Are the Sooners a Championship Contender? + Latest on ELITE QB Recruitment | OU Insider Live

In this week’s live stream, Parker and Brandon bring you the latest from the Switzer Center as the Sooners continue to push forward after last week’s big win over #15 Michigan.

College Students, Teachers and Active duty military! Email OUInsider@Rivals.com to get OUInsider for $1 a month for the first 3 months!

Join OUInsider NOW for $1 your first week & get complimentary year of The Athletic – included with your membership.
https://www.on3.com/sites/ou-insider/join/ to get OUInsider

Use our code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/INSIDER10 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20discount

Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Welcome, welcome, welcome to another U insider under the visor YouTube live powered by Riverwin Casino. My name is Brandon Drum. Parker Thun Spencer Foresight on the board. Oklahoma won two and0 on the year. We’re going to talk about that. We’re going to talk about a big recruiting weekend, probably the biggest in Brent Venable’s era, uh, bar none. I don’t think that’s a question. Uh, we will talk about a commitment that happened today. Uh, Deari Desern, is that how you pronounce his name correctly? Desern, as I understand it, Deari Dejour. Dou uh, one of the top 100 uh, players in the country in the 2027 class according to on three rivals 100. uh committed to Oklahoma earlier this week, earlier today actually. Uh Payton Houston, one of the top two or three quarterbacks in the country in the 2027 class, is set to decide on September the 15th. We were going to talk about that and so so much more. Plus, we’re going to answer your question, your super chats, all of the above. We can’t wait to dive into it. But before we do, Parker, as usual, let’s thank our sponsors, Riverwind Casino. folks is our presenting sponsor here on U Insider Live. You know where it’s at. Right off of I35 and Highway 9, the OKC area’s premier gaming destination for nearly two decades now. Almost 3,000 electronic games, table games, bars, and dining options, plus the best live music in the metro. It’s no surprise that Riverwind is always a good time. Also, a shout out to Janick King, a proud partner of not only us at U Insider, but OU athletics as well. Janick King is the greatest team to ever clean, delivering spotless results and solutions from stadiums to any size business across the country. Check out which of their solutions is best for you by going to janiking.com. That’s jan n i k i n g.com. And finally, a word from prize picks. Do you know ball? It’s time to prove it with prize picks. Whether you want in on the NFL action, college football on Saturdays, whatever you want to play at Prize Picks, you can play it and use your ball knowledge to win real money. Price Picks invented the flex play, which means you can still cash out if your lineup isn’t perfect. You can double your money even if one of your picks doesn’t hit. It’s the best way to get action on sports in 40 plus states. You and I make decisions every day, but on prize picks, being right can get you paid. So, don’t don’t miss any of the excitement this season on prize picks where it’s good to be right. Download the app today and use code u insider to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code u insider to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks. It’s good to be right. Yes, it is. Parker, where do we want to start? Where do we want to start? Do we want to start with talking about uh the UNO Michigan? Uh do we want to talk about uh Deari De? Uh do we want to talk about Payton Hillis? Where do we go? But obviously after we get to the super chats. Yeah. How about this? Let’s uh start off with a super chat from 1990s Oklahoma legend Martin Chase. is he uh was my favorite player. My f one of my favorite defensive tackles of all time when I was growing up. He was pretty freaking good, man. Awesome. He was pretty freaking good. He’s like top three or what? Top five in sacks at OU. Uh he’s up there um for a single season. Yeah. I mean, look, I just remember him chasing Donovan McNab and wearing his butt out into a victory over top five Syracuse or top 20 Syracuse at the time. Uh they were supposed to come in and run rough shot over uh the Sooners and Cory Ivy ended up blocking a field goal. I was sitting in the south end zone and blocked and and like landed like right at my feet uh to the side. It was pretty awesome. So, so, uh, Martin Chase is on the money here, folks. If you want to ensure that we answer your question over the course of this stream, or address your opinion, whatever it may be, you want to fire question, comment, opinion our way, do so via the super chat function. It gets bumped to the top of our queue in that case. And we make the promise to you every week that we will address every single super chat before we wrap up the stream. Martin Chase asked, “With what you saw Saturday, if we can find a consistent run game, can this team win it all?” I can’t go there. I can’t go there. Not yet. I I I mean, Gosh. Okay. Here, let let me let let me uh let me let me walk this out. Okay. I think they are a playoff team as long as they win nine games with that schedule. Particularly because they beat Michigan. I think because Michigan’s schedule is going to play out to where Michigan’s going to Michigan’s going to be a nine or 10 win team. Even if they’re an eight- win team, that is awesome. I was looking at Temple’s schedule, Parker. Temple has a chance to win six, seven, eight games this year. like legitimately like they’re not that they’re actually pretty freaking good for a G5 program and obviously that coaching staff has done nothing but win-win at the FCS level. Do we know they’re good? I don’t know. They’ve scored it. They’ve got a decent I they have beaten Howard and UMass respectively. Here’s here’s my Okay, let me finish walking this out. Their that staff has done nothing but win, right? AC is a good coach. No doubt. Yeah. Two separate places FCS championships. Awesome. So, you know, they’re going to be prepared. They’re going to be well coached, all that. You would think that would roll over into some victories. We’ve seen Temple do it before, obviously, under Matt Rule. So, like it’s not something that is, I guess, uncharted territory, if you will, with them. Um, so there’s that. Obviously, Kent State’s awful. Uh, they’re the worst team in college football. Um, but they have the Michigan win, you would have the Temple win. Obviously, you have the first win against Illinois State, who’s