Ohio State football hires defensive assistant who reunites with Jim Knowles

The coaching in the Buckeye secondary gets stronger

This news may have gone under-the-radar after the huge offseason that Ohio State football has had, but on Tuesday, it was reported that [autotag]Michael Hunter[/autotag] would join the staff as a defensive back graduate assistant.

After playing for Indiana and Oklahoma State, Hunter bounced around the NFL for a few years before moving onto the coaching profession. He was on staff with current Buckeye defensive coordinator Jim Knowles in 2021 as an assistant defensive secondary coach, then left for Tulsa in 2023.

Hunter will reunite with Knowles in Columbus, giving the current Ohio State DC another voice that he trusts to lean on.

An already stacked defensive backs coaches room gets even deeper as Tim Walton will have another former collegiate and NFL player to lean on this season.

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Former Ohio State QB coach Corey Dennis changes teams again for the third time

Since getting let go from Ohio State, Dennis has now taken three different jobs …

It has been a whirlwind offseason for former Ohio State quarterback’s coach [autotag]Corey Dennis[/autotag].

After staring his career in Columbus in 2015, he rose from intern to graduate assistant, then as a quality control coach, and finally in 2020, was named the quarterbacks coach at Ohio State.

Dennis was let go earlier this year and quickly found a job as an offensive analyst with Utah. Shortly after that, he moved to Ole Miss, where he was set to be take over the same role.

Well, that wasn’t the last move for Dennis this offseason as he reunited with [autotag]Kevin Wilson[/autotag] at Tulsa to be their quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator.

It was very odd to see a second and third move for Dennis, but it looks like he has found a home with Wilson.

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Stock Report: Defensive line struggling heading into final regular season game

Oklahoma escaped BYU’s upset bid this past weekend. In our stock report we look at who’s trending up or down before Oklahoma takes on TCU.

Saturday’s win against BYU was all about willpower. Oklahoma didn’t play its best, especially from a defensive standpoint, and yet, the Sooners found a way to escape a scrappy BYU team playing on senior day.

There were some nice moments or individual performances to take away from the game, like Jayden Gibson’s big day, Billy Bowman putting forth his best performance of the season, and Gavin Sawchuk continuing to morph into the bellcow running back his head coach publicly claimed he was looking for.

There were other positives, too, like Jackson Arnold’s performance off the bench, that helped push Oklahoma to victory. With the good comes the bad, and Oklahoma’s front seven was a large part of that bad. They struggled most of the game and were a significant reason BYU was a threat to potentially upset Oklahoma.

When the dust settled, the Sooners came out on top, and with a short week before they play TCU, the Sooners must regroup fast.

In the meantime, here is our stock report to see who is trending up and down as the Sooners prepare for their final Big 12 home game.

‘Kind of unique in college football’: Dillon Gabriel knows about playing the BYU Cougars

This won’t be the first time Dillon Gabriel has played BYU and he knows it won’t be easy.

The Oklahoma Sooners are on to face the [autotag]BYU Cougars[/autotag] in the one and only meeting as conference foes. The Sooners are actually winless all-time against the Cougars.

Right now, the Sooners have an outside shot at making the conference championship game, but it starts with winning out. After that, they will need some help to earn a spot in the title game.

Dillon Gabriel spoke with the media after practice about the Cougars’ defense and the challenges they’ll face offensively. “I think they’re really good,” Gabriel said. “I’ve obviously played BYU before so I know what they’re all about. They’re very physical and play well together. Had a tough stretch but, shoot, that place is special. Different, kind of unique in college football.”

Gabriel played BYU in a bowl game back in 2020. He had a rough day going 21 of 45 for 217 yards and two touchdowns. His UCF Knights lost 49-23. So, this is just another revenge game for Gabriel.

He was able to get his revenge vs. the [autotag]Tulsa Golden Hurricane[/autotag] and the [autotag]Cincinnati Bearcats[/autotag]. The Sooners would love nothing more than to build off of what they did a week ago against the West Virginia Mountaineers.

Something they’ll have to do in a time slot they are all too familiar with at 11:00 a.m. CT on Saturday.

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‘I’m excited for it’: Gavin Sawchuk ready for Cincinnati challenge

The Sooners will face their toughest test this weekend in Cincinnati and Gavin Sawchuk can’t wait for the challenge.

The one negative for the [autotag]2023 Oklahoma Sooners[/autotag] so far has been the running game. A season ago, this was a top-10 rushing offense in the country.

Through three games in 2023, it’s fallen all the way to a tie for 50th. The Sooners have yet to figure out who their lead back is this season and it looks like we’re heading toward a “hot hand” approach.

