Can The Oklahoma Defense CARRY Them to a Championship? | Texas Is STRUGGLING - UNFAIR SPORTS

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to Unfair Sports, where we take a pensive approach
to the sports conversation, a whole media production. I'm your host, Jays.
They got pulling up here on the YouTube channel and
listening where a podcasts are downloaded and listen to while
you're here. Please wipe your feet like subscribe rate with
you give us five stars. Don't think you deserve it,
go ahead and give us five anyway and gifted. So

(00:25):
we got a special episode today with my guy I
want to talk to some college football with and we're
gonna try to expand the show more. We've talked about
this on numerous occasions, and so this is our first
full fledged attempt. Podcast has still been running a little
off and on, but we're gonna get there. I'm talking
to my boy, Ed masonet who is down there in Houston,

(00:46):
formerly a ESPN and he's a sports editor, a friend
Oaki Sooner fan. We're gonna talk to Okahoma balls and
collegeotball ball and all of that. So let's go ahead
and jump right into that. Now, all right, college with
our fans. We're gonna have some fun today. I got
my boy Ed, the sports fed Ed Mason that you

(01:09):
are a sports editor at Houston Chronicle.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Correct, yeah, over chron sports sports editor, man, been there.
It's going on a full year now. Was that ESPN
for six years covering the NBA, covering combat sports, watching
people get paid to get punched and kicked in the
face for a living. That was pretty cool. So yeah, man,
we h town honed.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
It down, bro, exactly, Oklahoma native.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Sooner one time to Lawton all day.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Gotta show love to the city, and so no, I
appreciate you taking time to talk about what we've been
working on trying to do this for a bit. I've
been saying I need to hit up Ed see if
he can get home here and talk some ball, because.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Hey man, we got a lot of things to dive into.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Not only is our rival not have a single pe
for win, same thing with another school across the country
that I've been trying to tell folks that they need
to stop up putting a stock in to But these Sooners, man,
they look real. They look like a legitimate squad. So
I kind of want to start there and then we're
gonna jump into the rest. So thank you everybody for

(02:11):
pulling up hit the like buddy, if you knew to
the Channce subscribe rate review, give us five stars, and man,
I want to start with the Sooners. We gotta start
Oklahoma ball.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Because let's do it.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Look, man, there's been some doubts. I gotta get your side.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
Of this too.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
When it comes to the Brent Venables higher there's been
a lot of people that have not been on the
Brent Venables.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Train that they weren't riding it for a while.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
They're like, hey, man, this does not feel like we're
going in the right direction.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
But then you had what you got this season.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Where were you on the hire of BV And how
has your roller coaster ride gone?

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah? I mean obviously when Lincoln stepped out, you know,
everybody was an alert and sometimes you want that old
thing back. Sometimes you want something that feel good. And
Venables brought a lot of feel good to a lot
of folks back in Norman and back in the Sooner State,
and you know, like him being in the role like
I think the one thing everybody really wants. I always
look at it like when coaching hot whenever you have

(03:12):
like a new teacher or a new coach, and like
you have a player's coach, and then when the when
when the team or of the classrooms starts to like slide, Oh,
we got to get a hard ass in here. We
got to get a disciplinarian in here, and we and
we got to get something that's very offset. And I
think with O you everybody felt like, yeah, man, we
got this, this all world offense. We're putting Heisman trophies up,

(03:36):
you know, like curtains on the window, like it just happened.
It's whatever. And I think, but you know that that
that backside was it was loose, you know what I'm
saying that to be to be nice about it. The
defense was with Cheeks and so Venables felt like an
immediate fix. And you know, I look at the last
four years of Venables because it's like it's been two

(03:57):
really good seasons. It's been too really bad ones. And
I've always kind of felt like the bad seasons have
all been reasonable. I mean, when you when your quarterback
goes down, the offense is probably gonna be bad. And
last season scenario, it's just we had bad quarterbacks and
we had a bad offensive system. And so you know,

(04:19):
like I do think that there is something to be
said about who is the person making the choices of
the coach, because that is a leadership thing. That is,
you are the CEO of the of the team. You're
the one making those personnel choices. And so some of
the things that they've done after the fact, hiring the
general manager, blowing out this entire staff. I saw the

(04:40):
I can't remember the man's name, Stacey Ford had put
a post out about like the ord chart of the Sooners.
I was like, oh, they got like I didn't realize
it was that many people like on staff just managing
that stuff. And so I think to some degree that
gives Venables the opportunity to just do what he does,
to be defensive guru, to be a rob role leader guy,

(05:03):
because he does rob role leader guy. I think really well,
and I think feeling good about the obviously it feels
good to feel about feel good about the aventables higher now.
But I always felt like the things that happened in
the past were reasonable to understand that we're going to
be bumps in the rows for somebody who's still a
first time head coach, like we I think we forget
the fact that, yes, he's been a great coordinator for

