Tag: Caleb Shaffer

USA TODAY Sports believes the Oklahoma Sooners could have TCU type run to playoff in 2023

After a down year in 2022, Paul Myerberg of USA TODAY Sports believes the Sooners have a chance to make a TCU-like run to the College Football Playoff in 2023.

The 2023 season about Oklahoma is all about improving upon what was a disappointing 2022 season. Their spring game provides the first glimpse of what could be this season. Though it’s hard to fully grasp what Oklahoma is going to be until we see them against Big 12 competition in the fall, the spring game will give us an idea of who will be significant players for the Sooners this season.

Though Oklahoma’s defense struggled last season, there’s no reason they can’t have a bounce-back year in 2023. Paul Myerberg of USA TODAY Sports believes the Sooners could go on a TCU-like run and return to the playoff.

The program’s first losing finish since 1998 should yield a noticeable rebound in Brent Venables’ second season. But how high can the Sooners climb? Venables has flipped the roster with a top-five recruiting class and another dozen transfers, including huge pickups such as offensive tackle Walter Rouse (Stanford), hybrid linebacker Dasan McCullough (Indiana) and edge rusher Trace Ford (Oklahoma State). But Oklahoma needs to beef up an average pass rush, develop a go-to receiver for quarterback Dillon Gabriel and sort out a rotation at running back and in the secondary. If Venables has things pointed in the right direction, the Sooners will benefit from a schedule has just four games outside of Oklahoma, one the neutral-site rivalry in Dallas against Texas. – Myerberg, USA TODAY Sports

The transfer portal class will have to be big-time for the Sooners. There’s a lot riding on players like [autotag]Walter Rouse[/autotag], [autotag]Dasan McCullough[/autotag], [autotag]Caleb Shaffer[/autotag], [autotag]Andrel Anthony[/autotag], [autotag]Rondell Bothroyd[/autotag], and [autotag]Austin Stogner[/autotag] to help raise the talent on the roster.

The Sooners have done an excellent job over the last couple of years on the recruiting trail, but most of the 2023 class won’t be ready to contribute in a significant way this year, and the 2022 class is still working to get on the field.

With the schedule the Sooners have, there’s a chance they could put themselves in a position to contend for the [autotag]College Football Playoff[/autotag]. But they won’t have a lot of room for error. Also, because of the schedule they have. THere aren’t a lot of “statement games” on the schedule in 2023, so they won’t be able to afford multiple losses. Given the depth of the Big 12 and that Oklahoma hasn’t had a season with one loss or fewer since 2019, a playoff berth is possible, but a tough road.

If the Sooners can make significant improvements on the defensive side of the ball while maintaining their scoring level from a season ago, they’ll have as good a shot as any to make a run at a playoff berth. But until we see the defense take that step forward, it’s difficult to project Oklahoma as a playoff team.

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5 things we’re watching for at Oklahoma’s spring game

Oklahoma has its spring game this weekend, and we’ve got five things we’ll be looking at for Oklahoma’s spring debut of team 129.

Team 129 in Oklahoma’s illustrious football history takes the field publically for the first time on Saturday afternoon. It’s a game and weekend that means a lot to the team, staff, fanbase, and recruits.

Oklahoma comes into this spring off the heels of its worst season in over 20 years. The Sooners were a rough watch at times. Despite that, they still found themselves in a bowl game against a talented Florida State team.

Oklahoma lost the likes of [autotag]Brayden Willis[/autotag], [autotag]Eric Gray[/autotag], [autotag]Anton Harrison[/autotag], [autotag]Wanya Morris[/autotag], [autotag]Marvin Mims[/autotag], [autotag]Jalen Redmond[/autotag], and [autotag]DaShaun White[/autotag] to the NFL Draft process.

The Sooners saw players transfer out but also welcomed in a number of players from their top-five recruiting class. The Sooners attacked the portal with some serious intensity bringing in impact transfers on both sides of the ball.

It’s now time for the world to at least get a glimpse of some of these new Sooners while getting a chance to see how the returning players improved from last year.

Here are our top five storylines heading into the spring game.

Oklahoma landed one of USA TODAY Sports best transfer classes

USA TODAY Sports Paul Myerburg identified Oklahoma’s transfer classes as one of the best in the country this offseason.

The Oklahoma Sooners made a concerted effort to add talent and experience on both sides of the football in the 2023 transfer portal. The Sooners lost a lot of talent to the NFL in [autotag]Anton Harrison[/autotag], [autotag]Wanya Morris[/autotag], [autotag]Chris Murray[/autotag], [autotag]Eric Gray[/autotag], [autotag]Marvin Mims[/autotag], and [autotag]DaShaun White[/autotag]. [autotag]David Ugwoegbu[/autotag] is headed to Houston, so the Sooners have a lot of vacated snaps to fill.

