The Sooners are hitting the recruiting trail and making a mad dash to make big impressions. And it looks like they are. Coaches are all over the country making visits to homes and high schools. And even though Brent Venables doesn't have an official defensive coordinator, it's not slowing him or his staff down from making good impressions on defensive talent. But the surprise so far is what Ben Arbuckle and the offensive staff have been doing on the recruiting trail. After a very successful junior day, the Sooners picked up a commitment from 4-star WR Daniel Odom. Are they close on another big time pass rusher? We also delve into OU's build of a personnel department with a General Manager. The process is underway. What to expect? We've got that too. We've got some hoops talk and of course some updates on George's wedding. And it appears betrayal is in the air as one key member of the Scoop staff has already said he won't be coming.

THE FULL RUNDOWN FOLLOWS BELOW:

0:00 - Welcome back to the U40! 

8:00 - What’s the latest on Oklahoma 2026 QB recruiting

20:00 - 4-star WR Daniel Odom commits + wrapping up Junior Day

21:50 - 4-star DE Kevin Ford ready to commit? 

29:24 - 4-star safety Kaiden Hall impressed with visit

34:20 - Football staff on the recruiting trail

42:00 - First impressions of Ben Arbuckle as a recruiter 

46:00 - No Jim Knowles. Who does Brent Venables hire? 

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It's Wednesday and we're still waiting. As we continue to monitor the Jim Knowles/defensive coordinator situation, we're still waiting in neutral with no new news developing at the time of the podcast. Why is that? We explain. It's also ramping up on the recruiting trail as coaches are out making visits. There is also a massive junior day coming up. Josh McCuisition is here with all the details of what's going on with the high schoolers. We talk a little bit about the national championship and the men's hoops team finally wins a SEC basketball game. And they did it in blowout fashion. It's snowing in Houston and we're stuck waiting on Knowles. Plus much more on this edition of the Unofficial 40.

THE FULL RUNDOWN FOLLOWS BELOW:

0:00 - Welcome back to the U40! Jim Knowles watch continues

7:00 - Ohio State wins the Natty! 

20:23 - Latest on Oklahoma’s pursuit of Ohio State DC Jim Knowles 

38:00 - Recruiting - Junior Day ahead 

1:21:00 - Hoops 

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The gang is back as we've seen plenty of reaction to us naming Jim Knowles as a potential candidate for the open defensive coordinator job. And we're here for everyone's doubts. We think it's crazy too. Josh gives his thoughts on the Navy All-American game and Ryan Fodje's day at center. We're also looking at OU's two-deep and we keep getting positive vibes about the future of the offensive line. How has OU done in the portal since it started? George has some kind of depressing numbers to share. And we also talk about the possibilities of Jaren Kanak as an offensive player. And of course our thoughts on the national championship game and the coaching carousel.

THE FULL RUNDOWN FOLLOWS BELOW:

0:00 - Welcome back to the U40! Spring semester has begun. But for real … is Jim Knowles really a target? 

18:50 - Navy All-American Recap 

32:00 - Projecting Oklahoma’s two-deep in 2025

43:00 - George doing research and presents his findings

52:00 - Jaren Kanak to H-back? 

1:13:00 - CFB Roundtable 

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Josh took off to San Antonio for a day of Navy All-American bowl practices where he caught up with OU commitments Ryan Fodje and Trystan Haynes. Find out from Josh how guys performed and some of the takeaways from talking to players after practice. We recap the latest from the portal as R Mason Thomas is back and the Sooners land a couple of nice defensive additions from the portal. Which goes to speak how players are viewing the defense without a defensive coordinator. And on that subject, what about the rumors that are surfacing about Ohio State DC Jim Knowles having potential interest in coming to Norman. We talk about it, after Eddie forces Carey and George to stop being coy. We talk a little bit of hoops as the Sooners need to rebound from an embarrassing loss at Alabama. And we end it with some CFP talk.

THE FULL RUNDOWN FOLLOWS BELOW:

0:00 - Welcome back to the U40! Josh is in the beautiful city of San Antonio, Texas for the Navy All-American game practice

20:00 - R Mason Thomas leads the pack of returning players to the program in 2025

28:30 - Marvin Jones Jr. (Florida State), Kendall Daniels (Okla State) joining the program 

38:00 - What’s going on with the DC search? 

50:00 - Hoops updates; Conference play has begun

58:00 - CFP Playoffs 

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On this episode of the Unofficial 40, we are talking about the changes to Oklahoma football from a General Manager perspective. Chuck Lillie is leaving for a GM role with West Virginia and everyone wants to know what that means. We are diving into OU's plans for the future as the football program will develop a front office structure more similar to the NFL. What that means and who that affects are questions that still need to be answered. But we breakdown what we know and what that means for the future of OU football and college sports in general. With the outflow of players to the portal, we're also starting to get a feel for what the team is going to look like next season. A lot of unanswered questions there too at certain positions. But we feel pretty good about the overall strength of this roster as things stand today. One player we're still waiting on to declare his future is R Mason Thomas. He put out an interesting video today. And Michael Fasusi shined this week during Under Armour practices. Josh tells us what that means moving forward. And we have some general CFP discussion to round things out.

THE FULL RUNDOWN FOLLOWS BELOW:

0:00 - Welcome back to the Unofficial40! Chuck Lillie departing for GM role with West Virginia 

4:30 - What does restructuring of the football front office mean? Here’s an elementary understanding of what’s goin on behind the scenes 

28:00 - Will 2025 be the most talented *defensive* roster? 

37:00 - What’s going on with R. Mason Thomas? And Florida State’s Marvin Jones Jr./Oklahoma State’s Kendal Daniels visited Norman 

45:00 - Michael Fasusi named MVP at Under Armour

1:03:00 - Thoughts on CFP 

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It's the SchwabMeat.com Unofficial 40. We've been a little all over the place with podcasts lately, so here we are again. Zac Alley has left Brent Venables for West Virginia. The gang is here to breakdown what happened as we know it. What does this mean for the future and more importantly, what does this say about the direction of the program under Brent Venables? The changes in this football program are going to make things look a lot different as NIL and front office personnel become a reality. Carey and George breakdown what's happening and why that will affect everything moving forward. And other staff changes coming? We talk about potential changes in the coaching staff and on the faculty side. As things stand, Venables is going to get another year to try and fix this football program. But can it be fixed? We also talk about Joe Castiglione's role in all of this. It's an informative pod, but maybe not the easiest listen to get through all the things going on inside the OU football program. We do lighten things up with tales from Eddie and George's weddings they were attending while all this was going down. And George is taken to the court of public opinion after potentially betraying Carey after he was given Christmas gifts. Also George ran into the infamous Grimlock at his wedding.

THE FULL RUNDOWN FOLLOWS BELOW:

0:00 - Welcome back to the Unofficial40! Zac Alley bombshell. WHAT THE F*CK IS GOING ON? 

22:00 - Are more staff changes ahead? 

35:00 - Joe C doesn’t go without blame

49:00 - How is this thing so unorganized? 

1:13:00 - Where do they go from here? 

1:18:00 - George met Grimlock at a wedding

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Merry Christmas everyone from the SchwabMeat.com Unofficial 40 podcast! A very early podcast this week as we get set for Christmas and then on to Ft. Worth for the Armed Forces Bowl. We're talking about expectations for the Sooners in the bowl game with a depleted roster and how the roster could be reshaped in the portal. We also talk about the latest portal news as the Sooners have landed their first tight end. And why does it seem like OU is not competing for bigger names in the portal? Why are they evaluating guys and paying less? Are we back to a money issue? Where does Josh see the high school recruits fitting in best with this portal class getting more and more full? And back to the bowl game, we'll all get a good look at Michael Hawkins, Jr. again as he will be the guy at QB. Ben Arbuckle was in studio this week talking about how impressed he was watching him in bowl practices.

THE FULL RUNDOWN FOLLOWS BELOW:

0:00 - Welcome back to the Unofficial40! George got a fiancé for Christmas! 

16:00 - Sooners get a TE commit from the Portal - Kennessaw State’s Carson Kent

21:00 - What does OU get out of the bowl game? 