(05:24):
a long time, but this is his first rodeo and
he's had a few bumps along.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
The way, and like you said, they were reasonable. I
feel like a lot of people don't want to take
that in consideration.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
And for me.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
You know, the viewers have heard me say this on
numerous occasions. I would have called for Brent Vinable's head
if I hadn't seen progressions on defensive side of the ball, right, Like,
if we hadn't seen this defense get better and better
each year. First year, cheeked still when you got later
in the season, twenty three, okay, you're seeing an improvement.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Twenty four as bad as a year as it was,
that defense was stout.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
And then now this year you bring in a quarterback
to a new offensive coordinator, and even with that, the
offensive coordinator we had, Jeff Leby, just got a head
coaching job in Misissippi State, and.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
They're actually not bad. They look a lot better year too.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
So you run into that scenario, and I'm so that
makes sense to me. I agree, because that has been
the thing I preached, is if and this is honestly
kind of got to take a shot at the opposition
out there. Auburn's biggest problem right now is they offense
is cheeks their head coach is an offensive guy.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
That cannot be the formula. But you're right.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
The microwave mentality of hiring a coach is you bring
an offensive guy in, you're gonna have a lot more
success really fast. A defensive dude, it takes a couple
more years. The question is what is his offensive higher
And it appears I think our buckle might be that dude.
What you think about John Materias so far? Even though

(06:57):
you know he has a he had to have thumb surge.
You know we're gonna say that just because Brent Vinibles did.
He had thir he did have thumb surgery. But a
tortilla presser tells us he's gonna play.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
It's coming weekend, impressor. Yo, it's been a while, and
I want to make sure I hit on one thing
before we get to it, because I got a lot
of thoughts on the tire. I also just want to
remind folks that, oh you fans, bro, we're spoiled, and
you called you called it like Lincoln Riley hit the
ground ground running with a Wellow machine. The transition was

(07:29):
it felt like a slight uptick from what we had
with stoops stoops came in and within two seasons you
won a national championship. And then you realize, oh you
were on a two decade long run. You didn't even
realize it. But folks don't forget then already forgot. Uh
you know, uncle, uncle, uncle John Blake, you know when
he was here, when Snellenberger tried to be the patch

(07:49):
you know, and what Gary Gibbs tried to take before Switzer.
And it's like, yo, like this, this this thing about
a first time head coach coming in here and like
doing the job is not That's not normal. That's not normal,
especially at a high level. And so and to the
point of Venables, what Venables is probably going to do

(08:10):
and what you might think about. And I'm gonna get
some I'm gonna tie this to Matier. The best thing
Stoops ever did was we don't give him enough credit
for picking offensive minds that gave him trouble. His whole
thing was I went to the how I'm going, I'm
looking at how Mummy's tree, I'm looking at I'm seeing
what's happening with Mike Leech and man Gino and finding

(08:32):
guys that I know give me problems as an elite
defensive coach, and I think you know, the trick bag
was yeah, like he brought in Levy that was that
was solid, and he went to the homie. He went
to the homie hookup with the trail and that that
proved to be a bit of a fall up. And
so now you have the Arbuckle era and you get

(08:54):
the whole thing with Matier. And I'm a fan of
ma Teer. He got a little bit of he got
a little bit of sunshine in him in the sense
of like when I hear him talk, it is I'm
not gonna say he's on some like ah show, but
he just seems like vibes and not. And I know
everybody makes the comparison to like Baker with vibes, but like, uh, Matier, Honestly,

(09:16):
if you if you told me he took a puff
of something before the game, I would believe you because
he is on cloud nine like all the time and
just like happy vibes, like the positive strain, not the
one that brings you down strain. And I think that
Matier is doing everything we want in an ou quarterback.

(09:37):
Now people can want to talk about these occasional you know,
line drive throws or the fact that he has to
run too much and that he does have a bit
of a gunslinger mentality. But frankly, I think given what
we've seen from the rest of college football, like when
you got that type of defense you can lean on,
we probably Oklahoma is probably could afford to have somebody

(10:01):
that is willing to be a little bit more audacious.
And I think when you're gonna be playing in bigger
games like the one coming up this Saturday, and we're
going up against South Carolina, LSU, Alabama, and Missouri, we know,
we know what the rest of the slate is, you're
gonna have to be audacious. And I think that there
have been times, I would even say a little bit

(10:22):
in the Lincoln Riley era that if it was not
something that was dialed up, that occasionally there would be
those moments that you would see the lemon booty start
because it would be you'd have to make a tough throw,
you'd have to make a play, and you would see
Jalen and Kyler and Baker. It would just be that
little extra second of process. And this is this is
ultimate nitpicking. By the way, elite. They all were elite.

(10:45):
I'm not I'm not questioning them. But sometimes you need
a little bit of a effort. You need just a
little bit of effort. Yeah, like a little bit and
if and if not with this team because you couldn't afford.
The difference is you couldn't afford to do that with
those defenses from seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty one, twenty two.

(11:06):
Like you couldn't afford to do it with those defenses,
you can afford to do it with this defense. And
that's what I like about Materier probably more than anything,
is he gonna give us a shot. And I think
having what the Jock Jesson Arnold experience was, bro, you
felt like you had anything, but because everything had to
be squeaky clean.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
No, that's a fair point, and I love that you
pointed out the one thing that we know that Brent
vnables and I think that this is one of those
BV took from the Bob Stoops portion was let me
go find an offense that kicks my tail, that keeps
me up at night, that makes me think more than
I would like, And I'm gonna bring that here. I'm
gonna bring that problem to my team that way, not

(11:47):
only I can try to prepare forward week after week
when I go against the opposition, but I can start
giving the opposition bigger problems because.