According to USA TODAY’s Paul Myerburg, the Oklahoma Sooners brought in one of the best transfer portal classes in the country this cycle. [autotag]Dasasn McCullough[/autotag] was named as the Sooners’ best transfer addition.

This is another solid transfer class for [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag], this time joining one of the top-ranked traditional recruiting classes in the FBS. Stanford transfer [autotag]Walter Rouse[/autotag] pencils into one of the open spots at left or right tackle after spending four season as the Cardinal’s starter on the blind side. After one season at South Carolina, tight end [autotag]Austin Stogner[/autotag] has rejoined the program and figures to be the Sooners’ top option at the position. Former Michigan wide receiver [autotag]Andrel Anthony[/autotag] had moments of brilliance with the Wolverines and will have the chance to play a major role as OU tries to replace roughly two-thirds of last year’s receiving yardage. Lastly, (Dasan) McCullough was one of the top freshmen defenders in the Power Five in 2022. – Myerburg, USA TODAY Sports

The Sooners added several impact players on both sides of the ball. Including McCullough, the Sooners landed several defensive front players that can effect opposing passing games and help solidify their run defense. McCullough is rumored to be slotted in at Cheetah for the Sooners, but Oklahoma will utilize his pass rush ability in their blitz packages.

[autotag]Rondell Bothroyd[/autotag] comes to Oklahoma with 13 sacks and 24.5 tackles for loss over the last two seasons at Wake Forest. [autotag]Trace Ford[/autotag] had a productive first two years in Stillwater before being limited by injuries. Oklahoma also added [autotag]Jacob Lacey[/autotag] and [autotag]Davon Sears[/autotag] to help bolster the interior. Lacey comes from Notre Dame, and Sears was being pursued by Tennessee and Penn State before choosing Oklahoma.

Safety [autotag]Reggie Pearson[/autotag] rounds out the defensive additions for the Sooners. He brings a lot of experience and big-hitting ability that can add some extra physicality to the Sooners’ defense.

On offense, Oklahoma made important additions along the offensive line with Rouse and guard [autotag]Caleb Shaffer[/autotag]. Both players could slide into the starting lineup and bring a ton of experience to the offensive line room. Both were four-year starters at their previous stops and join an experienced group that brings back [autotag]Andrew Raym[/autotag] and [autotag]McKade Mettauer[/autotag] along the offensive front as well. [autotag]Tyler Guyton[/autotag] projects to start at right tackle after playing the swing tackle role for Oklahoma in 2022.

[autotag]Andrel Anthony[/autotag] adds another talented wide receiver to their wide receiver competition opposite [autotag]Jalil Farooq[/autotag]. Anthony has some deep-threat ability that will give him the opportunity to be an option to replace Marvin Mims.

Then there’s [autotag]Austin Stogner[/autotag]. The returning Oklahoma Sooners tight end will have an opportunity for a [autotag]Brayden Willis[/autotag]-type breakout season in 2023. Though the Sooners are a little deeper now that [autotag]Jason Llewellyn[/autotag] and [autotag]Kaden Helms[/autotag] are in their second years in Norman, Stogner will get a vast majority of the opportunities this season.

Time will tell just how impactful this transfer portal class will be, but on paper, the Sooners landed a strong group of players that will be key to the Sooners 2023 season.

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How do Oklahoma and the Big 12 stack up in ESPN’s returning production for 2023?

Taking a look at how the Big 12 stacks up in ESPN’s returning production for the 2023 season.

Winter workouts are underway, and spring ball is right around the corner. It’s that time of the football schedule when teams are figuring out how to deal with the turnover they endured with NFL draft declarations and transfer portal departures.

Turnover is the name of the game in college football. The teams that consistently win are the teams that have had the best recruiting classes, which has allowed them to withstand that turnover.

Each offseason, ESPN’s Bill Connelly takes a look at the roster overhauls to determine which teams have the greatest amount of returning production (ESPN+). Returning production has had an impact in his SP+ ratings.

On average, teams returning at least 80% of production improve by about 5.8 adjusted points per game in the following season’s SP+ ratings. That’s a pretty significant bump! For a team ranked 25th in SP+ last year, adding 5.8 points to its rating would have bumped it to 10th. And in the past two seasons that weren’t majorly impacted by a pandemic (2019 and 2022), the average improvement for teams at 80% or higher is 6.8 points. – Connelly, ESPN

Not all programs are alike, however. Alabama, which ranked 125 in returning production, will be able to withstand losses a bit easier because they’ve recruited better than other teams in the bottom 33. We’ll have to wait and see if teams like TCU and Cincinnati are able to overcome their lack of returning production. Interestingly, those two schools each appeared in the College Football Playoff in the last two seasons.

