OU vs Temple Preview | Demarco Murray Suspension w/ Parker Thune | Sooner Spotlight Ep. 8

you are now listening to the war Rapport podcast Network [Applause] [Music] [Applause] sooner Nation welcome in to another episode of sooner Spotlight your all access pass for all things Oklahoma Sooners Athletics I'm your host Josh mer you can find me on X formerly known as Twitter real Josh M go check me out over there for all updates on this show and so much more uh we thank you all so much for all of the support that we've gotten so far want to give you a couple of of quick updates we do have apple podcast and Spotify uh you can go check us out over there we' we're uploaded on there now so you can check us out if you prefer to listen maybe you're in the car driving to and from work and you can't check on YouTube to go and watch the video uh we've got you over there so please do us one quick favor if you would please go over there and follow us on Apple podcast and Spotify and give us a five star review real quick uh that's going to help us grow so much over there and we thank you all so much so far and if you haven't already on YouTube hit that subscribe button hit that like button uh and go ahead and comment down below we've been getting a an overwhelming amount of comments and all kinds of support from you guys so far so sooner Nation I truly didn't understand how great this fan base was until starting this podcast and having you guys support a small growing podcast like this as quickly as we have been growing uh it's it's all huge thanks to you guys so we do have Parker th on with us from OU Insider uh he's all over you can find him on X as well so go check him out over there I love following him on on X uh formerly known as Twitter whatever you want to call it I love following him over there and checking out all the stuff that he puts out on the Oklahoma Sooners specifically all around college football so go check him out over there and uh he he also has an opportunity to tell you guys a little bit more about OU Insider and what that is it's an amazing platform go check it out I'm going to drop that link down the in the description as well uh so Parker th uh if you are an Oklahoma fan you know who he is uh he's well known he's one of the best OU insiders uh that I know of and so it was a huge honor to have Parker come on we talked about DeMarco Murray and his suspension one game suspension against tane how much that really matters for Oklahoma spoiler alert not too much and then we also get into the depth chart some of the surprises some of the the exciting things to see on the depth chart and then we get into Temple uh coming to town to play the Oklahoma Sooners on Friday kind of give a little bit of a breakdown on that and we also kind of give a little bit of our predictions for uh that game as well so a ton to get to with Parker Thon and I'm very excited for you guys to see that before we get to that interview I want to let everybody know we do have a merch merch shop so you can check that that link in the description if you want to go check out all the sooner Spotlight merch all of the proceeds go directly to this podcast and the production of this podcast so we would greatly appreciate if you guys would go over there and just show some support uh there's some Oklahoma themed merch over there as well as just specifically sooner Spotlight a lot of fun stuff so go check it out we've gotten a few orders already from people who saw the merch shop open up uh from people that saw it on social media or here on YouTube so go check that out that link is in the description down below but let's go ahead and get into the interview with Parker th sooner Nation I want to welcome in a man that needs no introduction to sooner fans you know who he is his name is Parker th uh over with kref uh one of the best OU insiders Parker thank you so much for joining of course Josh my pleas yeah uh first I want to start off by getting some of your thoughts uh starting off with some of the news that broke and you know at first when you first see the headline might catch a couple of us by surprise and it is uh with our running backs coach DeMarco Murray a legend at Oklahoma uh he is now being uh you know has a violation uh for recruiting and he's not allowed to be at the game on Friday uh which was kind of alarming news but when we look into it not as alarming as maybe it sounds from just the headline itself but kind of tell us about uh what what you know about DeMarco Murray and then of course how that impacts Friday night's game yeah I'm not convinced it impacts Friday night's game at all I mean if you can afford to spare an onfield coach for one game how about a Friday night opener against a team that went three and n and scored 14 total points in three games against Power four competition a year ago Oklahoma should not struggle in the slightest with temple and quite frankly by the Midway point of the third quarter everybody should be in cooldown mode at that point there's no reason why this game shouldn't be out of hand very quickly so uh if you can afford to lose a position coach for a single game this is about as an opportune a time as there is for DeMarco Murray's suspension to occur uh moreover as far as the recruiting ramifications very similarly the Sooners probably would have had singled digigit recruits in attendance at this game because it's on a Friday and so many guys are playing high school games on Friday there are schools in Oklahoma that moved their games to Thursday night to accommodate the sooner season opener but uh as far as the guys that are legitimately on U's radar you look at the schedules a lot of them are playing on Friday night I know of maybe three or four that were concretely planning on being on campus for this game so the consequences are minimal all around for Oklahoma oh yeah yeah I mean ultimately that's what I thought when I I saw that you know with DeMarco Murray being out for one you you kind of eject him just for the one game that we're probably least worried about as sooner fans uh and then on top of that