THIS IS THE SEC You have to do better and be better than ever before. A good OC isn't going to cut it. You need the best of the best. Everything thinks OU defensive is the best it's been in a long time. I think there are 7 maybe 6 teams currently in the SEC that have better defensive numbers and are ranked higher on defense than OU. Were not in the Big 12 anymore. Like Colin Cowherd said who I really don't care for but like he said this could turn into a Nebraska situation all over again if we don't demand greatness.

Imagine how good OUr defensive numbers would be IF the offense didn't keep putting them in horrible situations... even an average offense would likely result in this being a top 5 statistical defense (and a win vs Tenn).

Agreed. It's way too early to make final judgement on Littrell. No one can win at UNT and he hasn't really had a fair shake yet at OU (depleted roster due to injuries, NFL, and transfer). How was his play calling affected by the o-line? Poor QB play? No healthy WRs?

I lost count how many times SL called a RB run up the middle behind an offensive line that couldn't block a fly. Our RBs just kept running into a brick wall of a defensive line.

Not to mention his draw play while in the end zone that gave up a safety.

Aside from diving into the endzone, he wasn’t playing with abandon as much as he was just running for his life. I can’t remember the stat exactly but PFF showed that Tennessee starting blitzing a lot more after Hawkins went in (which frankly makes his performance in that situation more impressive).

Exactly. I'm worried about all our QBs getting injured this year...

Wins and losses matter, and to say they don't at all is just ignorant.

Ok, so Team A goes 1-11 and gets a new coach. The next year, he goes 6-6. Team B goes 11-1 and gets a new coach. The next year, he goes 6-6. Per you logic (number don't lie), these two new coaches are identical since they both won 6 and lost 6 during the same year. Not sure I buy your argument...

I lost count how many times SL called a RB run up the middle behind an offensive line that couldn't block a fly. Our RBs just kept running into a brick wall of a defensive line.

Not to mention his draw play while in the end zone that gave up a safety.

OUr o-line couldn't block inside or outside. And I believe that safety was on a HB dive (or similar), not a draw.

OUr o-line couldn't block inside or outside. And I believe that safety was on a HB dive (or similar), not a draw.

Up the middle, no less.

You must not have seen us struggle big time against the mighty defenses of Houston (249 total yards) and Tulane (349 total yards -- that's a little better). SL couldn't even put together a good offense for those teams. You all yourself a stat guy, but you've made your point more than once that wins and loses as stats don't matter to you one bit. We get it.

I love how your defense is to call someone ignorant, because that's pretty ignorant in itself. You love to call people ignorant. I shouldn't have taken the bait, shame on me!

See ya. . . . .

Uh…Ok. 1) I called your comments ignorant and generally only do so when someone digs their feet in on a premise that is mostly or completely wrong and refuses to acknowledge that they might not be completely right.

2) Ignorance is looking at one stat and giving a big time hot take while ignoring every other stat that may be relevant. By your logic…just looking at wins and losses, SL is 3-1 as the OC at OU with his only loss to the number 6 team in the country. HE MUST BE A GOOD OC RIGHT? I mean he’s won all those games…must have only been because of his coaching on offense that has led us to an 3-1 record, right? I’m sure defensive and special teams performance were irrelevant but if not, surely he was responsible for all three phases of the game since he’s the OC and we’re 3-1. And strength of schedule definitely had nothing to do with it, right?

Now looking at it realistically…obviously our defense and special teams were major factors in winning those games and keeping the Tennessee game close. If we’re evaluating his performance so far it would seem ignorant to ignore that through the first three games and the first half of Tennessee, It’s become apparent that QB decision making may have been a bigger issue than anyone thought. At some point that’s on the staff but more of it falls on Arnold who certainly was not coached to ignore a wide open Burkes and throw into triple coverage or fumble on the 5 yard line or throw a backward lateral to a receiver that wasn’t even part of the play…that type of decision making might have had something to do with the lack of productivity in the first three games especially when leaning heavily on the RPO which requires good/quick situational decision making. Also…how many starters on an already depleted OL were out? (at least 3 through the first 3 games with several of the twos) How many receivers were out that left freshmen playing in each of those games? (No Jaydin Gibson, Nic Anderson, Farooq or Pettaway through most of those three games with Thompson missing some time as well)

That said their game plan for Tennessee wasn’t good. I’m sure lack of experience from the young guys, rust and lack of time playing together for the OL and fear of getting destroyed every play with the QB all made a difference but you’ve still got to put your guys in better position to win. They started to in the second half and almost came back.

Now WRs are still depleted but most of the OL is relatively healthy. Unless Hawkins is just making all the right reads and hitting guys in the hands and they’re dropping it, I think the next few weeks will reveal a lot about the offensive coaching staff. But again, looking at wins and losses isn’t necessarily going to be the best or only metric to evaluate that.

I lost count how many times SL called a RB run up the middle behind an offensive line that couldn't block a fly. Our RBs just kept running into a brick wall of a defensive line.

Not to mention his draw play while in the end zone that gave up a safety.

I agree that they need to be more creative in the run game. Some of those were likely bad RPO reads by the QB (as were some where we had wide open holes up the middle but JA kept it). But also you can’t just not ever try it. They did try to run it outside a few times and it worked once on something other than a WR jet sweep.

Ok, so Team A goes 1-11 and gets a new coach. The next year, he goes 6-6. Team B goes 11-1 and gets a new coach. The next year, he goes 6-6. Per you logic (number don't lie), these two new coaches are identical since they both won 6 and lost 6 during the same year. Not sure I buy your argument...

I'm looking at the entire body of work, not just three seasons.

I'll give it to you he did a decent job at North Texas bringing a program into some relevance of the Sun Belt conference. My point is that I would have rather hired an OC that had been successful at a big program. I listed a small list of names in an earlier post for examples. I'm not the only one who thinks this as they've been talking about it on WWLS since yesterday. That's what made me even post about it.

Look, I have nothing against SL. He played for OU and was on our NC team in 2000. He's had a dreadful hand with all these hurt lineman and receivers, and awful OL. He just wasn't a sexy hire and it's not like he's come in guns a blazing. All his fault? No, but I just haven't seen any real adjustments. We will see what he can do with a new QB that can move.

Now looking at it realistically…obviously our defense and special teams were major factors in winning those games and keeping the Tennessee game close. If we’re evaluating his performance so far it would seem ignorant to ignore that through the first three games and the first half of Tennessee, It’s become apparent that QB decision making may have been a bigger issue than anyone thought. At some point that’s on the staff but more of it falls on Arnold who certainly was not coached to ignore a wide open Burkes and throw into triple coverage or fumble on the 5 yard line or throw a backward lateral to a receiver that wasn’t even part of the play…that type of decision making might have had something to do with the lack of productivity in the first three games especially when leaning heavily on the RPO which requires good/quick situational decision making. Also…how many starters on an already depleted OL were out? (at least 3 through the first 3 games with several of the twos) How many receivers were out that left freshmen playing in each of those games? (No Jaydin Gibson, Nic Anderson, Farooq or Pettaway through most of those three games with Thompson missing some time as well)

Now WRs are still depleted but most of the OL is relatively healthy. Unless Hawkins is just making all the right reads and hitting guys in the hands and they’re dropping it, I think the next few weeks will reveal a lot about the offensive coaching staff. But again, looking at wins and losses isn’t necessarily going to be the best or only metric to evaluate that.

That's a good assessment I can agree with.

I do think wins and losses are a part of the equation, not the only thing.

I'm looking at the entire body of work, not just three seasons.

I'll give it to you he did a decent job at North Texas bringing a program into some relevance of the Sun Belt conference. My point is that I would have rather hired an OC that had been successful at a big program. I listed a small list of names in an earlier post for examples. I'm not the only one who thinks this as they've been talking about it on WWLS since yesterday. That's what made me even post about it.

Look, I have nothing against SL. He played for OU and was on our NC team in 2000. He's had a dreadful hand with all these hurt lineman and receivers, and awful OL. He just wasn't a sexy hire and it's not like he's come in guns a blazing. All his fault? No, but I just haven't seen any real adjustments. We will see what he can do with a new QB that can move.

LOL, if you’re going to give it to us that he did a decent job as the HC at UNT, you should see what he did with the offenses at UNC, IU and AZ because those were better offenses statistically than most that he had at UNT and were all varying degrees of terrible when he got there. He ended up with the number 2 offense in points per play and number 7 total points at UNC.

the guy can coach, but with all that happened he just may have landed in a tough situation that he can’t coach his way out of and the monster must be fed, either with wins or the heads of coaches.

LOL, if you’re going to give it to us that he did a decent job as the HC at UNT, you should see what he did with the offenses at UNC, IU and AZ because those were better offenses statistically than most that he had at UNT and were all varying degrees of terrible when he got there. He ended up with the number 2 offense in points per play and number 7 total points at UNC.