Here’s how Connelly weighs the offense:

Broken out by position/player, you’re looking at roughly 29% for the quarterback, 6% for the running back and each of four wide receivers and/or tight ends and 9% for each offensive lineman. With each year of data, offensive line snaps become a heavier piece of the equation, which I find interesting. – Connelly, ESPN

So based on his equation, the Sooners lost 27% along the offensive line with the departures of [autotag]Anton Harrison[/autotag], [autotag]Wanya Morris[/autotag], and [autotag]Chris Murray[/autotag]. Toss in another 18% for the losses of [autotag]Eric Gray[/autotag], [autotag]Marvin Mims[/autotag], and [autotag]Brayden Willis[/autotag], and the Sooners have lost roughly 45% of their offensive production from a year ago.

Now the Sooners did welcome transfer additions [autotag]Walter Rouse[/autotag] and [autotag]Caleb Shaffer[/autotag] to replace two of their three departing offensive line starters, but given that Shaffer is coming from the Group of Five, his snaps don’t count as much as [autotag]Chris Murray[/autotag]’s.

Conversely, here’s how he evaluates the defensive side of the ball.

Perhaps surprisingly, turnover in the back of the defense causes far more of a shift in a team’s SP+ rating from year to year than turnover up front. By position, defensive backs make up about 46% of the defensive formula, while linebackers are at 40% and the defensive line is at 14%. – Connelly, ESPN

The Sooners’ biggest departures were at the linebacker level with [autotag]David Ugwoegbu[/autotag] (transfer portal) and [autotag]DaShaun White[/autotag] (NFL) moving on. They also lost [autotag]Jalen Redmond[/autotag] and [autotag]Jeffery Johnson[/autotag], but according to Connelly’s metrics, those snaps don’t weigh as heavily.

Oklahoma added some pieces along the defensive front to help bolster its pass rush and mitigate the losses. However, they are hoping for their young linebacker corp to take a step forward in 2023 to replace their veteran backers.

Here’s a look at how the Big 12 stacks up in terms of ESPN’s

Oklahoma’s Caleb Shaffer an underrated transfer portal add per On3

New Oklahoma Sooners offensive guard Caleb Shaffer has been named an underrated transfer portal add by On3

With offensive guard Chris Murray following tackles Anton Harrison and Wanya Morris to the NFL draft, the Oklahoma Sooners will have new faces on most of the offensive line for 2023. One of those new faces will be Miami (Ohio) transfer Caleb Shaffer.

The former three-star recruit has been starting for the RedHawks since his true-freshman season. He entered the transfer portal as a graduate transfer.

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Brent Venables and his staff have been quite busy in the transfer portal, so landing Shaffer perhaps slipped through the cracks. Well, the people at On3 noticed. Mike Huguenin named Shaffer as an underrated transfer portal add by Bill Bedenbaugh.

Caleb Shaffer (6-5, 333) was a four-year starter at guard for the RedHawks, earning a starting job early in his true freshman season and never losing it. OU has a vacancy at one guard spot with the departure of Chris Murray, and Shaffer should be considered the leading contender. OU also nabbed Walter Rouse (Stanford) out of the portal, and he figures to start at right tackle.- Mike Huguenin, On3

Keeping Dillon Gabriel upright in the pocket plays a key role in keeping him healthy. If Shaffer ends up starting at guard, he will end up being a vital part of that for the Sooners.

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College coaches name Oklahoma Sooners a winner in the transfer portal

College coaches pick the Oklahoma Sooners as one of the winners of the transfer portal per ESPN.

The Sooners had to do something this offseason to improve the talent on both sides of the ball. [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag] and his staff did just that through the first stage of the [autotag]2022-2023 transfer portal[/autotag].

They’ve added impact players like [autotag]Dasan McCullough[/autotag], [autotag]Rondell Bothroyd[/autotag], [autotag]Reggie Pearson[/autotag], [autotag]Trace Ford[/autotag], [autotag]Jacob Lacey[/autotag], and [autotag]Davon Sears[/autotag] to a defense that needed an infusion of talent. In particular, they needed to add more pass rushers to give them more consistency.

Oklahoma’s also done a good job on the offensive side of the ball. To help mitigate the loss of [autotag]Anton Harrison[/autotag], [autotag]Wanya Morris[/autotag], and [autotag]Chris Murray[/autotag] along the offensive line, Oklahoma brought in [autotag]Walter Rouse[/autotag] and [autotag]Caleb Shaffer[/autotag] to add to a line that will feature [autotag]Andrew Raym[/autotag], [autotag]McKade Mettauer[/autotag], and [autotag]Tyler Guyton[/autotag] in 2023. The Sooners also added [autotag]Andrel Anthony[/autotag] from Michigan and brought back [autotag]Austin Stogner[/autotag] to be the presumptive starter at tight end.

