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Wow. When I grow up I want to be Caleb Williams. I mean seriously. I had no idea about him taking eleven classes at one time. That’s sick and that comes from a guy who worked his way through college in six years going to night school. and being so tired at times I fell asleep in some classes.

That was the first thing which struck me in this interview which was Caleb’s first real public exposure since Lincoln Riley doesn’t allow freshmen to be available to the media.

This young man has more self vision and confidence than I can ever remember in a young athlete.

Plus…he’s smart and articulate to the point you have to keep reminding yourself he’s a college freshman.

When he really had me though was when he mentioned Drew Bledsoe going down with the Patriots and Tom Brady never relinquishing his position from that opportunity moving forward.

I didn’t even know young guys like Caleb even rememebered who Drew Bledsoe was in relation to the history of Tom Brady.

So impressive.

Obviously…I’m an OU fan and I’d love for Caleb to stay two more years in Norman. But if he does decide to move on then I’ll respect his decision and be a fan of his regardless.

I don’t mean this to sound cold…but OU’s last national championship came with Josh Huepel transferring in as a juco. And basically jucos then are what transfer portal players are in today’s college football landscape.

In 2005, Bob Stoops had to remove national top recruit Rhet Bomar and replace him with Paul Thompson. That 2006 OU team with Paul Thompson to this day remains one of my favorite OU teams of all-time… even with the heartbreak in the Boise game.

So…I hope Caleb stays. But if he doesn’t… I’m certain with OU’s storied quarterback history which was was already in place with Josh Huepel, Jason White, Paul Thompson, Sam Bradford, Landry Jones, Trevor Knight, Baker Mayfield, and Kyler Murray that there would be someone out there who’d love to play quarterback for the Sooners next season if Caleb opts out….maybe Bo Nix. Maybe someone who’s been laying low waiting until Caleb’s announcement.

OU’s schedule is very favorable next season. With Iowa State and O State losing a lot on their defensive units I would think whoever plays QB in Norman next season will have a memorable season given how the 2022 recruiting class has held up.

I hope Caleb stays, but if he doesn’t I’ll still be a fan.

This kid is lit, absolutely lit.

Jeremiah Hall is excellent as a podcast host. I’m guessing his future beyond football includes broadcasting of some type. Good luck, JH. Same to Brayden who I expect to be back next season as OU’s tight end.

And good luck to Spencer Rattler and Austin Stogner at South Carolina. Great choices by you two guys to play for Shane Beamer who I think at the end of the day was Joe C’s second name on his list after Brent Venables.

It’s a great day to be a Sooner fan.

BOOMER!

You have to figure at some point Chris Wallace was starting to vomit every morning looking into the mirror and realizing what a complete farce he’d become at Fox Network.

Chris Wallace along with the previously departed Shep Smith now become the last two departing humans at Fox who could even call themselves something close to journalists depending on how you view Brett Baier.

Probably you also have to figure Chris Wallace decided it was time to leave the newwork of white supremacy, domestic terrorism, and white illiteracy and head over to CNN to search for more fulfilling work.

Wallace had just signed a new lucrative four year contract at Fox last year so give him some credit for leaving the Fox money on the table.

It would at this point seem untenable for any real journalist to stay at Fox what with the Twin Towers of Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity manning the titular face of what in essence is a Donald Trump propaganda news outlet.

If you’re a Trumper and you’re reading this do me a favor…do something you normally don’t do, that being read a book and expand your mind.

Try this for your next read…’The Loudest Voice in the Room’, by Gabriel Sherman. It’s a duel biography of Roger Ailes and Fox Network.

You should at the least know how it came into being you waste your time watching this trash night in and night out and obliterate your own brain cells in the process.

Chris Wallace…you finally did the right thing. Your father like me though wonder what took you so long to do the right thing.

Better late than never.

You watch this and be the judge. My intial though is that Las Vegas wikk probably have an NBA franchise sometime in the next three years.

History can be a cruel teacher.

Currently… Oklahoma City ranks 28th in NBA league-wise attendance. Only Detroit and Indiana rank below the Thunder.

Again…you be the judge and guess where this might be headed given the ownership of the Thunder could probably double their equity franchise value in five years if they moveed the team to Las Vegas or maybe even back to Seattle.

Time has flown by….hasn’t it.

I wouldn’t call this interview perjury…but I wouldn’t call it a testimony of the truth to the people of Seattle either.

You be the judge.

What if, eh?

Let’s take a look back at the NBA Draft of 2009. Sam Hinkie-Presti had the third pick in this draft class. Golden State had the seventh pick.

This is actually where Oklahoma City eventually lost Steph Curry to the Golden State Warriors….not in the summer of 2016.

Hinkie-Presti with Kevin Durant already on board opted for James Harden with the third pick in the draft while passing on what would have been the second generational player on the Thunder.

Obviously, Harden wasn’t a bust, but why in the world would you tank in Seattle to get the rights to pick Harden if you weren’t going to keep him after the 2012 Finals’ run?

Why?

This is why as I sit here watching this bullshit tank in 2021 I feel OKC tanking is a complete act of misplaced futility.

If as an organization you passed on Steph Curry, then in essence hit a home run with James Harden then why in the world are you tanking now? You’ve proven that even when you hit the lottery…you don’t know how to monetize the lottery into a championship. In essence…you passed on Steph Curry for a one year rental of Kevin Martin, Steven Adams, and two busts in Jeremy Lamb, and Alex Abrines.

That’s what you did even if we’ll never hear that on a Thunder broadcast.

You have shown it doesn’t matter if you tank then hit a home run… that you as an NBA organization can’t navigate the waters to win a championship.

And if you can’t navigate the championship waters like Golden State has done then why go through the process of tanking in the first place.

Just admit what you are, accept it, and be a competitve team which makes the playoffs, but never rings the ring beyond the first or second round…..kind of like Oklahoma State football.

But why in the world put your fanbase thru this if you can’t as a GM team build at an elite level.

The Thunder have never gone out and made a splash head coach hire. Never hired a head coach with a strong personna who would have reeled Russell Westbrook in. So if you’re never going to do any things like this….then why TANK IN THE FIRST PLACE?

This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever witnessed. Beyond the pale of Operation Bongo as far as self-inflicted pain.

Enough of that.

Steph Curry, congrats later tonight when you break Ray Allen’s three point shooting record. You’ve had a generational career and literally changed the game of basketball.

I find this interesting even though OU signed four star quarterback Nick Evers this week-end. You would think Nick Evers will be redshirted his first season to get OU’s depth back in place at the quarterback position.

If Caleb Williams were to announce he was leaving…Bo Nix is a player I’d want talk to if I were Jeff Lebby. This kid is SEC personified.

Bo was one of the top dual threat quarterbacks in the entire country in 2019. He’s been up and down at Auburn, but he defintely has athletic up side and even beat Alabama once.

He’s from a place called Pinion, Alabama. Hell… if Jalen Hurts would come to OU…why wouldn’t Bo Nix.

He was coached by Gus Malzahn and then this season by Bryan Harsin. He’s played against the toughest competition in the country and at times excelled. When his game is on he’s exceptional. Consistency is his issue.

Even before Lincoln Riley left Bo Nix is a player who somewhat intrigued me because of his heart and competitive spirit. The kid is fearless. I think I even gave him three helmet stickers this season.

I would think if you put Bo Nix in this rinky hinky dinky Big 12 league with a coordinator like Lincoln Riley or Jeff Lebby you’d have the best quarterback in the conference and possibly a nationally elite quarterback if you could reel him in a bit.

I mean this is a kid you probably want with you in bar room brawl.

I wonder if when Jeff Lebby was at UCF if he ever recruited Bo Nix. It wouldn’t shock me if he recruited Bo Nix.

I’ll be curious to see where Bo Nix lands.

I’m not sure where we rank Kyler right now in the ranking of current NFL quarterbacks? He’s definitely in my Top 8, but in the Top 4 ….I’m not sure just yet. I’m not sure I can go there. But he’s clearly ahead of Baker for certain. I’m not sure where to put Baker Mayfield as well.

These are the kinds of things whcih keep me awake at night.

Huge game for Kyler and the Cardinals tonight versus the LA Rams.

If the Cardinals win they will remain the No. 1 seed in the NFC, if they lose Aaron Rodgers and the Packers assume the No. 1 seed position.

If the OKC Thunder are pathetic, what do we call the Chicago Bears? What an embarrassment that team is to a magnificent city like Chicago. Aaron tells them he owns them…and then he goes right out there and owns them again with a decimated offensive line in front of him.

Very sad.

Do we calibrate Aaron’s stats downward because he gets to play the pathetic Chicago Bears twice in a season, plus he plays against the equally bad Detroit Lions twice every year as well. That’s something to consider on my Top 8 QB list.

I want to do my Top 8 QB list as soon as this game is over.

Where do I rank rookie sensation Mac Jones of the New England Patriots? I pretty much called that one at the NFL draft last season. If Sam Bradford had been drafted by Bilichick he would have had this type of pro career. Mac Jones and Sam are very similar QB’s in my view. Ball distributors with a ton of football smarts. But they need good players around them.

Where do I put Lamar Jackson?

Josh Allen makes my list, but where?

Do I drop Russell Wilson completely out of the mix?

But I’m set on my Top 3 for the time being…1 Tom, 2 Patrick, and 3 Aaron.