one of the better FCS programs in all of college football. Uh, so that non-con actually doesn’t turn out to be that bad at the end of the day, I don’t think. Now, you need to beat Missouri at home. You’ve got to hold serve with Missouri, and I think they can. You have to hold serve with Old Miss, and I think they can. So, that puts you at six wins right there. Now you’ve got to go on the road and beat Tennessee. You’ve got to win two or three on the road that are going to be tough games against ranked opponents. So I think they’re a playoff team. If they can get a playoff home game in round one, I think all bets are off and I truly believe that. I I guess here’s the way I look at it with what we saw Saturday against Michigan. If to use Martin’s hypothetical there, Oklahoma can find a consistent run game, a consistent traditional run game, i.e. the backs doing damage as opposed to your quarterback and John Matier. Where’s the weakness? You can argue there isn’t one. There there isn’t. There’s no weakness. No. Yeah. At that point, to me, that that’s a college football playoff team. Will they win the national title? I’m not going to sit here and predict that. But can they win the national title? Absolutely they can. Yeah. I mean, as I look at Oklahoma’s schedule and really just as I’ve as I’ve monitored the college football landscape over these first two weeks, and obviously I haven’t watched any every second of every game, not anything close to it, but was having this conversation uh with a colleague over the weekend and he and I agreed that the two schools that look to be a step ahead of the rest right now are Oregon and Ohio State. Those look like the top two programs in college football right now. We’ll see if that holds. A lot is going to change between now and late November, early December once conference championship games are played. But look at Oklahoma’s schedule the rest of the way. Look at how some of the teams on that slate that were expected to be marquee opponents and still will be marquee opponents have played. I said this before the season. I believe it all the more now. Yeah. There’s not an opponent on Oklahoma’s schedule that they can’t play with and beat. There is no opponent on Oklahoma’s schedule that is measurably and demonstrabably better and more talented than the Sooners. So, if you ask me, can this Oklahoma team win at all? Yeah, they can. Will they? That’s a different conversation. Yeah, that’s not a conversation I’m ready to have until like November. Yeah, I if they can get to the College Football Playoff, yes, the the default implication there is they’re capable of winning at all. And I do see this team as a team that can get to the College Football Playoff. I just can’t get myself to go there and maybe I am, you know, a sour about it or whatever you want to call me. Uh just I just can’t like I can’t get myself to go there. They have if they beat Auburn, I’ll talk. Like I’ll talk. You You hold serve with Auburn, Missouri, uh, Old Miss at home. I’ll talk like I think that’s worth talking about at that point. And I haven’t brought up LSU because I think LSU is kind of the wild card of the three of the four home games in conference, right? I think that’s one where you’re like, h, and that could go either way. and you don’t know what injuries are going to look like or anything like that by then. So, um, yeah, I think U, like you said, is talented. They are talented. I think John Matier is even with even with the running back struggling running the ball. I think he is kind of the the balancer of everything. Like he’s the equalizer of everything because he can do both run and pass. Yeah. And you saw that and yes, I understand 2019 you had Kennedy Brooks, you had Randre Stevenson. I get it. They were good. However, your main runner was Jaylen Herz that year. And he carried you to I think they were what 11 and one in the season, right? I think that’s plausible. I mean, he reminds me a lot of Jaylen and how he plays. and Baker. He’s kind of a mix. But anyways, that’s for another day. I appreciate the super chat though. Martin Chase the Green Arrow asked, “Is X hurt?” X has been dealing with hamstring issues all fall camp and they’ve seem to lingered a little bit. He’s not full throttle ready to go. He is. He hasn’t been. He went Illinois State because he had to go like and you saw that when they got comfortable with uh Jaden not they rolled with Jaden not now he didn’t carry the ball that much. I talked to somebody last night Parker that said Jaden Jaden not will get going this week. I’m not going to hold it to him. I I was about to say I hope so because we heard a lot of the same things last week and he didn’t get going. He had four carries for nine yards. So that plus one is hard to throw away, bro. With that that quarterback run game, at a certain point, if this Oklahoma offense is going to level up and become what they’re capable of being in their peak form, it’s going to require the Jaden A breakout. How weird is it honestly that we’re sitting here two games into the season talking about the running back room as potentially the weakness of Oklahoma’s offense when it seemed for all the world going into fall camp as though it was going to be a substantial strength because of the presence of Jaden and Xavier Robinson and Javvante Barnes and Taylor Tatum and the guy that wasn’t getting talked about a whole heck of a lot is the is the guy that’s really forced the coaching staff’s hand and putting him on the field and that’s Tory Bllelock. Yeah. Tory Bllelock’s been amazing. Um, he is going to be I don’t know if it’s going to be this year that he’s actually going to be that that dude for OU. Uh, but I’m going to go out on a wild limb and say next year he’s the guy in that OU backfield. Just a guess. Parker, Jesse Dyer tossed his $10 and said, “Bold prediction. Two picks from Courtland this Saturday. Last Saturday was electric at the game. Felt like early 2000s. Amen to that. Best environment I’ve witnessed at Owenfield since I started covering this team on a full-time basis. That goes back better than Alabama last year. Better than Alabama last year because here’s the thing. The highs were higher for sure in the Alabama game last year for obvious reasons. That was a game that Oklahoma was not expected to win. And not only did they win it, they dominated it. But in terms of energy start to finish, I have not attended an OU game. I have not covered an OU game that compares to that one. The atmosphere was pretty dead at the beginning of the Alabama game because that team was six or what, five and five at that