West of Everest: An Oklahoma Football Podcast

Well, we didn't see that coming Saturday night. OU's defense was really bad against an offense that played its best game of the season. We complain about a lot of stuff, read your "3 Word Reviews", and get a lot of frustration off our our chests. Meanwhile, the Sooners' offense was pretty good against the best defense it had faced so far this season. | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonNews9

No opening take. The guys immediately address whether they think Brent Venables will have OU ready to play by kickoff Saturday night (1:30)? Brent Venables said the Nebraska game wasn't bigger to him than other games, which leads to Lee ranting about how Texas has been able to play OU close and beat them over the last decade. Grant doesn't buy it though (7:10). Will it be easier to predict what kind of OU team we will see week to week under Brent Venables (12:20)? We hope this is the most nuanced, intelligent discussion regarding the end of football Bedlam that you'll hear (14:40). What do we make of Adrian Martinez's slow start so far at K-State (30:45)? Deuce Vaughn's still K-State's best player, but he did not do a whole lot against Tulane (36:45). Brent Venables and OU's defense gave up a healthy amount of points to K-State from 1999-2011 (41:00). Malik Knowles and Phillip Brooks are still on the K-State roster, but zero wide receivers are over 100 yards receiving (43:35). K-State's defense is really good. Could it end up being the best defense OU sees during the regular season (44:55)? OU will have to run the ball effectively through K-State's 3-3-5 look. What will Jeff Lebby's game plan look like (51:45)? Lee struggles to explain why he thinks OU -12.5 has a lot of value. Does it make sense in the end? You decide (56:10). Dillon Gabriel has not played well against high level defenses in his career. Will that trend continue Saturday (1:03:15)? Over to the Big 12. West Virginia may be the worst team in the conference. KU is favored to beat Duke. We don't know anything about TCU yet. Grant like Tech to beat Texas outright (1:04:30). The guys are each 10-5 so far this year on their weekly picks. Our 5 games this week are Clemson-Wake Forest/Baylor-Iowa State/Washington St.-Oregon/Arkansas-Texas A&M/USC-Oregon State (1:09:00). | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonNews9

OU dominated Nebraska on the road and there's not many things we can complain about. Dillon Gabriel certainly answered the call, the defense was fantastic (after the first series), Eric Gray made us look really stupid, and yay Jaren Kanek! | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonNews9

In the opening take, Lee takes a look at some interesting developments in the movement of the OU-Nebraska betting line. Then Grant joins to go over some of the latest news surrounding the Sooners including the upcoming return of Wanya Morris, an injury update from Brent Venables, and future series with Georgia and Tennesse getting canceled (3:00). Turning our attention to OU-Nebraska. This will be the most hostile environment Dillon Gabriel's ever played in (13:45). Nebraska's offense is very good, led by Casey Thompson (26:10). Nebraska has the worst defense in P5 football (40:00). Lee tells you his OU-Nebraska prediction, although he doesn't love the pick. Plus we give final thoughts on the matchup (51:05). We read questions and comments from the "West of Everest" Facebook page (58:25). Let's talk about the Big 12, but first Lee has to rant about hating Iowa. K-State blew out Missouri last week, Kansas looks competent, and we were both dead wrong about the Texas-Alabama game (1:02:40). We do our weekly picks which include BYU-Oregon/Penn State-Auburn/Texas Tech-NC State/Michigan State-Washington/Miami-Texas A&M (1:14:25). Fresno State-USC could be interesting (1:27:40). | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonNews9

After a bizarre first half, the Sooners righted the ship after halftime and took down Kent State 33-3 Saturday night in Norman. The guys talk about the last time OU allowed 3 or fewer points to a FBS school, before going into detail on the excellent effort put forth by the defense (7:45). It was a tale of good & bad for the OU offense against Kent State (31:45). The Memorial Stadium in-game experience was different Saturday night, plus we read your "3 Word Reviews" (53:10). We finish up by hitting on USC's elite offense and our early thoughts about OU-Nebraska (58:50). | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonNews9

In the opening take, Lee's happy the CFP will expand relatively soon, but the new system could be even better. Then Grant joins to provide his thoughts on the Playoff expanding to 12 teams. Lee is trying to be open minded about why some people do not want the Playoff to expand. The guys talk about a Twitter exchange by Joel Klatt and Josh Pate (5:45). What defines success in a college football season? Who defines success for each team (17:45)? Lee explains why college football (and football in general) will continue to be popular year in and year out (25:00). Are we being too hard on Dillon Gabriel? Grant likes Jalen Hurts in the NFL, Lee does not (27:50). Brent Venables provided a Wanya Morris update this week. Is the OU O-Line going to underachieve? Upon review, Lee thought OU ran the ball pretty well against UTEP (34:55). Brent Venables loves Gavin Freeman (40:20). OU's a massive favorite against Kent State. Kent State has an interesting QB and a couple of talented WRs, but man they are bad on defense (44:40). We go over this weekend's Big 12 slate including thoughts on Missouri-K-State, Houston-Texas Tech, Kansas-West Virginia, Arizona St.-OSU, TCU-Tarleton, and of course Iowa St.-Iowa (1:08:40). Grant was 5-0 ATS last week. We make our picks for South Carolina-Arkansas/Alabama-Texas/Tennessee-Pitt/App State-Texas A&M/Baylor-BYU (1:18:50). We finish up with our thoughts on the end of the Florida State-LSU game (1:32:00). | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonNews9

In an effort to get the podcast uploaded as quick as possible, we are not including timecode details for this episode. We take the "grab bag" approach to OU's 45-13 win over UTEP by pointing out what we liked and didn't like. At the end we read your "3 word reviews", and talk a little bit about the rest of Week 1 of college football. Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonNews9

No opening take as the guys open the show by celebrating Game Week, before jumping into what caught their eye on the depth chart release. Will Marcus Major take advantage of his opportunity? We're super happy for Jaden Davis. Could the offensive line have an unexpected absence in Week 1? Plus so many other depth chart stuff (1:35). Let's talk UTEP. We go over our takeaways from the Miners' first game against North Texas and tell you the most important things we know about OU's opponent (27:05). What will we be watching for from OU's offense and defense against UTEP (37:20)? We're kind of out on making game predictions, but Lee makes one anyways (49:00). We slide over to the Big 12 slate... it's not all that interesting in Week 1 (53:00). Time to pick the 5 most interesting games of the week. WVU-Pitt/Oregon-Georgia/Cincinnati-Arkansas/Utah-Florida/Notre Dame-Ohio State (57:20). Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonNews9

No opening take, so we get straight to talking about the latest on Anton Harrison and the OU offensive line (0:50). Brynden Walker retires from football (5:20). The "Big Season Preview" is different this year. We take the opposite side of OU and play devil's advocate on many positive things we've said about the Sooners' potential in 2022 (12:00). Grant doesn't think the Big 12 is going to be very good this year. He tells you why, and we hit on all the stories that interest us about the conference (47:00). Should we care about Stew Mandell's OU prediction (59:50)? We turn our attention to the national scene. Lee asks if we're sure Ohio State should be considered as good as Alabama and Georgia? Lee's also curious about Clemson post-Brent Venables. Grant has thoughts on miscellaneous schools including Utah, NC State, Oregon, and others. There's also Mario Cristobal and Mel Tucker criticism because that's what this podcast is all about (1:01:20). We answer a couple of listener questions about Dillon Gabriel using his legs in 2022 and transfers who may not play much this season (1:22:00). Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonNews9

In the opening take, Lee reminds everybody that OU's in need of a new kicker in 2022. Then Grant joins to lambast Lee's decision to talk about kickers in the opening take (5:05). What's going on with the offensive line? We play Brent Venables' comments on the OL from Tuesday that leave out Anton Harrison when seemingly discussing the top tackles on the team (9:50). How good might freshmen Jake Taylor and Jacob Sexton be (20:55)? Who are the five players on the inside of the offensive line that Venables was talking about (24:20)? Billy Bowman's playing better than anybody else on defense right now. Is this finally going to be the year we are super high on the OU secondary and they finally don't disappoint us (25:10)? Brent Venables fears that LB T.D. Roof has a season-ending biceps injury. The linebackers are the biggest question mark on defense, so it's a good thing Venables coaches these guys (37:00). Marcus Major is playing his best ball -- does it matter (43:30)? No updates on Jalen Redmond, but Lee did see a positive sign at practice Tuesday (47:00). Over to the WoE Facebook page where we field comments on listeners who are fully buying in to OU being a Playoff contender this year. Is this the most excited you've ever been for an OU football season? And what do we know about the new tailgating developments at OU (48:40)? Brief talk about Jacobe Johnson committing to OU and a different 2023 OU commit got a 5th star. Lee also shoehorns a "Varsity Blues" reference in (1:04:00). Old news that we never talked about on the podcast: Kyler Murray's weird contract situation (1:07:30). Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonNews9