Editor's note: This addition to OUInsider 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. This edition is only meal-prep since it is the season opener! 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.

The Sooners open the season against Temple at 6 p.m. Friday (ESPN).

1. Does the name Stan Drayton ring any bells? If you’ve loved the Sooners or hated Texas for any meaningful amount of time, it should. Drayton held the title of associate head coach, run game coordinator, and running backs coach at Texas under Tom Herman (2017-2020) and Steve Sarkisian (2021). He is credited with the development of Bijan Robinson and Keaontay Ingram, while also being the one who successfully transitioned Roschon Johnson from QB to RB. Stan enters his third season as head coach of the Temple Owls.

Before taking the head job, Drayton was about as successful as an assistant as you can be. As a recruiter he’s credited with bringing Cam Newton and the Pouncey Twins to Florida, Robinson to Texas and Brian Westbrook to Villanova. He’s won two national titles (Florida in 2006 and Ohio State in 2014) as a position coach. He likely would have been a head coach earlier but he left to coach RB’s for the Bears after the 2014 Buckeye title. In 2016 he coached rookie Jordan Howard to the second most rushing yards in the NFL. Who was first that year? Stan Drayton pupil Ezekiel Elliot. All of that is to say he’s been an absolute behemoth as a position coach.

Unfortunately for him none of that will help him Friday night in Norman. He took over a program from Rod Carey that went 3-9 overall (1-7 in the AAC) in 2021, only to follow that up with identical overall and conference records the last two years. I’m guessing another one-win conference campaign will land Drayton back on the coaching market. He will have many suitors.

2. Coach Drayton’s Oklahoma pregame press conference was a bit strange. He had an attitude with his own media. I’m not sure if there is history there or if he is just feeling the pressure of someone entering his third year without a four-win season to his name. What stood out to me initially was his vocal unwillingness to not name a starting quarterback. He DID say that there was a clear one, two, and three at the position. When a reporter asked for clarification Drayton replied, “That’s for us, not for y’all, I apologize." The reporter admitted that he may have asked the question the wrong way and tried AGAIN. Drayton dodged again with a look that read “how many times are you going to ask a question I won’t answer?"

Most assume it will be Brock Forrest, the redshirt junior transfer, under center. My suspicion? He knows that this Oklahoma defense is going to heat up whoever is in at quarterback and he wants to be able to make a change without having his heels dug in too deeply.

3. Of the starting 22, Drayton only mentioned two players that had “solidified” a starter role. Those two players were senior LB DJ Woodbury Sr. and senior SS Andreas Keaton. About halfway through the presser it became clear that coach was actively avoiding naming starters. Once it got awkward enough, he explained, "This is how we keep the edge on our kids. We don’t just anoint starting positions and invite complacency into the program. We’re not going to do that. These guys are going to fight and sharpen each others tools to get each other ready to play. Whoever prepares the best and embraces the gameplay the best are the guys that have earned the right to start.”

So he’s either a genius motivator or he has no clue who, if anybody, is very good. Why would he use the word “solidify” with the two he is naming starters, and the word “anoint” when talking about the idea of naming other starters? It doesn’t add up.

4. Since 2009, Temple has had a cool tradition involving single-digit jersey numbers. Traditionally, these 10 jerseys are assigned to the players that embody “Temple TUFF” on and off the field. This year (same as last) he left a number open that he will rotate. Of the nine players that actually received single digit jerseys, SIX of them are on defense. It is obvious he feels like this will be a defensively -ed football team. He’ll need every bit of it against OU offensive coordinator Seth Littrell, a man he knows well.

Drayton on the Sooner OC: “Seth Littrell has done a phenomenal job of taking what they’ve done under the previous coordinator. We saw him blend that personality into that Arizona game.”

5. When asked about Jackson Arnold, Drayton says “That was a very talented football player we saw in that bowl game.” But it’s not his quote that I want to discuss to round this out. While hosting CBS’s Josh Pate, FOX’s Joel Klatt discussed Oklahoma “moving on” from Dillon Gabriel to Arnold.

He explains: “I do believe it was a case of styles and fit. Dillon fits what Oregon wants to do more. Jackson Arnold fits what Oklahoma is built to do. You know with all of those guys, Andrel Anthony, and all those guys on the outside, they need to be a down-the-field passing team. That was not what Dillon Gabriel was going to do. When I did their game last year at Cincinnati, they won the game and I was just like ‘it doesn’t feel like a fit, I love what Dillon is doing and I love what the receivers are doing, but when you try and mesh them together it's like, 'Meh, I don’t know.’ That’s why I think Jackson Arnold is going to be a better fit for Oklahoma.”

I feel like that explains what a lot of people on this board felt last year. Dillon was putting up big numbers. Lebby’s offense was ranked very highly. Yet it never really felt right. I think it’s going to feel right this year.

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. (I have not discussed this with him, but I can at least try!)

My prediction: OU 55, Temple 7

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.

1. Five different players have a TFL/sack. Temple’s offensive skill is WR-heavy. I see them trying to go side-to-side to try and keep the Oklahoma front seven guessing. If they drop back too often? It may be pinned-back-ear time

2. Two true freshmen will score a touchdown. I considered including that one would be D/ ST, but I’ll stop short of that. I think you could see Taylor Tatum, either of the Zions, or a guy like Eli Bowen or Michael Boganowski find pay dirt.