Tag: SMU Mustangs

Oklahoma dud nonconference schedule is one of the weakest in the Big 12 in 2023

Barry Trammel of The Oklahoman believes the Sooners nonconference schedule for 2023 is one of the weakest this season.

The 2023 softball season is over, so all eyes turn to the Oklahoma Sooners football program. It’s a critical season after Oklahoma had its first losing season since 1998. It is also the final season in the Big 12 before the school joins the SEC in 2024.

The Sooners are one of the teams across the country projected to have a bounce-back season. Improving from six to eight or more wins is a reasonable expectation in Year 2 of the Brent Venables era. Oklahoma has a schedule that could thrust it back into the Big 12 title picture. But before we get to conference play, Oklahoma will open the season with a nonconference schedule that The Oklahoman’s Barry Tramel believes is one of the weakest in the Big 12.

In his rankings of each Big 12 program’s 2023 nonconference schedule, the Oklahoma Sooners came in at No. 13.

Arkansas State, Southern Methodist, at Tulsa. The Sooners were scheduled to host Georgia, which would have greatly changed the looks of this trio. But OU settled for SMU, and the schedule is a dud. – Tramel, The Oklahoman

No Georgia on the schedule certainly changes the complexion of the schedule. This trio of teams isn’t going to move the needle in terms of strength of schedule, but that’s mostly out of Oklahoma’s control. When they scheduled the Georgia game years ago, I’m sure nobody could have foreseen Oklahoma and Texas moving to the SEC, which is what necessitated the cancellation.

Joe Castiglione went to work to find a noncon game that could work for Oklahoma. SMU isn’t the biggest threat in the American Athletic Conference, but it is a team that can score in bunches. Oklahoma’s retooled defense will be tested when it faces SMU at home and the following week against Kevin Wilson and Tulsa.

It may not be a nonconference schedule that will rack up strength of schedule points, but it is an opening slate that can help the Sooners get off to a strong start in the 2023 season. Coming off a 6-7 season in 2022, it would be a good sign if the Sooners can start 3-0 heading into their Big 12 opener against Cincinnati.

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Prospect Profile: 2024 five-star wide receiver Terry Bussey

A look at five-star wide receiver Terry Bussey, who will visit Oklahoma for the ChampU BBQ.

Emmett Jones has flexed his muscles since joining the Oklahoma staff in January. In less than six months on the job, Jones has landed three wide receiver commits and added a pair of portal receivers. Oklahoma is in a prime position to land five-star wide receiver [autotag]Bryant Wesco[/autotag] and is even lending his hand in recruiting four-star running [autotag]Caden Durham[/autotag].

Jones’ name means a lot in Texas high school recruiting and is a weapon Oklahoma doesn’t take for granted. The early returns on his hire have been fruitful and could look even better. Of all the names we’ve mentioned among receivers from the class of 2024, Terry Bussey hasn’t been one.

Bussey, a five-star wide out from Timpson, Texas, will be taking an official visit to Norman for the ChampU BBQ.

Bussey stands 5-foot-10 and clocks in around 180 pounds. He’s smaller in stature but makes up for it with explosiveness, versatility, and a skill set that allows him to play in all three phases.

He plays for a smaller 2A school but amassed over 4,000 yards from scrimmage and 72 touchdowns in 2022. He’s listed as an athlete, but his future calling looks to be at wide receiver, where he can use his 10.66 100-meter dash times to blow past defensive backs.

While Oklahoma isn’t out of the loop yet, the race for Bussey is probably a bit more congested than the Sooners’ race for Bryant Wesco. Alabama, Texas, LSU, and Texas A&M are among the schools courting Bussey the hardest.

Terry Bussey’s Recruiting Profile

Projections

  • Texas A&M has three Future casts in favor of landing Bussey

Film

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Oklahoma Football: Game times and broadcast information released for several 2023 matchups

A few months out from the start of the 2023 season, several game times and broadcast information announced for Oklahoma Football’s schedule.

The Big 12 released part of their football schedule today, and we now have kickoff times for the games through the first three weeks of the football season.

The rest of the Big 12 slate will be announced six to 12 days beforehand during the season. Here’s a look at a few of the games that have game times and broadcast information.

Oklahoma offers consensus 2025 four-star linebacker Riley Pettijohn

Oklahoma extended an offer to consensus four-star 2025 linebacker Riley Pettijohn out of McKinney, Texas.

Oklahoma’s linebacker room would be a strength if you rated the position groups in Norman right now. There’s talent, youth, a mix of veteran leadership, and depth. As the Sooners count down the days to summer practice, Oklahoma will see two of their three linebacker signees from the class of 2023 join them on campus for the first time.

The pursuit for linebackers in 2024 is much murkier as Oklahoma currently has none committed and doesn’t appear close to a commitment from one anytime soon. However, that hasn’t stopped the Sooners from attacking the class of 2025. Most recently, OU offered four-star linebacker Riley Pettijohn.

Pettijohn, an uber-talented player, is the son of former two-time All-Big East defensive lineman Duke Pettijohn who went to Syracuse. The younger Pettijohn stands 6-foot-2 and weighs around 205 pounds. He’s a talented player and showcases range, speed, physicality, and the diagnosing abilities needed to be a primetime player for a Power Five program.

Oklahoma joined the mix with an offer, but Pettijohn’s offer sheet is long and features many Power Five programs.

Riley Pettijohn’s Recruiting Profile

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Oklahoma extends offer to four-star 2025 WR Michael Terry III

Oklahoma offers a talented offensive athlete in 2025, ATH Michael Terry III, who also holds offers from Texas Tech, TCU, and Nebraska.

Oklahoma will look to put a bow on its 2024 receiver coup by landing five-star wideout Bryant Wesco over the rest of the cycle. As mentioned above, Wesco committing would give them a WR trio of three-star KJ Daniels, four-star Zion Kearney, and Wesco.

While that would solidify 2024, the Sooners have already landed a receiver in 2025, with four-star slot receiver Gracen Harris committing to Oklahoma earlier in May. Oklahoma will take multiple receivers, so the Sooners continue to parse through the country, looking for their next 2025 receiver commit. One player they like is four-star 2025 prospect Michael Terry III.

Terry plays his football at Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio, Texas. Terry stars as a do-it-all athlete for his high school team. His junior season saw him tally 806 rushing yards from the QB position, 436 receiving yards, seven receiving touchdowns, and two kickoff return touchdowns.

Terry stands 6-foot-3, and while he did play as a quarterback last year, his athleticism and physical gifts seem tailor-made to play wide receiver which is where many Power Five schools see him.

He fits Oklahoma’s archetype for outside receivers with good height and speed in the open field to match.

No one stands out as a leader yet, but the typical Power Five schools in Texas monitor his ascension.

Michael Terry III’s Recruiting Profile

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Oklahoma stays hot on recruiting trail with commit from 2024 four-star safety from Texas

Jaydan Hardy joins the Sooners 2024 recruiting class and becomes the fifth player to commit.

Oklahoma started its 2024 class in March with the commitment of four-star corner Jeremiah Newcombe out of Arizona. It continued in April when four-star quarterback Michael Hawkins, three-star wide receiver KJ Daniels and three-star offensive tackle Isaiah Autry committed to the Sooners.

The run continues. Four-star safety Jaydan Hardy joins the 2024 class after his commitment on Saturday while at the spring game.

Hardy hails from Lewisville, Texas, and he picked Oklahoma over SMU, Oregon, Texas A&M and Tennessee.

 

Hardy is a 6-foot, 170-pound safety that showed the versatility to line up in the nickel and the box as a run defender and showcased the range to play deep for his high school team. He also played corner and doubled as a two-way player that made plays at wide receiver and lined up as quarterback. In short, Hardy is a multi-faceted athlete. For the 2022 season, he was the Texas District 6-6A Co-MVP as a junior.

Coach Jasy Valai led the charge for Hardy with Brandon Hall as his wingman. Hardy is the No. 132 overall player in the country in 247Sports’ ranking and is 162nd on the 247Sports composite. His recruitment picked up in late March when four predictions were logged in Oklahoma’s favor in two days. On3 national recruiting analyst Sam Spiegelman tossed his hat into the mix by predicting Hardy would be a Sooner, while three crystal balls were placed from insiders at 247Sports.

The Sooners continue to rise in recruiting rankings. They have risen into the top 30 in team recruiting rankings.

Sophomore guard C.J. Noland enters transfer portal

After a frustrating season, Sooners sophomore guard C.J. Noland enters the transfer portal.

Oklahoma had a frustrating season, and hard decisions will come in the offseason. The Sooners will experience that firsthand this offseason. Sophomore guard C.J. Noland was the first to enter the transfer portal Tuesday afternoon.

Noland came to Oklahoma as a heralded consensus top 100 prospect out of Waxahachie, Texas. He appeared in 33 games as a freshman and was selected to the Big 12 All-Freshman team. He averaged 3.9 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 0.7 assists per game.

He didn’t take much of a step forward this season, averaging 3.2 points per game. He started the first eight games but couldn’t hold on to the starting role. He averaged 14.2 minutes per game this season. He eventually lost his spot in the rotation to freshman Milos Uzan.

The focus on the development of guards Otega Oweh, Bijan Cortes, and Uzan put Noland in a bind going forward. All three were playing more meaningful minutes down the stretch to end this season.

That doesn’t consider that the Sooners will also welcome its highest-rated recruit since Trae Young in small forward Kaden Cooper. Cooper, at 6-foot-5, also figures to play on the ball and initiate the offense, thus pushing Noland down the depth chart even farther.

Noland was recruited by SMU, Texas A&M, and Big 12 rival Oklahoma State out and may look into revisiting one of those places for his next destination.

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Ranking the Oklahoma Sooners opponents on the 2023 schedule

From the Red River Showdown on down, ranking Oklahoma’s opponents for the 2023 season.

The Oklahoma Sooners have won more Big 12 titles than the rest of the conference combined. They have a shot to add to that number before packing up their hardware and rolling off to the SEC.

But they’ll have to navigate a Big 12 schedule that has been bumpy for the Sooners over the last two seasons, keeping them out of the Big 12 title game.

The Big 12 has become a league marked by parity in recent seasons, leading to a different Big 12 champion in each of the last three seasons. Six teams have participated in the conference title game in the last three seasons, and the conference looks just as wide open as last year.

But the schedule is doable. Oklahoma has some tough road games, but the Sooners should be favored when they go on the road to face Cincinnati, BYU and Oklahoma State.

But which team will be the toughest for the Oklahoma Sooners? Let’s take a look at each opponent from easiest to toughest.

How SDSU and SMU would alter Pac-12 men’s basketball landscape

The rumored additions of San Diego State and SMU would change the chemistry of the Pac-12 men’s basketball programs in a significant way.

It’s no secret Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff’s visit to Dallas wasn’t just to see the sights. The conference is hoping to mitigate the major losses of UCLA and USC – who are jumping to the Big Ten in 2024 – by bringing two more programs into the fray, and Dallas resident SMU is high on the list.

SMU may not have household athletic programs, but what they do offer is a chance for the Pac-12 to have a footprint in the fifth largest media market in the United States, as well as an opportunity for Pac-12 schools to play closer to the recruiting hotbed that is the state of Texas.

SMU’s rumored addition to the Pac-12 goes hand-in-hand with the longstanding rumor that Mountain West powerhouse San Diego State is also joining the conference, keeping the Pac-12 name an honest one.

San Diego’s media presence isn’t as big as Dallas, but it is an obvious replacement for the loss of USC and UCLA, and their football and basketball programs have been very good as of late.

Basketball in particular is a welcome addition, as the loss of UCLA in particular is devastating for the image of the Pac-12 in men’s basketball. UCLA is an absolutely iconic brand for college basketball, and they are not just a historical program they are one of the best teams in the game right now.

USC doesn’t quite have the history or the recent success of UCLA, but they are inside the Field of 68 as of now and have been to the tournament in four of the last seven years, including a trip to the Elite 8 in 2021.

The Aztecs would provide an immediate boost, as they boast a 19-5 record on the season and are in first place in an excellent Mountain West conference. However, the picture looks bleaker when considering SMU, who is currently 9-16 and in eighth place in the AAC.

Of course, conference realignment is driven by many things before basketball is a consideration, but after football men’s basketball is the biggest moneymaker for Division 1 institutions.

Here is a look, using KenPom’s program history rankings – which date from 1997-2022 – at how the Pac-12 would stack up with this potential transition:

5 players Broncos should watch for at the 2023 Senior Bowl

Here are five players Broncos fans should watch for during the Senior Bowl today.

After the NFL season concludes with Super Bowl LVII, all eyes turn toward free agency and the NFL draft. Until the NFL combine, the best chance teams have to evaluate collegiate talent is the invitation-only East-West Shrine Bowl, the Reese’s Senior Bowl and the HBCU Legacy Bowl.

Here are five players the Denver Broncos should watch for at the Senior Bowl in Alabama on Saturday afternoon.