Speaker 3 (11:55):
If there's an't one thing that we do.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
Bv's one of the best dcs out there, and he's
proven get more and more this season. This defense is
literally top five and just about every important metric, like
right now. I was actually looking it up this morning
after I was talking about the game. They are I
think number one in the country in third down efficiency
a conversion seventeen point three nine percent.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
What more could you ask for when we ain't seen
a defense here since Brient Vinables was here before.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
Well, to your point, and I was talking about this,
you could make a legit in the entire case of
Oklahoma football history, you can make a case this is
the best pass rush Oklahoma has ever had in this entire.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
History period period, even with Tommy Harris, even with Geral McCoy.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yes, this is probably it because this is probably the
first time. Because so I was I was having a
school some some Sooner fans. It was like, bro, they
probably haven't had a pass rusher like this is Cegral
Jones in like ninety four, ninety five, and like there
are some people that don't even know who that is,
but like, yes, like ou pass Rusher went in the
fifth pick in the first round in nineteen ninety six.

(13:07):
You know what I'm saying. I think he's from Houston,
by the way, and you know he ended up going
to the Giants. But it's like, you know, he got
like sixteen sacks in the season, like our Mason gonna
catch that in like about two three more weeks, depending
on the way he going. And I think so when
you start thinking like they got just think about the
conversation we were having at the a few months ago

(13:28):
about David Stone was thinking about chucking de deuce like
people already done forgot that conversation, like he was on
the brink. Some people have I don't say everybody, but
some people have been like they don't. And you see
him now and you see like, oh no, we got
a pony up. We got to figure out how to
make this happen because he is now starting to look
like Gerald McCoy, Tommy Harris. He looks like that, and

(13:50):
he's still just based on talent, he's probably the best
defensive lineman on the team, but from a production from
a skill setstem point, he's probably still third or fourth
because Grace is balling, are Mason Thomas is bawling, Ja Jackson,
DEMONI Willie like they got this is the first time too.
They're probably gonna have all them dudes gonna get drafted.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
Yeah, yeah, we probably got up front that whee.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
I mean, Jerol McCoy was what a number that That
draft was just ridiculous though that year it was in
twenty ten, he was it was him, uh Trent as
well as Sam Bradfriget.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yeah, but Jay, think about it, think about what Georgia's
offensive and defensive lines have been, and like you think
about Daron Carter, you think about Jordan Davis, you think
about Nolan Smith, and you start thinking about Timon Walker,
and you're gonna you're gonna look, I think you're gonna
look two years, three years down the line, you're gonna
be like our Mason Thomas is a first round second
round pick. David Stones I think is I think Darius

(14:47):
Stone is already a lot to be a number of
first round pick. I think just off hype, measurables, everything,
and then some of them other guys gonna be round
two round three, round four, and you're gonna then you're
gonna look back and like, oh, twenty twelve, they had
read four or five dudes that that went and and
and if they and and then you're gonna start seeing
that happen. That that that trail, the recruiting trail where

(15:11):
if they can continue it. The thing about Venables being there,
in my opinion, j he ain't going nowhere. I think
putting a defensive guy in that role, like Oklahoma, I
think it makes it a lot less likely for some
you know, nobody else is leaving. They're not gonna do
the Lincoln Riley thing of like, oh there is an
actual job that's better. I think if you're a defensive

(15:33):
coach at OU, I think it leaves you a lot
more rooted. And then you just hope that means that
the recruiting trail continues to be really kind to you.
To find the toughest position to recruit, not quarterback, but
defensive line.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
Yeah, interior is the toughest one to get because it's
not only the money position, but it's also yeah, it's
the he's the one that you ain't got a lot
of it's very few of them. It's like this, Like
in the NFL, the big shuggle right now is finding
an actual capable starting quarterback. Quarterback players getting worse and worse,
and truth be told, I mean I can go onto

(16:07):
my whole spiel and lectro in NFL, but I'll just
leave it at this portion of it is we ain't
we ain't uh, we ain't produce some good backup quarterbacks
no more.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
It's bust. It's it's it's starter bust.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
And then and you're and that hurts the overall development.
But back to Oklahoma here, talk to our guy ed.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
Here on the show.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
Don't get back to the interview, but first shout to
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Speaker 3 (16:40):
Just for signing up. That's it. Use a promo code unfair.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
And if you want to make a deposit, they're also
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your first one hundred dollars. Let's make a couple of
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I don't know if I feel confident in him. We're
gonna pick Patrick Mahomes. We're gonna pick receiving yards for strange,

(17:08):
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(17:32):
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See Sleepers Terms of Use for details. Oklahoma schedule is
a gauntlet coming up, Dobb at least that's what everybody's

(17:53):
telling us. We got textas coming this weekend, so we're
gonna start with them.

Speaker 3 (17:58):
It's funny.

Speaker 1 (17:59):
Josh paid over them. Josh pay College Football Show and
my favorite shows. Listened to Great Guy and he called
this chaos scenario at SEC Media Days and I chit
chatted with him about it at the media days and
he was like, hey, man, I'm looking at the way
this is lining up. It's a possibility. And this was
chaos scenario. Oklahoma walks in five and of them, Texas

(18:19):
walks in three and two and their two losses are
to Ohio State and Florida. People laughed, people lost their
My Texas fans are still in the comments section saying
you're an idiot for thinking that. So me and my
guy John went unlocked on Sooners talked about that, and
I'm just like.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
If Lagway is who we think he is, that could happen.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
But then, of course Lagway had all these awful games
leading up to this, and so everybody, I don't think
it's a possibility, but then they bullied them. My boy,
where were you on the Arch Manning talk and do
you think that Texas may have a problem going forward?

Speaker 2 (18:58):
I think my thought on on Arch was really simple.
It is like, can we all pump the brakes? And
it's not and not because I mean, first off, like
as someone who's been in media this long, like, yes,
we don't know how to I'm gonna say we in
this scenario, we don't always do the best job in

(19:19):
managing hype because hey, man, pageviews matter, subscriptions matter, Please
watch us, please read us, please please pay attention to
our content, right, Like, there is an element of that.
But I think the one thing that's always been a
concern for me is like the first thing that immediately
called I was like, wait, he didn't beat out Queen,
And that was like concerned one. And now you're looking

(19:43):
at Texas now, like, oh, I see why he didn't
beat out Quenn. And you know, I think that arch
it was very telling when when the best, the most
talented manning in the family, his granddaddy came out and said,
we're not even thinking about the twenty twenty six draft.
Like I actually thought that was really telling in the

(20:03):
sense of like their own self assessment of not rushing
this even if it goes fantastic. And I think the
reality is with the University of Texas right now, their
new situation is arch Mannon is probably gonna be a
three year starter. I think I think that because I
even started to take the path of like, Okay, let's

(20:25):
say Texas. Let's just say Texas. Let's say Texas finished
the season seven and five. Let's say they lose to Oklahoma.
Let's say they lose a couple more games. Let's say
they win a few more games, like they they're not
ready to go to Dabelle. I don't know. I think
they're still in on Gunner Rivers. They're on the right now,
They're on They're on NEPO QB baby watch for anybody

(20:50):
of that ILK. But I think there would also be
a situation where they couldn't get out of the arch
man of business if they want to. But it's too
much money tied in the arts right now. And so
for me in Texas, I think that Sarkis is gonna
have to have a different conversation of how do we
get this team to the finish line. And one of

(21:12):
the things is, hey, man, y'all might need to start
stop treating him like he is an all world talent,
and you might. I'm gonna give you a name that
won a national championship. Be ready, Craig crimsle I'm gonna
give you another name that won a national championship. Matt Mock, right,
like when when those teams were winning, it was a

(21:34):
lot of handoff to Maurice Coret handoff like yo, we're running,
we're throwing the ball with necessary and instead like I
watched Texas and there's this like profound desire to throw
the ball forty times a game to a dude that's
trying to play all mad and he ain't even figured
out how to conquer it all pro or a pro yet.
So you know, with that being said, I still think

(21:59):
Texas is dangerous in the Cotton Bowl on Saturday. Obviously,
Oklahoma has their own concerns at quarterback. But if I'm
Sarkesian man, I think at some point you have to
reevaluate what your governor on offense is because I think
asking arch Man and to try to go win you
games right now, he's actually losing you games. And half

(22:23):
the battle of being a good quarterback is don't lose
it for us. And if you happen to be the
reason why we win, that's cool. But there's been a
lot of great quarterbacks that did a lot by just
not losing the game. So that's my two cents.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
No, I'm with you on that. That is probably the
one thing that that I tried to point to some
Texas fans who were not very happy with me when
I said, I'm like, look, man, he didn't be Quinn out.
And on top of that part, this was the biggest
seller for me. They put him in the Georgia game
because Quinn was struggling. He struggled worse, and they yanked

(23:00):
him right back like there's the picture of them both
on the sideline looking like this, and I was.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
Like, oh, yeah, that's something wrong your dog.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
This is not it.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
And it's crazy to me that neither them nor the media, Darling,
like you said, the media, you know, gotta hype up
certain teams.

Speaker 3 (23:16):
Get you know, get that, get them subscriptions. The tension
blah blah blah. Penn State is, how did Penn State
go West coast?

Speaker 2 (23:25):
Look?

Speaker 3 (23:25):
Look, look, look, look, look, look.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
I'm gonna dive into this because I need to get
your thoughts on this on this conference re alignment piece,
because it's starting to piss me off now that every
single one of these coaches complained Lincoln Riley did it
against Illinois not too long ago, like what two weeks
when they lost, And then you get Jane Franklin saying well,
the travel man, it's just so tough and everything. Then
why did y'all allow y'all's conference to chase them dollars

(23:49):
and go after schools on the West coast knowing good
and well, you're gonna be traveling like that, like we
can't use the travel excuse when that.

Speaker 3 (23:59):
You put your self and four time zones.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
And then they go out there, they get they got
Jim Knowles to come out there because Tim tom Allen,
not Tim Allen, not the tool man.

