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.

1. WOOF. That was embarrassing. There is no sugar-coating it. You can’t even improve it by drizzling hot honey on it. But that’s the “what”, not the “why”. I could vomit out a bunch of stats that show every perspective of just how impotent this offense is performing but that would not be useful. What I do know is this: No matter how bad the offense looked against Texas, I’m pro-leaving Hawkins in and pro-letting Seth finish this season with an understanding that if it doesn’t improve, he’s gone. Last week I asked this: The only question is this: [“Can Littrell install his offense on a bye week?”. I suppose we’ll see.] I was told that the offense installed around fifty new plays during the bye week. I was told they got rid of RPO. For those of you that don’t know, Lebby/JJF brought the RPO influence. Seth has never been known to run RPO at any of his previous stops. I took this as a change for the better. Now, I wish they would have added half that amount and really drilled them in, but it is what it is. I think an eventual (or sudden) move of Seth to OC/TE and Kevin Johns to Co-OC/QB makes a bunch of sense. I’d like to hear your thoughts. If you say “FIRE SETH” please come with your proposed plans for the rest of this season and next.

2. Brent Venables came under a bit of fire from the fanbase when he said that he was most disappointed in the defense on Saturday. At face value that DOES seem like a wild thing to say after your offense failed to score a touchdown. But after the emotions passed I think his answer was relative to expectations. He has been in practice the past two weeks. He knew that the offense wasn’t going to be able to run a new scheme efficiently and that the team would have to lean on the defense. I think he was legitimately shocked by the bad tackling. There were times that it looked like our safeties and linebackers were sliding down fireman’s poles or trying to corral a greased pig. I haven’t seen anything like that all year. Now, some of that is due to Texas’s talent, but most of the misses tackles that I noticed were inexcusable. This game was 7-3 with 2:21 left in the first half with OU set to get the ball to start the second half. Then Tre Wisner put Billy Bowman on absolute skates and Woodi Washington got spun around. RSJ almost saved the day by forcing a fumble but Silas Bolden was already in a full sprint to celebrate and fell on top of the ball in the endzone. Upon a rewatch I’m not going to pile on Danny’s effort for that because once he saw the ball come out he started sprinting. I think when he saw Bolden flying he thought he might be able to knock him out of the end zone for a touchback but Bolden just made a play. Also, Silas Bolden ran a 10.61 100M in high school. The kid can absolutely fly. On their next offensive snap Tre Wisner broke two attempts from our two best safeties to take it to the house. Robert Spears-Jennings had Wisner dead to rights for a short gain at the 35 yard line, then after he slid off of him Billy missed a less likely tackle but still one he’s made in his career. After those two scores the rout was on.

3. In last week’s article I highlighted the turnover margin as what I believed to be the most important stat going in to the matchup. I cited Oklahoma’s turnover margin ranks in the SEC and Hawkins’s care for the football through six quarters of SEC play. When Billy Bowman picked off Quinn Ewers to start the game I thought OU’s path to victory was clear of debris. Then, with the first half winding down in a 14-3 contest, Micheal Hawkins Jr. escaped up the middle towards midfield. If he’s tackled there Oklahoma has a 2nd in 2 from about midfield with just under two minutes and two timeouts left. But instead he puts the ball on the ground. Unless you’re choosing your own adventure here, you know what happened next. With even a field goal on that drive you can cut it to one score before Texas can adjust to the new scheme, and you get the ball to start the second half. The sad reality is that the offense can’t afford any mistakes if they want to win games the rest of the year. The next fumble by Taylor Tatum did not result in any Texas points, but it further stripped any morsel of positive momentum Oklahoma could have taken into the halftime locker room.

4. This next point is with a deep understanding that hindsight is 20/20. I also understand that this particular change would not have resulted in an Oklahoma victory. I thought Zach Schmit earned the start after his performance in Auburn, AL. He went two for two in a tight, high pressure game in a hostile environment. I was also told before the game that the staff could have trick play packages with Zach due to his athleticism that they don’t have with Keltner. Now, this person could be wrong, but I don’t think its farfetched. How much different is this game if Oklahoma bangs a field goal through after that Quinn Ewers interception? Is it as simple as 34-6 vs 34-3? Maybe. But momentum is a crazy thing in a rivalry game. Points come at a premium with our current offense. I would play the kicker that hasn’t missed any field goals this year (or extra points) that offers you some wrinkles in the trick play department. I’ll be interested to watch this moving forward.

Updated stats:

Keltner 12/13 XP 7/9 FG

Schmit 1/1 XP 2/2 FG

5. I’m going to try and end this ugliness on a good note. But I will admit that trying to find the good parts of that beatdown is like trying to pick up a turd by the “clean” end. During last week’s Auburn review, I heaped praise on Eli Bowen. I cited these stats:

Through 5 games (per PFF)

- Highest defensive grade among all OU CB’s

- Highest coverage grade among all OU CB’s

Well, there’s no way that he had a repeat great performance against the #1 team in the country, right? Not against THOSE wideouts, RIGHT? WRONG. Eli Bowen balled out.