point, clinging to the faintest glimmer of hope that they could make a bowl game. I think there was plenty. There was a very large contingent of the fan base at that point that figured that team wasn’t going to make a bowl game. And so once things got rolling in that Alabama game, things got loud. But I’ll give credit to Sooner Nation, man. They brought it from the opening kickoff all the way to the final gun this past weekend that they did. Um, do we have another super chat? We do. Go for it. Another $5 contribution from Jesse who said, “Also, can we please have a discussion about DeMarco three years in a row and we still have the same questions about his room?” I mean, I think it’s fair, but it’s also fair to say that nobody ever really in that room ever really gets chance to last year. Yeah, I’ll give you that. this year. I mean, the line didn’t block particularly well in the run game in week one and and obviously Saturday it was the John Matier show. So, there really wasn’t a chance for it’s a little early to start throwing shade at him. Now, after this week, if if after Auburn, if you’re still having these issues, Parker, I think, yeah, I would say, look, I I understand at this point that there’s very justifiable reason why some folks would want DeMarco Murray’s head on a platter because they’re not seeing progression with the running backs. But let’s wait till the mid mid-season mark. Let’s table the conversation until then. Because here’s the issue that’s cropped up repeatedly over the last two and a half seasons now, Brandon, is that who’s been consistently healthy in that back field? Yeah, that’s the other issue. Yeah. Who’s been consistently healthy this fall? There was a time in mid August where Oklahoma had two running backs out there on the practice field. Javvante Barnes, Tory Bllelock, that was it. And of course, Bllelock got hurt in week one with that shoulder injury. And so Javvante Barnes is the only guy that’s been consistently available since the team started fall camp at the beginning of August. So DeMarco, does he get complete absolution from me? No. But I will say I sympathize a little bit with his plight just mindful of the reality that he hasn’t had guys healthy consistently. Yeah. No, I I agree with that. It’s it’s it’s a struggle, man. It has been a major major struggle with the health. Uh particularly with some of the guys that you look towards to be your kind of the guys that are going to tote the rock for you the most that you trust in the passing game and the run game. And I think he’s trying to find it. But running backs have to like Parker, they’ve got to get in a rhythm. And you can’t get in a rhythm when that plus one and you you’re that plus one as far as blocking for matier, right? You’re that extra hat. Uh and you’re always blocking instead of running the ball. So, it’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out. It the one thing I’ll give Lincoln Riley credit and I think I think you can’t say anything yet about how things have gone just because it’s so fresh and so new underneath this new staff. Um, he found a way to get the running game going with the quarterback and the the running backs somehow someway. It also probably conference Big 12 not playing defense probably had a little bit to do with that as well, right? Yeah. Matthew Porter gave us a $10 contribution via the super chat function asked, “How is Owen Hollandbeck coming along?” Coming along well. He’s one of the strongest guys on the team. I mean, that’s his calling card, right? Is just brute strength. He’s what, close to 350 pounds, but carries it well. He’s working on the scout team at center and in all likelihood going to red shirt this year, which is fine. Um, he and Darius Aalava amongst the offensive linemen that signed with Oklahoma last cycle. Those are the two guys that are probably going to take a year, probably can afford to take a year. The Sooners are in a position where they’ve had to deploy Michael Fusi and Ryan Foj from the jump. And so they have, but Holland Beck and Avala are two two guys that they don’t have to rush along and so they won’t. Yeah. What do you What as far as like just the future and I know it’s just week two like do you see Hollandbeck being the guy at center when? 26 27 seasons. Well, 26, Jake Michael is your guy. Yeah, I guess he returns. I guess. Okay, 27. 27. I think you’re going to have a really intriguing competition on your hands between Holland Beck and Noah Best because Oh, yeah. I forget he’s going to be a center. I always forget that. Noah Best. Yeah, that dude is good. I just think that Holland Beck is like a Mer dude. Like he reminds me there obviously he looks like Creed quite a bit. He’s built a lot bigger than Creed was. He’s not as fleet of foot as Creed, but he is when Holland Beck gets a hold of you, or at least when I saw him at Melissa, whenever he got a hold of you, it was it was, you know, lights out. You were going nowhere other than your back to the ground. He was so fun to watch. All right, we have any more? Uh, we do. Daryl Rebels, $10 from him. Demarco is a hell of a recruiter. Who would be a better option than him? Poor O line play and health have been his worst enemy. I think just like BV, he’s our guy. Also, who has a better defense than U at this point? I mean, again, I don’t know that I can speak to that because I haven’t been able to watch a ton Ohio State other Yeah. didn’t obviously watching that Ohio State Texas game in week one, it was clear Ohio State’s got a really, really good defense. But then again, it’s been two weeks. What you can say about Oklahoma objectively is that that unit is really strong. Really strong. Is it the best in the country? I don’t know. Give me another three, four weeks to make that judgment. I think on the other side of the Texas game that we can have that conversation seriously and be able to give reasonable answers. Yeah, for sure. I agree with that. It’s Yeah, I think Ohio State’s it. I I think I mean Miamiy’s looked pretty good on the defensive side of the ball. Um Georgia obviously has looked fairly well on the defensive side of the ball. I mean, South Carolina is pretty nasty. Dylan Stewart is a My god, he’s good, man. He’s really, really good. Big homie Jay said, “Every recruiting cycle, Parker always falls in love with a big country O lineman from the middle of nowhere. This year is no, it’s Noah best.” Big homie Jay, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Midlotheian, Texas. It’s certainly not the middle of nowhere. It is right next to Dallas. Uh, you can see you pretty much you can see the Plano skyline from Midlotheian, can’t you? I mean, it’s it’s it’s a southern suburb of Dallas. It’s right there next to Dunah. Excuse me. Excuse me. Not excuse me, downtown Dallas. I said Plano. Uh, I’m thinking of uh uh McKini when I said that, but uh yeah, downtown Dallas. Yeah, it’s Why did I think it was on the north side for some odd reason in my head? I don’t know. It’s by Sash, isn’t it? By what? Sash or how do you say that? S A C H E or S A S C H E. Saxi. Saxi. Is that how you pronounce it? I don’t know how you Yeah, Saxi is up there on the northeast side of DFW as I recall. Saxi. Oh, Spencer in our in our chat. It’s Saxi, dude. Yeah, I never even I I didn’t I never knew how you pronounce it. I just know they were really good from like 2015 to 2020 at football and then they’re not so good anymore. They’ve had some talent roll through there. Kik Locket went to Saxi. Uh oh my god. Uh Mayday’s kid that played back in the 90s for uh OU in basketball. His kid played corner and ended up going to Bama. that one where you see uh Saving doing the doing the to the left, to the left, to the right, to dance in the in the uh living room with that family. That’s them. Sorry, you probably don’t know what I’m talking about. This is before Parker’s time in the industry, so uh aging myself. All right. Uh yeah, let’s talk about Tamari Dejour. Let’s do it. Yeah, big-time pickup. I am going to go out on a limb and say that there was probably a certain quarterback that did some pretty good recruiting this weekend named Bo Bentley. Obviously, I’m not hinting at anybody else at all, but uh yeah, if you’re a wide receiver right now and let’s say you have a pretty good hunch that Oklahoma is going to have in 2026, Bo Bentley, you’re also going to come in and potentially probably as long as John Matier keeps doing what he’s doing, you’re going to have Michael Hawkins, potentially Bo Bentley, and this guy named Payton Houston potentially. You’re going to find out next Monday one way or the other if he chooses OU, USC, LSU, those type of schools. Um, you got to like OU’s chances to coast, my friend. The left coast. I just I just it’s crazy like that that was out of nowhere. Yeah. I mean, he was a guy making his first trip to Oklahoma, right? first ever trip and he leaves committed. Look, not questioning anything, but that does kind of make you wonder just the circumstances surrounding it makes you wonder, okay, is Oklahoma going to be able to hold that one all the way till the end? Because, you know, I I’ve seen enough commitments off a singular visit to know that they don’t all last. This one may, it may not. For the moment, for the time being, he’s committed to Oklahoma and loved his time in Norman. Loved interactions with the staff, loved the fit that they sold him on in Norman. And man, if you take a look at his sophomore tape, he is a dynamic returner. Dynamic returner. In addition to being a really good receiver and a guy that can kind of line up all over the field, he is incredibly explosive in the return game and one of those guys is just, you know, he he’s stupid fast and accelerates effortlessly. And those two things alone are going to enable you to have success at the collegiate level in some capacity. Whether that’s as primarily a receiver, returner, running back, whatever, whatever the case may be, Deari De’s a guy that’s going to be capable of doing a lot of different things at Oklahoma and excelling at a lot of different things. He can really scoot. Somebody I was doing radio earlier today. Somebody texted in the station said, “Watching Deari Dejourne is reminiscent of Zachariah Branch.” Oo. And Zachariah Branch is about the most elusive player I’ve seen in the last 5 years of doing this. So that’s freaking high praise. But you do certainly see shades of Zack Branch just in the I I I think to me it’s more the acceleration, the ability to go 0 to 60. Yeah, the top end speed is impressive, but even more impressive than that is the start and stop capability that he has. Gotcha. Well, um, by the way, the the viewers in the chat are saying you’re cutting in and out. I don’t I hear you fine. I don’t know. Refresh your page if you’re having audio issues. This happens from time to time. It’s not on our end and it doesn’t happen for all of the viewers. If you are watching and you are having issues with the video stream or the audio stream, just refresh the page and that ought to take care of it. Yep. Hey, real quick. Uh we’ll get to uh sorry a HTX fan 80. Um I’ll get you just a second. Uh yeah, like the Zachariah Branch. I remember going and watching him uh out at Bishop Gorman and at this point in time he and his brother were big heavy u leans at the time obviously Malachi Nelson like that was like the the deal right like they were all going to go we all want to go to the same thing same place all that type of stuff and Oklahoma was the place um obvious every obviously everything crap hit the fan and didn’t happen but watching him return punts was one of the funnest things I’ve ever seen in high school and in turn probably one of the funnest things I’ve ever seen in college. just like you said, he’s so elusive, he’s so fast, he’s so twitchy that it is very, very difficult to kind of put an analogy and you’re throwing high praise if you’re throwing him out there as Zachariah Branch by the way and obviously we’re talking about U’s new commit uh Deare Desern, but uh Deari Desern, excuse me. Um, yeah, he to me he’s like a bigger Dion Burks. Would you kind of like a taller Dion Burks? Um, he’s he’s the same size as Dion Burks. So, yeah, I think that’s a fine comp. He’s not as He’s not as bulked up as Deion Burks is. No, but I He’s longer longer than him, though, isn’t he? He looks it. It may be because he’s skinny right now that he looks longer. And he is skinny. He’ll pack on weight. Yeah, he’s 170 right now. So, you figure by the time he shows up at campus he’s 180, maybe 185 and then he’ll gain an extra 510 pounds with Schmidy. No question about it. So, no, by far. This is huge for a variety of reasons, by the way. Yeah, he’s gonna he’s going to be an explosive weapon for Oklahoma offensively and certainly on special teams as well. He’s a home run hitter. Oh yeah, for sure. Be big time home run hitter. Uh HTX fan 80, I appreciate the super chat. How fast is the new wide receiver recruit? Is he faster than anyone that OU has? No, we just talked about it. Dion Burks, man. Uh I would Isaiah Satenia is fast. fast fast. I’m trying to think who else is like super fast at U right now. Isaiah Satania might even be a more accurate comparison than