Now that college ball is over is when I get serious about watching NFL football. It’s time to get serious.

It was a pretty good week-end of sports for me. I enjoyed OU’s basketball win over Arkansas in Tulsa. Then later I watched Philly upend the Golden State Warriors and after that watched the Alabama-Houston basketball game.

OU is my sole Oklahoma basketball hope this season. The Thunder are pathetic and Mike Boynton’s team is on probation.

There were some great NBA and college hoops across the board. A very enjoyable week-end hanging out at home with the diva lab Pauli watching sports while my wife was in Seminole visiting her family.

On Sunday it was NFL football across the board for me as we’re now heading into the goal acheiving part of the season with four weeks left in the regular season. Not surprising to me the three best QBs in the game all have their teams peaking at just the right time.

Who is the 4th best QB in football is the question I ask myself as we veer towards the playoffs? I’m not sure who I would go with in that spot just yet.

Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, and Aaron Rodgers all took care of business on Sunday as each of their teams now lead their respective divisions.

I’m not sure what I think about the Dallas Cowboys just yet, but they they certainly have some star power with Cee Dee Lamb and Micah Parsons.

The Buffalo-Tampa game was great, but in the end the same ending for the slumping Bills who now have a tough trek to just make the field as a wild card team.

Despite the loss..a historic perfromance by Bills’ QB Josh Allen as he became the fourth QB in NFL history to pass for over 300 yards and rush for over 100 yards in the same game. The other three are Russell Wilson, Lamar Jackson, and Cam Newton. I was a little surprised Patrick Mahomes wasn’t on this list.

I watched a little bit of the Thunder’s pathetic performance versus the Mavs without Luka, but there was only so much of that I could absorb as a reasonable human not into self-inflicted abuse.

Jim Traber may be right. He claims the Thunder aren’t tanking per se. He says they’re just pathetic by design. To me that’s a narrow murky line of semantics, but maybe he’s right and I should fall in line with that train of thought.

So from this point moving moving I’m doing away with the tanking terminology and climbing on board with the Traber Doctrine that the Thunder have a pathetic team, a pathetic coach, a pathetic GM, and a pathetic broadcast team.

I’m ceratinly not going to rant again about pimping and human trafficking anymore…I’ll just fall in line with Traber’s train of thought.

But I will say this …I look at those kids playing for the Thunder and it breaks my heart for them that they had to be drafted by the Thunder and be subjected to this dehumanizing experience in Oklahoma City. It has to be a very tough thing for an elite athlete to show up everyday knowing your owner, your GM, and your coach want you to lose.

It’s very sad when you think it through maybe even worse the agent scandal which just rocked the college basketball world.

Look at Philadelphia with the Hinkie Process. With all that shameless tanking all they have to show for it is one first round playoff series win. They still have the mentally unstable Ben Simmons and an injury prone Joel Embiid. So explain to me what the ‘process’ really did for the Sixers.

I genuinely worry about the Daily Thunder situation. We can only pray those people don’t end up like the Davidians in Waco back in the day.

Video above is for Bob Stoops and his zest for helping the Sooners get through this bump in the road. OU signed Nick Evers the 8th ranked QB in the nation this week-end… so if Caleb stays… basically the QB position is if anything in better shape than before Lincoln left. Plus, if OU needs another QB there’s always the portal. Edge rushers and offensive linemen should be the focus for the rest of this 2022 recruiting class. I’ll be very interested to see if any of the Clemson defensive decommits end up in Norman.

Have a nice Monday and don’t invest too much of your time with the Thunder when there’s so many other wonderful ways to enjoy sports in our market. If nothing else … go support the kids at your nearest high school.

I may at a later time come back to the Jeff Lebby hire. But for now I just want to introduce this video on my blog because I made reference to Tulsa’s head coach Phillip Montgomery coaching with Jeff Lebby at Baylor earlier in their careers in an earlier post of mine.

I want to make sure I do my due dilgence on this.

Let’s just say for the time being this is a deposition of sorts. But for right now…nothing more.

Clearly…the situation at Baylor with Art Briles isn’t something to laugh at or take lightly. But by the same token…I feel in the world of college football we all need to calmly and with diligence research the truth and the context of the truth.

So here’s an introductory statement from Coach Montgomery who btw was just extended an additional two years as the head coach at Tulsa.

I’ll come back to this possibly at a later time…or maybe not.

You know…I’m a Bob Stoops fan. But back when he made his decision on Joe Mixon I was very critical of him for how he handled that siutation. I saw that video and it was heart wrenching to say the least.

Coach Stoops had to make a very tough call and intially I disagreed with his decision. That video was as damning piece of evidence you’d ever want a jury to witness. It was a devastating piece of film.