Speaker 3 (24:09):
Tom Allen left to Clemson, which he.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
But he goes out there and they let the former
Tennessee quarterback Nico I have a cook him like they
got Fried Sawtaid, Filayed, you name it.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
It happened. It was an awful game. I'm looking at
the score like, wait, it is it? Twenty seven to seven?
For real? And lastly, as we're.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
Talking quarterbacks, so talking about this boy arch Manning, which
I think he'll be fine long term, I just don't
think he's ready yet. Drew Aller, he was supposed to
be a number one pick two. He even cheeks all season.
What's going on with the college quarterback assessment that we're seeing.
It feels like it's getting just as bad as it
was in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
A couple of things. Number one, the best joke I
saw on Twitter was there because it's what's the name
is new Heiseel's son, I believe is the coach the
interim coach. And they said, who led Geoffrey Lanister? Coach
UCLA gets pen stay over and getting cooked by Jeoffrey Lanister.
I was weak, bro. Number one done. Number two, Uh,

(25:16):
you've played dominoes. I've played dominoes. What do we always say?
Not all money is good money exactly? And I think that. Look, man,
just I think something something that we not only are
sports fans, but then the people who work in sports industry.
There are so many cases where there is such a

(25:37):
chase for money that there is a conversation about is
this actually making the product better? Okay? And you can
take this conversation to my former employer ESPN because they
have a hand in it too. And these conferences and
these schools like yes u C l A and Pence
UCLA would have been foolish to turn down the Big

(26:00):
ten because of the money. But at the same time
you also understand there's consequences and repercussions that come with that.
I mean, we can talk about your boy Lincoln for
the for kind of the same reason. Look, I can
drag him into this conversation because what did everybody make
the joke about With Lincoln, He's like, hey man, he
didn't want the grind, right, so he went to the US.

(26:21):
He went to USC with the concept of this is
going to be the Pac ten and then like literally
like a short period of time later, Oh no, you're
still gonna get this grind, but now you need to
get your freaking fire mile game up as well. And
so you know, the thing that was really concerning about
the Penn State UCLA game is like, Yo, the defense
didn't travel. The defense didn't travel, like you giving up

(26:44):
forty two to that team, and for being I think that, yes,
all of this travel inherently will make the teams a
little bit less good Number one. Yeah, I will say though,
as a if I was a Penn State fan, I
would much rather have a trip to Los Angeles than

(27:05):
I would to have a trip to go to uh
whatever town Wisconsin is in or Iowa respectfully, are going
to New Jersey. You know, I'm just saying, Madison, I
know where Wisconsin is Madison, and that's not shaved to
Madison or to aims your aims and wherever Rutgers is.

(27:27):
But hey man, los Angeles is dope, you know what
I'm saying. Like, I much rather go to rather much
rather go to Los Angeles where it's seventy seven degrees
all the time and the beaches like right there. I
would rather go. So, hey man, you might just have
to see Penn State takes stupid losses. But to your
other point about the quarterbacks, and this goes back to Sarkesian,

(27:48):
I do so, yes, he and that's that you just
you just made my point for me right there. And
Franklin's not really like I don't I've never viewed him
as like an offensive guru. But when I see when
I watch Aler and when I watch Arch and I
watch certain quarterbacks, it's like a it's like a it's

(28:10):
a measuring contest, I'll use I'll leave that first word out,
but it's a type of measuring contest of like, yo,
how much of an offensive guru am I really? And
I can just take anybody and make them look like superstars.
And I think Arch is probably getting a disservice by
getting them forty throws a game. And I think Drew
Aller has the conundrum of he's a looks the part

(28:31):
all star. Yeah, but we've seen his movies now for
three seasons. And the fact that Franklin, in my opinion,
doesn't do enough to protect his quarterback to me. And
you know, a Penn State fan might watch and be like,
oh no, they try, but you know we at some
point like you got to go win the game, and

(28:52):
like that's fair too, and so you know, like we
know Penn State can run the ball, we know they
got offensive linemen, we know that they I mean, they
do all the other things. They are the epitome of
Big ten football, but when it comes to these moments,
they are Baltimore Ravens in their way at the end
of these games to find ways to lose some games

(29:13):
in pretty poor fashions, because it also seems to be
like they don't ever get blown out. The Oregon loss was,
you know, a squeaker. The UCLA loss somehow was also
like a squeaker, Like they need to get blown out.
Maybe it'd make us feel better. I don't know if
it make us feel better, we'd laugh. We have more jokes,
for sure, more jokes. I'm here for the jokes. That's

(29:34):
what I'm here for.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
Sports is more fun when you can laugh at people
and talk about Talk to our boy ed over here
on the show today, man, I appreciate you joining.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
Okay, we grew up in an era of.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
Massive excitement when it came to the you like the
You was like the team that a lot of us like,
we wished our team was that cool.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
When you think about Miami in the eighties and the nineties,
even up to the early two thousands, we're all like,
I really really wish that our team was that dope.
And you know, granted we weren't. Sooner fans you know,
struggled in the you know, you know, you know, mid
to nineties and whatnot.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
It happened.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
It happens, but you stay at the eighty five title,
so that's always the plus and you go to two thousand.
But Miami was just fun. Miami forgot what football was
for so many years. And I remember I forgot who
said this, but I remember them saying that basically the
way that Miami operated through most of that time was

(30:44):
the school was like, we are a IVY league school
in the South. If you gonna do something in football, football,
y'all figured out, school ain't gonna really that participatble, you know,
will gladly let you ride our cotail to being an
intelligent school in the South. So football took over, went
out there dominate, you know, had some good times and then,
like I said, they forgot about football for a while.
Hey man, I think they might be back. Did Mario

(31:07):
crystal Ball really build themselves a powerhouse right now? Like
what are we doing here?

