OU Football 2024 Season

[OKCRealtor]

I don’t think the assumptions behind either of those two questions are a foregone conclusion until we see how the rest of the season shakes out. Either way, I think it’s probably a lock that one of the two, most likely JA, won’t be here next year.

If SL makes some changes, turns this thing around and we go 7-5 or 8-4 with this schedule, no one is getting fired. On the flip side, go 4-8 and no one’s job is safe nor should it be.

Fair enough. Hawkins might save some jobs. Praying we can salvage the season but if he's not the savior we so desperately need and we only get 4-5 wins because they completely mismanaged the offensive side & BV might not even be safe to your point.

[PhiAlpha]

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

Saying wins and loses are the only stat that matters when you are only evaluating the performance of the coach who is responsible for the offensive half of the team is ignorant and shows that you don’t know ball, which is becoming very apparent the deeper you dig your feet in. I’m not sure what world you live in that has offensive coordinators coaching the defense as well at the division 1 level, but I’m sure as hell glad that’s not happening at OU. Offensive stats, performance and improvement through a coaches tenure are more important than wins and losses when evaluating an OC. Good offense with a terrible defense doesn’t always translate to a favorable win/loss record when you cant out athlete 90% of the league you’re playing in (ie. OU under Riley).

But hey! When all else fails 4 games into a coaches’ tenure after losing to the number 6 team in the country, hit the dumb fan panic button and fire everyone immediately!!! That’ll fix it! We can ignore the fact that SL has managed to improve offenses he’s coached throughout the first season with a significant jump in the second season for instant gratification!

Again, I’m not here to say SL is the answer long term but to act like all of the sudden he has a terrible track record and that we just hired some loser who went to OU and was on the staff for comfort’s sake is just ridiculous. The dude can coach offense or they wouldn’t have given him the chance and will do well again else where if he doesn’t work out here. I mean Josh Heupel sucked according to a bunch of fans too…right?

[PhiAlpha]

Fair enough. Hawkins might save some jobs. Praying we can salvage the season but if he's not the savior we so desperately need and we only get 4-5 wins because they completely mismanaged the offensive side & BV might not even be safe to your point.

It’s what you’ve got to go on. This is the earliest a true freshmen has ever started a game at QB for OU since at least WWII (Troy Aikman was the earliest previously but got the job a few weeks later during that season), so there’s definitely going to have to be some patience involved all around. I think JA just already wasn’t a quick decision maker at this point in his career and he just seemed completely shell shocked…Hawkins probably needs to work on knowing when to throw it away but he at least seemed to be willing to make decisions faster and is more elusive. But the Hawkins led offense scored 2 more TDs on Tennessee’s defense in a half than any other team has since the final week of the regular season last year and they dialed up the pressure on him vs what they were bringing against JA…so if they can retool the offense around him, put him in positions to easily be successful, drop the RPO stuff for a bit and be smarter with time management (ie. Stop running the no huddle stuff unless the offense finds a gear that it hasn’t been able to approach this season)…I think we have some reason for optimism. That said, it isn’t just him. The OL needs to play better and the WRs need to get healthy or have some young guys step up…he can’t do it by himself.

If the defense stays where it’s at, SL can get the offense to where it’s productive and we finish 7-5 or 8-4, that will have been a hell of a coaching job. 6-6 doesn’t save anyone but given the schedule and depending on how thise 6?loses look, it still may not be worth any mass changes. Like you, end up in 4-5 win territory and I think that Is dangerous ground.

[MagzOK]

Saying wins and loses are the only stat that matters when you are only evaluating the performance of the coach who is responsible for the offensive half of the team is ignorant and shows that you don’t know ball, which is becoming very apparent the deeper you dig your feet in. I’m not sure what world you live in that has offensive coordinators coaching the defense as well at the division 1 level, but I’m sure as hell glad that’s not happening at OU. Offensive stats and performance are more important than wins and losses when evaluating an OC. Good offense with a terrible defense doesn’t always translate to a favorable win/loss record.

But hey! When all else fails 4 games into a coaches’ tenure after losing to the number 6 team in the country, hit the dumb fan panic button and fire everyone immediately!!! That’ll fix it! We can ignore the fact that SL has managed to improve offenses he’s coached throughout the first season with a significant jump in the second season for instant gratification!

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 call 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 across the website. I shouldn't have taken the bait, shame on me!

That would be cool if you would post a link to those offensive stats. I'd like to check those out.

Hey, I'm not going to argue. We are all upset about our Sooners.

See ya. . . . .

[bamarsha]

I'm not saying he is Lincoln Reilly, but I think the 6-7 seasons were both 6-6 with a bowl loss. Looks like he took North Texas bowling 6 years out of the 7 he was there (left UNT before the bowl game in 2022) and lost all 5 bowls he coached. Not sure who ever did better there. Maybe Hayden Fry.

Littrell isn't a Nepo Hire. He is a capable football coach who is working with personnel challenges. Offensive line appears to be either low talent or injured; receivers are injured; quarterback has underperformed. He has in the past been able to get a team playing better through those type challenges. The NIL and Transfer Portal era, plus the looming salary cap that should be more fully explained after the class action settlement is announced in the coming months, are wild cards that can't be explained away with current info.

I think this is the most volatile time in college football history. Hiring based on coaching skills that will probably be as important in the future as they have been in the past is about the only guideline to follow, How those skills fit in the upcoming "professional player era", that will probably change on a monthly basis, is a mystery to us all, IMO.

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?

[bamarsha]

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).

[MagzOK]

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.

[bamarsha]

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...

[bamarsha]

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...

[bamarsha]

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.

[MagzOK]

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.

[PhiAlpha]

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.

[PhiAlpha]

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.

[MagzOK]

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.

[MagzOK]

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.

[PhiAlpha]

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.

[MagzOK]

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.

[PhiAlpha]

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.

[PhiAlpha]

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.

[Boop]

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

[Bill Robertson]

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 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.

[Bill Robertson]

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.

[Laramie]

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!

[The]

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.

[OKCRealtor]

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.