Cookin' with Grill Boy: OU hoping to wash away bitter taste in Stillwater

In this weekly addition to OU Insider, I put a bow on the previous game then transition to the upcoming game. Since it is Week 10, we will discuss Kansas, preview Bedlam and make some bold predictions.

1. I was going to throw a clever joke up here to start, but Jeff Lebby wouldn’t let me. So I ran this one up here on a jet sweep instead. I have been one of Lebby’s biggest defenders, but not even the biggest sunshine pumper on this site can pull him out of the fire after that one. We all know that he had a bad day in the booth, but why? I have a theory: I think Lebby is worried that people don’t respect his intelligence, so he tries to show off his understanding of astrophysics when the problem at hand is as simple as “2+2”. Whether it be Baylor, Southeastern, UCF or Ole Miss, Lebby never had flat out better players than his opponents every week. I think at Oklahoma he’s having trouble adjusting to being able to just let his superior players go beat the opponent. Nic Anderson is going to be better than everyone that defends him. Throw it to him. Brenen Thompson is going to run by everyone that defends him. Send him deep. Jayden Gibson looks like Victor Wembanyama out there, give him a jump ball. Dillon Gabriel is one of the most prolific and experienced QB’s literally in NCAA history. Let him air it out. It feels like he’s often trying to prove that he really was the secret sauce behind all of those offensive minded head coaches he worked for like Lane Kiffin, Josh Heupel or Art Briles. In his postgame media availability, he referred to burning KU’s timeouts late and attempting to pin them deep was “the right thing to do” and blamed the players for not executing it. That tells me that my theory is at least somewhat correct. He just wants to be right and wants others to know it.

2. Do you know who coaches like he DOES have better players across the board than everyone? Brent Venables. The only problem is when you’re down Danny Stutsman, Gentry Williams, Peyton Bowen and others, the gap isn’t as wide as it usually is against other P5 teams. We are still in Year 2 of the Venables experience, and while "competitive depth" has been a hot term for months, the defense simply can’t lose what may be their best three players and not see a big drop-off. The talent and playmaking lost is one thing, but Stutsman gets that defense lined up and they have played fast this year because of his brain, not his feet. This became evident as the defense couldn’t get lined up correctly multiple times in the second half, most glaringly on the biggest fourth down of the game that could’ve sealed a Sooner victory. I don’t mind Brent coaching like this because he has over two decades of evidence and the horses are on the way. I’d rather a coach do that instead of try and prove that they’re smarter than everyone in the room.

3. Special teams remain a liability. OU simply got out-coached on this one as Kansas coaches identified Marcus Stripling as someone that has no business catching kickoffs. The pooch kickoff floated high, Marcus called a fair catch, and it went right through his hands and into the hands of the Jayhawks. I like Marcus Stripling. I really do. But do you know where I like him? On defense. This is more egregious to me than lining up a WR at RB to run up the middle. Need a big body to block? Cool. Get a TE in there to block just as they’ve done their whole career. Need someone with hands? Cool. Get a TE in there to block just as they’ve done their whole career. Hindsight is 20/20, but Kansas was licking their chops seeing that, and we delivered them a big juicy steak in return.

4. Last week on CWGB, I said “With the thin Kansas defensive line and the less-than-stellar linebacker play, I’m praying that Dillon shows off those legs again and racks up some easy yardage against a gettable Kansas defense.”. Despite not being allowed to air it out, Dillon still made his presence felt. Gabriel gained 64 yards on 14 carries for 4.6 yards per carry and THREE TOUCHDOWNS. Many times a ball carrier will have one long run to inflate that average, but if you take away Dillon’s longest run he still averages 4 YPC against a defense that knew a run was coming. On my favorite run of the day, he faked a handoff and fought through Kansas safety Kenny Logan Jr. at the 5-yard line, only to push through Kansas linebacker Rich Miller at the goal line for a touchdown. Side note, it was tough for me to hear “Kenny Logan” all game without thinking about Kenny Loggins.

5. If you’ve ever walked through snow after a couple of days of it sitting on the ground, you may feel how OU’s offense feels right now. You take a couple steps on what feels like solid footing, only to feel your foot drop through just as you gain confidence and trust. Just when you have a WR1 emerge? Injury. Just when you think you have your left guard solidified? Injury. Just when you think you have your right guard solidified? Injury. Just when you think you have your left tackle solidified? Injury. Just when you FINALLY have a running back having a huge game? Injury. I don’t think that Bill Bedenbaugh or DeMarco Murray want to be rotating like they have been, but instead they’ve been forced to by injuries. That has to be maddening when trying to develop a run game that relies on consistency and rhythm. So far, injuries have caused the offense to have about as much consistency and rhythm as a game of musical chairs.

1. I feel like all five of these points could be about Ollie Gordon, but I won’t take the easy way out on you all. The sophomore Poke phenom is averaging a jaw dropping 7.71 yards per carry. That ranks 2nd nationally behind USC’s MarShawn Lloyd’s 7.74. I’m going to consider Gordon No. 1 in this scenario since he has 42(!) more carries than Lloyd, because for whatever reason Lincoln Riley stopped handing the ball off once he moved out West. Gordon’s running style is much less about shake than it is about power. He is the only back in the country with over 1,000 yards on the season so far, and he’s done it primarily running through defenders.

