This addition to OU Insider VIP is in Year 3 and is set to be the best series yet! Each week I put a bow on the previous game then transition to the upcoming game. Per usual, there will be “bold predictions” at the bottom and I implore you to add your own in the message board replies.

Each year the comments immediate ask “Where are the recipes, Grill Boy??”. Well, this year I am giving you just that! Each week I will be filming a step-by-step tutorial on how to make a dish that coordinates with the opponent for that week. This will live on the OUInsider YouTube Channel.

Let’s start with this: Beware of the “It was Maine” crowd. Those people will do anything they can to rob you of joy. Mike Gundy would say those people are broke failures. It’s perfectly normal, after a winless October, to celebrate your favorite team absolutely blasting an overmatched opponent. Maine is a bad football team, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a win.

That certainly doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy Jovantae Barnes’s monster day. Barnes was the first Sooner to rush for over 200 yards since Eric Gray rushed for 211 yards on 25 carries against West Virginia. I think everyone remembers that road loss to the Mountaineers. Barnes had a long of 73 yards, which was ruled just short of the end zone after a review. But outside of that and a Sam Franklin fumbled option pitch, everything else went right for Oklahoma on the ground. All week I’d hope Oklahoma just did one thing. Add to the run game confidence the offense picked up in that first half in Oxford. If the offense felt good about one thing leaving Mississippi, it was their run production against the nation’s best run defense. It was important to continue to build on that confidence in the “FCS Bye Week” and they did that by rushing for 381 yards. That number marked the most rushing yards by an Oklahoma team in the regular season since Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon led the 2015 team to 405 yards against Texas Tech. Yes, Maine is bad, but we’ve played plenty of bad teams since 2015 and it still took until this game to hit that number.

The Sooners still suffered from some drops. Hester and Thompson both contributed to that number. But I was enthused that Jackson spread the ball around so effectively. Against Ole Miss, I was concerned that Jackson seemed to stare down Bauer Sharp and force the ball to him on third downs. But Arnold spread his 15 completions to 8 different receivers on Saturday. Statistically it was his widest and most even spread of targets this season. This may mean nothing going forward, but I like to think that he used Saturday to build some trust with some different pass-catchers.

Per PFF, the lowest graded offensive lineman from Saturday’s contest was true freshman Eddy Pierre-Louis. Many fans had been requesting his entrance into the lineup by shouting from the rooftops. After his performance against Maine, I don’t particularly care that he was the lowest graded OL. He can be taught how to play offensive line. Bill Bedenbaugh has built his illustrious career on development. What can’t be taught is the absolute reckless abandon EPL showed as he smoked a poor linebacker after the runner he was blocking for was already down. EPL drew a flag when he then dropped all 300+ pounds of himself on the grounded linebacker. At the surface, we shouldn’t celebrate 15-yard penalties. But give Bill THAT kind of effort and violence and you could have something special on your hands in the future.

5. Much has been made over the last two seasons about DeMarco Murray’s running back rotations. Last year was a (wait for it) mess due to injuries. Gain Sawchuk had a great finish to the season behind an offensive line with NFL tackles and a blend of talent and experience on the interior. But it wasn’t the run game dominance people are used to in Norman. Fans are seeing Tawee Walker succeed in Wisconsin. Hollywood Smothers scored this weekend for NC State. Marcus Major has even had some bright spots in Minnesota. Meanwhile the run game had stalled behind a musically-chaired offensive line. Barnes has flipped the switch, and former #1 ranked RB Taylor Tatum had a nice day AND held on to the ball. But I think a big part of the future is Carl Albert’s own Xavier Robinson. I think Taylor Tatum and Xavier Robinson have the opportunity to be the closest thing we’ve had to the Mixon/Perine duo. Tatum was the #1 back while Mixon was the #1 All-Purpose Back. Both dazzle in the open field and can catch the ball out of the backfield. Perine was the bruiser that caused tired defenses to fold throughout his career. Check out this scoring drive from Saturday:

1st and 10 - Hawkins Jr. pass incomplete

2nd and 10 - Xavier Robinson run for 2 yards

3rd and 8 - Xavier Robinson run for 9 yards

1st and 10 - Xavier Robinson run for 4 yards

2nd and 6 - Hawkins pass to Xavier Robinson for 46 yards

1st and 10 - Xavier Robinson run for 5 yards

2nd and 5 - Xavier Robinson run for 5 yards

1st and Goal from the 4 - Xavier Robinson run for 4 yards (Touchdown)

The large and talented freshman finished with 75 yards on 7 touches. He had the third most total yards on the team. He trucked fifth year senior safety Kenneth Cooper before crossing the goal line. Feed the young buck the ball and let him go to work.

1. It’s “Rivalry” Week for the Sooners as they head up to familiar territory in Columbia, Missouri. I put that in quotes because I believe this rivalry is manufactured by Twitter and Eli Drinkwitz. If you’re chronically online like I am, you probably don’t want to lose this game for many reasons, but one that will always be mentioned is “their fans are going to be unbearable on Twitter”. Now, some people remember the old Big 8 and Big 12 days of whipping the Tigers. Some of you could care less and just want to notch that sixth win. For me? I think recruiting and the transfer portal have largely led the charge for the “it’s a rivalry” crowd. Williams Nwaneri got things started on a larger scale when he decided the black and gold over the crimson and cream. The former #1 player in the country logged his lone tackle of the year against UMass a few weeks ago. Cayden Green’s dad telling him to leave Oklahoma and transfer to Mizzou only fanned the online flames. He’s been playing guard this year and was pulled against UMass. He is listed as “probable” on the early week availability report. Oddly enough, each team’s leading receiver on the season (Wease and Hester) started their careers at the opposing school.