The work Venables and his staff have done to improve the talent has garnered the attention of college coaches around the sport who named the Sooners as one of the winners of the transfer portal, according to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg (ESPN+).

“They struggled so badly last year,” a Big 12 assistant said. “The portal, if you do it the right way, it can change things. They’ve taken a good hold in the portal.”

Coaches expect edge rusher Dasan McCullough, a transfer from Indiana, to immediately impact the unit. Oklahoma emphasized its defensive line in the portal, adding Oklahoma State end Trace Ford, Wake Forest end Rondell Bothroyd and Notre Dame tackle Jacob Lacey. Former Sooners tight end Austin Stogner will return after a season at South Carolina, where he had 20 receptions. Wide receiver is an area Oklahoma likely will continue to pursue in the portal when it reopens. – Adam Rittenberg

The Sooners currently sit eighth in the nation in the 247Sports transfer portal rankings after the first period of the portal.

This coaching staff has done a really nice job at attacking weaknesses in the portal to give themselves an opportunity to improve upon their 6-7 season from 2022. It won’t be an easy task, but in a wide-open Big 12, the Sooners will be a Big 12 contender late in the season.

If there’s one thing this coaching staff has shown they can do, it’s recruit. Whether it’s in the 2023 recruiting class or the transfer portal, Brent Venables and his staff have done a fantastic job in the talent acquisition department.

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Oklahoma Sooners land Stanford offensive tackle transfer Walter Rouse

Oklahoma beefs up its offensive line with Stanford transfer offensive tackle Walter Rouse.

Oklahoma has been hot in the transfer portal. That didn’t stop Saturday afternoon when transfer offensive tackle Walter Rose, a former member of the Stanford Cardinal, committed to the Sooners.

Rouse, a seasoned collegiate tackle, has one year of eligibility remaining and fits a need for Oklahoma’s offensive line in the wake it losing both tackles to the NFL draft. Tyler Guyton looks set to replace Wanya Morris at right tackle. The left tackle spot vacated by Anton Harrison could be a battle between the incoming Rouse, Jacob Sexton, Savion Byrd or Aaryn Parks.

 

Rouse was committed to Nebraska and looked set to enroll at mid-year, but Bill Bedenbaugh flipped the offensive tackle to the Sooners. Rouse started 39 games with over 2,552 snaps at left tackle in David Shaw’s run-heavy offense. Rouse also tied for 12th in fewest pressures allowed in the Pac-12 last season and allowed five sacks. He was penalized once in 2022.

Rouse’s commitment gives the Sooners their 11th portal commitment of the offseason. With Rouse and Caleb Shaffer on the way, the Sooners have stabilized the two spots along the offensive line that desperately needed a veteran presence.

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Oklahoma Sooners land transfer offensive linemen Caleb Shaffer

Oklahoma continues its portal shopping spree by adding grad transfer offensive lineman Caleb Shaffer from Miami of Ohio.

[autotag]Bill Bedenbaugh[/autotag] is not satisfied with his offensive line room as the Sooners prepare for the 2023 season. It’s hard to blame him as the Oklahoma Sooners lost two starters, [autotag]Anton Harrison[/autotag] and [autotag]Wanya Morris[/autotag], to the NFL Draft process and Chris Murray to graduation.

Instead of waiting idly, Bedenbaugh went portal shopping and helped land interior offensive linemen Caleb Shaffer out of Miami-Ohio. Shaffer announced his commitment to Oklahoma on Thursday evening.

Shaffer projects best as a guard and marks the third time in the last four years that Oklahoma’s offensive line coach has landed a transfer guard in the offseason. Previous guards [autotag]Chris Murray[/autotag] and [autotag]McKade Mettauer[/autotag] ended up becoming starters for Bedenbaugh, and it’s quite possible that Shaffer could become the next starter for the Sooners at guard.

He has a wealth of experience, with 35 starts and over 2,200 snaps to his collegiate resume. Shaffer was an Academic All-MAC player as well. Since he is a grad transfer, he will have one year of eligibility.

Shaffer’s commitment gives Oklahoma a wealth of options if senior [autotag]Chris Murray[/autotag] is not granted another year. It also allows younger interior linemen like [autotag]Savion Byrd[/autotag], [autotag]Jake Taylor[/autotag], and others to continue developing at a steady pace.

Shaffer won’t be given a starting job, but he’ll undoubtedly be in the mix for one all offseason. Shaffer also marks just the second offensive transfer portal addition, along with the return of tight end Austin Stogner.

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Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. Let us know your thoughts, comment on this story below. Join the conversation today. You can also follow Bryant on Twitter @thatmanbryant.