Burks because he’s a little bit more narrowly built. Yeah. And he’s also just a really natural, really instinctual returner, which you see from Dear DJ as well. Like it’s not just it’s not just the speed and the burst and the acceleration, it’s also the instinct for being able to navigate traffic. Yeah. Um, man, yeah, I would think Satanian Burks is probably it. Like, as far as Now, if you’re talking like overall speed, yeah, there’s plenty of dudes that are faster than he is. I would say Tristan Haynes is probably up there. I would say Jacobe Johnson’s up there. Gentry Williams, uh, they’ve all got a chance to be guys that I would throw in that elite elite speed category that are hard to touch. Uh, is there anybody else? I believe the only guy on Oklahoma’s roster that has gone lower in the 100 meters than Deari Desern would be Zion Reagan’s. Zion Reagan went 1024 at one point in high school. DJ’s PB is 1032. That’s crazy. That’s fast. And you get 102, you’re like elite elite speed. So he’s almost there. He’s elite. Not just not elite elite yet, but I bet he will be when he’s done with high school. Um, let’s talk Payton Houston. Let’s do it. Fun topic of conversation that one. Yep. My light went out. I’ll fix that as you talk about Payton Houston. Just a second. So, the uh the avalanche came today. You saw the saw the expert predictions from Steve Wilong, from Sam Spiegelman, and from Adam Gourney. They all moved in concert to pick you. And hopefully that just didn’t screw up our boxes there when you turned off your video. Yep, it sure did. Dang it. Come back. Come back. Okay, there we go. Um, but yeah, three new national expert predictions in favor of Oklahoma for Payton Houston. And it’s now the industry consensus obviously that he’s going to wind up a sooner. There was a time where nationally there was a thought he was leaning USC but all of those USC predictions that once existed have been replaced by predictions in favor of the Sooners. He was on campus over the weekend and I mean we’d talked about it for a long long time Brandon with the knowledge that he was coming for the Michigan game. as long as Oklahoma put their best foot forward, won the game, played good offense, and just generally gave the impression that things were transformed this off season from the chaos of 2024 to a much smoother iteration of Oklahoma’s 2025 offensive attack. Oklahoma was going to be really, really tough to deny for Houston because of the scheme fit, because of the relationships, because of the culture, and certainly because of the proximity as well. I don’t know that that’s been talked about enough in the Payton Houston recruitment. That’s a big reason why I never really bought the hype on USC is just because that’s a long way from Shreveport, Louisiana. And I don’t know that he was ever going to go that far from Shrefport, Louisiana. So for Oklahoma, if they can close this thing out, can you imagine, Brandon, can you imagine a quarterback depth chart that could feature Michael Hawkins, Bo Bentley, and Payton Houston at a certain point? From a pure talent standpoint, and obviously it has to translate to the field, but from a pure stal uh talent standpoint, that will be one of the best quarterback rooms that the University of Oklahoma has ever had, regardless of the one of the best quarterback rooms that Oklahoma has ever had in terms of raw talent. It’s up there for sure. I’ve said this many a time going back over a year. Even before Peyton Houston had the U offer, there’s not a quarterback I’d rather have in the 2027 class to build something around. He is an incredibly polished prospect. He’s about 5’11 in the neighborhood of 200 lb. Really good build, strong lower half, can generate a lot of velocity on the ball. has a ton of natural arm talent as well. Very crisp mechanics, tons of mobility. But above all, Brandon, and I think I was just mentioning this on all youinsider.com in a board thread earlier, I think what we’ve learned from the Gabriel Arnold Matier succession at Oklahoma is that what matters the most, what absolutely matters the most is not elite physical traits, but the ability to process and make quick, correct decisions with the football. And that is an area in which Peyton Houston excels. which is why I’m so confident this is a guy that’s going to play the game a long long time. And regardless of where he enrolls, obviously the expectation is right now that’s going to be Oklahoma. He’ll be a multi-year starter decorated allconerence type guy. The the type of dude it’s very easy to imagine him sitting in New York City for that Heisman ceremony at least once, perhaps multiple times over the course of his college career. Yeah, he’s special, man. Like just any just watching his film uh and obviously seeing Payton in person, uh the thing that stuck out to me the most was more just his personality. Um he’s a leader, but you don’t you it’s hard to describe because he’s he’s not a too high, too low type guy. Like there are there are players that you want to be around that get really amped up and that’s how they lead. They lead with emotion, right? Like John Matir leads with emotion, right? His play is he and not just not just in when I say emotion I’m not just talking about the very definition of emotion I’m talking like he plays with emotion his play exudes emotion talking about John Matier Baker Mayfield the same way Pton Houston is so smart and so heady back there that it just creates a comfort with everybody around him to where you know that something good’s going to happen. If every the chaos starts to happen in the back field, if he’s getting rushed, it’s all right. He’s not the fastest, but you want to know what he does in that 10 15 yard span that you’ve got to be able to move really fast as a quarterback. He does that tenfold. He finds space to get rid of the ball. His eyes are always downfield. And that’s how you throw for 900 yards in a damn game. Oh, that is a night I will I will remember forever. Folks, if you don’t know the story, last year as a sophomore in high school, mind you, Pton Houston set a new national record at the high school level by throwing for 817 yards in a single game. He rushed for 107 more, thus acrewing 924 total yards and 10 touchdowns in a single football game. And let me tell you, it looked effortless. Effortless. And there are people in chat asking, is he comparable to Kyler Murray? And Kyler Murray is a guy that Payton Houston admires, looks up to, has for a long, long time. He wears number one just as Kyler Murray does. Whether there’s a correlation there, I guess I’m not exactly sure, but