2. Unfortunately, most of the conversations leading up to the matchup have largely focused on injuries. Oklahoma fans are not new to those conversations as they hope to get Farooq and Burks back into the fold while staring a potential three-freshman offensive line in the face. Barnes is now listed as questionable and he’s been Oklahoma’s best offensive player lately. With Sawchuk trying to return from injury, the backfield starts to get thinner and thinner without your workhorse. On the other sideline, Mizzou may be without starting quarterback Brady Cook. Cook is dealing with a hurt hand (or wrist) and a high ankle sprain. Additionally, Tiger leading rusher Nate Noel has less than ten carries in the last three games. He’s been dealing with back tightness and now a lower body injury. Jake Taylor, Jake Sexton, and Michael Tarquin (likely) all being out means that Oklahoma could be trotting out redshirt freshman Logan Howland at left tackle and true freshman Isaiah Autry-Dent. That’s pretty jarring considering where you’ve been for the last couple years at tackle:

2022 - Anton Harrison (1st round) & Wanya Morris (3rd round)

2023 - Walter Rouse (6th round) & Tyler Guyton (1st round)

3. You can find Oklahoma’s defense near the top of nearly many categories when ranking SEC defenses. Oklahoma’s strength this season has been their run defense and getting after the quarterback. One category that brings them down a bit is their pass defense. The Sooners rank 11th in the conference in passing yards allowed. Much of that has been through opponents hitting deep shots against some struggling corners. SEC basement dweller Auburn hit multiple deep shot touchdowns against OU. Ole Miss and Texas hit on deep balls against us. Part of that is just part of the game. Teams are going to take shots against you when the run defense ranks 4th in the conference. The good news against the Tigers is that even if starter Brady Cook is healthy, the offense has not quite unlocked the deep ball this year. When you return Theo Wease and First Team All-SEC Luther Burden you would expect differently. But both Theo (-0.9) and Luther (-2.8) have seen their yards per catch numbers dip from a season ago. They both have shorter season longs than a year ago. If Drew Pyne starts, then the deep shots will be even less threatening. He’s coming off of a 6 for 12 with 3 interceptions performance against Alabama.

4. The lack of a downfield passing game may all be the fault of one individual. That would be the SEC’s leading rusher from a year ago. Walk-on Cody Schrader led the conference with 125 rushing yards per game last season. That’s a stark contrast to what the Missouri run game has looked like this season. They have failed to rush for 85 yards in two of their last three SEC games. As a result, they dearly miss the playaction pass game. A season ago teams bit hard on play action, which left 2024 preseason All-American Luther Burden often running open or against a single defender. As I’d mentioned above, Missouri may be without leading rusher Nate Noel. Running a 2nd or 3rd string back against a stout run defense means play action won’t be nearly as effective, and the corners should be fine against a top WR duo.

5. In last week’s article, I talked about what Oklahoma’s plan against Maine should be from an offensive perspective. I said that building confidence in the run game should be the top priority. Well they checked that box with a sharpie as they rumbled for 381 yards on the ground. This week, top-back Jovontae Barnes is on the early week availability report as “questionable”, preseason backup Gavin Sawchuk is trying to come back from a quad injury that has held him out for a few weeks. Taylor Tatum just completed his first game without a fumble in I’m not sure how long. Kalib Hicks has been MIA and was glaringly absent in the backfield against Maine. Sam Franklin fumbled a pitch to account for Oklahoma’s only turnover against the Black Bears. You know what that means if you read the Maine review above. It’s time to feed Xavier Robinson. Brent Venables has already confirmed that Oklahoma plans to redshirt the Carl Albert alum. Robinson has already appeared in three games, so he can appear in one more before he has to shut it down. This is the one. Barnes banged up, Sawchuk recovering, possible rainy conditions, bye week on the other side of Saturday. From a situational perspective, it makes a ton of sense to use Tatum and Robinson as your lead backs. You’d then go into the final two games of the season against big time opponents with potentially FRESH fresh top backs.

Each week we’ll see if anyone can nail the exact score. If you do, I’ll try and get Parker to send you some men's skincare product or something.

My prediction:

OU 20

Missouri 10

Throughout the season we will do bold predictions for each game. I will start us off, and then I will ask the members to give me some bold predictions in the comments. From the member-produced predictions, I’ll add any that came true to the next article.

Best predictions from last week:

@LesWilson said “100 yard rusher. 100 yard receiver. 500 plus yards offense.” Check, check, and check.

My predictions for this week:

Xavier Robinson touchdown. This is to feed my agenda more than anything.

Oklahoma forces three turnovers. Drew Pyne threw three interceptions against Alabama and I think Oklahoma’s defense is more opportunistic that the Tide’s.