Decent, not great. OU needs great.

Decent, not great. OU needs great.

If we had the number 7 scoring offense in the country right now, we would be talking about a potentially generational team. Being a Top 20 scoring offense busting into the top 5-10 every few years is plenty good if its style of play is complementary to a top 5-10 defense. We may, and probably should, start trending toward a slower type of offense that can move at will but eats a ton of clock when our defenses are this good. Those offenses may be great but may not score as much in conference play. We don’t have to be an offense that wins shootouts anymore.

That's a good assessment I can agree with.

I do think wins and losses are a part of the equation, not the only thing.

Yes. Definitely part of it. If those teams Seth coached the offense for had top 10 defenses and his offensive efficiency numbers were worse, id weigh win/loss record a lot heavier.

It was a tough loss but the defense was really impressive holding a great Tennesse offense to only 25 points and I am sure glad Sooners did not get blown out

It was a tough loss but the defense was really impressive holding a great Tennesse offense to only 25 points and I am sure glad Sooners did not get blown outTennessee was the #1 scoring offense in the FBS coming into the game. We dropped them to #4. Hopefully we can keep that up and avoid blowouts in the inevitable losses we'll have.
Sometimes a QB change sparks a new energy in the offense for a bit.
Sometimes for the rest of the season. In those cases I think sometimes at least it's that the offense wants to play with the replacement more than the original starter.

It was a tough loss but the defense was really impressive holding a great Tennesse offense to only 25 points and I am sure glad Sooners did not get blown out
Tennessee is a top 5 offense in almost every category. They were averaging 63 points a game and we held them to 25. If our defense can stay healthy we shouldn't have any blowout losses. Except maybe Texas but you never know with them. A horrible John Blake team beat Texas but couldn't beat Tulsa.
The offense overall looked different with Hawkins. Could be a one time energy boost with a QB change. Could be his mobility works better with a pathetic o-line. Could be the offensive players like him better. I've seen all of the above before. Hopefully with his mobility and the return of WR and o-line players as they get healthy the season offense will improve. But don't judge him for every bad play he makes. He's a true freshman and will almost certainly have "freshman" moments.

We ran into a buzz saw defense against Tennessee. Our defense was equally impressive.

Their coach had an ax to grind. This is a transition period for OU; let's give them time to get acclimated to the SEC.

This tirade of going off and staff finger pointing after a loss is getting stale. We have some pieces in place, so it's one game at a time with Auburn up next. GO SOONERS!

All the Littrell defense is hilarious - it was a comfortable hire and he's trash. The offensive coaches ought to be fired, along with the OL.

Presuming we don't pull off a miracle here in the 4th it looks like Maine will be only only W left. I don't see us winning a game in the SEC this year.

Nothing a few more screen play calls can’t fix.

Thunder Media Day is Monday.

Not defending the hire. I think we should have a proven, big time OC.
But what plays would anyone call when the defense is in the backfield in an average of less than 2 seconds. I'm not sure Mahomes could be successful with this o-line.

Wild game so far!

Sooner Magic is alive.. we need this so bad

Sooner Magic is alive.. we need this so badI may not be able talk in the morning.

Unbelievable comeback, may have saved the season. Much needed week off next week.

Great game. Glad I can type because I can't talk.
Next week off and hopefully that can get a couple guys healthy. Don't write Texas as a loss. You NEVER know with Texas. Many, many times the overwhelming underdog has won the OU-UT game. Maine and South Carolina should be easily winable. Ole Miss proved to be beatable by an unranked team today. The future is not doom and gloom.

Great game. Glad I can type because I can't talk.
Next week off and hopefully that can get a couple guys healthy. Don't write Texas as a loss. You NEVER know with Texas. Many, many times the overwhelming underdog has won the OU-UT game. Maine and South Carolina should be easily winable. Ole Miss proved to be beatable by an unranked team today. The future is not doom and gloom.

Just Beat Texas or Alabama and they are in the top 12 easy. I do hope people realize though that while it was a good must win Auburn is not very good. Probably dead last in the SEC. They have already lost 3 homes games and it's not October yet. Their wins are Alabama A&M and New Mexico. They lost to CAL at home and Arkansas JS

Presuming we don't pull off a miracle here in the 4th it looks like Maine will be only only W left. I don't see us winning a game in the SEC this year.

Don’t look now but…SOONER MAGIC!!