like you mentioned with all the recruits not being able to show up to the game uh I mean I don't know how many visits you're going to get on a Friday night game anyways but more or less trying to keep the keep the guys out of the Heat and stuff like that move it over to to Friday night when the the sun's going down uh maybe the heat goes down um but let's go ahead and jump into the depth chart as well uh I know you know with with that first depth chart uh a lot of sooner fans might have been confused because they're not seeing certain guys up towards the top um but something that we shouldn't worry about because it's going to adjust and it seems like this is more let's get some some young guys in there and get them some playing time uh let's also test certain positions out uh starting off with that depth chart I mean what kind of stands out to you well I'll tell you what stands out right off the bat when you start to look through it Brandon Thompson being listened as a co-starter alongside Nick Anderson took a lot of people by surprise uh but this is why uh I would encourage everybody to go sign up over at ouinsider.com for just a few bucks a month to get premium Intel on the team on U football recruiting uh on a variety of OU Athletics but football and recruiting is really the bulk of the work we do and for those that had been paying attention to what we've been reporting behind the pay wall to members over at ouinsider.com it was no secret that Brenan Thompson had made a big big jump and that he was poised to take on a greater role and a role that wasn't exclusive to the Deep threat Chasm that he filled in Oklahoma's offense a year ago you knew when Brenan Thompson stepped on the field a year ago that he was going deep and it was difficult enough to stop then how much more difficult is it going to be for opposing defenses to contend with Brenan Thompson if he has indeed mastered the route tree and can be a weapon at all three levels for Oklahoma then obviously Jaden Jackson's the toast of the town I mean first true freshman to start at defensive tackle for Oklahoma in an opener since Tommy Harris in 2001 so you're in rarified air in the post Bob Stoops era in the last eight years at Oklahoma there are only three other guys period that have started as true freshman in week one the other three are Billy Bowman CD lamb and Kenneth Murray so again Elite company Jaden Jackson's going to be dang good and what I try to remind everybody this time of year especially when we get a first look at the depth chart is that there are only so many slots on a depth chart and the brutal reality is that not everybody on this roster is going to make it at the University of Oklahoma now what that means is yes there are going to be some players that get shuffled down the list there are some players that going to get left off the list in some cases that may be highly indicative in some cases it may not be at all for instance just because you don't see a guy like Nigel Smith listed on the inaugural depth chart does not mean that after seven months on campus oh time to give up on the Nigel Smith experiment no he's a freshman a lot of these guys are going to come along at a slow developmental curve and they're not going to be rushed to get ready because of the depth that Oklahoma has on both sides of the ball so that is the reminder that I issue to everybody this time of year is just because you don't see a guy just because you're not hear in good things about a guy doesn't mean he's a lost cause three weeks of practice in August prior to the season is not always deterministic of what type of career a guy is or is not going to have at Oklahoma so take it all with a grain of salt but definitely an encouragement to see guys like Brenan Thompson and Jaden Jackson making moves up the depth chart yeah yeah especially you know we talked about Brendan Thompson and what we saw from him last year like you said being able to blow the top off a off a defense and showing speed um as a young guy him stepping in right now is really crucial too with a you know a couple of bang-ups uh in the wide receiver room I know andrel Anthony Jalil faroo both looking good now uh and then of course you had Jaden Gibson uh announced that he he would have a season ending injury so uh with a little bit of a scare at least at the very least in the wide receiver room you love to see the depth uh there especially with some of these young guys uh and I know one guy that was kind of surprising to me that wasn't even on the depth chart but maybe that's a good thing Zion reag and some of the some of the things that we've heard about him yeah I think they're trying to keep him under WS as much as possible and I don't think you mind that if you're an Oklahoma fan because there will there will come a point in time this year at which Zion Reagan will see the field and everyone will immediately see with their own two eyes why EMT Jones was willing to go outside his wheelhouse to the state of Georgia to make a hard push recruit that kid and ultimately land him and it is because he has truly Elite Speed everybody sees Brennan Thompson as the speed demon on this roster and that's true he's incredibly fast Zion Reagan might be even faster there's a conversation to be had there so they are the same you you basically got two of the same guy on your roster in the sense that you have two dudes that every single time they run down the field you better be ready because if you don't react quickly enough you can forget it once they get going they're going to leave you in their dust and that's what's really exciting I think about the future of this Oklahoma wide receiver room is that EMT Jones has recruited so many different genotypes so many guys whose skill sets complement one another who bring something unique to the room and yes 2024 offers so much excitement when you look at the wide receiver stable guys that have done it before at the Collegiate level whether at Oklahoma I.E andrella Anthony Jalil faroo Nick Anderson or elsewhere I.E Dion Burks but in 2025 and Beyond trust me if there's a drop off there won't be much of one just because Jones has structured his room such that you're going to have you're going to have the cupboard refilling itself in essence as one guy moves along to the next level another guy's going to be on the come up yeah and i' I've even compared it a little bit to how you've seen Ohio State be able to replace guys year after year the way that they have guys that are so deep that they go off uh you know I'm trying I'm drawing a blank but uh uh you know having having guys go off to Alabama to be a starter you know so you know you've got you've got guys deep this year and that's definitely something that shows much more this year even with some of the transfers and things like that that we've got you know with guys like Andre Anthony and uh getting Dion coming over and kind of filling in that that role that Stoops would have played last year U so definitely definitely some some uh aspects over there in that wide receiver room that I'm very happy to see especially with a Young quarterback um but I kind of going on to this Friday night again kind of an odd uh timing for an opening game you know you've got an opening game on a Friday Night Under The Lights uh it's going to be an electric atmosphere because it's the first time that we see Oklahoma come in as an SEC team playing on the field with those SEC logos on the field uh let's start off over on the offense because obviously like we mentioned we're not really worried about Temple at all we're 42 and a half Point favorites last time I checked so you would expect Oklahoma to Come Away with this just fine and you brought brought it up a minute ago too that probably going to see quite a few backups playing here pretty pretty quickly in the game too so going into this starting on the offensive side of the ball what should Oklahoma fans expect to see and what do they want to see when we go against a team like Temple here at home in week one I mean I I I don't put a whole lot of stock into what people want to see because you ask a hundred different people you're going to get a hundred different answers everybody has their idea of how offense should be played at the University of Oklahoma or what Seth Latrell should show uh out of his playbook in week one against Temple but at the end of the day for the last quarter Century at Oklahoma offense no matter who has been the play caller the quarterback uh the offensive line coach you you look at the key cogs and whoever has filled those roles in years past uh it hasn't changed the fundamental nature of what we know Oklahoma offense in the 21st century to be which is prolific whether that be in a run heavy sense or in a pass heavy sense historically the majority of Oklahoma offenses in the 21st century have favored the run and I expect that to continue in 2024 what I want to see and what I think you need to see uh from this Oklahoma offense on Friday night is you want to see those two backs at top of the depth chart Gavin Sawchuk and javante Barnes get off to a good start uh get what they should get against a defensive front like temples you want to see that offensive line mesh and be able to consistently get a push up front because that's the one unit that I think folks have the most questions that are swirling about uh but all in all although I do feel like the Run game needs to take precedent for Oklahoma and while that does need to be the main focus Friday night just establishing some momentum and a sense of confidence in your rushing offense what I think the only thing you should care about seeing is an offense that moves the ball exactly how they ought to move the ball against a defense that is not at all equipped to go toe-to-toe with them in any facet of the game so as long as they are moving the ball down the field finishing drives with touchdowns you're going to get my stamp of approval Friday night yeah yeah definitely and it's it's definitely one that if you see little bits of struggles I think early in the game you might be able to write that off a little bit first time getting out there get get some of those Jitters out but you don't want to see something similar to like I I would compare to what uh maybe SMU saw where they really struggled and it just kind of carried through uh you know definitely something that you want to see eventually get fluidity um eventually be able to work it down the field just fine um but I would expect on the other on the other side too that a lot of sooner fans would be pretty upset even if they did see those those early Jitters uh kind of working their way way through um early in the game um but jumping over to the defensive side of the ball what do we kind of expect from the defense here against a team like Temple well conversely I don't think Temple should be able to run the ball at all Friday I mean that that would be pretty inexcusable if uh obviously you know there there is a natural discrepancy in the overall Talent level between Oklahoma's roster and Temple's roster everybody understands that but if that Oklahoma defensive line is what they've been touted to be going into this season if they're all that they're cracked up to be uh with the experience and the sheer physical gifts that some of those guys have up front uh the ability the depth if that defensive line is what we expect they are capable of being in 2024 Temple should not be able to move the ball on the ground at all and so from that standpoint I think you know and look I I don't think it's out of the question that Temple manages a big play or two via the pass game because you are going to be working out some kinks in week one it's not going to be perfect it's not going to be a finished product there will be guys that Miss assignments or that blow coverages and it it shouldn't cost you in the sense that you know a blown coverage against Temple probably goes for a 25 30 yard gain whereas the same blown coverage against Tennessee might go for a 75 yard touchdown so I I don't know if you'll really feel it on Friday night if those things happen but uh all in all man to me all you want to see from