DeMarco Murray staying in Norman despite overtures from Ohio State.
The Oklahoma Sooners have dodged what could have been a big blow to their coaching staff. This comes after reports started circling earlier this week that running backs coach DeMarco Murray was being pursued by a number of college and NFL teams, including the Ohio State Buckeyes.
The Buckeyes are widely thought of as having the best running back room in the country this upcoming season with TreVeyon Henderson and Ole Miss transfer Quinshon Judkins. But the Sooners got some good news on Wednesday as On3’s Pete Nakos reported Murray would be staying at Oklahoma.
Murray and the Sooners agreed on a three-year contract extension.
Oklahoma has offered running backs coach DeMarco Murray a new three-year contract, @On3sports has learned.
His name had been tied to the Ohio State opening in recent days. He is staying in Norman.
Murray has family ties to Ohio, which made that job a real possibility. He’s currently the lowest-paid assistant on staff, making $575,000 annually. He’s expected to receive a pay bump with this new contract but those details have not been announced.
Murray is also one of the most tenured assistants on staff. He arrived back in Norman in 2020 and has been huge on the recruiting trail.
He most recently helped Oklahoma sign [autotag]Taylor Tatum[/autotag] as part of the 2024 recruiting class. The Longview, Texas, native was ranked as the No. 1 overall running back in the [autotag]2024 recruiting cycle[/autotag].
He’s also helped guys like [autotag]Eric Gray[/autotag], [autotag]Kennedy Brooks[/autotag], and Rhamondre Stevenson have career years under his tutelage. His room this year is loaded with talent, but it is also very young. If they can avoid the injury bug, Oklahoma’s running backs will play a pivotal role in the Sooners success in 2024.
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The football season has arrived at every level. NFL teams turned in their initial 53-man rosters yesterday, most college teams are kicking off on Saturday, and the high school season is already well underway.
Recruiting has no offseason, though – that’s a competition that continues 365 days a year, designated days off or not – and the football season is no exception. One of many high-end prospects who will be making a round of official visits to major college football programs this coming season is Charles Henderson (Ala.) Edge Zion Grady.
(USA TODAY Network)
According to Adam Gorney at Rivals, Tennessee, Georgia Tech, Alabama and Georgia are among the major programs that Grady will be visiting during the season.
“Tennessee made a big impression on Grady over the summer and now he’s headed back to Knoxville in October… has other important trips as well starting at Georgia Tech on Friday night. He then goes to Alabama for the big Texas tilt the next day. The following weekend, Grady will be at Georgia when it hosts South Carolina.”
Grady (6-foot-4, 220 pounds) ranks No. 1 at the edge position going by the composite rankings, as well as No. 4 overall in Alabama and No. 19 nationally in the class of 2025.
According to On3’s prediction model, this particular recruiting race is wide open. Auburn is a slight favorite for his commitment at 36.2%, followed by Alabama (31.7%), Florida State (11.2%) and Tennessee (9.3%).
Sunday, Moliki Matavao, a 4-star TE from Nevada, took to Twitter to announce his top-six schools which includes Georgia football.
Moliki Matavao, a 4-star TE from Henderson, Nevada, took to Twitter to announce his top-six schools.
Georgia, Oregon, Washington, UCLA, Tennessee and Penn State made his top-six.
247Sports composite has Matavao ranked as the No. 4 TE and No. 144 overall recruit in the 2021 recruiting class.
The Liberty High School prospect holds 34 scholarship offers and is predicted to sign with the Washington Huskies, according to 247Sports Crystal Ball predictions.
“Can run past linebackers in space. Decent hands with ability to high-point the football in tight spaces. Well-rounded weapon who can line up out wide or block at the line of scrimmage.”
A USA Today reporter spent a day with Leon Spinks and his wife, Brenda, at their home. The former champ is battling prostate cancer.
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HENDERSON, Nev. — Leon Spinks has trouble swallowing these days, so his wife, Brenda, crushes the seven pills he takes every morning, dissolves them in water and loads them into a syringe. She injects the contents into the retired boxer’s feeding tube.
In June, Spinks, 66, was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He underwent three rounds of chemotherapy but the cancer spread to his bones. In November, Brenda said, one of the doctors treating Spinks said he had a about two weeks to live.
But Spinks, who shocked the sports world in 1978 when he upset Muhammad Ali and won the heavyweight championship of the world, is still fighting.
“He’s a champion, he’s going to keep fighting,”’ Brenda said recently as her husband maneuvered around their house with a walker.
Spinks, who also suffers from dementia, still flashes his famous smile and it’s no longer gap-toothed. His missing front teeth were replaced years ago. Spinks recently started smoking marijuana in an effort to improve his mood and make him more compliant while working with a team of medical health professionals.