Just Beat Texas or Alabama and they are in the top 12 easy. I do hope people realize though that while it was a good must win Auburn is not very good. Probably dead last in the SEC. They have already lost 3 homes games and it's not October yet. Their wins are Alabama A&M and New Mexico. They lost to CAL at home and Arkansas JS

Most years it is probably safe to go with Vandy is the worst in SEC until proven otherwise.

Most years it is probably safe to go with Vandy is the worst in SEC until proven otherwise.

This is very true. I think the Auburn Vanderbilt game will be for the bottom of the SEC. However Vanderbilt did beat Virginia tech and they should have beat Missouri so they may not be the worst they this year This could be their year. Did y'all watch that Georgia Alabama game. Oklahoma's got a long way to go in this conference. Long way too go

Kept hearing the ABC-TV announcers mention Sooners had so key players out. Does anyone know when these
players will be back in action; especially the wide receivers.

Never mind

This is very true. I think the Auburn Vanderbilt game will be for the bottom of the SEC. However Vanderbilt did beat Virginia tech and they should have beat Missouri so they may not be the worst they this year This could be their year. Did y'all watch that Georgia Alabama game. Oklahoma's got a long way to go in this conference. Long way too go

Mississippi State has no competition as the worst team in the SEC this year

Mississippi State has no competition as the worst team in the SEC this year
and they were only down 1 score to texas with 1 sec left in the 3rd Q

and they were only down 1 score to texas with 1 sec left in the 3rd Q

Hahaha, so what? Vandy took Missouri to double OT in their last game and Auburn was winning with less than 9 min to go in the game against Oklahoma.
Unlike MSU, Vandy and Auburn have outscored their opponents and each have twice as many wins as MSU.

Kept hearing the ABC-TV announcers mention Sooners had so key players out. Does anyone know when these
players will be back in action; especially the wide receivers.

Hard to say right now... Jayden Gibson is listed as out for the season; Geirean Hatchett, Dasan McCullough, Gentry Williams, and Kendel Dolby are all listed as out for Texas. Tyler Keltner, Nic Anderson, Taylor Tatum, Deion Burks, Jalil Farooq, and Andrel Anthony are all listed as questionable for Texas.

https://www.bookmakersreview.com/ncaaf/matchups/oklahoma-sooners-vs-texas-longhorns/injuries/

Hard to say right now... Jayden Gibson is listed as out for the season; Geirean Hatchett, Dasan McCullough, Gentry Williams, and Kendel Dolby are all listed as out for Texas. Tyler Keltner, Nic Anderson, Taylor Tatum, Deion Burks, Jalil Farooq, and Andrel Anthony are all listed as questionable for Texas.

https://www.bookmakersreview.com/ncaaf/matchups/oklahoma-sooners-vs-texas-longhorns/injuries/

hatchett and dolby are also out for the year ..

and there has not been any official status given for texas ... that doesn't come out until next Wednesday night ..

hatchett and dolby are also out for the year ..

and there has not been any official status given for texas ... that doesn't come out until next Wednesday night ..

As long as people are betting money, there will always be sites with the latest injury news. May not be official from OU, but it answers the questions as best as can be, at this time.

I just reported exactly how it was worded on that site (no idea why there were just out instead of out for season). I even provided the link for when "you" (I knew someone would, just didn't know who) commented.

Fandual has Texas 16 and a half point favorites. Vegas is only six and a half

As long as people are betting money, there will always be sites with the latest injury news. May not be official from OU, but it answers the questions as best as can be, at this time.

I just reported exactly how it was worded on that site (no idea why there were just out instead of out for season). I even provided the link for when "you" (I knew someone would, just didn't know who) commented.

OU has already announced Hatchett and Dolby are out for the year .. they both were already announced to have had surgery .. Per OU

As long as people are betting money, there will always be sites with the latest injury news. May not be official from OU, but it answers the questions as best as can be, at this time.

Did you read the prior posts? People just pointed out that the injury news was incorrect. Betting sites absolutely do not have insider information on injuries for OU. In fact, they didn't even get the publicly available information correct.

Did you read the prior posts? People just pointed out that the injury news was incorrect. Betting sites absolutely do not have insider information on injuries for OU. In fact, they didn't even get the publicly available information correct.

Ok, other than arguing over the difference between "out" and "out for season", both still mean they will miss the UT game. Where would you suggest getting the most accurate information to answer a seemingly innocent question short of waiting until the Wednesday before the kickoff? I am sure you all would argue with the coaches if a player is 74% (questionable) and 75% (probable) to play, at this rate.

Ok, other than arguing over the difference between "out" and "out for season", both still mean they will miss the UT game. Where would you suggest getting the most accurate information to answer a seemingly innocent question short of waiting until the Wednesday before the kickoff? I am sure you all would argue with the coaches if a player is 74% (questionable) and 75% (probable) to play, at this rate.

Team beat writers are your best source. They will know as much as anyone because, well, it’s their job. But the reality is that some injury information isn’t going to come out until coaches release it (which the SEC requires on Wednesday nights).

Did anyone go to the game at Auburn? If so, was there something they did that was noticeably different than what OU is currently doing or planning to do?

I've said before that in the OU-UT game you never know what can happen. In the John Blake year OU pounded Texas but couldn't beat anyone else. And Texas was pretty good.
But this game worries me. Texas has an O-line that was recruited together, mostly out of Texas, and has played together for 3 years. Hardly heard of in modern college football. OU doesn't have an O-lineman that played against Texas last season. In fact, with our top 5 receivers hurt I heard on TV this afternoon that none of our 11 offensive players started against Texas last season. I haven't fact checked that but I would be surprised if it's wrong. Our defense should be effective against the Texas offense but can we score enough points to have a chance.

Not confident at all that OU can win this game. Love BV but losing DG, OL is IMO far too much to overcome. The speed at which we lost our “competitive depth” from last year was unexpected

Nm

This would definitely go down as one of the all time big upsets in the series if OU wins. Rarely do we see the odds so lopsided. Hopefully the defense can play a hell of a game and give Hawkins some great opportunities. Being down all 5 starting WR again to go along with everything else on the offense is extremely difficult. We will need a whole lot of Sooner Magic! Boomer!

This would definitely go down as one of the all time big upsets in the series if OU wins. Rarely do we see the odds so lopsided. Hopefully the defense can play a hell of a game and give Hawkins some great opportunities. Being down all 5 starting WR again to go along with everything else on the offense is extremely difficult. We will need a whole lot of Sooner Magic! Boomer!Sooner!
I'm praying for lots of Sooner Magic. One odd thing. If by some miracle we win both teams will be 5-1 and our #18 team will have beaten the #1 team.
And hey. A John Blake 0-4 team went to Dallas and beat the crap out of Texas. Then went the rest of the season without a win. Anything is possible!

I think many people need to come to the realization that this could be one of the worst OU teams in a long time. Js. I know I know there's a lot of injuries blah blah blah but they're not very good. Auburn-dominated them for three quarters just keep that in mind

I guess receiver injuries and the level of competition has nothing to do with it.

OU has a coach making 8.6 Million annually. Figure it out. I'll say the same for Gundy making 7.5 million annually.

I guess receiver injuries and the level of competition has nothing to do with it.

Is it fair to say this is the worst offensive line since the JB era?

I guess receiver injuries and the level of competition has nothing to do with it.

You're the University of Oklahoma you should still have enough talent to be able to compete even if some of your best players are out. Oregon didn't have their best defensive player and their best wide receiver got ejected early in that game and they still found a way to win. Oklahoma wasn't even competitive

Honestly it wouldn't have mattered if we had the receivers, we are just down right bad at every level on offense. They have totally screwed up the offense and I really don't see how it's fixable or where OU goes from here.

Look at where OU is in year 3 with BV compared to UT last year with Sark. We are in a total free fall because the offensive side has been totally mismanaged. I like BV but when you start getting blown out by Texas (2/3, this was only slightly better than the 49-0 a couple years ago) on a regular basis the excuses won't fly.

We haven't been this bad in 30 years, I think the bigger risk other than a potential total rebuild coming at year end would be recruits jumping ship & guys hitting the portal after the season. We have plenty of talent.

Edit: lagging, double post

I agree that this offense is really bad. Probably the worst since the 90s. Healthy receivers would make a difference but not enough to make this offense good. Not with this line. It really does look like the offense has become overlooked by the coaching staff. I don't get it and I hope it changes. OU has to get good portal transfers to want to come here.

You're the University of Oklahoma you should still have enough talent to be able to compete even if some of your best players are out. Oregon didn't have their best defensive player and their best wide receiver got ejected early in that game and they still found a way to win. Oklahoma wasn't even competitive

You do realize that there is a big difference than one single player being out and pretty much an entire position group, right? Injuries aren't OUr only problem, but it's a big deal.