But as the years have passed my position on all of that with Joe Mixon has softened somewhat as I’ve seen Joe Mixon move on with his life in a positive manner. I hope he’s been able to make a real positive impact on the life of his single mother who raised him as well.

It doesn’t mean I condone a man slugging a woman even if she called him a racist name, but what it means to me is that certain siutuations require some nuance as we make decisions which alter the lives of others.

By the same token…when Mike Gundy had a similarly tough decision to make with Tyreke Hill in hindsight maybe he could have had a hand in helping this young man grow up. Each human decision is a different one.

Each human story is unique.

Each client my father defended had a unique life journey. Maybe it’s that part of me from my father’s experiences as a criminal defense lawyer which always makes me want to look for the human redemption element of every person.

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!

Let’s go with this first—this wasn’t a huge upset. OU came into the game with a win over Florida already on their Quad I belt this season. This isn’t the same Arkansas team with Moses Moody who pushed the national champion Baylor Bears in last spring’s Sweet 16. None of that was present in Tulsa today.

If I were going to seed Arkansas in the buzz-saw tough Big 12…I might have had them as No. 4 behind Baylor, Kansas, and Texas. So this wasn’t like OU beating Gonzaga or Duke…but it was a great signature building block win to get this OU team believing they can possibly entertain the notion of being a top four team in the Big 12.

What a great basketball environment today in Tulsa!

This is why I don’t think OU fans will miss Bedlam all that much. Texas will still be Texas and Arkansas will become Bedlam. I’m not sure what we call it yet…but this rivalry will become special in the SEC in both football and basketball.

The question will be who will the O State fans find that they hate more or equally than OU? Who will they find they can dream of beating twice every fifteen years? Who will be that team they live to hate on? Think about that.

I wrote yesterday that OU has never been pristine in football and that’s completely accurate. But what I didn’t write was for me as a college football fan OU was always like the Oakland Raiders. That team with an attitude with the face of Al Davis hanging somewhere in a corner in the Sooner practice facility. I love that team. I’ve missed those teams.

But back to this game. OU never trailed in this basketball game…as in never. They came out and hit Arkansas with a barrage of threes and never looked back. Arkansas never really bothered OU with their full court pressure and we all knew Arkansas would never go into a zone like Butler did… so really this wasn’t that huge of a win. Playing a zone isn’t in Arkansas’s DNA. Kansas State, Butler…yes. Arkansas…no.

What I mean is…this was a nice win, but when the OU players wake up tomorrow morning it’s time to reset the goal standard a bit looking forward.

OU beat Arkansas in every stat on this game sheet… every single stat. OU outshot Arkansas, out rebounded Arkansas, out assisted Arkansas, actually had more steals than these Forty Minutes of Hell wannabees.

OU won every fifty-fifty loose ball. OU was on the floor more than Lindsey Graham at a Donald Trump fund raiser.

OU won the game by twenty-two points because THEY WERE THE BETTER TEAM–PERIOD.

All five OU starters scored in double figures. All five did the little things that I preach about on my blog constantly. Those little Toughness, Smarts, Nasty things which will win you ball games.

Jalen Hill became Jalen Hill again. Tanner Grove played with that bullshit smirk mojo grin of his. Jordan Goldwire played like he had something to prove. Moj Gibson found his three point stroke which wasn’t even in the building in the loss to Butler.

But most of all… EJ Harkless was the best basketball player in the building on Saturday afternoon in Tulsa. EJ was that player. And when you have that player as a coach…I think Coach Moser knows in his heart he could have a sneaky good under the radar type of team on his hands if he can keep them listening to him as far as shot selection in the last five minutes of a game.

If I get into a knife fight…I want EJ on my team. I love EJ Harkless. I love what he stands for as a basketball player. EJ Harkless has the soul of a basketball player.

EJ’s line was 21 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 assists. He was clearly my No. 1 Star of the Game. No. 2 was Jordan Goldwire and No. 3 was Jalen Hill.

OU improved to 8-2 with the win and now takes a week off to take mid terms.

I hope each OU player goes to sleep tonight dreaming of what they can become if they play forty minutes the right way every game.

BOOMER!

The below video is what happens to you when you realize your team just got out-Toughed, out-Smarted, and out-Nastied. This ejection had nothing to do with a foul not being called. The fouls and foul shots taken in this game were virtually identical. This was about Eric Musselman trying to show his team what he thought of their effort on Saturday in Tulsa. It’s all about toughness, or therein the lack of. This was Coach Musselman coaching for the next Arkansas game.

You ever think you’re going to see this from Sam Hinkie-Presti’s puppet tanking coach who he pays way below industry scale pay to lose games on purpose? Not a chance. Coach Tank may feign anger here and there, but it’s faux anger. Like the games itself…not real.