Live Update: Arkansas 11, OU 0, final
By John Helsley
It’s over in Norman, the game and the season for the Sooners.
Arkansas left-hander Drew Smyly no-hit Oklahoma into the ninth inning, while the Razorback bats pounded away for the second straight day in an 11-0 rout at Mitchell Park.
The Sooners eventually scratched out two hits, one off of Smyly, in the ninth, but nothing more.
OU’s season ends at 43-20.
It was a much better story in the day’s first game, a 7-2 win over Washington State. Garrett Richards gave the Sooners a complete game, five-hitter on the mound and first baseman Aaron Baker provided a grand slam in a five-run seventh inning that broke the game open.
Unfortunately for the Sooners, they couldn’t get another solid pitching performance, something that’s been hard to come by in this Regional. Antwonie Hubbard’s line offers the ultimate in feast or famine: seven outs, all by strikeout; five hits, all for extra bases, including two home runs.
Live Update: Sooners fall to Hogs
By John Helsley
An ugly start led to an uglier finish at Mitchell Park, where Arkansas routed OU 17-6 in the Norman Regional, knocking the Sooners into the loser’s bracket of the tournament.
OU faces elimination at 1 p.m. Sunday against Washington State. It also faces a scenario of three straight must-win games to win the regional.
The night started with some deja vu at the ballpark for OU pitcher Michael Rocha, who didn’t get out of the first inning.
And this time, the bullpen couldn’t save him.
After the Sooners spotted Rocha a 1-0 lead in the top of the first (OU is host, but not the “home” team tonight), Rocha gave up a 3-run bomb to make it 4-1, then a 4-pitch walk to the next batter.
And he was done.
As you may recall, it was a similar story in his last start, in the Big 12 Tournament. Handed a 6-0 lead in the first, Rocha scuffled from the outset and didn’t get out of the first inning.
OU’s run in the first came on a Jamie Johnson leadoff double and a double-play groundout.
Arkansas added two third-inning runs off Robinson, who allowed a double, a walk and a two-run single.
The Hogs added three more in the fifth off Robinson and OU’s third pitcher, Tyson Seng.
And it kept piling on, with the Hogs finishing with a season-high – and a high given up by the Sooners this season – 20 hits, including eight for extra bases.
Live Update: OU wins baseball opener
By John Helsley
Revisiting Lynn Katoa
Going back to the 2007 recruiting season, there was no player the Sooner coaching wanted more for its defense than Utah linebacker Lynn Katoa.
Katoa was a big-time hitter, and seemed to be a perfect fit in Brent Venables’ system.
Instead, Katoa signed with Colorado in a huge recruiting coup for Dan Hawkins.
Two years later, we learned that OU dodged a bullet.
Hawkins, according to this report, admitted that Katoa is no longer with the team, ending his short-lived, tumultuous tenure at CU.
Katoa started heading the wrong direction when he enrolled early in the spring of 2008. He was arrested during a melee for hitting another man with a rock in his hand. He eventually plead guilty to assault. Then, last fall, Katoa became academically ineligible and never stepped on the field. According to several reports, Katoa probably wouldn’t have been eligible this upcoming fall, either, which raises the question of, with that kind of academic record, where he can really transfer?
OU obviously ended up better off without Katoa, who probably would’ve been the same headache in Norman that he was in Boulder.
By Jake Trotter
College Football Live to focus on Oklahoma
It’s not the same as GameDay, but ESPN’s College Football Live will devote an entire show to the state of Oklahoma on June 5.
The 30-minute show airs at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN, and is already scheduled to bring in Barry Sanders, though other guests related to Oklahoma are supposedly going to be interviewed as well.
By Jake Trotter
Coaches poll anonymity helps no one (except coaches with agendas)
Wednesday, the American Football Coaches Association announced that, beginning in 2010, ballots in the final regular-season USA Today coaches’ college football poll will be kept confidential.
This was done in an effort to make the poll more accurate and credible.
Credible? Really?
In the past, coaches have made some bizarre, sometimes seemingly vindictive or clearly self-serving, votes in their final poll.
Two years ago, Howard Schellenberger, currently the coach at Florida Atlantic and who before that was fired from Oklahoma, had the Sooners at No. 7, three spots lower than the team OU had just demolished, Missouri.
Bob Stoops also had an interesting selection in his ballot, putting the club, LSU, of former rival Les Miles at No. 6. No other coach had LSU outside the Top 5.
Hal Mumme, finally, had Hawaii No. 1, weeks before they would be undressed by Georgia in their bowl game.
Coaches who have a vote in the poll have a right to vote however they want.
But imagine what will happen when this poll becomes anonymous.
You still think Mack Brown would’ve still voted OU No. 3, instead of No. 25, which would’ve been the difference in Texas going to the Big 12 title game over OU?
Maybe he would have. But maybe not. The point is, we won’t know.
Having a face with a vote keeps coaches accountable for their votes.
Anonymity will not.
By Jake Trotter
Caleb, Tennell primed for breakout seasons
Brandon Caleb and Adron Tennell are connected by their many commonalities.
Both are wide receivers.
Both were high-profile, 4-star recruits coming out of high school.
Both have battled serious, season-ending injuries.
Both have yet to live up to expectations.
But this season, both Caleb and Tennell will have ample opportunity to produce.
OU’s elder talent at wide receiver has kept Caleb and Tennell on the sidelines as Malcolm Kelly, Juaquin Iglesias and Manny Johnson have enjoyed the majority of the snaps the last three seasons.