2. Point one can be a bit scary when you consider that Oklahoma’s defense hasn’t looked like world beaters the last two weeks and really struggled against Kansas on the ground. The good news? Oklahoma State’s style has much more in common with UCF’s running style than it does Kansas’s. Entering the OU game UCF was third nationally at 246.3 YPG while averaging nearly 6 YPC. OU held them to 149 yards on 3.6 YPC. KU gives a lot of different looks and formations in their run game. OSU looks a lot more similar to UCF and we played well against them. The tackling is going to have to dramatically improve if the defense wants to slow Gordon down, though. The Sooners slipped into the “hit instead of tackle” mistakes that plagued the 2022 unit. If the Sooners wrap up and put a muzzle on the yards after contact? This game could look like UCF from a run defense perspective. If that happens, Oklahoma wins by multiple scores.

3. A common knock on Brent Venables' defense is that it struggles against mobile quarterbacks. I would agree that it does. I would also propose that there isn’t a defensive coordinator at any level of the sport that says, "Oh, we have a mobile QB to defend this weekend? Heck yeah! My defense is built for mobile QB’s!” UCF's John Rhys Plumlee could extend a play laterally with his legs, but didn’t get downhill. KU's Jason Bean used his (probably) 4.4 speed to gain 62 yards on only 4 carries. Alan Bowman? Well, nobody is going to mistake him for Jason Bean anytime soon from a style standpoint. Getting him off of his spot DRAMATICALLY affects his accuracy. He remedies that by getting the ball out quickly, so the defense has to be dialed in to the quick pass game. I like our corners to make some contested plays and our defensive line to have a bounce back game against a statuesque trigger man in Bowman. Defenders tend to rush with a bit more confidence if they can count on the QB still being in the pocket when they get there.

4. The last time #FireLebby was trending on Twitter was after the SMU game at home. That win actually looks really good now, but fans had enough of the lack of vertical attack. While Dillon Gabriel threw four touchdowns that game, he did so while only compiling 176 passing yards. That was his low on the season until this Kansas game’s 171. After the SMU game, Lebby dialed up deep ball after deep ball against Tulsa. Sure, that was an inferior opponent and Kevin Wilson’s squad is not good, but Dillon threw for 421 yards and 5 scores with his highest yards-per-attempt number of the season. In some weird way, I think Lebby hears all the hate from this week and lets Dillon rip it against a Poke secondary that puts their corners on islands an awful lot. I’m thinking Dillon has his best game of the season against a P5 opponent this week.

5. Those of you that have paid attention to anything I’ve said here, in a podcast or on the radio know that I have immense respect for Brennan Presley's athleticism. It's a small part of the reason I wanted his younger brother Braylin to transfer to Oklahoma, is because his brother was considering a portal departure from Stillwater as well. Alas, Brennan stayed in black and orange, and it ended up being a fine choice for him as he leads the team by a healthy margin in both receiving touchdowns (5) and receptions (39). He will be attempting to extend his touchdown streak to four games this weekend. He has also ran for a touchdown in two of the last three games. They find unique ways to get the ball in his hands, so while the defense focuses on stopping Ollie Gordon, they cannot afford to lose sight of #80 because he will make them pay. He also returns punts and kickoffs effectively for the Pokes.

Each week we’ll see if anyone can nail the exact score. If you do, I’ll try and get Parker to send you a can of Olipop or something. (I have not discussed this with him, but I can at least try!)

No one hit the Kansas score, so off we go!

My prediction:

OU 38

OSU 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.

Most accurate member predictions last week:

@Hoodleehoo “Rushing TD’s from multiple OU players” — Three Sooners found pay dirt on the ground. “Both teams will have multiple turnovers” — Dillon had a pick, Jalil and Marcus Stripling both fumbled. Bean threw two picks. “Kansas will attempt 3+ 4th downs” — Kansas went 2 for 3 on 4th down attempts.

@bdubs6291 “OU rushes for over 250 yards” — Oklahoma rushed for a season high 269 yards, paced by Tawee Walker’s 146.

@Mattdj2002 “OU will not miss a kick” — Can’t miss one if you don’t kick one! Schmit made all of his XP’s as well when we actually kicked it.

@UnhitchtheWagon14 “Our leading rusher will have more yards than our leading receiver” — Tawee’s 146 nearly doubled up Drake Stoops’s 76.

@pacmule7 “OU gets two turnovers” — The defense picked off Jason Bean twice.

@LesWilson79 “Jovantae Barnes gets some carries” — Who would have thought that this would be bold in the preseason? But Barnes got his first carries since the TULSA GAME. “The defense causes two turnovers” — Bean was picked off twice.

@TravisSkol “Brenen Thompson catches a deep ball” — Brenen had one catch for 39 yards.

Here are my predictions for Bedlam:

1. Dillon Gabriel has 10+ carries. Unlocking the run game means Dillon taking off against a team that turns its back a TON in man coverage.

2. Trace Ford revenge. He’s had this game circled all year and even threw a couple shots towards Gundy on radio. I think he scores or causes a turnover.

3. Brenen Thompson catches TWO deep balls. Running this one back but doubling down. The speedster is back healthy this week, and I feel like he’s itching to get out there and show off the wheels.

Reminder: Please add your score prediction and bold predictions for the game.

Boomer Sooner!

Beat OSU!