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Posted on 7/14/26 at 10:23 am to OU Guy
This is OU has as players to rep at SEC media day next Mon
Posted on 7/14/26 at 10:36 am to OU Guy
He makes great points. Just give us some steady offense and sky is the limit
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If tweet fails to load, click here.Posted on 7/14/26 at 7:17 pm to OU Guy
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If tweet fails to load, click here. Josh Callaway
@JoshMCallaway
David Stone says here he wants two things he currently does to become traditions moving forward:
- An Oklahoma kid runs out of the tunnel with the Oklahoma flag
- An Oklahoma kid wears the No. 0 to represent the “O” for Oklahoma
Both are awesome - hope they stick
—-
Also to add, Ethan Downs helped show him the legacy he’d have of staying. We owe a lot to home grown Ethan for helping Stone stay as well.
This post was edited on 7/15/26 at 11:26 am
Posted on 7/16/26 at 3:29 pm to OU Guy
The Summer Sale and Meet the Sooners Day return Aug. 8
Posted on 7/16/26 at 10:28 pm to OU Guy
Posted on 7/17/26 at 6:20 am to OU Guy
YES PLEASE. 
Posted on 7/17/26 at 8:58 am to OU Guy
We're going to have a really good team. Good enough to win it all with some breaks. The defense gives us a shot in every game. Mateer, the run game and the TE room are all improved.
Posted on 7/17/26 at 10:32 am to Cimarron
Posted on 7/17/26 at 10:34 am to Naked Bootleg
A rematch with BSU would be great.
Pick 6 has been pretty accurate so lets hope they are right.
The offensive changes are what I’m most excited about.
Pick 6 has been pretty accurate so lets hope they are right.
The offensive changes are what I’m most excited about.
Posted on 7/17/26 at 4:28 pm to OU Guy
Posted on 7/19/26 at 1:15 am to OU Guy
Zak Bigelow
@CoachBiggsCFB
#9 Oklahoma : A psychopath's defense, a prove-it offense. Norman needs balance.
Yesterday I wrote up the school Lincoln Riley ran to. Today, the one he left in the dust. Oklahoma checks in at No. 9 on the Biggs' Playsheet. The blend: my coach's-eye rank has them 10th, my production model has them 10th, the market prices them 12th, and the weighted rating lands them 9th. Everybody's within a field goal of everybody. The disagreement isn't the rank. It's whether this offense will let the rest of the team breathe.
And there's a cosmic joke in Norman I can't stop laughing at. When Riley was there, Oklahoma had the best offense in America, multiple Heisman quarterbacks, and couldn't get a stop to save their lives. So they hired Brent Venables, a certified psychopath (I mean that as a term of endearment, Brent), and now they have a psychopathic, nation-leading defense and can't play offense. Somewhere between 2019 and 2025 there was a balanced football team. Can we get some damn balance?
Last year was 10-3 and the first playoff bid since 2019, and the defense dragged them there by the collar. Venables took the play-calling himself and built the meanest unit in the sport: number one in the country at forcing negative plays, on 15 percent of snaps, and 2nd in my success-rate data. Nine sacks of Auburn. Six straight games with double-digit TFLs. Five ranked wins, a 4-0 November, and a win in Tuscaloosa on Eli Bowen's 87-yard pick six. Hard to kill is right. Then Alabama got the rematch in the playoff and ended it, because the offense scored 24, had one of the worst turnovers of the year and the season-long math finally caught up.
That offense was 50th of 68 P4 teams opponent-adjusted, 100th in success rate, and ran for 118 a game at 3.5 a carry, their worst rushing numbers since the late 90s. Everyone points at John Mateer's hand, and fair, he broke it in the first quarter against Auburn, played the whole game anyway, and won it with a fourth-quarter drive. Toughness is not the question. But the injury wasn't the only red flag we should've seen coming. Mateer was a preseason media darling off one great Washington State year against a schedule full of Mountain West programs, and the SEC is a different weight class. His OC, Ben Arbuckle, followed him from Pullman at 29 years old with three seasons as an FBS coordinator behind him. I still like both in my ratings. Arbuckle grades positive in my staff model, Mateer sits in the 85th percentile of my player values, and Cam Ward's last Washington State season is on Arbuckle's resume too. But liking the talent and trusting the proof are different things, and these two have a lot to prove this year.
First four games, Mateer threw for 304 a game at 67 percent, and most of the Auburn game came on a broken hand. He came back early against Texas, probably too early, and averaged 174 at 58 percent over the next six. Then he topped 300 against LSU and again in the playoff. Healthy bookends, hurt middle. That receipt is why I'm still a believer. The offseason story out of Norman is footwork and mechanics, and Steele's computer, which has been eerily accurate on this program, says they get to the level he projected a year ago.
But you can't play ball in Oklahoma and not be able to run the damn ball. That's the whole season to me. The line returns five guys with 6+ starts, including five-star Michael Fasusi, who started every game as a true freshman, and center Jake Maikkula. Bedenbaugh cut the sacks from 50 to 29 with three freshmen starting the last month, and my data grades the pass pro 31st. The run blocking grades 103rd. That's the gap between a playoff team and a title team. They lost All-SEC guard Febechi Nwaiwu, added a two-year Arkansas starter in E'Marion Harris, and handed the RB room to Deland McCullough, who just coached Ashton Jeanty and Jeremiyah Love back to back. Jason Witten's coaching the tight ends, Florida's Hayden Hansen headlines a rebuilt room, and the spring emphasis was two-tight-end sets that can actually set an edge. Xavier Robinson at 5.0 a carry is the lead back. The experience is finally there. The proof isn't, and you're betting on year-two development from a group that graded bad last few years.
The defense reloads instead of rebuilding. R Mason Thomas went 40th overall and Gracen Halton went in the fourth, real losses up front. But Taylor Wein is back off 7 sacks and 15 TFLs on an All-America track, David Stone is on way-too-early first-round boards, Jayden Jackson anchors the inside, and Danny Okoye is my breakout pick. My returning DL value ranks 14th. Both leading tacklers return, Owen Heinecke and Kip Lewis, 22.5 TFLs between them. The back end keeps Eli Bowen, Peyton Bowen and Courtland Guillory. Count it up and there are seven names on that side of the ball with legitimate draft buzz. Venables might roll out a better version of the best defense in America. The receivers won't be the problem either: my room grades them 13th in career value, with All-SEC slot Isaiah Sategna back plus Texas transfer Parker Livingstone (horns down, how awesome that OU got him) and All-ACC Trell Harris. Special teams might be the quietest edge in the country: the Groza winner Tate Sandell and the league's best punter both return, and my special teams staff grade is top-shelf. One held breath: Michael Hawkins transferred out, so behind Mateer it's a Mercer transfer and true freshmen. Mateer must stay healthy.
If I'm coordinating against this offense, I'm doing what everybody did last year. Lighten the box, dare them to run it, and make Mateer throw into coverage until the run game makes me pay. When that stops working, Oklahoma is a top-5 team. And I've been in that stadium as a coach. The visiting coach's box at the top of Memorial literally sways when the crowd gets going. Tough to find a better place to watch ball than Norman, and Steele hands them a full 5-point homefield edge, top-10 in the sport.
The number. DraftKings has them 7.5, and the market has been buying the over all summer: it opened -120 in May and it's -136 now, no line move, just the over getting more expensive. My schedule sheet with real homefield edges has them favored in 8 of 12, coin flips at Michigan (I think I’m gonna bet OU in this spot) and Florida, clear dogs only to Georgia and Texas in Dallas (but anything can happen in this game), and it pencils out 8.0 wins. My production model lands 7.6. Steele has them 7th in his power poll against the 5th-toughest schedule, and Pick Six has them 6th in the country and back in the playoff. If you're on the under, you're betting that the run game stays broken, that Mateer's road-show version was the real one, and that the front half of the schedule (Michigan in week two, Georgia and Texas by mid-October) buries them before the November team shows up. I follow the logic. I'm still leaning over 7.5. This is the same team that just won 10 with no run game and a one-handed quarterback, the defense might be better, and the schedule saves its softest stretch for the months Venables owns. I just hate that I'm saying it at -136 when May me could've had -120.
No. 9 on the sheet. Psychopath defense, prove-it offense. Where do you have them?
@CoachBiggsCFB
#9 Oklahoma : A psychopath's defense, a prove-it offense. Norman needs balance.
Yesterday I wrote up the school Lincoln Riley ran to. Today, the one he left in the dust. Oklahoma checks in at No. 9 on the Biggs' Playsheet. The blend: my coach's-eye rank has them 10th, my production model has them 10th, the market prices them 12th, and the weighted rating lands them 9th. Everybody's within a field goal of everybody. The disagreement isn't the rank. It's whether this offense will let the rest of the team breathe.
And there's a cosmic joke in Norman I can't stop laughing at. When Riley was there, Oklahoma had the best offense in America, multiple Heisman quarterbacks, and couldn't get a stop to save their lives. So they hired Brent Venables, a certified psychopath (I mean that as a term of endearment, Brent), and now they have a psychopathic, nation-leading defense and can't play offense. Somewhere between 2019 and 2025 there was a balanced football team. Can we get some damn balance?
Last year was 10-3 and the first playoff bid since 2019, and the defense dragged them there by the collar. Venables took the play-calling himself and built the meanest unit in the sport: number one in the country at forcing negative plays, on 15 percent of snaps, and 2nd in my success-rate data. Nine sacks of Auburn. Six straight games with double-digit TFLs. Five ranked wins, a 4-0 November, and a win in Tuscaloosa on Eli Bowen's 87-yard pick six. Hard to kill is right. Then Alabama got the rematch in the playoff and ended it, because the offense scored 24, had one of the worst turnovers of the year and the season-long math finally caught up.
That offense was 50th of 68 P4 teams opponent-adjusted, 100th in success rate, and ran for 118 a game at 3.5 a carry, their worst rushing numbers since the late 90s. Everyone points at John Mateer's hand, and fair, he broke it in the first quarter against Auburn, played the whole game anyway, and won it with a fourth-quarter drive. Toughness is not the question. But the injury wasn't the only red flag we should've seen coming. Mateer was a preseason media darling off one great Washington State year against a schedule full of Mountain West programs, and the SEC is a different weight class. His OC, Ben Arbuckle, followed him from Pullman at 29 years old with three seasons as an FBS coordinator behind him. I still like both in my ratings. Arbuckle grades positive in my staff model, Mateer sits in the 85th percentile of my player values, and Cam Ward's last Washington State season is on Arbuckle's resume too. But liking the talent and trusting the proof are different things, and these two have a lot to prove this year.
First four games, Mateer threw for 304 a game at 67 percent, and most of the Auburn game came on a broken hand. He came back early against Texas, probably too early, and averaged 174 at 58 percent over the next six. Then he topped 300 against LSU and again in the playoff. Healthy bookends, hurt middle. That receipt is why I'm still a believer. The offseason story out of Norman is footwork and mechanics, and Steele's computer, which has been eerily accurate on this program, says they get to the level he projected a year ago.
But you can't play ball in Oklahoma and not be able to run the damn ball. That's the whole season to me. The line returns five guys with 6+ starts, including five-star Michael Fasusi, who started every game as a true freshman, and center Jake Maikkula. Bedenbaugh cut the sacks from 50 to 29 with three freshmen starting the last month, and my data grades the pass pro 31st. The run blocking grades 103rd. That's the gap between a playoff team and a title team. They lost All-SEC guard Febechi Nwaiwu, added a two-year Arkansas starter in E'Marion Harris, and handed the RB room to Deland McCullough, who just coached Ashton Jeanty and Jeremiyah Love back to back. Jason Witten's coaching the tight ends, Florida's Hayden Hansen headlines a rebuilt room, and the spring emphasis was two-tight-end sets that can actually set an edge. Xavier Robinson at 5.0 a carry is the lead back. The experience is finally there. The proof isn't, and you're betting on year-two development from a group that graded bad last few years.
The defense reloads instead of rebuilding. R Mason Thomas went 40th overall and Gracen Halton went in the fourth, real losses up front. But Taylor Wein is back off 7 sacks and 15 TFLs on an All-America track, David Stone is on way-too-early first-round boards, Jayden Jackson anchors the inside, and Danny Okoye is my breakout pick. My returning DL value ranks 14th. Both leading tacklers return, Owen Heinecke and Kip Lewis, 22.5 TFLs between them. The back end keeps Eli Bowen, Peyton Bowen and Courtland Guillory. Count it up and there are seven names on that side of the ball with legitimate draft buzz. Venables might roll out a better version of the best defense in America. The receivers won't be the problem either: my room grades them 13th in career value, with All-SEC slot Isaiah Sategna back plus Texas transfer Parker Livingstone (horns down, how awesome that OU got him) and All-ACC Trell Harris. Special teams might be the quietest edge in the country: the Groza winner Tate Sandell and the league's best punter both return, and my special teams staff grade is top-shelf. One held breath: Michael Hawkins transferred out, so behind Mateer it's a Mercer transfer and true freshmen. Mateer must stay healthy.
If I'm coordinating against this offense, I'm doing what everybody did last year. Lighten the box, dare them to run it, and make Mateer throw into coverage until the run game makes me pay. When that stops working, Oklahoma is a top-5 team. And I've been in that stadium as a coach. The visiting coach's box at the top of Memorial literally sways when the crowd gets going. Tough to find a better place to watch ball than Norman, and Steele hands them a full 5-point homefield edge, top-10 in the sport.
The number. DraftKings has them 7.5, and the market has been buying the over all summer: it opened -120 in May and it's -136 now, no line move, just the over getting more expensive. My schedule sheet with real homefield edges has them favored in 8 of 12, coin flips at Michigan (I think I’m gonna bet OU in this spot) and Florida, clear dogs only to Georgia and Texas in Dallas (but anything can happen in this game), and it pencils out 8.0 wins. My production model lands 7.6. Steele has them 7th in his power poll against the 5th-toughest schedule, and Pick Six has them 6th in the country and back in the playoff. If you're on the under, you're betting that the run game stays broken, that Mateer's road-show version was the real one, and that the front half of the schedule (Michigan in week two, Georgia and Texas by mid-October) buries them before the November team shows up. I follow the logic. I'm still leaning over 7.5. This is the same team that just won 10 with no run game and a one-handed quarterback, the defense might be better, and the schedule saves its softest stretch for the months Venables owns. I just hate that I'm saying it at -136 when May me could've had -120.
No. 9 on the sheet. Psychopath defense, prove-it offense. Where do you have them?
This post was edited on 7/19/26 at 1:19 am
Posted on 7/19/26 at 2:10 pm to OU Guy
Posted on 7/20/26 at 12:21 pm to OU Guy
Posted on 7/20/26 at 12:23 pm to OU Guy
Posted on 7/20/26 at 1:51 pm to OU Guy
Posted on 7/20/26 at 3:55 pm to OU Guy
Posted on 7/21/26 at 7:34 am to OU Guy
Posted on 7/21/26 at 4:33 pm to OU Guy
Posted on 7/21/26 at 10:52 pm to OU Guy
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