In not so shocking news, since this has been a rumor floating around since last week, Bob Stoops and the Oklahoma Sooners announced on Monday that James Patton is out.

Patton is taking a job as the recruiting coordinator at Indiana, under head coach Kevin Wilson. I’m sure most everyone remembers that Wilson is the the former OC for the Sooners.

Stoops released a statement on Monday in regards to Patton’s departure:

We appreciate the contributions that James made to our program over the past seven seasons. He was a valued member of a staff that helped us win five Big 12 championships. We wish James and his family the best in this opportunity with Kevin Wilson at Indiana.

Patton also commented:

Our family has enjoyed a tremendous experience at the University of Oklahoma. It has truly been a pleasure to work with Joe Castiglione, Coach Stoops and the entire football staff, as well as the many talented student-athletes that I was privileged to coach at OU. I’m excited about this new challenge at Indiana, and am extremely grateful for being afforded a chance to work with Oklahoma Football the past seven years.

Patton is no stranger to the B1G atmosphere. Before coming to Norman, he was an assistant at Northwestern for seven years.

Now, to who will replace Patton.. rumor on the streets is that it could *possibly* be former Kansas Jayhawks head coach, Mark Mangino. If you remember, Mangino was a former member of the OU staff before taking the job at Kansas. Since his firing from Kansas, Mangino has been spotted on the Sooners sidelines a few times and was officially listed as a consultant.

Not sure this is the direction that Stoops and the staff are going to go in because of the controversy that surrounds Mangino during his head coaching days, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Stay tuned!

Pic from SpecialSpectator.org

Feel good story of the day from SoonerSports.com

Recently, the Oklahoma Sooners hosted a group called the Special Spectators. What exactly are the Special Spectators? Special Spectators are very similar to the Make a Wish Foundation, where they give ill children and their families an unforgettable day out at sporting events across the country. This group of Special Spectators were from the OU Medical Center – Children’s Wing.

They got to hang out with Sooners head coach Bob Stoops and the entire football team. A couple of the things the kids got to do was posted on SoonerSports.com:

….on to the Switzer Center, where they mastered the Heisman pose. Then, a trip to OU’s locker room, meeting a few Sooners, putting on Landry Jones’ pads, sitting in Kenny Stills’ locker, and giving another pre-game pep talk.

After the Special Spectators greeted the team, it was almost game time and on to the sidelines where they watched the Sooners during warmups. During the game they were recognized on the video board, prompting cheers throughout Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. After the game, it was time to celebrate with the team back inside the Sooners’ locker room.

Some of the parents even said that the trip and the hospitality that the Sooners showed were even better than their recent trip to Disney World. Stoops invited the children into his office, let them try on all his rings and they gave him words of encouragement.

Stoops on the special day:

So many of them I’ve been able to build a relationship with from seeing them time to time at the Children’s Hospital. It’s just good to see them have fun, get their mind off some of their worries and struggles, enjoy the day and smile a little more.

If that doesn’t pull on your heart strings, you may want to get that checked out. You can learn more about Special Spectators, here.

Saturday marked two things for the Oklahoma Sooners football program. The Iowa State Cyclones haven’t beat the Sooners in Ames since 1960. John F. Kennedy wasn’t even President of the United States yet when the Clones beat them last in Ames, so there’s that fact. This trend wasn’t broken on Saturday with the Sooners  35-20 win. The Sooners are now 70-5-2 against the Cyclones and Stoops is 8-0.

Head coach Bob Stoops also added another notch to his belt with his 145th win as the Sooners shot-caller. His win on Saturday brought him to be tied with legendary Sooners coach, Bud Wilkinson. Stoops is 12 wins away from surpassing Barry Switzer at the top spot for all-time winning record as a coach in program history.

The Sooners had a rough start on Saturday against the Cyclones. The Cyclones are the only team so far this season that held held the Sooners to 0 points in the 1st quarter. Once they got their rhythm going, there was no looking back. They got a running game established and all the receivers were finally clicking. A great improvement over last weeks loss to Notre Dame.

Landry Jones ended up with 405 yards and 4 touchdowns despite starting badly, with 2 interceptions. With Damien Williams’ play time being limited due to an ankle injury, the Sooners went to Brennan Clay as the go-to running back. Clay had a breakout game with 157 yards and a touchdown. He was also much better on third-down conversions.

OU’s biggest issue on Saturday was penalties. They were penalized 7 times for 71 yards. They ran 85 plays with a total of 593 yards compared to ISU’s 64 plays and 290 yards.

Ames hasn’t been an easy place for ranked teams over the last couple of years. Just ask the Oklahoma State Cowboys how that went last season. The Sooners are now sitting at 6-2 in and will be hosting the Baylor Bears next Saturday in Norman.

In a position that is almost obsolete in the Oklahoma football offense, the Sooners lose tight end Taylor McNamara for the season due to a shoulder injury. McNamara is a former four-star true freshman and will undergo surgery to take care of the issue.

Head coach Bob Stoops said last night on his weekly radio show that McNamara will seek a medical redshirt in order to keep his four-year eligibility.

The loss of McNamara doesn’t really have an impact on the Sooners game plan or statistically considering he has only played in two games and has no catches recorded on the books. The only tight end that has had some touches this season is Brannon Green, with 3 and one touchdown.

The Sooners use of fullback Trey Millard has replaced seeing any TE on the field much for the Sooners. But even though there has been a lack of playing time for McNamara, it still bad to see a kid go out for the rest of the season.

Here’s to hoping he has a speedy recovery and the rest of the Sooners stay healthy over the course of the next 5 games.

The Oklahoma Sooners announced on Monday that DT Stacy McGee has officially been reinstated to the team this week. This is twice in the span of three weeks that the Sooners have had a great timing situation. Just days before they were to play Texas, the NCAA finally cleared transfer Jalen Saunders.

McGee has missed the entire 2012 season so far due to breaking university policy, not team policy. No word on what that actually entailed yet, and I’m sure we are never going to find out, but most have their suspicions…  But having him back in the mix is just an added bonus against Notre Dame, who has been running the ball very well. It’s still yet to be seen whether or not the Irish are the real deal yet, but as of right now, they are undefeated and ranked No. 5 in the country.

Head coach Bob Stoops said that McGee has been practicing with the scout team for the last six weeks:

You play the same technique on scout team as you do on the (first-team) defense. He’s been going against the better offensive line the last six weeks.

Having McGee’s seniority back on the team will just boost the defensive line, who has been playing better and better each week. The defense overall has been doing pretty well, only allowing one touchdown when the first-team has been on the field.

McGee’s close friend and teammate, Casey Walker couldn’t have been happier with the news of his return:

It’s good! I’m excited for him. It’s one of those things where it’s a long time coming. We have to go out with a bang together. We came in together and we have to leave together.

Hopefully the pieces are all falling together for one of Oklahoma’s biggest games of the season on Saturday.

The Oklahoma Sooners are faced with their biggest challenge of the season so far with the Kansas State Wildcats. In a prime time showdown, will the Sooners be able to handle the pressure?

The Sooners blasted the Wildcats last season in Manhattan, but they to remember one thing going in: This is another year.

One of main things the Sooners need to focus on? This is 2012.

Both teams are entering the game with a lot of question marks. Neither team has played anyone of substance yet, though the Wildcats did face the Miami Hurricanes in week 2 and steam-rolled them 52-13. Unfortunately, beating Miami isn’t saying much since the state of football in Miami right now is on dumpster fire status. The Wildcats struggled last Saturday, surprisingly, against North Texas. They had issues getting their run game established, which is their main point of attack. The rushed for a season low, 134 yards, when normally they are averaging 252 ypg.

Wildcats QB Collin Klein has been the buzz player so far going into this week and rightfully so. He has 609 yards in the air and 210 rushing yards after their first three games. RB John Hubert has 296 yards and leads the team in rushing while averaging 6.9 yards per carry.

Another major threat for the Wildcats is Tyler Lockett. Lockett has been outstanding for the Wildcats special teams and offense. He is a deep threat at wide receiver and even more deadly as a their kick-off returner. Another double threat to watch out for is WR Tremaine Thompson. He has made quite a bit of noise at wide out and on special teams.

Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder is fully aware of what is at stake for both teams. Snyder, in my opinion, is one of the greatest minds in college football. He molds one and two star athletes to compete with the teams who are loaded with the three and four.

Kansas State was not a great program before he arrived; he comes in and takes it over and completely turns it around. He retired, and they unfortunately hired Ron Prince to take over and quickly run them into the ground and then begged Snyder to come back out of retirement. Snyder has also been a mentor and friend to Bob Stoops for many years, going back to Stoops’ first coaching job as an assistant at Kansas State.

Snyder this week on the match-up:

(Our) secondary, with the exception of David Garrett, is virtually the same. That is good news. The bad news is that they got torched a year ago. Hopefully the experience has worked in their favor.

Snyder hasn’t had the best of luck in Norman over the last several years. The last time they faced Jones there, he completed 70 percent of his passes, had 4 touchdowns and 294 yards without Kansas State touching him once.

The Sooners offensive line has been suspect so far this season, and Kansas State will be the best defense they have faced. Giving Jones time and the pass protection will be key. They have been able to create holes for the RBs, but the Wildcats secondary is a little shakey, so I would expect Jones to attempt to air most of the balls out; at least to start out with.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Sooners get Casey Walker back and with the Wildcats running game, it will be a great boost. Walker has been back on the team after taking personal time off for the last two weeks. Safety Tony Jefferson has been practicing all week, as expected, and will be starting Saturday after spraining an ankle two weeks ago against FAMU.