you would infer that you would infer that there is. Regardless, I here’s here’s the comparison I would make. He He’s not Kyler Murray because nobody is Kyler Murray. Kyler Murray is one of one. He’s just so unique as a football player that I just I don’t think we will ever see another Kyler Murray. If you want an U comp and again you have to think about this from more than the physical but from the mental the leadership component of playing the quarterback position. He is Dylan Gabriel with a way bigger arm. Way bigger arm. That was DG’s limiting factor. Yeah. He left college football as one of the most productive players that’s ever played the game. But that was his limiting factor was he didn’t have elite arm talent. He had a good arm. He had a good arm. He didn’t have an elite arm and he made up for it with excellent accuracy, excellent processing, the ability to create throwing lanes for himself, and the ability to make some stuff shake with his legs if he got in the open field. All of those same tenets are hallmarks of Pton Houston’s game, except Pton Houston can make the rocket arm throws that Dylan Gabriel just doesn’t have in his repertoire. No, he Yeah, Dylan Dylan had has and still does have his limitations. Hey, before we dive more into that and obviously uh talk a little bit more about Oklahoma coming up, the big weekend that Oklahoma just had on the recruiting trail. I have to do something real quick and that is thank one last sponsor uh and that is SeatGeek. I know some of y’all are looking for tickets for when Auburn comes to town with former Sooners quarterback Jackson Arnold. If not that game, I know Sooners fan, you Sooners fans want to make sure you see one of the SEC home games of Old Miss, Missouri or LSU. Heck, probably even U Texas and Dallas. Which is why I want to give you what’s which is why I want to give one of the sponsors of today’s show, SeatGeek, a huge shout out. With over 35 million downloads, SeatGeek is the number one rated ticket app. Uh there are more than 70,000 events listed on SeatGeek, including concerts, sports, uh festivals, and more. SeatGeek is the official ticket marketplace of the Oklahoma Sooners. So, all Sooners tickets on SeatGeek are are authentic and secure. I love using SeatGeek. I used it last year and I took my family uh to the Oklahoma City Thunder playoffs uh this past spring as they went on to win the NBA title. That was fun. Uh several games we used SeatGeek. So, if you’re wondering uh if you’re spending too much or if you’re being overpriced on a ticket, SeatGeek has your back. Each ticket is rated on a scale of one to 10, so you know uh when you’re getting a bad deal or a good deal with the green dots. Green means good, red means bad. Plus, every ticket is backed by their buyer guarantee. So, we of course at U Insider have a code for you guys. You can use code insider 10 for 10% off your next set of tickets at SeatGeek. That’s 10% off any tickets with promo code insider 10. Make sure you click the link in the description uh to download the app and have the code automatically added to your account. You can use it later. Thank you, SeatGeek. All right, Parker. On to this weekend. Um, what’s up? You’re smiling at something. You’re muted. You’re muted. Dang it. Why did I mute myself? I I was I was trying to say apparently I echoed a bunch of stuff that Daniel Allen was saying in the YouTube chat and I didn’t see it till now. So, well, I didn’t see it either, but I also saw uh Big Homie Jay trolling everybody, which is always fun to read him. He’s he’s getting after everybody and people are falling for if they don’t know Big Homie Jay. Yeah, you’re going to fall for it. So, he likes to mess around a little bit. Yes, he does. A couple more super chats. Jason one threw us $10. Thanks, Jason. And asked, “Were recruits in the tunnel with the team when they came out to the hype music?” No, at that point the recruits had taken their seats up in their uh seating section. Um, were they there for there ain’t no love in Oklahoma though? $5 from Charlie Price who asked any chance of KJ Ford or Dave Gross flipping with U surging and Florida trending down and the possible Napier firing at a certain point. Just don’t even I wouldn’t even care at this point. Yeah. But with the KJ Ford recruitment in particular, it was like that that was such a difficult one to track and if indeed Billy Napier is dismissed at Florida and KJ4 is back on the open market, I I don’t have a clue where that kid will end up. It could be Oklahoma. It could just as easily be a dozen other schools. So, I I genuinely don’t know. with Davien Gross. I’d feel a little bit more optimistic about that one if indeed Napier was dismissed and Gross had to look around because Oklahoma finished second. I think that’s pretty well understood, well documented. Like they were first until the final hours and then they finished second. And so it would stand to reason that if Florida was out of the picture at any point for Dave Gross, Oklahoma would be one of his would be one of the very first schools he took a second look at. And let’s call it like it is. That’s a dude you’re making space for. It doesn’t matter what numbers look or what numbers look like, I should say. If Dave Gross wants to jump on board, you let the kid jump on board. But especially with how that all unfolded down the stretch, I I think it would be it would it would have to be gross initiating that, you know, like it would have to be gross coming back to Oklahoma and saying, “Hey, I want in.” And how do I want to word this? and with how difficult he could be to communicate with at times. Um, I would put the odds of that very slim at this point. Just I think from a parent perspective being his parents, um, it feels like they kind of favored Oklahoma, you know, for obvious reasons. And um and this is going to be a fun story to talk about uh during the post national signing day chat on OU insider for sure. That one’s different. Y that was a weird weird deal the last few hours that it was Dean Machine tosses five bucks and says speaking of Auburn any word on Javanni Gibson. Oklahoma should get a bunch of guys back prior to the Auburn game. a bunch of important like Eli Bowen, Kendall Dolby, and Javanni Gibson. There’s a very real world in which all three of them are active for the Auburn game. And so, you know, don’t want to put the car before the horse, but that’s kind of been the target date for a while now for those three, and haven’t heard anything that would indicate things aren’t on track in that regard. Yeah, I I’ve heard nothing but good things uh with Eli and Javanni Gibson particularly and Kendall Dolby. I don’t I honestly haven’t heard anything new on Kendall Dolby in two weeks, but two weeks ago it was the Auburn game. Like they were sitting him out until Auburn. That’s what was going to happen. Um and and look, people I’ve talked to were like that’s actually a good thing because now when they come back, they feel like they’re so deep at corner and cheetah that it’s almost unfair. Now it’s going to be how do you rotate these guys? Because when Jacobe Johnson gets held, like how are you going to rotate him? Uh Dayday obviously Devon Jordan, uh Gillery, Gentry. Uh who else am I? Eli B. Like that’s going to be difficult. Oh, and by the way, Kendall Dolby is playing corner as well. Like that’s only so many snaps to go around there. Only so many snaps to go around. And personally right now, I want Courtland Gillery taking as many of those snaps as possible. So yeah, for sure. The other snaps are going to be at a premium. I don’t know how they’re going to do the Gentry Eli Bowen thing. That’s going to be tough, man. That’s three. You have three elite corners. It’s a great problem. Yeah. And then, you know, then it’s a question of, well, how do you how can Yeah. make room for Kendall Dolby, which is crazy that we’re having this conversation right now. How do you make room for a guy that was one of your best defensive football players when healthy the last two seasons? I don’t know. That’s I don’t know. Like I legitimately have no answer for that. This defense has incredible depth. Incredible depth. It’s what happens when nobody transfers. They’re going to trans. People are going to transfer after this year like because just because the depth the depth issues getting too big, too much, which you probably need just to alleviate some of those problems. Um, so it’s not necessarily you just have to have the right people transfer and the right people stay that makes sense. So, um, real quickly, uh, BMD killer, how about, thank you for the super chat. How about Kaden Hall for the same reason? Look, Kaden Hall is I when he called to tell Oklahoma he wasn’t going to Oklahoma, let’s just say it got emotional. So, honestly, if there was a guy that I could see turning the page and looking back, that would be the one. And I do think Oklahoma would of their own valition pursue Kaden Hall as opposed to Dave Gross probably having to be the one to initiate it with Oklahoma. No, if if Kaden Hall decommitted at any point, Oklahoma would go hard after him for sure. And the people at the Switzer Center think that is one of the most amazing kids that they’ve ever recruited, by the way. Like he’s that good of a human being. like to the point he got emotional telling Oklahoma, “I’m not coming. I’m going to commit to Florida.” He was, and this I was told this from a couple people down in Florida, like they were shocked how hard he took telling Oklahoma that he wasn’t going to OU because of that’s just not how a lot of people um down in the Sunshine State view it. they they see it from a distance and they see that it’s such a long ways away. You you kind of lose that you kind of lose sight of the relationship side of it and that’s where Oklahoma really won that battle. Uh if if he lived in Georgia, he’s probably a Sooner. I mean, it’s that close. That’s how crazy it is. Couple hours further north, he’s probably a Sooner. So, I mean, it is what it is. Um, of all the guys that you talked to this weekend, I need to drop more of my notes, by the way. I keep Yeah, you do. Yep. Um, I have them like sitting there in my note thing as like bullet points. I just need to get them on the board. Um, what was the one thing that surprised you the most from everything that you heard and talked to from this weekend? over recruiting. I mean, honestly, and okay, outside of Yeah, the commitment. Yeah, I was about to say that’s not to not to be unsexy with the answer, but the most surprising thing is easily Deari Des Oklahoma. Okay, outside of that, that was too easy of you took the easy way out and I refuse to allow you to do that. Okay, fair enough. Huh. most surprising thing trying to think because there’s not like there’s not an immediate answer that jumps off the page beyond Deari Desern because you almost you expect stuff to start shaking in a positive way when you win a game as decisively as you did in an environment like the environment at field on Saturday. So I think Oklahoma is starting to set the tone in a bunch of key recruitments in the 2027 class. No question about it. It’s just a matter of how how early do some of these guys wind up jumping on board, you know, and does the potential addition of Payton Houston kind of get the ball rolling for some other dudes? I look at a guy like Brody Nolles down at South Lake Carol who’s got a teammate in Luke Wilson in his same grade who’s already committed to Oklahoma. Oklahoma, they look like the lead the leader for Brody Nolles. So with Luke Wilson already on board, let’s say U does get Payton Houston locked in and they already have one wide receiver spot accounted for and Deari Dejour. Is Brody Nullles maybe a guy that by midocctober is thinking, you know what, I should probably just go ahead and lock in with Oklahoma. It’s a good business decision for me. That would be one I’d watch. And man, I I I I don’t know the timeline on it. I don’t think anybody could really nail down the timeline on when it’s going to happen, but I doesn’t it feel kind of inevitable that U will wind up turning Cooper Hacket away from Texas Tech just because it feels it feels inevitable. Yes. Yeah. Well, just cuz Hackett loves OU so much and OU is prioritizing him so heavily to the point where they’re especially given that he’s an instate kid, an in-state five-star offensive tackle. how often you get one of those in the state of Oklahoma. They’re going to take care of him in a way that maybe they wouldn’t take care of a a Felix Ojo this past year, for instance, or a Lamont Rodgers the previous year. They’ll take care of Cooper Hackett. I I agree with that. Um I was actually shocked. I think the most surprising thing was that U only ended up with one commit. Now granted, they could end up with two from the weekend. Um, but I was shocked a few of the instate kids didn’t just pop. Um, but as far as like that not being the surprising thing or whatever, I would probably say how about Eli Johnson? Uh, never really thought Oklahoma was going to make a strong push there. And lo and behold, Ohio State’s buttholes are puckering up a little bit because Oklahoma is uh Yeah, that’s a visual for