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 immediately 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.

1. Oklahoma once had a defensive coordinator that was so obsessed with turnovers, he said this: “The ball doesn’t have any working knowledge of who it’s going to be thrown to, it doesn’t know the quarterback is supposed to throw it to a receiver, it doesn’t know its supposed to stay in the running back’s arms. So if the ball doesn’t know, then how on earth do we know?”. Yep, that’s Alexander Grinch. While the now meme-able defensive coordinator is out of that role at any level, he may have been on to something. In this game Oklahoma had more first downs, were within a couple percentage points of being even on third down efficiency, and outgained the Gamecocks. But FOUR turnovers spelled blowout for the Sooners. Oklahoma does not have a current path to victory if it loses the turnover battle. Losing it 4-0 guarantees a blowout. Michael Hawkins Jr. went from ultra-careful against Texas to turning the ball over on each of his first three possessions. Two of those were returned for touchdowns, and the game was over by the halfway mark of the first quarter.

2. I supposed you can count this as burying the lede, but Seth Littrell is OUT as Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator. I like to think Brent Venables walked in to the locker room after the game and asked “Who’s idea was it to block two eventual first round edges with Bauer Sharp?”, then when Seth raised his hand he was instructed to pack his things. Now, Joe Jon Finley and Kevin Johns will try and right the ship, but its going to have to start by making sure you’re giving your quarterback a snowball’s chance in hell at being successful. When you put perhaps your worst blocker on the team up against Dylan Stewart, it doesn’t matter if you have Uncle Rico, Tom Brady, or Gus Swayze back there. Hopefully a change in scenery and a change in voice will propel this football team to bowl-eligibility. But South Carolina was supposed to be a winnable game and it was a skull-dragging. The road does not get easier.

3. In last week’s article I challenged the run defense to get back to their old ways against the South Carolina ball carriers. I highlighted Raheim “Rocket” Sanders as a guy who could really make Oklahoma pay if they had a repeat of their Texas “tackling”. Well, I have GREAT news! Rocket Sanders was held to 33 yards on a measly 2.2 yards per carry. That’s a season low by FAR in games where he had more than one carry. The Oklahoma run defense held the Gamecocks to 1.8 yards per carry. When you take away Davis Beville’s negative sack yardage, they still only averaged 2.2 yards per carry. That is elite run defense. The bad news? Oklahoma got blown out anyways. BUT it is a good sign moving forward that (at least for one week) Oklahoma seems to have fixed their run defense and Texas was just an outlier.

4. Oklahoma’s run game actually showed some signs of life! The numbers won’t show that due to the 44 sack yards accrued by the offense, but Oklahoma’s running backs all ran for 4.0 yards per carry or better. Jovantae Barnes continues to be the bell cow and he had 70 yards on 17 carries. That was his best showing of the season and it was against a great defensive line. That might be the only positive (outside of Jacob Jordan’s breakout game) and bodes well for Oklahoma going forward. The pessimist will say that the defensive ends couldn’t tackle the running backs while they were dogpiling our quarterback, but the optimist might say that the offensive line finally opened some holes that were seen by the running backs. Outside of Barnes, Tatum (4.0) and Hicks (5.5) also had fine numbers on significantly less carries. Sawchuk seems to be the only running back that has seen his carries disappear. It was his second SEC game to not log one carry and he has not had more than two carries since the September 14th matchup against Tulane. Venables said in his press conference on Tuesday that Gavin strained his quad.

5. It felt like Oklahoma was sending a message when they put Jacob Jordan, Kaden Helms, and Kalib Hicks in the game. The question is, who was that message to? Was it to tell starting skill position players they weren’t showing enough fight? Was it to tell hardly-used players we still have plans for you on this team? Was it to tell fans “we’re trying everything we can to get something going on offense.”? Was it the official page turn to the Youth Movement? A sign of things to come? I would be interested to get the board’s opinion on this because it meant SOMETHING.

1. I mentioned in the South Carolina review how Jovontae Barnes had his best game of the year while Tatum and Hicks had good production on limited carries. Part of me thinks an offensive line that has a little bit of cohesion now (compared to the mess of the first 5-6 weeks) made it easier on them. Well, the timing couldn’t be better (or worse?) because Oklahoma will be reminded AGAIN that SEC life is just a little bit different. Two weeks ago, Texas had two bonafide stars at EDGE in Ant Hill Jr. and Collin Simmons. Last week South Carolina had two potential first round picks at EDGE. This week? The Sooners will face the nation’s best run defense. Ole Miss is only giving up 1.96 yards per carry and 66.6 yards per game. On top of that, they’ve only given up one singular rushing touchdown. They lead the nation in every single relevant opponent rushing statistic. The offense will once again have their work cut out for them. If Oklahoma can average 3.0 yards per carry I will consider it a quality rushing day.

2. Looking at some of the cumulative numbers when comparing Oklahoma and Ole Miss makes me laugh, then nearly makes me cry. Oklahoma’s leading passer just had his first 200 yard outing of the season. Jaxson Dart is closing in on 2,400 yards. Rebel wideout Tre Harris is closing in on 1,000 yards. Oklahoma’s leading receiver has 201 yards and hasn’t played since injuring himself against Tennessee. The Sooners are currently +20.5 in Las Vegas and the money is about 50/50 on the game. That means half of the betting public expects Oklahoma to lose by at least three touchdowns, and they probably think its a no brainer. Oklahoma was a favorite most of the week against South Carolina and ended up getting their doors blown off, So it stands to reason that Oklahoma will probably be a double digit dog for the remainder of their SEC games.

3. The Littrell dismissal raises A TON of questions regarding the future of OU Football. The hottest topic with the fanbase is “WHO IS NEXT?”. Now, I know that’s very exciting, and the hot board on OUInsider will be active. But what does it mean in the immediate future? What does it mean for this week’s game? Well, Joe Jon Finley served as Passing Game Coordinator under Jeff Lebby at Ole Miss in 2020 and is the lone tie to the RPO/Veer and Shoot offense we saw in Norman a year ago. Odds are is that we will see some version of that. Now, that is what was run to start the season and Jackson wasn’t quite ready to make the quick, correct decisions. His performance against South Carolina gave a slight bit of inspiration. The most important thing to me was that he was willing to come off the bench in a time of need and burn his redshirt. Brent Venables had said all of the right things at his press conferences about Arnold, but sometimes that’s just a head coach doing right by his player. Many speculated that Jackson would retain his redshirt and enter the portal, as we’ve already seen many do across the country after four games. That was put to bed when he trotted out to take over the offense midway through the first quarter. That alone inspires some trust and confidence, because it would’ve been very easy for him to feel slighted, toss the ball to Casey Thompson, and enter the portal with his redshirt in tact.

4. Any game against Lane Kiffin is going to be a massive challenge for your defense. Add in that they have one of the most talented wide receiver rooms in the country and it gets particularly difficult. Oklahoma will have to be at their best on the backend to have a chance in Oxford. Before the bye week, Cayden Lee (132) and Tre Harris (102) both went above the century mark against LSU. What does “at their best” look like for Oklahoma? Freshmen Eli Bowen has been Oklahoma’s best cover corner. But he’s lacking in size while the leading receiver for the Rebels, Tre Harris, is 6’3. Would Kani Walker be better suited for that matchup? Would Jacobe Johnson possibly come back to the defensive side full time to deal with Harris? Bowen might be better suited to try and slow down the shorter Cayden Lee. Either way we’re looking at a bunch of safety help over the top. If these receivers get single coverage we may have flashbacks of Auburn and pray Jaxson Dart throws it to Kip Lewis to save us.

5. “Defense travels” has been a phrase used across sports for as long as I can remember. The Sooners will need their stars to play like stars in this one. Danny Stutsman had his most prolific tackling game of the season against the Gamecocks. He racked up an absurd sixteen tackles, which doubled up Kip Lewis’s second-most eight. It says a lot about a player that sees the uphill battle that the defense saw for most of the game Saturday in Norman and still goes all out in an effort to turn the tide. Throughout the season there have been loud concerns about the defense not competing to their fiercest levels knowing that their offensive counterparts were in such disarray. The public arguments were “why would you keep trying so hard if the offense doesn’t have a chance to pay off your efforts?”. Well, nobody told Danny that. He, Billy Bowman, RSJ, and some of the other elder statesmen need to show that they made the right decision to come back for another year and challenge high powered SEC offenses. If the offense plays a clean game with low penalties and no turnovers, I think the defense can win you this ball game.

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 mens skincare product or something.

My prediction:

OU 17

Ole Miss 31

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:

@LesWIlson79 said “4 sacks. 200 yards passing.” 6 sacks and Oklahoma FIRST game with over 200 yards passing!

@TravisSkol said “Oklahoma holds South Carolina under 4.0 YPC.” Oklahoma WAY outperformed this. Even if you take out the sack yardage they were below 2.5 YPC.

My predictions for Ole Miss:

Jacob Jordan touchdown. One day this won’t be bold.

Oklahoma doesn’t allow a 100-yard receiver. LSU allowed two against Ole Miss in their last game.

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