Against Texas (per PFF)

- Highest defensive grade among all OU players

- Highest run-defense grade among all OU players

- Second highest coverage grade among all OU players

- Highest graded true freshman in the ENTIRE COUNTRY

We may have a starting lockdown corner secured for the next 3-4 years. Now we just need to get Gentry healthy and we’ll really be cooking.

1. One of the reasons to feel confident in Oklahoma’s chances against South Carolina on Saturday is that the Sooners are tied for 10th nationally in sacks per game. One of the reasons to lack confidence in Oklahoma’s chances against South Carolina on Saturday is that the Gamecocks are who they are tied with for that statistic. They are led by 6’5 254lb senior Kyle Kennard. Kennard has racked up 7.5 sacks which is good for fourth nationally. Recently 247Sports mocked him into the middle of the first round of the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft. Additionally, Oklahoma will have to deal with talented youngster Dylan Stewart. Stewart was a consensus five-star EDGE and when he’s not making news for emptying an imaginary clip on Jaxson Dart, he’s terrorizing quarterbacks. Michael Hawkins Jr. going from having to deal with Ant Hill Jr. and Collin Simmons to Kennard and Stewart is about as rough as it can get. We may need some 22 personnel STAT.

2. South Carolina's offense is guided by talented dual threat freshman LaNorris Sellers. This kid is an absolute LOAD at 6’3 242lbs. He’s only thrown for more than 170 yards once this season, and that was against the Swiss cheese defense of the Alabama Crimson Tide. He has also thrown an interception in four straight games coming into this contest. If the Oklahoma defense can corral his legs, they shouldn’t have too many issues against his arm. The current state of Oklahoma’s offense will all but require the defense to force turnovers, so there is a path to that with Sellers.

3. There have been discussions this week on message boards, social media threads, and even a press conference about the Oklahoma quarterback situation. In this house, we support Michael Hawkins Jr. to remain Oklahoma’s quarterback barring injury. Whether you’d like to believe it or not, even with that atrocious Texas performance, Hawkins is still outperforming Arnold in every meaningful metric that I could find. He’s also doing so against much better competition. Longest pass? Hawkins. Three out of the seasons four longest passes? Hawkins. Turnovers? Hawkins. Completion percentage? Hawkins. When it comes to the run game I don’t have to dive in to that. I think the offensive line gets another week to gel, and I think the young gunslinger watches the film to iron out his miscues in Dallas against a talented Texas team. I trust the offense to look significantly better this week. Is that just the sunshine talking? Maybe. It is beautiful outside.

4. I am probably the loudest critic of Brent Venables when it specifically comes to discipline in his football program. Brent is a very disciplined man, there’s no denying that. But we’ve seen too many instances in the BV-era where the team had dumb, costly penalties, or had impactful “brain farts”. There is absolutely no room for that against Shane Beamer. The term “Beamer Ball” was coined when his father, Frank Beamer, was head coach at Virginia Tech. Frank appointed himself Special Teams Coordinator and drilled his players on faking and blocking punts. The overall philosophy of Beamer Ball is understanding that you can score no matter which “side” of the ball is on the field. His son Shane employed that philosophy at Oklahoma the he ran Special Teams and Tight Ends rooms. He’s absolutely employing it at South Carolina. Look no further than punter Kai Kroger. Kai has attempted eight passes in his career. He’s completed seven of them. Three of them went for touchdowns. So Oklahoma will have to be ultra disciplined against Beamer Ball, or they will end up looking stupid while they lose a football game.

5. Before last week I would have told you that Rocket Sanders was nothing to worry about because Oklahoma’s defense had been absolutely stellar against the run. But that was before Tre Wisner started bouncing Sooner defenders off the grass like basketballs. The Longhorn preseason third stringer ran for a gaudy 9.1 yards per carry. They averaged more yards per Wisner rushing attempt than they did per Quinn Ewers pass attempt. So Rocket Sanders is absolutely worth paying attention to for the Gamecocks. A member of the 2021 Arkansas class that featured SIX Okies, Sanders quickly made a national name for himself rushing for 578 yards and 5 TD’s as a true freshman. His sophomore year the 6’2 225lb back absolutely blew up. He finished 2nd in the SEC in rushing yards with 1,443 yards. He transferred to South Carolina for his senior season and he’s been working back to true form from injury. He lit up a good LSU defense for 143 yards and 2 TD’s on only 19 carries. He will make that look like child’s play against Oklahoma if the tackling doesn’t return to form immediately.

My prediction:

OU 21

South Carolina 17

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:

THERE WERE NONE

IT WAS ALL BAD

My predictions this week:

Oklahoma offense scores three touchdowns. This is sad that it’s bold, but I think they find a way.

Oklahoma holds South Carolina under 4.0 YPC. After allowing Texas to rush for 5.9 YPC this would feel bold.