Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
The Big 12 could be one of the best coaching conferences.
Some of the top head coaches and strategists come from the Big 12 conference. Continue reading “Ranking the Big 12 head football coaches ahead of the 2022 season”
Steve Sarkisian is tasked with using his team’s best position groups to create matchup problems for opponents.
Styles make fights. The Texas Longhorns football season will hinge on how well they match up with their scheduled opponents. Continue reading “Texas Football: Five positional matchups to look forward to in 2022”
Tom Fornelli ranked each of the power five coaches 1-65, where did the Big 12’s coaches land on the list?
The Big 12 welcomes three new coaches to its ranks in 2022. Brent Venables at Oklahoma, Sonny Dykes at TCU, and Joey McGuire at Texas Tech. Each come in with different expectations and experiences.
Dykes has 12 years of head coaching experience, including four at the Power Five. Venables has been a defensive coordinator for more than 20 years at Oklahoma and Clemson, winning three national titles, and learning under some of the legends of the game. McGuire, a high school coaching legend, spent time on Dave Aranda’s staff but hasn’t been a coordinator at the college level.
There’s no right path to a head coaching gig and the Big 12’s coaches come from a vast array of experiences. Chris Klieman was dominant at FCS North Dakota State. Steve Sarkisian had stops at USC and Washington before resurrecting his career as the offensive coordinator for Alabama. Dave Aranda rode LSU’s 2019 national title success to his first head coaching job at Baylor. Lance Leipold took over at Kansas without much time to prep for the 2021 season. Mike Gundy and Matt Campbell have been mainstays of the conference. Campbell has been a head coach for 11 seasons, including the last six at Iowa State while Gundy has been the head coach at Oklahoma State for the last 17 seasons.
It’s an interesting cast of characters in the Big 12, but how do they stack up compared to the rest of the Power Five. Tom Fornelli of CBS Sports ranked all 65 head coaches ahead of the 2021 season.
You can take a look at the coaches ranked 26-65 and the top 25 from Tom Fornelli and CBS Sports.
Three out of four Athlon Sports analysts believe the Oklahoma Sooners to be the favorites in the Big 12 in 2022.
After a spring that left many observers feeling positive about the Sooners, Oklahoma has emerged once again as the favorites to win the Big 12. Not really a surprise considering they’ve won the conference more than anyone since its inception. Even after they depart for the SEC, it will take decades for anyone to match the 14 conference titles Oklahoma has won since 1996.
Oklahoma has as many conference titles as the other eight teams to win the Big 12. Remove Texas A&M, Colorado, and Nebraska who left in the last round of realignment and the Sooners have four more conference championships than the nine remaining members of the Big 12 combined.
Three out of four analysts over at Athlon Sports picked the Oklahoma Sooners as the favorites to win the Big 12. Here’s what Allen Kenney had to say about the Sooners. Allen Kenney, Ben Weinrib, and Mark Ross feel good about the Oklahoma Sooners’ chances of winning the conference in 2022.
The confidence they have in a team that lost a ton this offseason comes from their confidence in Brent Venables as a football coach and Dillon Gabriel at quarterback. Here’s a snippet of what Weinrib had to say about the Sooners.
Brent Venables was about as strong of a hire as the Sooners could have hoped for, as he’s intimately familiar with the program. And for all that the team lost through the transfer portal, they did bring in potentially the best quarterback in the conference in Dillon Gabriel. – Weinrib, Athlon Sports
In addition to their new quarterback and their new head coach reinvigorating a program that was “close” but seemingly drifting further from national title contention, the schedule plays out in the Sooners’ favor in 2022.
OU also has a favorable schedule in ’22 that will bring Baylor, Kansas State and Oklahoma State to Norman. It all points to a spot in the conference championship game for the Sooners, at minimum. – Kenney, Athlon Sports
The lone dissenting opinion comes from Steve Lassan who thinks the Baylor Bears should be the favorites.
