Texas A&M by the score of 42-0 this past Saturday to improve to a perfect 3-0 start this football season. Congrats to Coach Tre Lamb and his squad.

Next up for me…will be my takes on Ajay Mitchell as my No. 7 ranked Thunder player heading into this 2026-27′ NBA season.

Complete and unconditional love.

MJ

It would appear I’m not the only person in the state of Oklahoma not pleased with Ben Arbuckle’s offensive coordinating performance in Ann Arbor. My feel is Ben Arbuckle will be coaching for his job the remainder of this season, perhaps the next five weeks to be more exact. Good for Barry Tramel for having the balls to ask that singular prescient question after the offensive-ugly Michigan loss.

Tramel the aged scribe of Oklahoma Territory is the only one in the Oklahoma sports media who ever asks the tough questions when it needs to be asked.

Sam Anderson should have had a place for him in Boom Town.

But this isn’t the place or time for that, besides as we witnessed in Stillwater last Saturday… perceptions can change in a hurry in the world of NIL-Transfer Portal college football.

Maybe Duck coach Dan Lanning was on an LSD acid trip when he went for it on that last fourth and six down gamble, we’ll never know…only that it was the most stupid singular coaching decision the Swami can remember in quite some time.

It feels way, way too hot in Oklahoma for me to even be writing about the Thunder and NBA basketball, but it’s not that far off before we in Oklahoma are focused on the Thunder’s upcoming season.

In my Thunder player evaluations… I have Isaiah at No. 5 and Chet at No. 6 even though Chet is on a max contract deal and was the second player taken in his draft class and participated in last February’s All-Star Game.

Actually, is’s probably more like Isaiah 5a and Chet 5b with me. Situational…matchup players depending on the opponent. Chet with his offensive Caitlin Clark-like skill set will look like the more polished and skilled players against the twenty-five or so ‘pretty’ teams in the NBA who have little if any chance of winning the O’Brien Cup

But here’s the thing, even with Isaiah’s limited offensive skill-set tool box…if JDub is healthy…it’s Isaiah I want as my center if the opponent is San Antonio, the Knicks, the Nuggets with Jokic, the T-Wolves, and maybe the Cavs or some surprise team in the East we’re not considering just yet.

Boston and Detroit we have to see first. Then perhaps Atlanta and Toronto. Miami we’ll just to wait and see as well. How’s that team going to look?

But in the West…most of us are looking for another Thunder-Spurs showdown in the Western Conference Finals.

And if and when we get there eight or so months from now…I want Isaiah as the Thunder’s center with much physical support from JDub, Caruso, and company as far as using lower body levarge on Mr. Wemby when that time of spring arrives.

Chet will look skilled and pretty in the regular season with his offense, but when it comes down to grind time…it’s Isaiah I want out on the floor..and if it’s with Chet out there that’s fine. But Sam Presti agrees with me. He saw more than enough in the Western Conference Finals. Hence Isaiah’s new extended Thunder contract. Sam Presti is buying time and he knows it.

That’s why Chet is No. 5b on my list heading into this NBA regular season.

If you put Caitlin Clark, Kevin Durant, and Chet Holmgren in a cage fight…who wins? See the Swami’s point and you don’t even have to pay for those type of insights on okcthunderground.com

It’s nearing the shank of Wednesday evening out here on the Deer Creek mini-ranch. It felt like another hundred degree day to this Yogananda Guru Swami and it’s hump day…I need an optimistic song to pull me through to Saturday for the Ole Miss-LSU game. A song of some sort of love could be refreshing.

Eternal divine love,

MJ Yogananda

There’s a reason I did not cover the season opening 51-0 Sooner win over UTEP, and as we witnessed in this game at Ann Arbor… why I don’t cover games like that one or draw early season conclusions from a potentially good team playing a grossly inferior team showed itself this past Saturday.

Here’s what I think I know about the Sooners moving forward after their tough 17-10 loss at Michigan:

1 I think OU has a top ten defense. OU played most of the game without their best defensive player in Kip Lewis and basically shut Michigan down in the second half. The Wolverines had 75 yards of offense after intermission and if not for what in essence was a Pick Six in the fourth period…I feel pretty confident OU’s defense wou,ld have continued to contain Michigan.

2 It’s a cliche, but OU turned over the ball twice…one led to a Pick Six of sorts, and the other kept OU’s Lou Groza Award placekicker, Tate Sandel, from kicking for what for him would have been a modest field goal. That’s a net -10 result on turnovers. There’s little chance you win on the road in the Big House with that singular dynamic in play. Michigan did not have a turnover.

3 John Mateer…I’m not going to blame John Mateer for this loss even though the Pick Six was an egregiously bad play for the Sooners. If I write this once …..I’ll probably write it more than a dozen times this college football season. Blocking creates space and time for the playmakers…OU to become a dramtically better blocking team across the field.

4 OU’s offensive line gets a C- or D+ from me, they couldn’t control the line of scrimmage to establish a running game. OU’s running game cannot singularly be John Mateer throwing his body into harm’s way. There was much pre-season talk about OU’s O-Line being much improved. Enough of that talk…let’s see it on the field.

We saw no such improvement on Saturday. OU’s left tackle was literally eaten alive for most of the game off the edge pass rush. That’s why Michael Lewis wrote the Blind Side…that’s why for a right-handed QB your left tackle has to be special. I’m not naming that player because he was an emergency fill-in for who should have been in that spot. Not an excuse. That second guy’s gotta be better. Bill Bedenbaugh has to pull this group together…in a HURRY.

5 Offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle…I don’t nitpick generally on offensive play-calling. I’ll just write this though… Bill Bedenbaugh and Ben Arbuckle to strongly get the message across to the offense they aren’t in any way pulling their weight.

6 I thought OU’s special teams we’re solid. Satenga couldn’t get loose on a punt return, but otherwise the place-kicking and puntingwere excellent. OU’s special teams are Top Ten as well as the defense.

My helmet stickers go 1 Taylor Wein, 2 Grayson Miller-punter, 3 Rocky Beers, 4 Owen Heineke, and 5 Reggie Powers. Reggie is going to need to be special on the edge pass rush if Kip Lewis is significantly hampered by his knee injury. So…one offensive Sooner made my top five and he’s a transfer player.

See what I’m implying above about the offensive side of the ball and leadership…so to speak. If I’d picked another offensive player it would have been RB Lloyd Avant from Colorado State.

MJ may need to give the OU offensive returners the Al Pacino pep talk some time soon.

Actually…how about right now because New Mexico isn’t horrible…then there’s Texas and Georgia. Just saying.

I don’t feel like a Divine Love Guru on here after that type of offensive performance. Help me out here a little guys.

Mike J

I would just say we should all pray for our country today. We unfortunately didn’t learn anything from 9/11. Not a thing.

That’s it from me today. This isn’t the time to write anything political.

We should all just pray for our country…really, really hard and try to love our neighbors if nothing else. Let’s keep it simple if we can.

On another note…we received 1.2 inches of precip at the Deer Creek mini-ranch yesterday and woke up this morning to a wonderful 68 degrees. We have five to six deer who along with the wild turkeys come almost to the back porch area for their morning feeding and meditation with MJ. This morning was especially wonderful with the cooler temps.

Love thy neighbors and love all thy nature which surrounds you.

I’m thinking of doing some sort of meditation prayers here on the blog sometime in the near future… especially for the Trump fake Christians so as to possibly give them an alternate exit ramp from the materialistic grip of hell. Not to be prostelizing or preaching on a an underground Oklahoma City Thunder blog mind you, but more in the spirit of just reaching out to you lost souls. It’s never too late to make amends for your sins.

Eternal love, MJ Yogananda

Let me write this first…I’m treading very gently on college football heading into the OU-Michigan game. The whole LSU nonsense with the SEC and the extra second in Ann Arbor have me a little dizzy coming out of the gate. Plus…the fact O State reportedly payed $23 million this season towards football and still wasn’t competitive against Tulsa makes evaluations a little tricky.

So for right now… I’m just stabilizing my meditative breathing technique and going very slowly and not making too many rash comments in regards to college football in this month of September circa 2026.

I have Cason Wallace as my No. 4 rated Thunder player on my ratings list heading into camp. From my view… the Thunder’s three best players in the San Antonio-WCF Finals series were…1 Shai, 2 Alex, and 3 Cason.

It’s a big season for Cason as he finally gets to start with the departure of Lu Dort. Plus, Sam Presti is going to have to give Cason a rookie contract extension which is going to be expensive for the Thunder. Cason is in a very coveted position with GMs throughout the NBA. It going to take some coin to keep Cason in Oklahoma City.

He’s an excellent two-way player who when given the opportuntiy is going to become a star in this league.

At the end of the day…I don’t see how Sam Presti keeps Shai, JDub, Chet, and Cason. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think at some point…a very tough decision is going to have to be made by Sam Presti in regards to Chet versus being able to keep both Cason and Ajay Mitchell.

So now the Thunder have two of John Calipari’s former players manning the backcourt. Last seaon when Shai missed some games due to injury…Cason was outstanding in those games as a starter. I think he can even play some quality point guard minutes when needed. He truly is a hybrid guard in the basketball vernacular.

He’s just a beautiful amalgam (look it up) of basketball skills. From my view he’s a six skill, two-way basketball player who when placed alongside Shai and JDub in the starting lineup is going to shine even brighter.

I loved Lu Dort. Cason is not as physical defender as Lu, but otherwise… I have to give the nod to Cason overall as a basketball player. With Lu’s departure it’s critical for JDub and Alex to stay healthy so as to be physicality warriors on this basketball team along with Isaiah.

I know this isn’t the NHL or NFL, but you have to have three or four guys like the ones I just mentioned who could be football or hockey players. You gotta have those type of guys. I think eventually Barnhizer will be that type of player as well…but with him being more of a limited role player.

So having written all this…I’m seriously debating whether I should play my OU Greatest Football Physical Hits of All-Time at this juncture of the college football season as I normally do.

I’m leaning towards yes. But at the end of the day…you gotta be who you gotta be when you take that field even with the thoughts of eternal love wafting inside the helmet.

Love, MJ

Our first week-end of college football is behind us. Corruption from the SEC and the Big Ten feels omnipresent. Sadly, our sport of college football appears to contain about the same level of human filth as a Trump cabinet meeting featuring the comments of part-time Fox week-end host Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth trying to explain why Iran is still holding the world hostage six months after declaring a resounding victory rings about as hollow as those corrupt Big Ten officials trying to explain that last extra second ‘given’ to Michigan this past Saturday in Ann Arbor.

Concurrently… we have Lane Kiffin and the Swamp People in Baton Rouge holding the ‘sport’ of college football hostage, while those kids at Western Michigan were basically treated as sub-human level participants in the sport. Money has corrupted every aspect of life in our country…and I’ve yet to even mention the LA Clippers’ latest disgracing of the NBA on this blog. From Donald Sterling to Steve Balmer…right?

Suffice it say…too much money and power corrupts. Period.

I need something ‘somewhat’ solid, honest, and tangible on the blog today to get me through this heat wave and morass of moral dissipation all around me in a brazingly red Trump state like Oklahoma. Another reason beyond cancer why I’ve embraced the meditative world of inner-self realization.

This has nothing whatsoever with OU playing at Michigan this coming Saturday…it has more to do with MJ attaining a consistent state of emotional nirvana amongst the human rabble.

I thought for my own sake of emotional balance… as a Kriya yogi Yogananda guru… I’d play Alex Caruso’s exit interview after the Thunder’s tough seven game series defeat to the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals.

I just need something, ‘anything, to steady me today after listening to the first hour of Jim Traber’s show this afternoon.

Listening to either Alex or Shai usually calms me. Much like Nick Collison did back when he was playing for the Thunder.

Like me…Alex doesn’t sound like the world has come to an end for the Thunder. JDub and Ajay just needs to get healthy, while Chet needs to earn his paycheck.