Speaker 2 (31:10):
Yeah? It reminds me. Well, the first thing is they
got to even though that boy got a wild story
in Miami, it looks like they got a grown up
at quarterback. They really do. Yeah, Carson bed looks like
a grown up back there. And every time I see him,
because he's got these like really glassy blue eyes, and
he always is like he looks like everything is in

(31:31):
slow motion when I'm watching him, and he just he
looks like a grown up. And what Crystal Ball reminds
me of is this Miami team reminds me a lot
of the Joe Borrow LSU team that was coached by
o'geron Because I do not think that. I do not
think and I don't mean this as shady to Crystal Ball,

(31:52):
but I do not necessarily find him to be the
most savvy coach. I think as matter of fact, he's
probably probably a bit of uh. Even though Dan Campbell
doesn't get enough credit for being a savvy offensive coach,
especially considered Dan Campbell came up under Sean Payton. Yeah,
you know, Mario chris Ball is like, I'm trying to
get the biggest dudes. He's a recruiting maestro, and he

(32:14):
got a lot of big dudes. He got a lot
of strong dudes, he got a lot of fast dudes.
And then he went up and got a grown up
at quarterback. And that's the thing about that LSU team
of they had all world talent, and then they went
and got a proverbial. They found a grown up off
of Ohio State's bench and put him in there, and
they lit everybody on fire, including Ou. And the thing

(32:35):
I've always tried to tell people about Miami as an
Oklahoma fan man, Oklahoma got a lot of rivals. I
don't mess with Texas, I don't mess with Nebraska. You
know I have I have mixed feelings on Oklahoma State
because my mama went there, but you know, she knows
what it is. I'm a Sooner, Sooner born Sooner bread
when it comes to that, there you go. And so

(32:58):
But Miami, Miammy is one of them schools where Oklahoma
should hate Miami. And yeah, true, I don't find I
have never found. Miami has probably cost Oklahoma at least
two national championships. And Miami is one of the few
schools that routinely kicks the dog pits out of Oklahoma
until maybe in the last they met a few times

(33:21):
in the last decade or so. But you know, in
the in the heyday, when they were both in their
in their primes, that was not that was a problem
from Oklahoma. And yet Oklahoma a fan base who whose
favorite coach is a son of a bootlegger, a fan
base who has regularly looked away when things were happening

(33:42):
under the table and and shenanigans and tom foolery and
hijinks happened on campus. You know, it was like, that
was the cost of doing business. That's the cost of
doing business. And when we saw what Miami was doing,
it's like, oh, that looks pretty cool. You know because
they get down like we get down to some degree.
Matter of fact, they get down a little bit better
than we do.

Speaker 3 (34:03):
The dispitch it justice. They found a way.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Yeah. So so you know, man, Miami is you know,
we make these jokes about we've been trying to make Nebraska,
like everybody always says, we want Nebraska to come back,
we want Nebraska be a thing. And I do agree,
like college football is probably better if Nebraska is legitimate.
But I think even more so, Miami is one of
them teams that, oh no, they don't need to be

(34:27):
just good, like they need to be swaggering excellence because
it feels like it means something a little bit more
to beat Miami, especially when they have swaggering excellence and
Crystal Ball and Beck and Ruben Bain. They got a
lot of dudes with swaggering excellence. And I think the
thing about college football right now, I'm looking at the rankings,

(34:49):
this is probably the most most beatable. I think all
of the top teams feel like I don't look at
I don't look at Oregon, Ohio State, even Miami. You know,
for everything we've been praising about Oklahoma, the one thing
I don't have a losers about Oklahoma is beatable. Even
if John Mattier plays his best game and Oklahoma plays

(35:11):
lightsile defense, I still think they're beatable. And so Miami.
Just knowing that Miami could be in that title chase
makes this cocktail a lot more delicious for sure.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
Yeah. No, that's a good point.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
And I didn't even really think about it that way
because it was what one year, one stretch where Oklahoma
was undefeated against everybody that wasn't named Miami.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
Bro they were thirty three and oh they played thirty
they were thirty three, and oh and they just lost
to Miami three times. They lost in the Orange Bowl,
they lost it in the Sugar Bowl, and I can't
remember what other game, but yeah, they played thirty six games,
they went thirty three, and oh and they just kept
losing to Miami.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
And it's like that, Oh, but it's funny, like but
just like you said, no, we don't really tie my
and I guess it's because it was so far back
and really when Miami was like like as the Broadcasting
Rights Act hit and all, you start to see really
more games and everything on TV, and it became this
massive production and now a massive commodity because the only

(36:13):
thing we care.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
About is live sports.

Speaker 1 (36:15):
It didn't become what it is today until we actually
until you know, like Miami was good in Oklahoma's and
then in two thousand, technically everybody wondered if Oklahoma should
have played Miami in the National Championship instead of Florida
State that year, So that was also a very big conversation.
But Miami had I think it was the next year,

(36:36):
Miami had.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
Three or four.

Speaker 1 (36:40):
NFL running backs with two of them but three of
them is backups. They weren't even playing.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
You're like, yeah, well that was Gore McGahee Portois, Jared Payton,
you know what I mean, Like, you know, they just
had the Hall a legend son just playing fullback.

