West of Everest: An Oklahoma Football Podcast

For the first time in the podcast's history, Lee & Grant sat down to record the show about 90 minutes after OU lost to WVU 23-20. Grant says the Mountaineers were begging to lose that game, but OU failed time and time again to put them away. For the first time this year, Lee's questioning whether the Sooners will make a bowl game (1:40). OU was awful on 3rd down, WVU was fantastic on 4th down, Eric Gray was the best player on the field, and the Sooners found a way to leave 18 points on the field in the first half. What's going on with Marvin Mims? Who's to blame for the OPI -- Theo Wease or Brayden Willis? (7:20). Is the Wildcat not in the playbook anymore (15:40)? One of the two bright spots for OU's offense came in the first half when the Sooners marched 96 yards to take a 10-0 lead. But all the momentum was wiped away after WVU answered with a quick TD of their own (20:00). WVU's defense was showing OU looks that could have been exploited in the passing game, but the Sooners didn't take them. Penalties and missed opportunities led to OU trailing 13-12 in the 3rd qtr (23:00). The offense had its second highlight of the afternoon going 59 yards to score and take a 20-13 lead. At this point it seemed like the Sooners maybe had righted the ship -- but then OU allowed WVU to convert on a fake punt and all hell broke loose. The refs picked up a flag that really hurt OU (26:20). Of course OU went 3 & out after WVU tied the game at 20. Jalil Farooq is OU's best WR right now (35:40). After the defense stepped up and got a stop, OU kept the ball on the ground exclusively. Grant says OU's tempo cost them. We question Venables' decision to kick a FG on 4th & short (37:40). WVU used up the final 6:24 to go down and kick a GW FG. Why didn't OU let WVU score with under a minute to go (43:00)? Lee says it's unacceptable for OU to be 5-5. Brent Venables is not going to get fired, but his seat is hot (47:40). OU leads the Big 12 in rushing and the offensive line looked to play pretty well. But it's crazy that best case scenario right now is 7-5 in the regular season. Lee reads some postgame quotes from Venables, including one on kicking a FG late (52:30). We read your "3-Word Reviews" to close out the show (59:55). | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonNews9

Lee starts the show with some news that hopefully does not change the show too much. The guys then talk about a big time recruit decommiting. After that, Lee & Grant are perplexed by Brent Venables making an excuse about his defense being inexperienced (while saying he's not making excuses). We take a look at the upcoming matchup at West Virginia, the latest CFP rankings, and finally we make our weekly picks. | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonNews9

Four first half turnovers (3 INT, 1 TO on downs) effectively was the difference in OU's 38-35 loss to Baylor Saturday. The guys jump around to what bothered them, what they liked, and as always we read your "3-Word Reviews" (there's a lot of them). And to all of those people who did not enjoy the TV broadcast of the Iowa State game, we totally understand where you're coming from after watching the most recent game on TV. | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonNews9

Lee opens the show by taking an unwarranted shot at Grant to cover up for his lack of show prep. They then dive into Billy Bowman's health and the amount of snaps he played vs. Iowa State. Lee thinks he'll be back starting and playing a bunch this week against Baylor (1:30). Jovantae Barnes is a game time decision this week. Eric Gray will once again be super important this week and it appears we have discovered that UCF transfer RB Bentavious Thompson is a non-factor on this team (10:05). Lee was really hard on Woodi Washington last episode. Well, Lee was wrong to be so critical and Grant was right (18:00). C.J. Coldon is still not playing very many snaps. Freshman Gentry Williams looked good in very limited playing time vs. ISU. It also seems like they've tightened up the DB rotations, and what happened to Justin Harrington and Kani Walker (24:05)? OU's a short favorite against Baylor, but the Bears may be a lot better than their record indicates. Lee likes what he's seen from Blake Shapen, even though he didn't want to like him. Grant says Shapen has been up & down this year. OU may be able to make some plays with special teams this Saturday (31:40). Jeff Grimes is a really good OC, but Baylor does have tendencies on offense that OU could possibly recognize and anticipate certain plays and pass routes. Grant says Alex Grinch's system was horrible against Grimes' system (42:20). Lee thinks the OU offense has an opportunity to steal some yards against Baylor. Grant wants the Sooners' offense to throw it around the yard on Baylor's secondary (49:05). Does anybody care about the first CFP rankings (58:20)? We take a look at the Big 12 slate, which includes an intriguing OSU-Kansas matchup from a betting perspective. And are oddsmakers telling us to hammer Iowa State against WVU? Grant shares a betting story about his time in the free state of Iowa last weekend (1:03:05)? We make our weekly picks. Games include Oregon St.-Washington/Tennessee-Georgia/Texas-Kansas St./Clemson-Notre Dame/Wake Forest-NC State (1:14:00). Dave Aranda has bounced back from a bad first year at Baylor. Does that give you hope for the future in case OU struggles the rest of the season (1:26:35)? | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonNews9

Oklahoma returned from the off week with a nice 27-13 road win at Iowa State. Despite uninspiring stats, Dillon Gabriel played really well. Eric Gray continued his terrific season. What was with Marvin Mims? Jalil Farooq continues to shine. The defense played its best game since Nebraska. Lee's happy with the takeaways, but he saw chances for more. Special Teams was fantastic and we read your "3-Word Reviews". | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonNews9