everybody. Uh because you muted yourself again. Uh I It’s interesting you say that because I’ I’d gotten a little bit of a different read on that one. Um, I I felt pretty strongly for several months now that Oklahoma’s right there, if not leading, right there in the recruitment of Eli Johnson. I’d say they’re the leader after this weekend and that that Yes. Now, that’s what I was getting at. They are like in I think I’ll I’ll put you like this. You had that read. I don’t think people around Oklahoma had that read on Eli. I think they were kind of questioning where they stood until after this weekend to the point where now they’re like, “Okay, how who do you say no to in 27?” Like McQuiry, right? Um Muel, uh you got Eli Johnson, like uh you got Jaylen Scott. like there’s so many guys that they could make plays at and are in legit spots for right now. Safety at corner. Um I’ll say this, I will be shocked if Gabriel Osborne isn’t a Sooner by the end of November. Wow. Okay. That’s Look, he hasn’t been on very many trips. I’ll say this, he’s only been to three there’s three now three college football games. Two of them have been to Oklahoma, one to Oklahoma State. He’s a big basketball guy. He’s a big at home guy. He loves So CJ Nixon. Yes. Well, this dude is this dude is like I I was told this weekend that if Oklahoma and all those others hadn’t offered him at football, he would already have like Oral Roberts, Tulsa, uh TCU, places like that offered him already in basketball. He’s that good. So, um he’s a freak. He was awesome in person the other day, too. Absolutely blitzed. Uh Daniel Yubbbit for Yukon played really well, but you could tell uh Gabriel is a little bit more physical. Um but anyways, yeah, I I would be shocked on that front. Um was talking to somebody today. I think Oklahoma is in a spot uh for several kids in state that things could move really really quickly with 27. I believe it. Oklahoma, I’ll just say this. People around Oklahoma feel like this is the deepest class in like a decade if Oh, and it’s deep. And that’s 22 was awesome, by the way. 11 OU offers within state lines already and they may not be done. That number may go up. Yep. Jacob Matthews tosses $10. It’s probably our final super chat here because we’re running out of time. But he says, “Just joined.” So sorry if y’all talked about it earlier. What pass to run ratio do you think it will be on Saturday? I’m hoping for 90% run. We got to figure it out. Love the show. I’ll say 65 run, uh, 35 pass because I Yeah, it all depends on how well never mind. U’s defense is just nasty. They’re not scoring on OU’s defense more than maybe 10 points. And that’s I like there there are folks on the VIP board at OU Insider insisting that well, you know, can’t look past Temple. This feels like a trap game. And it kind of does. This team is not going to look past Temple. This staff is not going to look past Temple. You and I are allowed to look past Temple. And frankly, that’s what I’m doing just because I don’t see how Temple is going to be able to make headway on this U defense. If Michigan couldn’t do it, and they couldn’t outside of one run bust that turned into explosive play. Yeah. How is Temple gonna do it? Fair enough. It’s a great point. I I don’t know. Like you have to score to win. Temple does have an explosive offense, but they did it against Howard and who was the other team? Massachusetts. Massachusetts. UMass. Yep. So 97 points is still 97 points. I’ll give them that. That’s a lot of points no matter who you’re playing. So anyways, all right. That’s going to do it for this version of the U Insider Under the Visor YouTube Live powered by Riverwin Casino. If you’re not subscribed to this YouTube or whatever podcasting platform you listen to us on, please subscribe, subscribe, subscribe, hit that like, hit that fivestar button. We love you. We thank you guys. We do this because of you. If you’re not subscribed to UI Insider VIP, all you have to do is go to uinsider.com, click in that right above, boom, little green thing. It’ll send you to where you can sign up for us and you will get a option to get U insider plus the athletic complimentary of U insider and on three for a whole year. Um it is $1 for the first week. It’s a great deal. We have so much information. You think recruiting information is talked about here? We skirted over like there was 80 something visitors and I bet you we’ve talked about 50 of them on U Insider already. Um whether it be between us, Steve Wilfong, Adam Gourney, Chad Simmons, uh Greg Smith, like it’s been a team effort, but there’s been a lot of notes popped up on U Insider VIP. It’s been amazing. Plus, we’ve had a lot of stuff for you guys as far as team information, injury stuff for this week that we didn’t talk about on here. Um, a lot of stuff that’s going on over there. Plus, the community is amazing. Uh, it’s just awesome, awesome place to be. Go to uinsider.com. All you have to do again, click on that green button. Send you to get that promo code $1 for the first week plus complimentary the athletic one year plus U insider $11.99 a month or you can get us for $119.99 for a whole year which is obviously cheap cheaper than $1.99 a month. Uh if you’re a college student, you have aedu email us uinsiderapprials.com. If you are a teacher, same thing. Email us from your teachers email account. If you are a uh active duty military, email us from your active duty military account. All of them. Email us. Usider rivals.com to get UI Insider for $1 a month for three months. That will get you through almost all of the college football season. We want to thank you guys for helping the students. We want to thank you guys for your service for our nation. And obviously, college students, we’re trying to help you out knowing that times are tough, finances are tough when you’re in college. This is our way to give back to you, plus allow you to get into the community uh and have some fun and and follow the school football program in a deeper fashion uh than just being here on YouTube or Facebook or Twitter or whatever. So again, uinsider rivals.com from your.edu, doesn’t matter where you go to college, from your teachers, doesn’t matter where you teach, from your teachers email, from your active duty military account, uinsider rivals.com. All right, for Parker, for Spencer Foresight, my name’s Brandon Drum. That’s going to do it for U Insider under the Visor YouTube live powered by Riverwind Casino. You all have a blessed day. We’ll see you for the post for the pregame podcast. [Music] [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music]