Speaker 3 (36:55):
You know, hey man, and can you can you do
us as solid and just play.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
Fullback for Najee Davenport. I think it was on that
team too. Yeah, he was Jesus that was that.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
That team was stupid. Okay, Yeah, that's a good point.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
I'm curious to why we haven't tried to adopt them
as a rival, but I'm thinking it's because it was
too far back, and you.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
Can't be a rival to someone who continually kicks your
ass and and and it was like they the Oklahoma,
like Oklahoma ain't really been able to deliver affair, you
know how we were watching Canelo and Crawford and then
Crawford started countering and it was very clear like, oh,
Canelo didn't really have any more more more moves. It

(37:36):
was definitely feeling like that with Oklahoma in the eighties.
And like my uncle Bill, you know, he was like, hey, man, uh,
Oklahoma is going to be quiet on this one. There
ain't allowed to talk about it. And I think that's
that's actually like a sign of respect because you know,
like it was very when you were that obviously that good.
There ain't nothing else to.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
Say, no, no, no, no, Like what more can you say?
So for Oklahoma, now this is a great chance. But
as you said, this is a This season feels so
much more wide open. Yeah, than any other that I've
seen in a while. I don't see anybody that's just
overly dominant. While at the same time, like I said,
I think Miami may have put themselves in a situations

(38:17):
like Miami's placed themselves, to me, in a situation that
Texas thought they were in. Does he back in that
they look like they may be back. He's playing, like
like said, football. Now the question is going to be
what does that look like once you actually get into
post conference play, when you get to actual playoff play.
Does Carson back go back to what he was at

(38:38):
Georgia or does he take that next step? I mean,
like I said, he has a hilarious story down there
in Miami and he couldn't even hang on to a
Cavendar twin sous where that man struggles are. But Miami
could be that one. Okay, So where do you think
Oklahoma finishes the rest of the season. Let's wrap up

(39:00):
with that.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
Yeah, I think there's there's there's I think they're a
two loss team. I think that they're going to drop too.
I might be doing that to kind of slow play
so plays a little bit. Yeah, but I also think
it's But my other thought is it doesn't and you could.

(39:23):
I don't care who they lose to in the next
two games for the rest of the season if they lose,
If they finish the season with two losses, they're gonna
be in the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (39:32):
Oh easy.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
So so you know, to me, like getting to this
point of five and zero and they have what six
games left on the on the schedule, So if they
finished nine and two, like you know, maybe they're playing
for the SEC Championship. Maybe they're not. I don't know.
I mean to me like out, I mean, for the

(39:55):
amount of teams that people have to still go through,
it's to me, if you can get out of here
with two, I think you're doing pretty damn good. And
I don't think and I don't think that, look you
can go through it. Okay, if they get through Texas, cool,
that Old Miss game getting ole Miss at home I
think is going to be big, Like one thing that's

(40:15):
not being talked about Oklahoma. This schedule to me has
been really fascinating, the amount of like home games they've had,
and like their only road game has really been going
to Philly, and then they get Texas neutral site, they
get Ole Miss at home, I think they have to go.
I think they get LSU at home, and they get

(40:38):
Missouri at home, and so their road games they get.
Their three remaining road games are South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama.
And I think that all of those games will have
almost all of those games have real Oklahoma emotional ties. Beamer,

(40:59):
South Carolina Old Miss excuse me, Tennessee with hypel in
that situation, and I keep thinking about those games last season.
The only game last season that felt unwinnable was the
LSU game. But I look at the Missouri game, Old
Miss Tennessee, South Carolina, and it's like, man, if you

(41:21):
just put a mid quarterback in there, it feels like
those games could have done very differently.

Speaker 3 (41:26):
So competent quarterback play wins you those games. Yeah, period.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
So but none of that matters until until we get
the Red River. If Michael God bless Michael Hawkins. If
Michael Hawkins is in there quarterback, I'm gonna be honest,
I wouldn't be mad if they ran Wildcat thirty five times. No, man,
for real, Come on, man, what were we talking about? Bro?
Like I've been I'm watching this man Like, why is

(41:52):
he side arman? Bro? What? Why is he trying to
turn two? Why is he trying to turn two? Bro?
Like on a twenty yard hits? What are you doing? Fam?

Speaker 1 (42:01):
You know he has a rocket and it's like he
doesn't have a dial. It's like the Russell Russell Westbrook effect.
As much as we love Russ is that he just
doesn't have a dial to turn it down. It's one
hundred percent or not. That's what it felt like with
his throats with Michael, and I have appreciation for him.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
Did it really good?

Speaker 1 (42:20):
He had touched when he played Auburn on the roll
last year as a true freshman, he was out there
doing it. This one, it felt like he was just
trying to prove that he could launch it. And it's like,
hey man, just no.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
Do you remember the two point conversion? You remember the
two point conversion he got against Auburn? Was Auburn last year?

Speaker 3 (42:37):
Auburn?

Speaker 1 (42:38):
Yes, it was Auburn. That was the one that was converted. Yeah,
that was the second over the top play?

Speaker 2 (42:43):
Over the top? Why does every play feel like that?
It's bro, this is this is first and ten from
the thirty five. Why why does everything feel like a chaos?
Why does everything feel like the floor is lava?

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Bro?

Speaker 2 (42:59):
I I think that going back to even the quarterback
Guru conversation, I think that I'm not not to encourage
conservativism on offense, but but I also think managing expectations
because look, bro, red River is still a different environment.