I could make a case for a couple of teams here, but at the end of spring practice, I’d go Baylor over Oklahoma and Oklahoma State for the top spot. Texas and Kansas State are intriguing wild-card teams that could push for a trip to the conference title game if things break right. The Bears aren’t without concerns, however. Coach Dave Aranda’s team lost defensive standouts Terrel Bernard (LB) and Jalen Pitre (DB), while the offense lost its top three statistical receivers and running back Abram Smith. Also, Baylor had a plus-12 turnover margin and won four games by one score last season. Those numbers tend to hint at regression the next year. However, Oklahoma is in transition under its new staff, and Oklahoma State loses quite a bit of talent on defense and has a few gaps to fill up front and at the skill spots on offense. Texas doesn’t lack for talent, but can coach Steve Sarkisian find the right answers along the offensive line and on defense? This is a wide-open conference, and with uncertainty running high, I’ll trust Aranda to push the right buttons once again this year. – Lassan, Athlon Sports
While Oklahoma may be considered the favorites by many to win the Big 12, Baylor, Oklahoma State, and Texas will have their say in the conference title race as well. As Lassan points out, Baylor may experience some regression, but they’re still a good team and may have an upgraded quarterback situation going from Gerry Bohanon to Blake Shapen.
Oklahoma experienced a lot of turnover from a defense that wasn’t as good as it should have been in 2022. Namely, the losses of [autotag]Nik Bonitto[/autotag], [autotag]Isaiah Thomas[/autotag], [autotag]Perrion Winfrey[/autotag], [autotag]Brian Asamoah[/autotag], and [autotag]Delarrin Turner-Yell[/autotag], who will be playing on Sundays this fall. Throw in the transfer of [autotag]Pat Fields[/autotag] to Stanford and that’s a ton of experience and production out the door.
That’s not to say the Sooners can’t improve upon a defense that finished 76th in yards per game and 60th in points per game in 2022. If the potential is matched with production, the Sooners’ defense will be as good as any in the Big 12 this season.
Marcus Stripling, Ethan Downs, and Reggie Grimes will be tough to stop off the edge. Jalen Redmond will be a force in the middle. The Sooners still have a strong secondary with [autotag]Woodi Washington[/autotag] and [autotag]D.J. Graham[/autotag], [autotag]Key Lawrence[/autotag], and [autotag]Justin Broiles[/autotag] coming back. Throw in a scheme that won’t sit back and let quarterbacks get comfortable, and the Sooners’ defense should be able to answer all the questions in Venables’ first year in Norman.
[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbz7cqqgxy50qwt player_id=none image=https://soonerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[listicle id=63100]
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.
With spring ball concluded, the Oklahoma Sooners see a slight bump in 247Sports top 25 power rankings.
Spring ball has come and gone and the attention of the college football world turns to the 2022 season. This means, we get more “way-too-early” power rankings. In ESPN’s latest rankings, the Sooners moved up three spots and now Oklahoma’s seen another slight bump. This time in 247Sports post-spring power rankings.
Over at 247Sports, they polled their college writers to update their top 25 power rankings after spring ball and the Oklahoma Sooners moved up two spots from No. 12 to No. 10.
Our voters are bullish on the Sooners as a “good” team, but maybe not national championship contender material just yet under [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag]. Much of that overall worth hingers on his defense’s performance in Year 1 along with the progression of UCF transfer quarterback [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag], who takes over for the departed [autotag]Caleb Williams[/autotag] under center. Oklahoma moved up two spots from its previous ranking after a better-than-expected spring. One thing is obvious surrounding this year’s squad in Norman — the fanbase is jazzed up and ready for a new era of Oklahoma football judging by the spring-game attendance numbers. – Brad Crawford, 247Sports
The Oklahoma Sooners are the highest-ranked Big 12 team, coming in just ahead of the Baylor Bears at No. 11 according to 247Sports. The Bears certainly appear as the biggest threat to Oklahoma retaking its place atop the Big 12 in 2022.
With the news that Blake Shapen will be the starting quarterback, Baylor is looking to get more explosive in the passing game. Shapen was fantastic in the first quarter of the Big 12 championship game against Oklahoma State. If he can carry that level of efficiency over to his first start of the 2022 season on the road against BYU, the Bears could find themselves repeating as Big 12 champs in 2022.
The Sooners will still have some work to do to prepare for the fall, but they’ve got a lot of talent on the roster and will be the favorite to win the conference.