Early in the year, it was a combination of [autotag]Tawee Walker[/autotag] and [autotag]Marcus Major[/autotag]. That was partly due to the injuries of [autotag]Jovantae Barnes[/autotag] and [autotag]Gavin Sawchuk[/autotag] this offseason.

In this past game vs. the [autotag]Tulsa Golden Hurricane[/autotag], Barnes and Sawchuk got the majority of the load but don’t look fully healthy just yet. Sawchuk told reporters he’s happy to be back playing.

“Glad to be back from it now,” Sawchuk said. “Glad to be back and start getting into a rhythm.”

Sawchuk said he’s 100% now and ready to go. But of course, you could tell he’s still playing his way back into shape, understandably so. They are going to need him and Barnes to get back to what they were a season ago, especially this week, because of the great defensive line they’ll be going against.

“They’ve got a great defense in general, not just the defensive line but everybody in general,” Sawchuk said. “All games are won at the line of scrimmage. Those guys are the most important on the field, blocking up front and creating holes for everybody else. I’m excited for it. It’s going to be a great game, a great challenge, a great team. Excited to go up there and be in their town and really be in their environment but excited for that.”

It’s been a trend under [autotag]Bill Bedenbaugh[/autotag] where the running game kind of struggles early in the season before really finding its footing as the season goes along. The hope is this year is no different, and they figure it out sooner than rather later.

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Nic Anderson continues to show what he can be going forward for the Oklahoma Sooners

Nic Anderson was plagued by injuries a year ago but now he’s making the most of every opportunity.

For only the second time in program history, the Oklahoma Sooners had three 100-yard receivers in a game. [autotag]Nic Anderson[/autotag], [autotag]Jalil Farooq[/autotag] and [autotag]Andrel Anthony[/autotag] all went over 100 yards vs. the [autotag]Tulsa Golden Hurricane[/autotag].

The only other time this has been done was Bedlam in 2012. That was an overtime thriller in Norman the Sooners eventually won when [autotag]Jalen Saunders[/autotag], [autotag]Kenny Stills[/autotag] and [autotag]Justin Brown[/autotag] all surpassed 100 yards.

Hearing Anthony and Farooq went over the century mark shouldn’t be a surprise. They are both starters and a pair of players many thought would have an important role in the offense.

Anderson however is a backup but someone who has a lot of potential. He was hit with the injury bug in his first season, but is healthy and rolling. He talked to reporters after practice on Tuesday about his performance.

“I just trusted in my teammates and the coaches’ plan,” Anderson said. “The gameplan was great. Lebby was really trying to air it out that game and everybody got a chance to touch the ball.”

Anderson channeled his inner Randy Moss with three catches for 120 yards and three touchdowns. All three of the touchdowns showed something different.

The first one showed his great speed as he ran past the defender. The second one showed his route running to come back to the ball and then his ability after the catch with a nice stiff arm, which freed him up to take it to the house. The third one showed the speed but also the strength, as he basically carried the Golden Hurricane defender about 10 yards to the endzone.

The Sooners traditionally play three wide receivers at all times. It’s hard to take Anthony, Stoops, or Farooq off the field. But if Anderson continues to play like this, they are going to have to find ways to get him on the field more.

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Report Card: Saturday against Tulsa was about passing final nonconference test with flying colors

Oklahoma dominated Tulsa from beginning to end. Take a look as we go position by position and hand out grades for the performance.

Saturday’s dismantling of Tulsa was a much-needed conclusion for the Sooners to their nonconference schedule. The Sooners needed to erase any doubts, bouncing back and disposing of teams handily after a grind-it-out win against SMU.

The concerns about the conservative nature of the offense against SMU were put to rest as Oklahoma slung the ball all over the field for 476 yards.

Defensively, the Sooners grounded the Tulsa passing attack, allowing less than 250 yards through the air.

It was a convincing win and a pleasant, feel-good tuneup before they turn their heads to Cincinnati. Big 12 play is upon them, but before we turn the page, let’s pass out grades for this weekend’s performances.

Dillon Gabriel, Nic Anderson earn weekly Big 12 honors after big day vs. Tulsa

Stars from Saturday’s game against Tulsa earned Big 12 weekly awards as Dillon Gabriel and Nic Anderson were honored on Monday.

Just a few short days after Oklahoma put on a show through the air against Tulsa, some of the main characters of that performance earned weekly honors from the Big 12 conference.