I don’t feel like closing with a Yogananda ending today. Maybe tomorrow evening as the heat wave ends in Oklahoma would be that appropriate time.

Eternal wisdom and love to all,

MJ Yogananda

I’m in a wonderful little space right now. I am. Last Monday I took my first blood lab in four months. This was my first lab since I was pulled off both chemo and the two previous drone radiation treatment. Plus, Dr. Showalter ordered up a PSA specific Pet Scan. One one-hundred and twenty days with no chemo or radiation treatments.

On Wednesday… Dr. Showalter and I conferred about the results. I will admit I was nervous because in no way did I want to go back on chemo. The infusion chemo is like being put into a near state of death, then slowly waking back up and returning to life 96 hours later. Plus, I like having hair. I’m not one of these fake tough-guy macho Oklahoma warriors who drive their Ford 150 pickups around with their head shaved like they’re fff-ing Yul Brenner or something. I enjoy having hair.

Dr. Showalter smiled, said, “You’re in complete remission. Your PSA has continued to drop. In fact, it’s dropped so low it’s under the lowest metric of measurable PSA on the scale. Your cancer is gone.”

Then he showed me the PSA scan. Perfect with the writing in the lower left corner…’Patient is in complete remission.’

I exhaled, in a good way, and then asked, “Does this mean I won’t see you any more?”

“Not the case. Every three months we’ll continue with the PSA blood lab and the Exeva shot to to continue to repair your bone marrow,” Dr. Show replied. ”

Thank you, Dr. Showalter. Seriously, thank you for everything. It was a journey. But in the overall picture…I’d say it was one which has made me a better human. I somewhat needed a reset of sorts. Thank you for giving me a chance to get to know my grand-children.”

“I’m happy for you, Mike. That 1,212 is a number we’ve all been talking about around here for awhile. This was something special. Enjoy your life.”

“We will. I’ll see you in December.”

The Stage 4 cancer journey is on a different path for the time being so I’m done writing about cancer for awhile. Plus, I watched Trinidad Chambless and his mother last night on the ABC game…additionally my twenty-two hour protest statement strike against college football has ended as well.

Love,

Mike J

I’m an OU fan and they easily won 51-0 over a very weak UTEP team, but that in no way is what took hold of me after watching the O State-Tulsa, LSU-Clemson, and Western Michign-Michigan games.

You know…I already realized there was little if any governance left in college football, but this was too much on the first Saturday of the season. Let me add this as well, being I’m an aspiring Kirya Yogananda guru –as a gesture of love, kindness, and eternal goodwill I no way will write anything further on my blog this college football season in relation to the O State football program.

Good natured rivalry and trolling are one thing, but it would be a gesture of doing the complete opposite of everything I’ve holisticly embraced on my Stage 4 cancer miracle journey to degrade myself and my blog in any manner by covering Oklahoma State football.

So from me to O State Football Nation…as far I’m concerned there wasn’t a game in Tulsa yesterday. It never happened. Some might claim it did, but as far as this guru is concerned it was just an astral hallucination of sorts that Tre Lamb’s Tulsa team destroyed O State for a second straight football season.

Never happened and you won’t read me on this underground blog covering O State football any longer. It would be bullying at a time when we as a nation need profound love to engulf all of us as one.

As far as that last second in Ann Arbor…that never happeed as well and congratulations to the Western Michigan kids on an amazing 12-7 road win to begin their football season and put themselves in play for a Group of Five berth in the College Football Playoffs.

So how do I handle Lane Kiffin, the disgusting LSU Tiger football program, and the legitimacy of the SEC moving forward…I’m not quite sure yet in that I’m just a guru and not a god of any sort.

More deliberative thought will be needed on that one.

I’m taking a break from college football on Labor Day weekend this Sunday and Monday…Saturday was way too much for me coming out of the gate.

If we have no truth and justice in our lives we have nothing. You know what we then have..Donald Trump as a two term president.

Eternal love,

MJ Yogananda