West of Everest: An Oklahoma Football Podcast

In the opening take, Lee plays an interesting moment from Brent Venables' press conference and tells you what that exchange means. Then Grant joins as they talk briefly about OSU and the Big 12 Championship at the end of the season (5:00). Lee asks Grant what he thinks about the Venables comments on the OU offense. Of course we talk more about the problems on OU's offense, and Grant clarifies some comments he made on the last show (9:00). All the good will Jeff Lebby built up in the first 6 games are gone. We talk about Tawee Walker's health as well as Jovantae Barnes' limited appearance in Bedlam. And of course we must harp again on how bad the RBs have been handled this season (17:10). There seems to be a disconnect between Venables and Lebby and we wonder if Venables will take more control (24:30)? We talk injuries. If Stutsman is healthy, will he and Kip Lewis play at the same time? For some reason we go back to the OU-Georgia Rose Bowl (30:00). Lee thought Venables and Dillon Gabriel seemed a bit down this week. Does this team have the mental toughness to bounce back? Unity Uniforms are coming this week (35:30). OU's committing a lot of penalties, but Lee doesn't really feel like that's been the main reason for OU's struggles. Grant's still mad about Venables getting flagged in Bedlam (40:00). West Virginia is up next and Garrett Greene will put OU's defense in a lot of conflicting situations. WVU is playing its best ball of the season, and their defense is definitely better than OSU (46:45). We go around the Big 12 (53:35). We make our picks on Michigan-Penn State/Utah-Washington/Tennessee-Missouri/Ole Miss-Georgia/USC-Oregon (1:01:15). | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonTweets

The guys gather Sunday morning to talk all about OU's 27-24 loss to OSU. We air it all out here -- plus Grant provides one of the best rants on this podcast in a long, long time. The defense did enough to win, but once again the offense came up short in big spots. Do we need to call for some coaching changes? We also read your "3 Word Reviews". | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonTweets

In the opening take, Grant piles on to this OU team as we're still reeling from the Sooners recent loss to Kansas. Grant says this is the biggest game in Brent Venables' short tenure, while Lee has his sights set on Dillon Gabriel and his left arm (6:05). Lee thinks OU's offense should be better vs. OSU based on OSU's defensive scheme (10:50). Does OU's coaching staff understand the moment? Lee thinks Alan Bowman is playing his best football of his career (13:00). OU's defense is banged up. We both don't expect to see much from Danny Stutsman this week (19:00). Lee says OU's offense should have plenty of opportunities to gain a lot of yards against OSU's secondary (22:30). Grant brings up Gabe Ikard and Teddy Lehman being ultra critical of OU on one of their recent podcasts. We talk about the running game and the OL (25:00). Tawee Walker's injured. Will he play? Grant rants about Jovantae Barnes getting carries late vs. Kansas (31:00). Then Lee rants about OU's personnel on what was the final snap vs. Kansas. Get some tall guys out there (35:40)! OSU's got some good receivers and their RB is better than OU's running backs (39:00). Let's defend Tawee Walker and ask again why he hasnt played more (42:10). Collin Oliver stands out for OSU. The LBs are okay, and Lee reiterates that he thinks the DBs are not good. Grant's more confident in OU's defense and you never want to be a coach who loses a game where you had a high win exptectancy (44:30). We go around the Big 12 and give our thoughts on the weekend slate (53:30). We make our weekly picks. Games include K-State-Texas/Missouri-Georgia/Kansas-Iowa State/Washington-USC/LSU-Alabama (1:02:40). Grant loves the Michigan sign stealing story. Lee doesn't really care (1:15:00). Lee is interested in the Iowa-Minnesota "invalid fair catch" story, so for some reason they finish the show talking about Iowa (1:19:10). | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonTweets

It's not a fun one as the guys convene an hour after Oklahoma lost to Kansas 38-33 Saturday. Grant had been terrified of that game for the last couple of weeks and all of his fears came true. Lee laments two offensive tendencies that he's hated this season that both reared its ugly head in this game. Tawee Walker was terrific. Grant didn't like the way the defensive line played. OU killed themselves with penalties. The OU passing game was non-existent in poor weather. Danny Stutsman missed the entire 2nd half, but Kip Lewis filled in admirably. We hit on absolutely everything, plus your "3 Word Reviews". | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonTweets

The guys convene a day after OU squeaked out a 31-29 win over UCF. While Lee took in the game in Norman, Grant's gameday experience was awful in Minnesota. The guys choose to take a "glass half full" approach to what could have been a crushing loss. Credit to the Sooners' defense for playing well most of the time -- especially at the beginning. OU's offense was inconsistent and failed to help out the defense in the 1st quarter. Nic Anderson continues to catch touchdowns, while the OU running game finally got things going in the 4th quarter. The kicking game continues to struggle for the Sooners, while the punting was much better. We go through some of your "3 Word Reviews" at the end, before briefly talking about the day in college football. | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonTweets

In the opening take, Lee talks about a recent social media post that caught his eye. Then Grant joins as they begin the show discussing the curious situation surrounding UCF QB John Rhys Plumlee (5:00). We get to what's a mostly positive OU injury update, will we see Jovantae Barnes again this season, and OU's gotta replace McKade Mettauer this weekend (17:00). We haven't gotten a chance yet to talk about Andrel Anthony being out for the year. Who's going to step up (28:00)? UCF's defense isn't good, especially it's run defense. Will the Sooners be able to run the ball much better Saturday (34:40)? How's UCF's backup QB? UCF's skill position players are super talented (37:45). Grant says this is a very interesting spot for UCF given how their season has gone, and could play out. That being said, we will learn a ton about OU this Saturday (43:40). Grant is in a good mood and loves how this season has played out almost perfectly for the Sooners (54:30). We take a look at the Big 12 slate this week beginning with Baylor-Cincinnati. The guys think this is a good spot for WVU against OSU. What will we learn about Texas playing at Houston? Lee likes BYU's spot hosting Texas Tech. What do we make of TCU-K-State (1:04:20)? We make our weekly picks beginning with both guys really liking Ohio State as it hosts Penn State. Plus we both aren't fans of James Franklin (1:11:10). The guys talk about this weird, limited Alabama offense and aren't sure the Crimson Tide can cover 9 against Tennessee (1:21:00). Lee hates Iowa football so much. Grant brings up an interesting point about Iowa's bad offense paired with it's great defense (1:24:30). We have our first crossfire as the guys discuss Duke-FSU. Plus some wishcasting about how the rest of the 2023 season could play out. And Grant rants about video quality that may or may not be our worst segment ever (1:30:40). Finally, the guys talk about USC as they pick the Utah-USC game. The ingredients are there for USC to absolutley crater to finish out the season (1:41:10). | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonTweets

The guys talk about OU's thrilling 34-30 win over Texas at the Cotton Bowl. Lee gives it up to Brent Venables for all he's done with this team so far this season. Grant admits he thought OU had a better chance to win than he let on last episode. Plus we go through the entire game and talk about all of the awesome (and not so awesome) moments. At the end, we go to the WoE Facebook page and Twitter/X for your "3 Word Reviews". | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonTweets

In the opening take, Grant asks if it's time for OU to experience a bit of what Texas has gone through over the past decade in this rivalry game? Then Lee joins to talk about his general feelings about OU facing off against Texas Saturday (4:05). Brent Venables was not interested in providing any "bulletin board" material this week (13:55). Grant takes a look at where OU and Texas ranks in the different analytical models. The computers seem to like OU a little bit more than Texas (23:30). Grant goes over all of Texas' success as an underdog over the last 30+ years. Meanwhile OU rarely wins this game when the Horns are favored (30:05). Quinn Ewers is pretty darn good and he can move a lot better this year. Texas' offense is terrific, but one of their best players is injured. We go over it all, while including a couple of points on how OU can have some success (38:00). The Texas defense has been elite and they'll probably force Dillon Gabriel to beat them. Grant goes over all their talented players, but we at least found a couple of players who we hope OU can exploit (1:01:20). We take a look around the Big 12 (1:13:55). Grant went 5-0 in his picks last week. This week's slate includes Maryland-Ohio State/LSU-Missouri/Alabama-Texas A&M/Kentucky-Georgia/Notre Dame-Louisville. At the very end we take a look at what will be a pretty difficult upcoming stretch for USC (1:18:00). | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonTweets

The guys gather Sunday morning to recap OU's 50-20 win over Iowa State. What was up with the poor run defense and the two long ISU TDs? Dillon Gabriel played really well and so did the Sooners WRs. OU still isn't running the football well, but the Sooners did enough against ISU. It was great to see the defense play terrific after halftime. | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonTweets

In the opening take, Lee points out that Oklahoma has improved a very important statistic drastically through four games. Then Grant joins to talk about teammates celebrating each other, a brief NFL sidebar, and PFF College showing that they're not an outlet that has a whole lot of credibility (3:20). What do we make of Jeff Lebby and Ted Roof not having press conferences anymore? Lincoln Riley recently suspended a reporter, which we obviously have to rip Riley for (9:50). Let's talk about the OU RB situation-- it's still weird. Lee slightly amends his take on Marcus Major from the Cincinnati game (also some Dillon Gabriel zone read talk), and Brent Venables seems uncomfortable answering questions about Barnes and Sawchuk not playing much (17:10). Savion Byrd is good to go, and what's the deal with Reggie Pearson moving forward (30:45)? Grant provides an update on where OU stands in a lot of analytical rankings. The defense is much better, but is it all because of a soft schedule (35:00)? Grant was watching old OU-ISU games recently. We dig into this week's game by talking about the Cyclones truly terrible offense (47:50). Iowa State's defense seems to be very good again, although they haven't faced any good offenses yet. Even though on paper OU should win easily, will the Sooners be looking ahead to Texas (1:06:20)? We read a couple of comments from the WoE Facebook page (1:16:20). Let's take a look at the Big 12, beginning with a weird line in the Cin-BYU game. Texas Tech is in desperation mode. UCF is a double-digit favorite over Baylor and is WVU-TCU a trap (1:19:10)? Finally we make our weekly picks. Games include Utah-Oregon State/USC-Colorado/KU-Texas/LSU-Ole Miss/Notre Dame-Duke (1:27:20). | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonTweets