Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Who saw this coming in April?
Now that spring football has concluded for many programs around the country, an influx of talent will likely enter the transfer portal. Continue reading “Big 12 Football: Baylor QB Gerry Bohanon enters the transfer portal”
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.
Dillon Gabriel No. 1, but how did Athlon Sports rank the quarterbacks in their way-too-early Big 12 rankings?
How it stands at the quarterback position can determine a lot about your favorite football team’s future. Nothing’s guaranteed on the field, but having the best quarterback in the conference gives you a leg up on the competition. Well, at least it should.
One of the more disappointing aspects of the 2021 season was the Oklahoma Sooners had a significant talent advantage at quarterback compared to their conference mates, but weren’t able to take advantage. There were a host of reasons, but the play of Spencer Rattler and Caleb Williams wasn’t what Oklahoma has come to expect at the position in recent years.
Perhaps, we’ve been spoiled by the Heisman-level play provided by former quarterbacks Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts. At the same time, in several games in 2021, the quarterback play was subpar leading to losses at Baylor and Oklahoma State and creating way-too-much drama in a win over Kansas.
Dillon Gabriel takes the reigns at quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners with lowered expectations nationally. Inside the Big 12, however, Gabriel is considered the best in the conference according to Athlon Sports Steve Lassan. Recently, Lassan projected each of the starting quarterbacks for the Big 12 and ranked them 1-10 with Gabriel coming out on top.
Despite the coaching change and the switch to Jeff Lebby’s offense, the Sooners remain a favorite in the Big 12. Having the best quarterback helps. But as we saw in 2021, it’s going to take more than a quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners to win games in the new-look defensive Big 12.
The defenses Baylor and Oklahoma State will put on the field in 2022 is what make each a significant contender for the conference crown. Spencer Sanders and Gerry Bohanon may not be the quarterback Gabriel has proven to be, but their teams aren’t asking them to throw 40 times to win a football game. Efficiency and ball security are the names of the game in Stillwater and Waco, and when those two are efficient and protect the football, their teams are difficult to beat.
There are still several quarterback battles to play out in spring ball, but here’s how Athlon Sports ranked the Big 12 quarterbacks.
The Big 12 will see quite a bit of turnover at quarterback this fall, but who are the top returning quarterbacks based on 2021 production.
The Big 12 conference will experience a ton of turnover at the quarterback position heading into 2022. Oklahoma, Iowa State, Kansas State, Texas, and West Virginia will all have new faces at quarterback. Baylor and Oklahoma State have solidified starters in place with Gerry Bohanon and Spencer Sanders. Texas Tech, Kansas, and TCU have options from 2021 returning for quarterback battles.
With Caleb Williams, Spencer Rattler, Brock Purdy, Skylar Thompson, and Jarret Doege gone, there isn’t a ton of returning production from the 2021 season in the Big 12. However, Dillon Gabriel, Quinn Ewers, and Adrian Martinez bring some name value to the position despite playing elsewhere in 2021.
Let’s take a look at the top 10 returning quarterbacks based on 2021 production.
Not much production is returning at the quarterback position in the Big 12 for the upcoming season.
There will be many fresh faces at quarterback this season across the Big 12 conference. Continue reading “The Big 12’s top returning quarterbacks ranked by production”
Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel earned the top spot in Steven Lassan’s pre-spring, way-too-early Big 12 quarterback rankings.
Dillon Gabriel’s decision to transfer to Oklahoma has the Sooners in a great spot entering 2022. It means OU has a quarterback in place with 25 collegiate starts, over 8,000 passing yards and 70 touchdown passes to his name.
“It was a chance to play with a really good team. This school’s got a lot of history with quarterbacks, but also just with great players,” Gabriel said in his recent podcast appearance.
Athlon Sports’ Steven Lassan projected who each Big 12 team’s starting quarterback would be and ranked the 10 quarterbacks. Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby already named Gabriel the starter on national signing day, so there’s no mystery in Norman.
Lassan ranked Gabriel as the Big 12’s No. 1 quarterback in his “pre-spring, way-too-early” Big 12 quarterback rankings for 2022.
After Gabriel, Lassan ranks Oklahoma State’s Spencer Sanders No. 2, Texas’ Quinn Ewers No. 3, Baylor’s Gerry Bohanon No. 4 and Kansas State’s Adrian Martinez No. 5.
In the bottom half of his Big 12 quarterback rankings, Lassan ranks TCU’s Max Duggan No. 6, Texas Tech’s Donovan Smith No. 7, Kansas’ Jalen Daniels No. 8, Iowa State’s Hunter Dekkers No. 9 and West Virginia’s Nicco Marchiol No. 10.
Here’s what Lassan wrote about Gabriel.
The transfers of Spencer Rattler (South Carolina) and Caleb Williams (USC) depleted Oklahoma’s quarterback room. However, the news isn’t all bad here for the Sooners. Although Williams will be missed, Gabriel arriving as a transfer from UCF softens concerns about this position. Also, Gabriel worked under offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby at UCF in ‘19, so the transition in scheme should be minimal. There’s a lot of new around Gabriel this offseason, so spring practice is all about acclimation and getting everyone comfortable in the new scheme. Developing depth behind Gabriel is a must. – Lassan, Athlon Sports.
OU signed four-star quarterback Nick Evers back in December. Evers is already on campus, so that should help Oklahoma in building that depth behind Gabriel.
In the meantime, Lebby and OU feel great that Evers is leading the Sooners in this transition year.
“The guy’s averaging over 300 yards a game, three touchdowns a game in 26 starts, so you can’t argue that piece of it, but I think probably the thing that I’m most excited about is this guy knows how to operate. He knows how to walk in the building every single day have great ownership in how he’s going to operate, how he’s going to take command of the offense and what it means to be a quarterback. To me, that is huge and that is critical as we set the tone and the standard of how we’re going to do things,” Lebby said.
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.
[listicle id=58048]
With the 2021 season behind us, let’s look ahead at who will start at quarterback for the Big 12’s teams in 2022.
The Big 12 will see a lot of turnover at the quarterback position heading into 2022. Turnover happens every year and while several teams will have new signal-callers for the next season, there remains a lot of familiarity with the guys who will start at quarterback in 2022.
TCU will have to decide between the experienced Max Duggan and the flash in the pan performance of Chandler Morris. Baylor will likely go with Gerry Bohanon, but Blake Shapen looked sharp at times too.
We’re nine months from the start of the 2022 college football season, but it’s never too early to look ahead. Here’s who we think will start at quarterback for each of the Big 12’s teams next season.
What does the Oklahoma Sooners defense need to do to slow down the Iowa State Cyclones on Saturday? Here are 3 keys to the game.
[mm-video type=video id=01fmx1x3sg916g5bs4ck playlist_id=01eqbz7cqqgxy50qwt player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01fmx1x3sg916g5bs4ck/01fmx1x3sg916g5bs4ck-110af773fce36c1d624d79c7418fe3a8.jpg]
It’s put up or shut up time for these Oklahoma Sooners. A win against Iowa State keeps a flicker of hope for the College Football Playoff alive while a loss in their final home game seals their CFP hopes and puts their Big 12 title defense in really choppy waters.
Baylor bludgeoned this Sooners defense into a corner like a boxer. Body shots rained down until the fourth quarter when the Bears would eventually land the major haymakers needed to knock down the Sooners. For Dave Aranda’s Baylor Bears, the running game did the trick. As the Sooners are ready for the Iowa State Cyclones, the tune is eerily similar to last week, with an added focus on Iowa State’s tight ends.
The Cyclones feature Breece Hall, who some consider the second-best back in the conference. Hall will play on Sundays for sure. He’s a tough, hard-nosed back that can make one cut and get moving.
Brock Purdy mans the quarterback position. He’s a veteran in Matt Campbell’s offense and plays behind a veteran offensive line the Sooners defense is quite familiar with.
The Iowa State passing game will rally around wide receiver Xavier Hutchinson and a pair of good tight ends in Charlie Kolar and Chase Allen.
With that said, how does the Sooner defense bottle up this Iowa State defense enough that it gives their offense a chance to succeed?
How did the Oklahoma Sooners’ position groups grade out in their 27-14 loss to the Baylor Bears?
Oklahoma’s performance against Baylor wasn’t as pitiful as other earlier games this year. Still, it certainly lacked any level of competitive fire needed for a team who came into the game looking to answer a plethora of questions about how they would fair if tested by a good top 25 ranked football team. The test did not go as planned, and the Sooners took their first loss of the season 27-14 at the hands of the Baylor Bears.
Despite the final score, the game was tied 7-7 at the half. Oklahoma had a chance to win this game, but they never hit another gear. While this wasn’t a complete dismantling, there were a lot of position groups that struggled, which can only be more head-scratching considering the Sooners were coming off their bye week.
Let’s grade each group and break things down.
The Oklahoma Sooners were outplayed in every phase of the game in their 27-14 loss to the Baylor Bears, falling to 9-1 on the season.
It was a disappointing performance for an Oklahoma Sooners team looking to make its annual “Championship November” push for the Big 12 title and potentially a place in the College Football Playoff.
Both goals are technically still in play, but they just became a lot more difficult to grasp moving forward.
The Sooners were outplayed in just about every facet. Even though the defense played a great game through the first three quarters, the inability of the offense to sustain a drive meant the Sooners’ defense was forced to stay on the field longer than it should, and the Bears pounded away on the ground.
A lot went wrong for Oklahoma on Saturday, and now they head back to Norman looking to make corrections before hosting a hot Iowa State team looking to get back into the Big 12 title picture themselves.