The couple’s two-bedroom, three-bathroom house, about 20 miles south of Las Vegas, is replete with photos from Spinks’ boxing career, which include a gold medal from the 1976 Olympics and the heavyweight world championship.
Spinks made $320,000 for his first fight against Ali and more than $3 million for the rematch, according to published reports. There were no other big paydays after Ali won the second fight by unanimous decision.
Leon Spinks, a former heavyweight champion, is now fighting prostate cancer. Harrison Hill / USA Today Sports
Brenda, his third wife after they married in 2011, said Spinks has held private autograph sessions — one scheduled for next month — that the couple needs to help offset medical costs.
“When I met him, he didn’t have anything,” Brenda said.
In January, Spinks started taking Zytiga, a medication for people who have prostate cancer and already have undergone chemotherapy. The first bottle of 120 pills was a free sample, but Brenda said the doctor told her 120 pills cost $8,000.
“I think you can get it cheaper,’’ she said. “I don’t know. I haven’t gotten that far yet.’’
About five years ago, following emergency surgery after he swallowed a small piece of chicken bone that punctured his intestines, Spinks began lacing up boxing gloves and hitting the heavy bag as part of his rehab. The expectations are far more modest now and the demands are far greater, Brenda said.
Her 29-year-old son, Michael, has moved in with the couple to provide help, and they have a caregiver seven days a week. Brenda also said she has gotten support from Spinks’ brother, Michael, the former heavyweight and light heavyweight boxing champion; Spinks’ sister, Karen, who spent a month in Henderson; Spinks’ sons, Corey and Daryl; Spinks’ grandson Leon Spinks III; and Brenda’s sister, Sherry.
And there’s ever-present Sam, a black Labrador retriever trained by America’s VetDogs. (Spinks qualified for the service dog because he served in the Marine Corp from 1973 to 1976.) Brenda said Sam got depressed when Spinks was in the hospital and a few times jumped into the hospital bed when visiting Spinks.
“He was so excited to see Leon,” Brenda said.
USA TODAY Sports spent a day recently with Leon and Brenda Spinks and part of the team working to keep Spinks alive.
‘At his fighting weight’
Spinks emerged from the bedroom wearing a “Neon Leon’’ T-shirt that bore the image of his face and famous grin from four decades ago. His once-protruding belly was gone.
Over the past year, Brenda said, Spinks has lost 80 pounds and is down to 194 pounds.
“He’s at his fighting weight again,’’ she said. “And boy, has he been fighting with everyone.’’
She smiled.
Brenda Spinks said her husband has lost 80 pounds and is down to 194. Harrison Hill / USA Today Sports
A framed colored print of Spinks and Ali, painted by famed artist LeRoy Neiman, hangs in the living room and is one of the reminders of the epic victory.
On Feb. 15, 1978, Spinks, then 24, climbed into the boxing ring at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas with a 6-0-1 record and as an overwhelming underdog. Ali, then 36, had a record of 55-2 with 37 knockouts.
Spinks scored a stunning split-decision, 15-round victory. Amid bedlam in the ring, he closed his eyes and waved his arms above his head in celebration.
Now he is often in a wheelchair.
Nasha Shigmatsu, a home health nurse, arrived at about 12:30 p.m. and Spinks’ mood had darkened.
“Oh, no,” Brenda said, “he’s turned on me.”
She reached into a bag and handed her husband a joint.
Two months after his victory over Ali, Spinks was charged with felony possession of cocaine and misdemeanor possession of marijuana. At one time, Brenda said, she used to throw out marijuana Spinks got from fans. But about a year ago, Brenda said, she started allowing him to use the drug that’s legal in Nevada.
She said he usually smokes no more than one joint a day.
“I’m so against it and now I’m going to dispensaries to buy it,’’ Brenda said. “It’s the only way I can get him to cooperate.”
After a few puffs, Spinks allowed the nurse begin the exam.
“I need you to take deep breath for me, Leon,’’ the the nurse said. “Deep breath.’’
Spinks complied.
‘You’re showing off’
Spinks talks sparingly these days, other than brief exchanges with his wife that Brenda said most people find hard to understand. Sometimes his actions say everything the medical team needs to know, like when the physical therapist worked with him recently.
She walked alongside Spinks as he used his walker to move through the house.
“Big steps,” the physical therapist said. “Good.”
Spinks walks around his home in Henderson, Nevada as part of his physical therapy. Harrison Hill / USA Today Sports
But Spinks he took an unexpected turn and headed from the living room into the backyard. Then circled through the master bedroom, continued through the house and onto the front porch. Ignoring the physical therapist’s instructions to turn around, Spinks shuffled onto the driveway until he got to the black van with the wheelchair lift in the back.
“You’re showing off,” the physical therapist said.
When the session ended, the physical therapist estimated Spinks had walked for 25 minutes – his personal record since returning from the hospital about 2½ months ago.