Dillon Gabriel was named Offensive Player of the Week after he threw for 421 passing yards and five touchdowns against the Golden Hurricane. He also set the school single-game completion percentage record (min. 25 attempts) by completing 90% of his throws Saturday afternoon. One hundred and twenty of his passing yards went to the Big 12’s Newcomer of the Week, Nic Anderson. Anderson caught just three passes, but all three were touchdown receptions.

Gabriel was a maestro on Saturday with a 251.2 pass efficiency rating, the highest by a Power Five player on the week and the fourth highest by a Power Five player on the season.

Gabriel’s selection as offensive player of the week makes this the fourth of his career at Oklahoma.

Nic Anderson’s phenomenal, yet incredibly efficient day was particularly historic. No freshman had ever registered a game with three receiving touchdowns in Oklahoma’s illustrious history.

Anderson is just the third Sooner to score three receiving touchdowns in a game on three catches, joining Curtis Fagan (vs. Baylor in 2000) and Jack Lockett (vs. Oklahoma A&M in 1950).

The Newcomer of the Week award for the native of Katy, TX, is his first Big 12 weekly honor.

Announcing honors for these two Sooners brings Oklahoma to four weekly awards this season.

Gavin Freeman was the first. He was named Big 12 Co-Special Teams Player of the Week on Sept. 4 after returning a punt 82 yards for a score against Arkansas State. Junior linebacker Danny Stutsman was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 11 after he logged 17 total tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, a sack, a quarterback hit, and recovered a fumble.

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‘We want to be incredibly balanced’: Jeff Lebby knows the running game must improve

The Oklahoma Sooners offense dominated the Tulsa Golden Hurricane but Jeff Lebby knows they need to be more balanced long term.

The Oklahoma Sooners offense had an up-and-down performance vs. the [autotag]SMU Mustangs[/autotag] two weeks ago. This week was much different and better as an overall unit.

The Sooners scored on 9 of 12 possessions. One of those they didn’t score on was when they were kneeling out the clock. The Sooners are No. 1 in the nation in third-down offense, a major emphasis this offseason.

Jeff Lebby told reporters after the game, he was really impressed with the performance on Saturday.

“I liked the fact that we threw it around pretty well, we took care of the QB,” Lebby said. “I thought our protection was really dang good all day. I don’t like the one interception. I don’t like not scoring a touchdown right before half but I thought our guys had a great attack mindset to be up here and do what we needed to do.”

The only negative from the Sooners offense was another performance from the run game that that fell below their standards. McKade Mettauer said last week the goal is to average five yards per carry. They have yet to hit that mark and fell below it again averaging 4.3 vs. the [autotag]Tulsa Golden Hurricane[/autotag]. That played a role in them not scoring before half.

That’s something Lebby acknowledged they need to get corrected.

“We want to have great balance,” Lebby said. “I know we didn’t have great balance today, obviously. We want to be incredibly balanced. With the way it happened today, again we threw it around a little bit more than probably normal but felt we wanted to be aggressive, be able to go make plays down the field.”

It’s never a bad thing to be a team that can win in multiple ways but one thing is for sure, the Sooners will need to get the running game going if they want to achieve their goals long term.

That challenge gets increasingly harder starting this week as they play the Cincinnati Bearcats who bring one of the best defensive lines in the conference to the game.

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Gentry Williams makes the most of his homecoming in win over Tulsa

The Tulsa native was the first of five Sooners to get an interception on Saturday.

The Oklahoma Sooners are coming off another dominant performance on both sides of the ball in their win over Tulsa. The Sooners beat the [autotag]Tulsa Golden Hurricane[/autotag] 66-17 over to move to 3-0.

The defense picked off five passes (and could have had several more), which is the most since 2003 vs. the [autotag]Texas Tech Red Raiders[/autotag]. One of those interceptions was by [autotag]Gentry Williams[/autotag] who made his return home.

He told reporters after the game, the defense is playing well but there are still things to clean up.

“I think we did pretty good for today,” Williams said. “We had a couple of mental lapses in the second quarter but I think overall we were able to get a good grasp of what we needed to do today and execute.”

In the second quarter, the Golden Hurricane scored on two straight possessions at the end of the half and followed that up with a scoring drive to start the third quarter. Outside of that the Sooners stifled the Golden Hurricane offense.

Williams broke down the play that ended with his first interception of the season. “The receiver made a good route, the ball was in the air and I just played it,” he said.

It wasn’t as simple as Williams made it sound. Williams stayed stride for stride with the receiver, turned and eventually went past the receiver to pick it off. It was a sign of how special he can be if he can just fight off whatever injury is nagging him each game.

Now, the Sooners are in a familiar place at 3-0 heading into conference play. It will only get tougher from here on out, and Williams will be a big part of the Oklahoma Sooners success.

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