Projecting a Freshman and 4 sophomores to start on the OLine.
King vs Hurt, just as big a story. A win in Norman would be HUGE!
It could put King in an early Heisman race.
The defense Grinch inherits is relatively young, and OU returns almost all of its starters from last season. Grinch is a 3-4 guy who also sprinkles in some four-man fronts and makes heavy use of a Jack linebacker and a nickel back, so, schematically at least, things might look largely the same in 2019 as they did last season.
On special teams, Oklahoma must replace kicker/punter/kickoff specialist Austin Seibert, who has done all three jobs for the last four years.
https://thespun.com/big-12/oklahoma-sooners/oklahoma-qb-battle-jalen-hurts-tanner-mordecai
Jalen Hurts didnât transfer to Oklahoma to ride the bench. The former Alabama star expects to be the Sooners starter come Week 1, after leaving behind the program at which he had so much success.
He wonât just be handed the job though. Right now, he is technically in a quarterback battle with Tanner Mordecai.
Oklahoma also brings in the nationâs No. 1 2019 quarterback in Spencer Rattler. He wonât be in Norman until the summer though, so it would be asking a ton for him to win the job as a true freshman, given the competition.
We are going to win this game and I will be there to witness that.
Hurts made a nice first impression on the Sooners fan base, finishing a clean 11-of-14 passing for 174 yards as his Red team prevailed 35-14 over the White. He passed for one touchdown, finding running back Kennedy Brooks for a 6-yard TD.
âA very game-like setting,â Hurts said during his postgame exchange with media members. âIâm learning my way around, but overall, I think it was a good, productive day for the team.â
Oklahoma returns 10 defensive players who started at least one game last season and also looks to have good talent â the result of improved recruiting over the past few years. But talent and scheme arenât the most important things Grinch has to change. He has to fix an underlying culture that has festered the past few years and showed up on the field.
âI think itâs all tied in together,â Riley said. âFirst is kind of changing the culture and the mentality. And once you change that, players are going to develop faster, schemes are going to look better. Itâs all tied in and it all affects each part.
âBut I wanted somebody that was going to start with culture and mentality. I mean, that was the most important thing to me by far. And then I felt like if I had somebody good, then I would go study scheme and all that. And thatâs how I went about the evaluation process with him and a few others.â
This year, the only returning starter on the offensive line is sophomore center Creed Humphrey, who started 12 games last season. This is by far the fewest career starts returning since Bill Bedenbaugh became the Soonersâ offensive line coach in 2013 â and actually the fewest for any Oklahoma team since at least 2006, when three linemen returned with a combined 15 starts between them.
And not only is Bedenbaugh replacing 80 percent of his starters, heâs replacing 80 percent of the starters from what was the best offensive line in college football. The Sooners won the 2018 Joe Moore Award, given annually to the offensive line âthat best displays toughness, effort, teamwork, consistency, technique, and âfinishing.â â Oklahoma ranked first in the FBS last season averaging 6.57 average yards per carry and 20th in sacks per game allowed (1.36).
One of five returners on the line is a recipe for disaster, even for Oklahoma. Expect the Sooners to be vulnerable this year.
Especially in that 1st game.
If Holgorsen is correct, and D-line will be a strength, then we need to take advantage of that green OU O-line and harass the Hell out of that QB!!!
so pumped for this game
This is DK4âs big chance to shine
Relax, folks. OU obviously has one the best OL coaches in the business and they get highly rated recruits.