West of Everest: An Oklahoma Football Podcast Lee & Grant Benson

We have quickly jumped into the true offseason of college football with the spring behind us. OU got some good news this past week with a couple of players committing out of the transfer portal at two positions of need (2:50). TCU's Damonic Williams still has not made his decision. Looks like there's a few other DT targets that OU could look at aside from Williams. Plus Grant thinks Lee's crazy for comparing Rondell Bothroyd's play last season to Reggie Grimes' play from 2022 (16:50). Jasiah Wagoner is off to Cal. Lee is surprised Jovantae Barnes is not in the portal (33:00). The guys defend Jaren Kanak and Lee struggles to find the Deion Burks TD pass that was the catalyst for all the recent criticism (38:40). Three OU players were selected in the NFL Draft. We also take a look at potential OU draft picks for 2025 (46:30). Caleb Williams is the No. 1 pick to the Bears. The Bears have never had a good QB, so Lee is excited for what could be with Williams. Skip this part if you don't care about how the Bears are set up for the Caleb Williams era. Also Grant loves Brock Bowers (55:25). Caleb Williams recently talked about competing with Spencer Rattler in 2021 and how he thought he was the better player, but did not win the job (1:06:15). For the first time (we think) we hear Caleb's account of the time he took the ball from Kennedy Brooks on 4th down against Kansas in 2021 (1:20:00). Spencer Rattler is a 5th Round pick to the Saints. Grant's been watching old OU games, specifically from the 2008 season (1:32:45). | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonTweets

Grant was bored by the spring game while Lee explains why the spring game was pretty interesting to him (1:25). We get into the breakdown beginning with Jackson Arnold and his play (8:30). Lee wants to talk about Michael Hawkins because there was a spring narrative about him looking really good, yet we didn't see much evidence of that in the spring game (23:15). The offensive line with Jackson Arnold played really well. Overall we're encouraged by what we saw from the OL (25:35). Deion Burks was terrific, but no other pass catchers really stood out (33:20). Sawchuk, Hicks, and Franklin all looked good at running back. The room looks to be in better shape than last season. Have we seen the last of Jovantae Barnes in an OU uniform (43:30)? We switch over to the defense and begin with the defensive line. Lee liked a good amount of what he saw, while Grant is very skeptical of the interior part of the line. Can the Sooners pick up some of these big D-linemen in the portal (56:45)? Not much to say about the linebackers aside from Kobie McKinzie looked good. Grant is still high on Jaren Kanak. Was he at fault for the second Burks TD? Lee could not figure out what coverage OU was in on the two long TDs (1:08:00). Thoughts on the OU secondary. Lee thinks Dez Malone may be a starter at corner. Grant liked what he saw from RSJ, but overall the secondary was slightly disappointing (1:13:50). We read your "3 Word Reviews" from the WoE Facebook page (1:19:10). Final thoughts on who stood out on offense. Grant wants RPOs to be eliminated (1:23:15). Final thoughts on defensive standouts (1:29:50). The kicking game will continue to be a massive question mark. Are you interested in the Miami (OH) kicker in the portal? Plus we go over other final disappointing thoughts from the scrimmage (1:31:50). Shane Whitter and Justin Harrington recently entered the transfer portal (1:39:40). | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonTweets

The guys open the show talking about OU's season opener vs. Temple being moved up to Friday, August 30. We also go over some of the other matchups on Labor Day weekend, as well as even more premiere matchups in Week 2 (1:10). Jumping into the Spring Game preview. We're still waiting on a format for the game. Lee wants Jackson Arnold to look really good, but Grant reminds people that sometimes the starting QB doesn't look good in this game. We also talk about the possibility of Arnold throwing a bunch of picks this upcoming season (19:15). We'll be watching for Jovantae Barnes, Kalib Hicks, and Sam Franklin this Saturday. Lee reads into some comments about Franklin (32:00). Grant says Bill Bedenbaugh is tinkering on the offensive line right now. Lee doesn't trust many people's takes on offensive line play in general. Who knows what we will learn from the Spring Game (36:00)? Which WRs will be available for the Spring Game? Everybody will be wanting to see Deion Burks. Bauer Sharp sounds like he is the starting TE. Jake Roberts' brother just committed to Ohio State. Lee has a glass hall full theory about why that happened (45:30). We flip over to the defense and begin with the interior of the defensive line (56:10). Lee wants to talk about P.J. Adebawore's weight and his diet moving forward. Would be cool if R Mason Thomas can stay healthy (59:45). We don't have much on the LBs or the secondary players. We know a lot already about both position groups (1:05:40). Which players do we *not want to see enter the transfer portal* after the Spring Game? Who do we expect to enter the portal (1:09:00)? A listener wants to know the last time OU's offensive line consisted of more high school recruits than transfer players? This leads to more general talk about the offensive line (1:24:00). | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonTweets

There were a lot of positive vibes flowing at OU spring practice this week, but unfortunately the biggest news is that center Troy Everett is injured and will be out until at least the beginning of the season (1:30). The offensive line and the defensive line have the most question marks on the team going into 2024. Venables did have a lot of positive things to say about the DL this week at practice (10:30). We continue to hear great things about Jayden Jackson and David Stone (17:25). The LBs are in much better shape today compared to where the Sooners were in the spring of 2022 (20:30). It sure sounds like the secondary is looking great -- but we are still skeptical that they'll be able to play sound, consistent zone defense. Plus additional thoughts on Kendel Dolby, Woodi Washington, and can OU implement the Iowa State umbrella-style defense at times in the SEC (27:15)? Grant talks a little bit about the QB room and we both figure out that Davis Beville is now playing at South Carolina. Lee had to be reminded recently that OU is still not technically in the SEC yet (37:40). Let's talk about ESPN's rankings of the top 10 head coaches for 2024. Who's too high? Who's too low? Who should be on the list? What if they did a top 10 worst coaches (42:15)? We finish up with OU men's basketball talk after basically the entire team is portaling (1:02:00). | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonTweets

Brent Venables opened up practice for quite a long time to the media this week. Plus many players conducted interviews, including Jovantae Barnes. We begin the show by jumping into Barnes and what the heck is going on with his foot and his potential availability for the 2024 season. Lee goes through the timeline of his foot injury dating back to last spring and we try to figure out if he's ever going to be healthy--or maybe Barnes just simply isn't very good (3:00). Grant points out that the two players atop the RB depth chart are injury prone, so potentially all RBs have a chance to get some run this year. We relitigate the final quarter of the Kansas game and ask why Barnes was in the game and not Gavin Sawchuk? We also continue to question DeMarco Murray's management of that room (17:20). We move over to Jackson Arnold and what he's working on this spring. Is he really off of social media? Grant is expecting a big season from Arnold, but Lee can't help but think of the worst case scenario. What if Jackson Arnold plays as well as Spencer Rattler played in his RS-Freshman year? Would we take that (30:15)? I think we continue to get evidence the TE room is much better than it was a season ago. Thoughts on Davon Mitchell and Kaden Helms (40:45). David Stone and Jayden Jackson are making really good first impressions (47:40). I think we learned a lot from Dasan McCullough's availability this week. Grant's afraid he does not have a true position anymore, while Lee is hoping that maybe Will LB is a spot that can allow McCullough to contribute and make plays (53:40). Woodi Washington is repping at basically every secondary position. Lee's not sure this is a good thing for Woodi. Grant wants to remind everybody that while OU's secondary looks to have a lot of depth, the pass defense was still bad in 2023 (1:00:30). All we're getting is good vibes from Zac Alley and it sounds like he's simplifying the defene for everybody. Does that sound too much like Alex Grinch's Speed D (1:12:00)? Thoughts on Justin Harrington and his recovery from injury. Grant wants to make sure he brings up Deion Burks and the rave reviews he's been getting. Plus there were reports that Troy Everett suffered some sort of an injury this week (1:17:00). Lastly, Lee doesn't care at all to hear about Casey Thompson right now. Grant defends Casey (1:24:50). | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonTweets

After some opening pleasnatries, we jump into the story of DeMarco Murray staying at OU after getting courted by Ohio State. The guys have been critical of Murray in the past, so what did they think when this story broke? We recall all the reasons why we've been critical of Murray and it all comes back to Tawee Walker (2:30). Lee reads from a story published in August of last year that may help shine some light on the relationship between Murray and Tawee Walker (22:10). Lee goes through the four recruiting classes Murray has been involved with at OU. We also look back at the RBs OU has recruited since 2013, back when Cale Gundy and Jay Boulware were involved (26:30). This week we learned who OU will be playing in 2025. Which road games would you like to attend (39:10)? We check in with ESPN's top pass catcher list. Deion Burks received some votes. Is OU's WR room being shortchanged (47:15)? We go to the WoE FB page to read reactions from the Coachstradamus interview from last week (55:00). Lee wants to clean up the WoE inbox as he missed and failed to reply to comments that were posted up to 3 years ago. There's also a recent comment asking about the OU wide receivers and just how good they can be (1:05:25). We wrap up the show with some NCAA Tournament talk. Would have been nice to see OU getting a chance to play at least one game. Man, they need a big man. And was Grant right about the Big 12 all along (1:15:00)? | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonTweets