Almost a week now since Coach Venables was named the OU head coach.
Jeff Lebby is now the offensive coordinator and Ted Roof from Clemson is in place as the defensive coordinator. Other position coaches have been named with several of these coming from Clemson as well.
I think everything is going to be okay. With the exception of the wide receivers coach…it appears OU will keep every offensive position coach. In fact as I’ve stated numerous times….looking forward to 2024 when the Sooners make the move to the SEC…I would think some of this would have had to be done even if Lincoln Riley hadn’t bolted for USC.
Let’s be frank…on a a team which was No. 2 in the pre-season AP Poll– only two players made the All Big 12 First Team. Those two being H-back Jeremiah Hall and Arizona transfer punter Michael Turk. Think about that…OU had only two players deemed worthy of a first team slot on the All Big 12 Team.
Talk about an indictment on the performance of Lincoln Riley and his coaching staff this season. This alone speaks volumes about how bad the coaching job was at Oklahoma this season.
What the world saw from OU football in that second half of the Tulane game in Norman versus a team on the run from a hurricane was exactly what the football world saw in the second half in Bedlam in Stillwater.
Nothing changed. Correctable errors weren’t addressed. Now think about that game in Tulsa yesterday and think about all the correctable errors from OU’s loss to Butler. Every single issue with OU’s play versus Butler was handled by Coach Moser and his staff in two days on the fly in a week in which the OU basketball program lost its logistics operation director.
This OU football team conversely… wasn’t prepared or either was unhinged internally to the point it couldn’t focus for sixty minutes in a game and never in three months addressed its correctable shortcomings.
That has nothing to do with how many stars a recruit has behind their name. That’s coaching or therein the lack of. The lack of attention to detail.
Truth be known… this was a trend with the OU offense which started three years ago and had declined to the point that OU ranked 18th nationally in offense at the end of this season.
The defense under Alex Grinch had moments where it appeared it might figure some things out, but in reality whenever OU needed a play against either Baylor or Oklahoma State that play wasn’t made. OU wasn’t tough enough to make those plays.
So what I’m saying here is given that level of performance at a football monster like Oklahoma how long into next season would it have been before OU fans actually wanted Lincoln Riley to leave.
That’s what vexes me in all of this now as the dust is beginning to settle. My point being if Caleb Williams stays … ‘Why are we seeing all this hate still towards Lincoln Riley?’
He did OU a favor basically. His style of finesse football was not going to be a match in the SEC and he knew it. He clearly handled it very poorly, but life goes on.
So gosh…I hope the mood lightens in Oklahoma as we head towards the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio. I’m actually excited about the game because it will give us fans a chance to see young players have quanity minutes against an Oregon team which just lost its coach as well.
I can’t wait. I haven’t been to San Antonio for a game since Sam Bradford’s Sooners dough-popped Chase Daniels and the Missouri Tigers in a Big 12 Championship Game.
The Menger Hotel, smoking cigars from a horse carriage ride, that piano bar singing with Missouri fans the night before the game….it was a great trip. I’ll be disappointed if OU fans don’t embrace the team in this bowl game.
I remember my father and I making the trip to Shreveport back in Coach Stoops’ first season versus Duece McAlister and the Ole Miss Rebels. We had a ball and next year OU won the national championship.
That’s got to be the mindset moving forward. Sure…if OU ever gets the chance to kick Lincoln’s spindly little ass while he’s at USC then we should embrace that opportunity…but otherwise let it go because Sooner Nation needs to be firmly focused staring into the future.
Only forward.
The podcast above is a must if you’re a real OU football fan. You don’t need to speculate. This is from the captain of the OU football team…Jeremiah Hall.
BOOMER!