Sooner Center Ben Habern hangs up the helmet

With practice starting on Friday, Sooners head coach Bob Stoops announced today that some movement is happening roster wise. First off, bad news at Center: Ben Habern has decided to end his Sooner career early due to on-going neck and back issues.

Habern went through an arm-surgery last season and only had 6 starts. Still, he was a 30-start player and a major leader on the offense. He will be sorely missed. This had to have been a very hard decision for Habern.

Stoops on Habern:

Our coaching staff knows this was a difficult decision for Ben. Ben has been a consummate leader for our team, both on and off the field. We appreciate the toughness that Ben has displayed, and we wish him the very best as he completes his education at OU.

Even though Stoops shot down the rumor at the Big XII Media days, Jaz Reynolds, Trey Franks and Quentin Hayes have all been reinstated back to the roster. As of right now, this is a practice-only reinstatement. As for the fourth Sooner that was suspended, Kameel Jackson, his suspension will be reviewed at the end of the semester.

You can view the new and updated roster here.

Wednesday night, Sooners head football coach Bob Stoops released a statement. A statement most Sooner fans weren’t too happy to have heard. If you googled the statement or went to SoonerSports.com you were presented with a one sentence, non-informative piece of information:

University of Oklahoma head football coach Bob Stoops announced on Wednesday that Quentin Hayes, Trey Franks, Kameel Jackson and Jaz Reynolds have been suspended indefinitely for violation of team rules.

Oh.

Jaz Reynolds vs. Kansas State

So if you are keeping count at home, that’s 3 WR’s and a DB. But before everyone starts banging their head on desks thinking doom and gloom, let’s get a couple things straight. The WR position is one that Oklahoma has recruited HEAVILY in, especially in 2012.  Kenny Stills and Trey Metoyer already have the outside positions locked up (in my opinion). The only thing the Sooners are looking to replace is a slot receiver. There are quite a few options of players that would fill this void nicely. Oklahoma picked up some stellar talent in the WR position, but the only problem is, is the lack of experience.  As for Quentin Hayes and the DB position, this is something I don’t think needs to be a cause for concern at all.

Also, I’d like to point out that it hasn’t even been a week since Kameel Jackson announced that he was “transferring” to Texas A&M, without informing the Aggies, mind you. By the way, in case you hadn’t heard, they said they would not take him.  So you would have to think that this is something that has been brewing in Norman for the last couple of weeks.

Offensive Coordinators Josh Heupel and Jay Norvell have Sterling Shepard, Durron Neal, Derrick Woods and JUCO transfer Courtney Gardner to work with. They lack the experience QB Landry Jones is used to, but in that talent pool, I would expect one to be able to step up. You can believe that Norvell has already been looking for JUCO players to fill the void.

Looking at the big picture, this is not a huge loss for Sooner Nation. I know some of you will disagree, but considering Trey Franks has been suspended before, and has an issue with staying on his feet… Reynolds on the other hand stings a little. He had 41 catches and 715 yards and led the team with an average of 17.4 ypc before his season-ending injury. Once injuries start to plague the Sooners, which it will because it never fails, the lack of experience  may be a cause for concern.

In the same breath, it’s nice to see Coach Stoops crack down on players violating team rules. It has yet to be released on what the actual cause of the suspension is, but I have my suspicions. And for those of you that have mentioned money to me, I have not heard that nor do I believe it.

It’s only May, Stoops still has time to dust off Barry Switzer’s playbook and bring back some wishbone action. I’m joking. Kinda.