this Oklahoma defense is a unit that takes care of business commensurate with expectation I think expectations should be again you look at what Temple did last year rather didn't do against Power five competition it if that program manages more than two scoring drives on Friday night I would be very very surprised so uh hold your ground up front keep them out of opposing territory and you're going to win the game you're going to win the game by a wide margin so everybody is going to find any reason to nitpick your performance in the aftermath because it's a game you're expected to win handily but uh I also just really want to see what some of these young freshman uh pieces have for Oklahoma in 2024 and how many of these guys are ready to make a meaningful contribution not just in noncom but once you get to SEC play I think you'll see quite a bit of Michael boganowski on Friday night I think you'll see quite a bit of Eli Bowen and even some of those guys that didn't see a whole lot of run last year as true freshman but are entering their red shirt freshman or sophomore year in some cases and that haven't played a ton of football at OU at least on defense yet samel Migo and LS Carter come to mind uh what do you get out of those guys in terms of individual performance that lead you to believe that they can be a Cornerstone contributor and make a strong case for more snaps as you get closer and closer The Gauntlet that is that SEC slate yeah yeah absolutely and and you you said it best too just focusing on that run defense because I think the biggest thing that I think SEC fans kind of uh tout over themselves is that they're very good in the trenches especially first SEC opponent uh you know going against a Tennessee team uh they're in Norman who is very good on offensive line but their defensive line is one of the best in the SEC one of the best in the nation uh so trying to stand up with those SEC opponents uh I guess how how ready do you feel I know you've been around the atmosphere there in practic and stuff like that much more than I've been been able to so kind of tell Oklahoma fans how does it feel in the atmosphere do you feel like it they're ready for the SEC I do feel like this is a program that's ready for the SEC and that has a lot to do with this defense and what they're going to be what I expect that they're capable of in 2024 because again you just you never really question that the offense at Oklahoma is going to be able to put up points but so much in years past with regard to Oklahoma's Championship viability boils down to whether or not the defense has its act together and the early impression that I get is that this is going to be the best defense you've seen at Oklahoma in a long long time a decade plus easily because they finally have all of the pieces in the defensive back field to give some of those variegated complex intricate looks that Brent venables thrives on and has historically thrived on at Clemson they're obviously going to have one of the best linebacker groups in the nation and again if that defensive line gets some of the individual performances that they ought to get season long out of guys like Dominic Williams and Kaden Ward and dejon Terry Ethan DS maybe you get a a breakout campaign from a guy like PJ adiet or even Danny AO that's going to go a long long way towards making this defense one of the most fearsome units in the country and I do think that's the ceiling while I wouldn't necessarily place that expectation upon them yet again the pieces are all there and so if you trust the coaches and to me there's no reason to there's no reason not to trust maybe the most decorated defensive football coach that the Collegiate game has seen in the last three decades then I think you ought to trust that this defense is going to do great things in 20 24 whether that means being a top five unit in the SEC or being a top five unit in the country remains to be seen but they're not going to be a liability and they're not just going to be a middle of the road unit yeah yeah absolutely um I don't know if you're much of a betting man but uh you know what what about a score prediction here for Oklahoma temple in week one here this upcoming Friday yeah my score prediction was Oklahoma 52 Temple 3 all give the owls a field goal it feels cruel to predict that Oklahoma will shut out a team or that anybody will shut out a team but uh I I do think it's very much within the realm of possibility that Temple does not score on Friday night so I've got the Sooners 52 to3 so that's a win and a cover if you want to play that in Vegas yeah yeah absolutely yeah that's that was the next thing I was going to mention to is you definitely have them covering that 42 points it feels like they ought to but Parker I appreciate you so much for coming on uh let everybody know where to find your stuff if they don't already know yeah again folks ouinsider.com is where you can find my work and the works of my outstanding colleagues Brandon drum Jesse kitton and Brian Clinton and Brody Lusk the latter of whom is the Premier basketball Insider in this market uh now much of our content is free a lot of free reads a lot of free analysis over there for you at ouinsider.com but believe me the real good stuff is behind the pay wall it'll cost you eight bucks a month that's virtually nothing eight bucks a month to get all access behind the pay at ouinsider.com to all the information Intel recruiting notes and all the rest that we're throwing out there on a daily basis for you sooner fans yeah absolutely well Parker uh once again thank you so much for coming on no problem Josh take it easy hey sooner fans did you enjoy this video well go ahead and hit that like button and go ahead and hit that subscribe button what are you doing if you've made it this far and haven't already you should be able to find that subscribe button over here uh and then if you want to see full episodes we've got those up here and clips right down here so go check that out but we thank you all so much for all the love all the support we'll catch you next time Boomer