The Sooners secondary has looked good so far and looks better and more focused than they did last season. Again, this has been against teams that have not been up to par, but the attitude has been there both mentally and physically. The rush defense has showed improvement, but against a run-heavy team they will need to be virtually mistake free.

The main key to winning the game for the Sooners has to be not starting out slow. Jones has the reputation of getting in his groove later in the game and against this team, it can’t happen. Three and outs will not cut it when Klein is sitting on the sidelines itching to come back in and continue on his Heisman-worthy stats.

This is going to be an evenly matched game if both teams come out on both cylinders. Mistakes on either side and the game could go either way. I give the slight advantage to the Sooners being at home winning 42 out of 43 of the their last home games. Texas Tech proved last season it can be done, and Kansas State is just the team to pull the upset.

After a short hiatus at Ride Schooner, Ride due to a much needed vacation, I am back in business. Much like the Oklahoma Sooners this week.

While going through things I have missed since last Thursday, which is quite a bit, I stumbled across an article on NewsOK.com that stuck out: Bob Stoops want’s the crowd to be energized on Saturday night.

Stoops knows what is at stake on Saturday against the Kansas State Wildcats, much like he did back in 2008 when the No. 2 ranked Texas Tech rolled into town after a huge win against the Texas Longhorns. He asked the crowd to show their pride and according to Berry Tramel in the NewsOK article, he even used some negativity to get it there. He said in his weekly presser in 2008 that the Sooner crowd hasn’t been intimidating lately.

The comment immediately lit a fire in the Sooners fans and resulted in this:

The Sooners fans lately haven’t been as intense as they have been in years past, and Stoops wants that back at Owen Field. And with good reason: The last time he called out the fans, the Sooners beat Texas Tech 65-21.

Kansas State is only the beginning of a tough stretch of games over the next couple of weeks for the Sooners.

Stacy McGee during the 2011 Fiesta Bowl against UConn

On the last day of preseason practice Stoops announced that DT Stacy McGee has been suspended until further notice. According to ESPN Sooner Nation’s Jake Trotter, David King will move over to replace McGee.

The suspension was for breaking Oklahoma university policies, not the football team policies, so Athletic Director Joe Castiglione will determine how long the suspension will last.

This could also mean that Chuka Ndulue may end up seeing a starting spot sooner rather than later on.

Stoops has stuck to his no-nonsense policy since his arriving in Oklahoma, so it will be interesting to see what the outcome is, and what caused the suspension. This is McGee’s last season at Oklahoma.

Stay tuned… 14 days and counting.

Penn State transfer, Justin Brown, arrived in Norman yesterday and hit the practice field with the team on Tuesday. He is still minus pads due to NCAA rules, but he is apparently already made an impact on the coaches.

Stoops said in today’s presser that Brown has already started learning the playbook and expects him to return punts for the Sooners. He even went as far as dropping his favorite word in the press conference, special.

I told Norvell, “Wow, he is going to be special here.”

That’s Stoops favorite thing to say when he is really excited about someone. So a little bit of good news coming out of camp compared to Monday’s not so good news. In case you missed it, as if the Sooners couldn’t take anymore hits on the offensive line, OG Tyler Evans is out for the season with a torn ACL. True Freshman John Michael McGee also tweeted yesterday that his time at Oklahoma was over. He has decided that football, or Oklahoma in general wasn’t for him. He missed his mother in Texarkana and left the team to go be with her.

From @OU_football twitter account, Stoops and Brown with the media

So it sounds like Stoops and Co have found their new punt returner. Looks like some receivers are going to need to step it up, like yesterday.

Justin Brown

It was announced via twitter on Saturday night and confirmed by Penn State Sunday that Justin Brown has decided to transfer to Oklahoma. Brown will join an already heavy wide receiver corps as early as Monday says OU spokesperson, Pete Moris.

With Brown leaving, this marks the third starter that has left the Penn State program since the announcement of sanctions the school will have to endure over the next several years. With his departure and the departure of Silas Redd to USC, they accounted for 42% of the Nittany Lions offense in 2011. Brown had 35 catches and averaged 8.1 yards with 27 punt returns.

Penn State is scheduled to start their Fall Camp on Monday. Stoops announced on Saturday that Kameel Jackson, a wide receiver currently on suspension from the Sooners will not be returning to the team, so Brown coming in as an upperclassman as another experienced threat isn’t a bad move.

On another note, Penn Staters are mad. Real mad. Before Silas Redd announced his transfer to Southern Cal, he closed his twitter account. Brown should have maybe thought about doing the same thing. The good folks over at SBNation were nice enough to screen cap some of the “hate tweets” Justin got when the news broke. I understand the anger of the Penn State loyal, but attacking a kid who quite possibly wants to play in bowl games, or just wants to distance himself from the tragic happenings in Happy Valley is classless. Here are a couple of the tweets:

 Welcome to Norman, Justin.