(43:21):
We got to remember one thing. Arch ain't done it either,
Like We've seen Arch play a lot of games. He
ain't been in red River yet like Hawkins. That if
there's actually any any advantage to Hawkins in manning because
because like I said, I just st don't think Materi
is gonna play. And if he plays, then it's gonna
be great. But I mean material ain't played in it either.

(43:43):
But again, you know, we have different feels about him.

Speaker 3 (43:45):
So he's a different breed. He's a different quarterback.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
He had different breed of quarterback. So I think the
the managing of dynamics and emotions for that will be interesting.
But I'm putting my I'm putting my stamp on ou
for I think there's two losses there, and I think
if you get out of this season with two losses,
I think you're going to be somewhere in that bottom
half of the of the first of the playoffs come

(44:08):
at the end of the season.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
Yeah, and it feels like this this team can make
a deep run. The defense, to me, and I've said
this numerous times with the people have heard me say
this a lot, is this defense is so good that if.

Speaker 3 (44:23):
That it's so good that.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
Because the offense is competent, they're gonna look even better
than last year. I think the last year's defense was better,
but statistically, this one's gonna be better because the offense
is going to help them.

Speaker 3 (44:34):
So much more.

Speaker 1 (44:35):
I thought that initially. I'm actually leaning more like this
defense is probably better than last year. Like we were
wondering how we're gonna replace Danny Stuffs and then Billy Bowman.
I don't think we fully replaced them, but I think
we did see their leadership lead into growth of the
other guys.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
So yeah, yeah, the one they missed. As much as
I love Danny studsman, you you recognize they miss Bowman
uh in this and maybe they missed Eli. We'll see
what ELI looks like, because you know, man, you know
what it is. And I'm gonna let you get on
this because now it's time to go. We played Madden.

(45:12):
I'm saying, it's bringing this back to Madden, and you
know when you play Cover zero, you know. But but
they played They played a lot of essentially putting their
corners on islands, and I think that the Obur game
was a reminder like, yeah, these dudes ain't fully formed
that corner. Like we're at a point right now, can

(45:34):
you imagine the fact that they're like, oh, we're not
throwing that Gentry Williams like that. That that is an
evolution of where we are right now, Like now we're
gonna leave Gentry alone. We're gonna go to the other
side because we were jerky on the field. Yeah, so
getting Eli back on the field and getting some experience
will be interested. But but yeah, but I'm sorry, I

(45:55):
realized I need to get that off my chest. I
was feeling some type of way about that because I
felt like I was watching Madden against Auburn a few
weeks ago and made me feel some type of way.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
Yeah, and then it felt like that's what the coaches were.
I think they were going for that. They knew they
can get the pressure on Jackson Arnold and be fine,
but it felt like they were they wanted they wanted
to really test Courtland guillery in which you know that
game test failed. It's okay because he passed everything else
with flying colors so well that all you got to

(46:24):
do is keep refining. And this is one of those
you could tell that he has a short memory when
it comes to those mistakes as a corner, which I
appreciate most corners soak. He's like, NA, we're gonna go
out there, were gonna keep fighting in Hey, I got
screwed up, We're gonna keep fighting. That was a story
that my guy from two four seven. As we wrap up,
Colin Kennedy said here on the show, we were talking
about we were talking about Courtland.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
He said, when Courtland was.

Speaker 1 (46:45):
At camps, the one thing he kept doing was going
to find the best corner.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
On that team.

Speaker 1 (46:51):
Give me that duke, Give me the best wide receiver,
give me to give me the five star wide receiver,
give me the five star war receiver.

Speaker 3 (46:57):
At camp I want him. Let me match up with him.
And that's all.

Speaker 1 (46:59):
He gives the top the high four star, give me him,
and he would only match up with the best. He'd
win some, he'd lod some. But the thing that jumped
into everybody's attention was he had dog.

Speaker 2 (47:08):
He got that dog in them, and he's.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
Down to he's okay with losing a rep because it's
gonna make him better to learn how to be better
for the next one. And so we got some good
stuff coming from the Sooners. And let the people know
where they can find all your great work and where
all your.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
People are at yeah Man. Chron Sports is where my
day job follow everything the intersection of sports, pop culture
and more, all things Houston, all things Texas at CHRIN, Sports,
Crime dot Com, slash Sports, and also just recently launched
Talking a Big Game pod you can you can subscribe
link share. I'm stealing all the buzzwords that that Jay

(47:45):
uses for Unfair Sports, but really excited to kind of
get that launched, and we've already had a bunch of guests,
and you know, I think the one thing that we
really want to do there is, you know, can we
can we can we work on having better sports conversations
because we get a lot of sports fans are having
a lot of sports conversations and dialogues all over the place,
and I think our opportunity is can we peel the

(48:06):
onion back a little differently and refine the angle a
little more? So that's what we're trying to do at
Talking a Big Game and really appreciate y'all supporting it.

Speaker 3 (48:13):
Absolutely, go check them out. Thank y'all for pulling up.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
If the like new to the channel, subscribe same thing
on It's work week and I'm definitely gonna hop over
there and talk about with you so man I appreciate
you pulling up

Speaker 2 (48:25):
Yes, Shir

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Can The Oklahoma Defense CARRY Them to a Championship? | Texas Is STRUGGLING

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Can The Oklahoma Defense CARRY Them to a Championship? | Texas Is STRUGGLING