It’s that day of the year that every college football recruitnik works so hard to prepare for. It is also that day of the year that grown men have fits over what an 18-year old kid decides to do with his life. Don’t be that guy, please.

While some Oklahoma Sooners fans have been cautiously nervous about NSD, the class has turned out to be a decent one. They unfortunately didn’t get a couple position players they needed and a could-have-been Sooner legacy, Justin Manning signed with Texas A&M. Which was announced around a month ago; his brother is Demarcus Granger.

All-in-all, the day has turned out pretty well so far. Just think Sooner Nation, you could be a fan of USC, where the recruits have jumping ship like the boat is on fire.

Just stating the obvious here when I’m looking at the signess, but pretty stoked about Keith Ford (4* RB), Hatari Byrd (4* DB), D.J. Ward (4* DE) and Cody Thomas (4* QB).

As it sits right now half way through the day, it looks like Oklahoma will finish with a Top 15 class for 2013.

Here is how it has shaped up so far (via SoonerSports.com):

Early Signee	Jed Barnett	P	6-2	215		Camas, Wash. (Laney College)
Early Signee	Dannon Cavil	WR	6-5	205		San Antonio, Texas (James Madison HS)
Early Signee	Quincy Russell	DL	6-4	315		San Antonio, Texas (Trinity Valley CC)
Early Signee	Ahmad Thomas	S	6-1	205		Miami, Fla. (Miami Central HS)
Early Signee	D.J. Ward	DE	6-2	245		Moore, Okla. (Southmoore HS)
7:28 a.m.	Ogbonnia Okoronkwo	DE	6-3	220		Houston, Texas (Alief Taylor HS)
7:29 a.m.	Keith Ford	RB	5-11	208		Cypress, Texas (Cypress Ranch HS)
7:33 a.m.	Jordan Smallwood	WR	6-2	190		Jenks, Okla. (Jenks HS)
7:36 a.m.	Christian Daimler	OT	6-6	270		Houston, Texas (Stratford HS)
7:42 a.m.	Austin Bennett	WR	6-0	170		Manvel, Texas (Manvel HS)
7:47 a.m.	Matthew Romar	DL	6-3	268		Port Arthur, Texas (Memorial HS)
7:52 a.m.	Charles Walker	DL	6-3	280		Garland, Texas (South Garland HS)
8:04 a.m.	Stanvon Taylor	CB	5-11	175		Tulsa, Okla. (East Central HS)
8:09 a.m.	Dominique Alexander	LB	6-2	195		Tulsa, Okla. (Booker T. Washington HS)
8:11 a.m.	Josiah St. John	OT	6-6	305		Toronto, Canada (Trinity Valley CC)
8:29 a.m.	Dionte Savage	OL	6-5	345		Flint, Mich. (Arizona Western CC)
8:39 a.m.	Cody Thomas	QB	6-5	220		Colleyville, Texas (Heritage HS)
8:48 a.m.	Matt Dimon	DE	6-2	252		Katy, Texas (Katy HS)
9:17 a.m.	Hatari Byrd	S	6-1	195		Fresno, Calif. (Central East HS)
9:39 a.m.	Jordan Evans	LB/KR	6-3	210		Norman, Okla. (Norman North HS)
9:59 a.m.	Kerrick Huggins	DL	6-3	289		Dallas, Texas (Skyline HS)
10:08 a.m.	K.J. Young	WR	6-1	182		Perris, Calif. (Citrus Hill HS)
11:21 a.m.	Dakota Austin	CB	5-11	167		Lancaster, Texas (Lancaster HS)

This a look of the new generation of student-athletes that will be donning the Crimson and Cream.

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.

It what was one of the latest Sooner games to kickoff in a long time, The Oklahoma Sooners traveled to El Paso Saturday night and it wasn’t the prettiest of games.

From my article earlier Sunday: From the moment of the first snap, the Sooners were completely out of sync. Every attempt at trying to build a momentum on offense was answered with a Miner defense were on the ready. There were some shining moments on the offense; Landry Jones connected with Kenny Stills for a 68-yard touchdown and Penn State transfer,Justin Brown had a great 25-yard kickoff return, but that was about it during the first half. The Sooners were a terrible 2 of 8 on third downs. What really was the main momentum turning point was the first drive of the game for the Sooners. A three and out, which then resulted in a blocked Tress Way punt that was ran in by Nathan Jeffery. This would be the Miners only time to get on the board, but not from lack of effort. Stills stepped up to Jones main target and did a pretty decent job of it last night.

They had 3 missed field goal attempts by two separate kickers and an attempted fake punt that the Sooner defense was completely ready for. The fake punt set up Jones and crew with great field position which resulted in a touchdown to tight end, Brannon Green. This pushed the Sooners to a 17-7 lead. Jones footwork looked to me like it was much improved from last season. He seemed quicker and more aware of his surroundings.

The Sooner defense actually played a decent game. After the opening drive wake-up call, they quieted the Miners offense, holding them to just the one touchdown. Tom Wort and Tony Jefferson both had interceptions slip out of their hands on more than one occasion. Considering they were missing 3 out of 5 starting DT’s, it was a semi-fair showing.

The offensive side of the ball needs improvement. Jones ended the night with 222 yards and 2 touchdowns. Stills led the receivers with 121 yards on 6 receptions, one being 68 yards, with 1 touchdown. Damien Williams led the Sooners on rushing, with 104 yards on 9 touches and had an impressive 65 yard run. Williams also scored the final touchdown of the game, bringing the game to a final of 24-7.

The Sooners have a lot of work to do in the next couple of weeks before they get into conference play. Jones and his weapons need to work on chemistry, while the defense needs to fix the holes in the line and get a better grip on opposing teams run game. Once the defense gets some key players back on the field, I think the defense will not be as big of a concern as the offensive line. The biggest thing I took away from last night was the lack of strength on the OL. Unless improvements are made, Jones will be running for his life for a second year in a row.

This wasn’t the opening game Sooner fans envisioned for this season, but barely escaping El Paso may be what the need to set them off in the right direction.

We can only hope.

That moment you’ve all been waiting for is here, college football season is among us. The Oklahoma Sooners are making their way to El Paso to take on the University of Texas-El Paso.

The Miners and the Sooners have met two times prior to this match-up, back in 2000 and then again in 2002. With the Sooners taking both games. In another, “the more you know” moment, Oklahoma has also not lost an opening road game since 1968. Head coach, Bob Stoops is 11-2 in openers.

The Miners went 2-6 last season in the CUSA and 5-7 overall. Unfortunately for UTEP, they have some major weaknesses going into this game. They have a Senior QB Nick Lamasion who had 1700 yards last season, and his two main targets in the air Jordan Leslie and Michael Edwards, but an non-existent running game. Their most experienced running back has 166 yards and 1 touchdown on the books for the Miners.

Speaking of rushing, their rush defense is a huge question mark. The Miners defense allowed an average of 190 ypg on the ground last year. I would expect the Sooners to be testing out Dom Whaley’s skills once again. To the Miners credit, the should have a strong defensive line, returning starters Josh Fely and Germard Reed.

The Miners size and speed is not going to hold up against the Sooners. They are going to have to really work to keep up with the Sooners hurry-up offense and the speed of the Sooners secondary. The Sooners need to remember to not take any team for granted going into this match-up and to not over think this game. One of the main issues for the Sooners in 2011 was consistency and under-estimating opponents. With that being said, Oklahoma wins this one, big time. The Miners will be able to maybe hang in there with the Sooners until the first quarter is over, then it is going to be a field day. Expect lots of back-up Sooners to come in and get as many reps as possible if the score does run start to get out of hand.

There was a lot of pressure going into the 2011 season for Oklahoma and with all of the changes being made in Norman, its going to be an interesting start for Sooner fans in 2012.

*Bob Stoops announced late Wednesday afternoon that DT Casey Walker is probable due to personal injuries, nothing football related. Once more news on this breaks, will update*

The game is scheduled for a 9:30 PM CST kick-off in El Paso.

No surprises here, Landry Jones named one of the Sooner captains.

With a little over a week until the Sooners first game against UTEP, the 2012 team captains were announced on Monday. The coaches have chosen: Gabe Ikard, Landry Jones, David King, Trey Millard and Tress Way.

Ikard and Millard are Juniors, while Jones, King and Way are all Seniors.

In other non-practice week news, Sooner WR, Trey Franks has apparently been working out in the secondary. Yes, secondary. Also, Safety Bennett Okotcha has decided to leave the team, no immediate word on the reason. Okotcha was back there on the depth chart, so it doesn’t have any serious impact on the team unless we have some major injuries.

The Sooners do return to the field Tuesday, after starting classes on Monday. Just 10 more days. Are you ready?

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.

In case you missed it, yesterday 5 college football teams were picked for regional covers by Sports Illustrated: Alabama, Southern Cal, West Virginia, Michigan and Oklahoma.

Urban legend has it, if you are on the cover of Sports Illustrated, your team will tank that year. Let’s hope that bad juju stays out of Norman and floats its way somewhere else.

We have 16 days till we get to find out.

Monday marks the third session of two-a-days for the Sooners, and also the last week of preseason camp. Yes, already. Now that the Olympics are over, the official countdown till the beginning of college football season has now begun. Tuesday, the Sooners will have a mini-scrimmage and head into Wednesday and their last two-a-day. Another scrimmage is scheduled for Thursday and then on Friday, preseason camp comes to a close. Classes begin in Norman on Monday, August 20th.

In typical Fall Camp fashion, the Sooners have had quite a bit of bad news hit them, which happens every time preseason workouts start. The doomsdayers are claiming the end is near, but forget that there are also positives coming out of Norman. Let’s do a quick recap with all the news that has been released so far.

First of all, it was announced that C Ben Habern will not be seeing the football field again due to on-going injuries and pain stemming from last season. RG Tyler Evans tore an ACL at practice and will miss the entire season. Will Latu was deemed not eligible, and transferred to Arkansas State. For what it’s worth, it was just announced he was not eligible there now either, so would he have ever been eligible in Norman?

True Freshman, John Michael McGee also decided that he was extremely homesick and wanted to go home. Which came as a surprise to most considering he went through all of the Sooners intense Summer workouts.

So if you’re just now catching up, that leaves the Sooners with only two experienced offensive lineman. Does that mean it should be all doom and gloom? Well, according to John Hoover with the Tulsa World, it does. From an article Hoover wrote last week:

There goes Jones’ shot at a Heisman Trophy. There goes OU’s shot at a national championship. There goes the Sooners’ best hopes for a Big 12 title.

Sorry, Sooner Nation. You can’t win football games at a high level without a quality offensive line, and OU just went from having one of the nation’s best and deepest offensive lines to suddenly one with two returning starters and not one backup who has ever started a college game.

More….

So, no blame. This is just dumb luck. No, stupid luck. A voodoo curse carried out by some Bevo witch doctor. Maybe an incongruent alignment of Jupiter and Mars in the house of Aquarius or some such.

I am a fan of Hoover, he has written some excellent pieces over the years, but this is one of those times he felt like ensuing panic in Sooner Nation and clearly it worked.

Let’s look at some positive news. Quarterback Landry Jones may not have the offensive line he was hoping for to begin 2012, but his weapon options are looking great. Oklahoma acquired Justin Brown, a WR transfer from Penn State.  Brown’s first workout with the team was last Tuesday and he apparently had an immediate impact on the team; most noticeably Bob Stoops. Word on the street is that Kenny Stills is looking fantastic in practice, as are all the wide receiver corps.

The Sooners are also pretty confident at the RB position, they even worked out Roy Finch in the slot position last week. With losing Ryan Broyles, the slot position is one that has had a question mark next to it. Stills has also been working out at the slot.

The last week will bring a lot of news and hopefully the bad news is over with. Relax, take a deep breath, and stop with the paranoia. The countdown to the Miners is officially on.

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.