29:00 - Ben Arbuckle really likes Michael Hawkins Jr 

40:00 - Josh highlights Portal commits vs. 2025 signees

47:00 - Sooners got a 2026 OL commit Will Conroy 

52:00 - OU’s NIL efforts

1:10:00 - CFB Playoff Thoughts

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It's the Unofficial 40 presented by SchwabMeat.com. In this episode we stayed up late and waited for the decision from Washington State quarterback transfer John Mateer. Now that Mateer's a Sooner will tell you about some of the crazy details we learned about how this all came to be. A bizarre battle between NFL legends and NFL Sooner legends to be erupted. In the end, OU donors and the 1Oklahoma Collective did a ton of work to make sure the Sooners secured Mateer. The Sooners also had more commitments today at the wide receiver position and we tell you all about them. The momentum continues with Mateer on board and the portal recruiting continues with the hope of bringing in even more receivers. We're still a bit concerned about the tight end room as we try and find answers how to fix that situation. A full recap of everything that happened on another crazy day for the Sooners. But one thing is for sure, this program doesn't have to worry about heading into the 2025 season with an offense in shambles.

THE FULL RUNDOWN FOLLOWS BELOW:

0:00 - Welcome back to the Unofficial40! OU gets a commitment from QB John Mateer

30:00 - We don’t think Wazzu is a threat for Ben Arbuckle. Sorry not sorry.

51:00 - Upcoming Portal visitors

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The Unofficial 40 brought to you by SchwabMeat.com. It's day 3 of the transfer portal and the Sooners are starting to take in visitors with decisions starting to come. Andrel Anthony enters the portal and now the Sooners have lost Anthony, Jalil Farooq and Nic Anderson. Deion Burks, you're our only hope! And what the hell is going on at the tight end position? Is Joe Jon Finley doing anything in the portal? We're trying to figure out what is happening there. None of these has been easy, and the fans are understandably up in arms. What about the finances of this entire thing? Where is the big donor money? Most of it is going to secure key players already on the roster. But how much of a wave can the Sooners make with the bigger names in the transfer portal? The whole crew is here to break it all down. Part therapy, part venting, all Unofficial 40. Let's go!

THE FULL RUNDOWN FOLLOWS BELOW:

0:00 - Welcome back to the Unofficial40! Are you in the Transfer Portal? 

20:00 - Tough decisions will be made/have been made in this cycle of the Portal 

25:00 - John Mateer … we wait. 

30:20 - Portal visitors headed to Norman this weekend

40:00 - OL portal options; Program outlook talk

1:07:00 - CFB as a whole is a little disgusting right now

1:20:00 - CFB Playoff talk 

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It's a massive podcast with so much to cover over the last few days. Ben Arbuckle was hired as Oklahoma's new offensive coordinator and then Brent Venables announced that all of Seth Littrell's assistant coaches would be retained. Are we really buying that? Or is this just a united front for signing day? And who will be OU's quarterback in 2025? Is it better to sign Washington State's John Mateer in the portal for instant chemistry? Or should the Sooners try and stick behind Jackson Arnold, mend those fences and rely on his ceiling and potential to lead the offense into 2025? Much more on Arbuckle but we take a look at signing day as well and portal season which comes next. Will the Sooners lose Michael Fasusi or Cortez Mills on signing day? Texas and Nebraska are pulling at them. We also talk some hoops after OU wins the Battle 4 Atlantis and Joe Castiglione declares his vision for the future of the football program in the age of revenue sharing. It's a packed episode on this week's SchwabMeat.com Unofficial 40.

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THE FULL RUNDOWN FOLLOWS BELOW:

0:00 - Welcome back to the Unofficial40!  

4:52 - Oklahoma hires Wazzu’s Ben Arbuckle but that wasn’t the headline on Monday 

17:45 - Sooners QB in 2025

26:30 - Insight into the Ben Arbuckle hire

50:45 - Portal Opens Tuesday, Dec. 9/NFL decisions ahead

58:10 - National Signing Day on Wednesday is a bit different; sign of the times

1:10:00 - What’s the latest on 5-star OT commit Michael Fasusi 

1:13:00 - 4-star WR Cortez Mills in or out? 

1:20:00 - Joe Castiglione announces OU’s plan for rev share

1:30:00- Hoops

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