[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbz7cqqgxy50qwt player_id=none image=https://soonerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[listicle id=62457]
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.
For the third straight year, it looks as if the Oklahoma vs. Baylor matchup will feature a different pair of starting quarterbacks in 2022.
The most intriguing quarterback battle in the Big 12 this offseason could be found down in Waco, Texas. Gerry Bohanon and Blake Shapen were locked in a tight one throughout the spring, a battle that reportedly has come to a close.
Now that Baylor’s wrapped up their spring ball, it looks like Blake Shapen will be named the starting quarterback for Dave Aranda’s Baylor Bears. SicEm365 first reported the news late Tuesday night, which has been confirmed by The Athletic as well.
SicEm365 has learned through multiple sources that sophomore Blake Shapen is expected to be named Baylor’s starting quarterback. The news began to surface on Tuesday evening after a round of meetings with each of Baylor’s quarterbacks following the end of Baylor’s spring practice on Saturday. – SicEm365 Staff
After redshirting in 2020, Shapen appeared in five games in the 2021 season. He took over for Gerry Bohanon when the former starter went down with an injury against the Kansas State Wildcats. Shapen made a relief appearance and went 16 of 21 for 137 yards and no touchdowns in that win over the Wildcats. He’d start the season finale against Texas Tech, going 20 of 34 for 254 yards and two touchdowns, surviving a late surge from the Red Raiders to win 27-24.
With Bohanon’s injury persisting, Shapen would get the start in the Big 12 championship. Aided by some costly turnovers from Spencer Sanders and the Oklahoma State Cowboys, Shapen helped stake the Bears to a 21-6 halftime lead. The redshirt freshman quarterback set a Big 12 championship record for consecutive completions at 17.
When the Baylor Bears and the Oklahoma Sooners meet in Norman, it will be the third straight season each side will have a different quarterback. In 2020, it was [autotag]Spencer Rattler[/autotag] and Charlie Brewer. 2021 featured [autotag]Caleb Williams[/autotag] and Gerry Bohanon. If things hold up as they are now, [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] and Blake Shapen will carry the next chapter in the matchup.
Like in 2021, their matchup on November 5 will have Big 12 championship game implications. The Sooners will be looking for redemption for one of their two losses from the 2021 season.
[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbz7cqqgxy50qwt player_id=none image=https://soonerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[listicle id=54172]
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.
LSU had a handful of players enter the portal. Where did they end up?
With [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] in and [autotag]Ed Orgeron[/autotag] out, LSU was bound to see some departures in the transfer portal. It’s natural with coaching changes.
The Tigers probably did better than some expected, not losing a ton of critical players, though there are certainly some that hurt.
Since November, LSU has had 10 players enter the portal. All but one have found their next home, with receiver [autotag]Deion Smith[/autotag] being the lone remaining player to make a decision. Talent-wise, Smith is one of the best remaining players in the portal, but because of the Tigers’ depth at wide receiver, it’s a loss they can deal with.
With transfers, you never know how big of a loss it is until we have time to see how it all played out, though some are more obvious losses than others, such as cornerback [autotag]Eli Ricks[/autotag].
LSU also had a few transfers end up at division rivals, which is still something new to college football. With that said, let’s take a look at where the players who transferred will be playing this fall.
In their spring look at the Big 12, College Football News ranked the Sooners No. 1 in their early power rankings.
We’re still a long way from the 2022 college football season, but it’s safe to say that the national narrative about Oklahoma’s downfall has corrected itself. Remember the overreaction to Lincoln Riley’s departure at the end of November, beginning of December? Since Brent Venables came aboard, that feels like forever ago.
The Oklahoma Sooners now look like the team to beat in the Big 12 if you look at early power rankings or projections for the 2022 season.
College Football News recently released their spring power rankings ahead of the 2022 season and had the Oklahoma Sooners at No. 1 in the Big 12.
Here’s what Pete Fiutak had to say about the Sooners status as the team to beat.
New head coach Brent Venables has a world of work to do. Not only does he have to keep all the production going, but he has to do it with a slew of new parts. The defensive front isn’t starting over, but it’s not far off. The offense, though, should be amazing with a great receiving corps and UCF transfer QB [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] a terrific fit. – Fiutak, College Football News
The Sooners certainly lost some players to the NFL draft and the transfer portal, but they’ve done a nice job filling holes with experienced players who should be factors for the Oklahoma Sooners in 2022. Having arguably the best quarterback in the Big 12 doesn’t hurt either as Dillon Gabriel’s experience and production provide a bridge to the future for the Sooners offense.
The schedule sets up favorable inside the conference. Other than the Red River Showdown, Oklahoma gets some of the top teams in the conference at home this season. Difficult road matchups at Iowa State and West Virginia loom as potential upsets, but the Sooners are the more talented teams. If they’re able to execute in Dallas against Texas, going to Ames or Morgantown shouldn’t be too much for [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag]’ squad.
Let’s take a look at how College Football News ranked the Big 12 during spring ball.
Josh White is reuniting with the coach who initially recruited him.
Former Tigers linebacker [autotag]Josh White[/autotag] wasn’t in the transfer portal long before finding a new home.
White entered the transfer portal on March 28, and he announced via his Twitter account on Monday night that he will be heading to Baylor to join coach [autotag]Dave Aranda[/autotag] for the 2022 season.
White was a four-star prospect in the 2020 recruiting class, and during his recruitment, the Houston native considered the in-state Bears under then-coach Matt Rhule, but he ultimately committed to the Tigers.
Now, he’ll reunite with Aranda, who initially recruited White to Baton Rouge when he served as the Tigers’ defensive coordinator before taking the helm in Waco. He will have four remaining years of eligibility.
IM COMING HOME!!!
COMMITTED💚💛💚💛#SicEm pic.twitter.com/61mJSFLHQ3— Josh (@JRWhite_10) April 5, 2022
According to The Athletic’s Max Olson, he had a number of other offers from Power Five teams.
It’s been a busy 24 hours for LSU transfer LB Josh White (@JRWhite_10) since entering the portal.
Texas, TCU, Baylor, Miami, Nebraska and Colorado have offered so far. The Houston native was a top-150 recruit in the 2020 class.
— Max Olson (@max_olson) March 29, 2022
White was the nation’s No. 142 prospect and No. 9 inside linebacker coming out of high school, and he’ll hope to make a bigger impact in the Big 12. As a true freshman with the Tigers in 2020, he appeared in 10 games and totaled six tackles (two solo). He didn’t see the field during his sophomore season in 2021.
With White’s departure, the Tigers will likely look to returning players like [autotag]Mike Jones Jr.[/autotag], [autotag]Greg Penn III[/autotag] and [autotag]Micah Baskerville[/autotag], as well as five-star true freshman [autotag]Harold Perkins[/autotag], who coach [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] flipped from Texas A&M in the 2022 cycle.
[mm-video type=video id=01fzekdvqrrx51vgcc30 playlist_id=01eqbz5s7cf4w69e0n player_id=01eqbvp13nn1gy6hd4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01fzekdvqrrx51vgcc30/01fzekdvqrrx51vgcc30-fd0161c30197ae94e56b057af28df91b.jpg]
[listicle id=47350]
Contact/Follow us @LSUTigersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Louisiana State news, notes, and opinions.
Follow Tyler to continue the conversation on Twitter: @TylerNettuno
In a survey produced by The Athletic, Big 12 fans are feeling pretty good about Oklahoma heading into the 2022 season.
Over the last several weeks over at The Athletic, Max Olson put and their staff put together a survey for Big 12 fans to take to share their thoughts on the coaching changes, NIL, Oklahoma and Texas moving to the SEC, and a host of other topics.
It was a fun read to get a sense of how the fanbases in the Big 12 are feeling this spring with just a few months before the start of the regular season.
Easily the most intriguing response was that TCU fans are only moderately happy with new head coach Sonny Dykes. He’s barely been there and he’s had the second-lowest score when TCU fans were asked, “How would you rate your happiness with your team’s head coach right now on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the happiest)?” Dykes average score was 6.64 out of ten. The guy that finished beneath him was West Virginia’s head coach Neal Brown.
So let’s look at how Big 12 fanbases responded to some of the more pertinent Oklahoma Sooners questions.