“Come on, Leon, high five,” the physical therapist said.
Spinks scowled at the women’s raised right hand.
He also refused to take off his cap when a hairdresser arrived, and Brenda tried to coax Spinks to let her cut the back of his hair.
“You’re not cutting my hair,’’ he said, and no one had trouble understanding him.
A rescue mission
After being diagnosed with prostate cancer, Spinks seemed to be doing better after three rounds of chemotherapy — until blood was found in his urine. On Aug. 21 he was admitted to the hospital, and he spent almost four months there and experienced multiple complications, according to Brenda.
Spinks suffered from aspiration pneumonia, a staph infection, sepsis, inflammation of the colon and showed early signs of renal failure, according to Brenda. She said they inserted a feeding tube in his abdomen because he stopped eating.
When Spinks was put on a ventilator in November, Brenda said, she resisted efforts to get her to sign a do-not-resuscitate order.
“I just couldn’t do it,’’ she said. “It was horrible because there were a few times I didn’t think he was going to make it. I just tried to have hope. A lot of people praying.”
While Brenda was reflecting on the ordeal during a recent interview, the sound of clatter came from the kitchen.
“What are you doing, Leon?’’ she said.
“Nothing,’’ he said.
“That’s what you always say,” Brenda said, and later she found a shattered bottle of non-alcoholic beer in a freezer drawer.
Later that evening, Brenda, Spinks and Sam drove to Remnant Ministries, a church in Las Vegas where former NFL quarterback Randall Cunningham is the pastor. One of the churchgoers sang to Spinks when he was in an Intensive Care Unit and several others visited him in the hospital and the congregation has continued to pray for his recovery, Brenda said.
On that recent night, Spinks and Brenda made it in time for the benediction and found seats in the balcony.
During one song, Brenda leaned in close to Spinks and sang the refrain.
“I’m just so happy that he’s here and we’re just going to keep working at making things better,” she said. “We’re not going to give up. We’re not throwing in the towel.”
As free agency is set to begin on March 18th and with the draft just over two months away there is still plenty of work that needs to be
free agency is set to begin on March 18th and with the draft just over two months away there is still plenty of work that needs to be done to build this Cowboys roster. In the meantime the Cowboys have an important decisions to make about the cornerback position and it starts with former All-Pro Byron Jones.
With potential big money deals for Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper there may not be enough available money left for Byron Jones which will create an immediate need at corner. In addition to Jones third year corner Anthony Brown is set to hit the open market. Luckily for this Cowboys team there are some intriguing cornerback prospects in a deep draft class that would be a great fit for this team. We take a look at seven cornerback prospects the cowboys could target in this years draft.
Jeffery Okudah, CB, Ohio St.
Listed at 6-foot-1, 200 pounds, the junior finished the year with 34 tackles, three interceptions, nine passes defended, and one forced fumble and has established himself as the top corner and and one of best defensive prospects in this draft. Okudah shows a very patient process at the line of scrimmage, with smooth hips to open, turn and run with receivers. He is an excellent man corner who stays in the pocket of receivers and crowds the catch point.
With his combination of length and speed to match receivers he projects as a Day 1 starter. The Cowboys would have to hope Okudah slides some and also be willing to package picks to come up to get him.
Jeff Okudah is going to be a star at the NFL level — there’s no coverage he can’t play, no role he can’t fill in the secondary. Okudah pairs prototypical size with trust in his technique and dynamic movement skills and should be a lockdown cornerback at the NFL level in just about any system. This is a top of the 1st-round caliber player that will excel in man or zone and can be used to mirror and erase the opposition’s best receiver in the NFL. A future Pro Bowl/All-Pro player.
Okudah is a competitor, and at times he does get chatty, but I have yet to see it affect his play. Another admiral trait is his work ethic while he was more of a rotational corner. Okudah has only been a true starter for a year, having rotated with Kendall Sheffield quite a bit in 2018. Still, he played his role with confidence, and when his number was called, he was chomping at the bit. Not every player responds well to sharing a role or coming off the bench, but Okudah not only stay prepared, but he pushed himself to get better. His play on the field has him locked into being a first-round pick, but it’s little details like those that make a difference when teams are discussing the top players in this draft. I see him as a top-10 selection heading into the 2020 NFL Draft, and it wouldn’t shock me one bit if he were gone before we got to pick five.
Head coach and general manager’s dream prospect with blue-chip physical traits, mental makeup and personal character. He has size, length and foot quickness to road-block press release and elite closing burst to close catch windows or eliminate yards after catch. He has room for improvement with his recognition and balance at the top of the route, but quarterbacks rarely target and beat him over the top. He has a rigid adherence to technique, but squeezing coverage even tighter and trusting his traits, talent and recovery speed could make him one of the top shutdown corners in the game.