Now, with those players gone to the NFL, Tennell and Caleb find themselves being counted on to fulfill major roles.
Said Tennell, “It’s been a while waiting to get on the field. Me and Brandon every time, we know what to do — go out there and ‘eat,’ which means go out there and make plays every time on the field.”
Said Caleb, “Everybody that comes in here wants to play immediately and sometimes there are setbacks. As far as waiting, you have to be patient and realize when you’re presented with an opportunity. I feel like we can come on and make the plays that show the coaches that we’re reliable. You have to know whenever you get the opportunity, you have to make something happen. That’s what we’re hoping to do.”
Other than Ryan Broyles, the Sooners have little experience at receiver. Running back Mossis Madu will see some time in the slot. Jameel Owens and Dejuan Miller are promising, but still young. Junior-college transfer Cameron Kenney, who won’t arrive on campus until June, will need time to learn the system.
That’s why Caleb and Tennell, now the veterans of the receiving corps, are key for OU’s offense.
But to finally contribute, the two have to stay healthy; knee injures have plagued the careers of both players.
Caleb suffered a knee injury in 2007 that caused him to miss nearly the entire season, though he did receive a medical redshirt.
Tennell suffered a torn ACL later that year that he said he just recently overcame mentally.
“It’s definitely been a slow process with the injuries, but when you get back out on the field you have to go out there and act like nothing happened,” Caleb said. “It’s something you never want to have happen but it’s something that comes with the game.”
Due to their commonalities, Caleb and Tennell have become good buddies over the years. Their girlfriends live next door to one another are friends, so even when they’re not on the playing field, the two are around each other.
Now, even though the two will be competing for playing over one another, each is rooting for the other to deliver a breakout season.
“We definitely feel like it’s our time to step up as far as Adron being a senior and myself being a redshirt junior,” Caleb said. “We have the playmaking abilities We’ve been behind a bunch of guys who’ve played a lot of games and made a lot of plays here at Oklahoma.
“Now we see that we have an opportunity.”
By Jake Trotter
Red River Rivalry hits the golf course
Wearing crimson red, former Oklahoma Sooner golfer Anthony Kim was paired with Texas football coach Mack Brown at the Byron Nelson Classic in Irving, Texas.
Unfortunately, the two apparently didn’t talk Jamarkus McFarland or Asterisks-gate.
Said Kim in an interview, “I came out here with the mindset of talking some trash, but Coach Brown’s been so nice. I couldn’t get it to come out of my mouth.”
Replied Brown, “Everybody wondered about Texas and OU being mentioned all day. I don’t think after we shook hands and took pictures that it was mentioned again.”
To see video footage from the event, click here.
By Jake Trotter
OU hoops boast No. 6 class
The bad news of Juan Pattillo being kicked off the team this week shouldn’t linger too long.
That’s because the Sooners have the No. 6-ranked incoming recruiting class, according to ESPN.com.
Said ESPN, “Four ESPNU 100 players, two of whom are McDonald’s All-Americans, will help soften the blow of Blake Griffin’s early departure from Norman. Center Keith Gallon (Houston/Oak Hill Academy) and PG Tommy Mason-Griffin (Houston/Madison) are the headliners for OU; the duo will be counted upon to be productive from day one. Gallon, at 6-9 and 300 pounds, can score inside, face up to the arc and is a physical rebounding presence. The 5-10 Mason-Griffin is a complete point guard because he can handle, pass and shoot with NBA range. He also is strong enough to handle the contact as a freshman in the Big 12 at 190 pounds. Coach Jeff Capel also added a big-time wing shooter and zone buster in Steve Pledger (Chesapeake, Va./Atlantic Shores). Bookend power forward Andrew Fitzgerald (Owings Mills, Md./Brewster Academy) is a physical scorer on the blocks and a deft offensive rebounder. Powerful rebounder and finisher Kyle Hardrick (Oklahoma City/Putnam City) brings the effort and intensity.”
(To see more recruiting analysis from ESPN, click here. Other notable rankings, Kentucky No. 1, Texas No. 4, Kansas No. 5, Oklahoma State No. 10).
I expect Mason-Griffin and Gallon to be instant starters. With Pattillo gone, Fitzgerald could work his way into the starting lineup as well.
That would leave a starting line up of:
PG Mason-Griffin
SG Willie Warren
SF Tony Crocker
PF Fitzgerald
C Gallon
You won’t win in December with a team like that. But in March, if the youth-movement Sooners gel around superstar Willie Warren, look out, perhaps even for another deep run into the NCAA Tournament.
By Jake Trotter
Sooner football player wins in the classroom
On the field, the only memory many Sooner fans will have of Lamont Robinson was the costly interception he dropped in the end zone of last season’s Red River Shootout.
Robinson decided not to return to the Sooner football team for the upcoming season despite having another year of eligibility (though it’s doubtful he would’ve played much).
But Robinson had a very good reason for moving on with his life.
A 4.2 grade-point average, a degree in African-American studies, and a bright future away from football.
“I didn’t do the things athletically that everyone comes here dreaming about doing,” Robinson recently said during graduation weekend. “But the experience and the lessons I’ve learned and the person I am today, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
Robinson’s future plans include running programs at a rehabilitation and homeless shelter.
He also plans on taking the LSAT next year in hopes of enrolling in law school.
Robinson won’t go down as one of the all-time great Sooner football players. But he leaves OU a winner.
By Jake Trotter