In the opening take, Lee addresses Brent Venables talking about OU's extended "self-scout" over the bye week. Then Grant joins to remind everybody we're taking this thing one game at a time, and what a "self-scout" means to him (3:35). Are we going to see Billy Bowman back against Iowa State (8:00)? DJ Graham has moved to wide receiver and this whole situation is bizarre (16:35). Lee asked Jeff Lebby if the backup QB position has changed since Dillon Gabriel's been healthy. Lee then reminds everybody that Gabriel's health is incredibly important and if he misses anymore time this season OU has no chance to win those games (22:00). OU's at Iowa State and this game is basically a toss up. OU's offense against ISU's defense is the matchup to watch for Grant (27:00). We rip on Hunter Dekkers a lot. He's probably not as bad as we make it out to be. Grant seems to think he's a less slippery, left-handed version of Brock Purdy. Xavier Hutchinson is ISU's whole offense (40:10). We read some comments from the WoE Facebook page, one of which involved former Baylor and Panthers HC Matt Rhule (50:40). We take a look at the rest of the Big 12 slate (53:30). We make our weekly picks against the spread. Ohio State-Penn State/Notre Dame-Syracuse/OSU-K-State/Kentucky-Tennessee/Ole Miss-Texas A&M. Texas A&M being a disaster this season has been fun to watch. We also drag Michigan State and Miami a bit as well (58:05). | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonNews9

The Sooners got a much needed win Saturday over Kansas. Grant had a lot of fun watching OU play and the guys open the show talking about the return of Dillon Gabriel, and how the win over KU felt all too familiar (1:00). Eric Gray was terrific Saturday. Have we seen the end of Marcus Major (18:45)? Marvin Mims got 16 targets. Keep them coming. Brayden Willis continues to have his best season at OU. Welcome back Theo Wease (23:15). Lee applauds the offense for burning a lot of clock in the 4th qtr to help put the game away (31:15). Grant is more positive about the defense, while Lee saw some good things but ultimately was not impressed (33:25). We read your "3-Word Reviews" which includes comments on the "Unity" uniforms, Robert Spears-Jennings getting some meaningful snaps, C.J. Coldon's nice interception, concerns that OU's defense is so bad with a defensive minded head coach, is OU a good team?, our thoughts on Bye weeks, and early musings on Iowa State (41:45). We finish up with thoughts on the crazy Tennessee-Alabama finish, and USC finally losing a game. College football is awesome (56:20). | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonNews9

No opening take. Brent Venables hints that he's changed the weekly schedule up a bit this week to freshen up his team. Lee clarifies where he's at with this OU team after rewatching the defense against TCU and Texas -- hint: this is a bad defense with bad players (1:30). We hit on a Facebook message with some wrap up thoughts and questions about OU's Wildcat decisions in the OU-Texas game. Also, is it possible Nick Evers is better than Davis Beville right now but the coaches just don't think he's ready for action yet? What about Micah Bowens in the Wildcat (14:45)? Brent Venables got a little defensive when asked about 3-man and 4-man fronts at his press conference this week. Lee watched back the first 6 games and tracked how many defensive snaps OU had 3 DL on the field and 4 DL on the field (25:00). We don't have a lot to say about this OU-Kansas game outside of the very surprising betting line (32:40). OU will wear alternate uniforms Saturday (41:00). A listener asks if Lincoln Riley deserves an apology? Some additional thoughts on how the defense could maybe improve a little bit in the short term and more thoughts on how crazy it is that the defense is this bad with Brent Venables as the coach (47:00). A look at the Big 12 this week (1:03:20). We make our 5 picks of the week. Penn State-Michigan/Alabama-Tennessee/OSU-TCU/NC State-Syracuse-USC-Utah. Apologies for last week being absolutely horrible (1:05:45). | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonNews9

It's back-to-back blowout losses for the Sooners as we are now forced to talk all about it. It's perfectly reasonable to be way down on this team (like Grant), but Lee is not quite there because of one specific reason. We also read your "3 Word Reviews" (there were a bunch of them). | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonNews9

In the opening take, Lee talks about how it's been many years since those who follow OU football have exercised a specific muscle. Then, Lee talks about how he's surprised OU-Texas has a betting line with Dillon Gabriel's status in doubt. Grant chimes in to talk about why he's not excited for this upcoming game, it doesn't seem like OU can win, and we talk more about previous OU games that are similar to OU's loss to TCU (6:15). Will Dillon Gabriel play vs. Texas (12:25)? Anything can happen in rivalry games, right? We talk about the 2009 OU-Texas game, which was the last time Texas was favored to beat OU (16:35). How does OU win this game if Dillon Gabriel doesn't play? The backup QB situation at OU is so terrible and we just figured out that Davis Beville was Pitt's 3rd string QB last season (22:00). How many points would it take for you to bet OU if you knew Beville was starting (29:00)? Lee thinks OU's defense can play better against Texas, but he's afraid it may not matter based on the QB situation. Grant is trying to figure out why OU's defense has looked this bad the last 2 games. It doesn't make sense (30:55). Texas has a bunch of really good skill players plus one of the best offensive playcallers in football. Super. Does it matter who plays QB for Texas (35:25)? We don't know who will be playing against Texas because there's so many unknown OU injuries (40:30). What's the deal with the major busts in OU's secondary (43:55)? We share our "gut feelings" on how OU-Texas will play out. Lee has a positive note about Davis Beville and it would be fun if Jaren Kanak played QB at times against Texas (47:20). Once again, there's some interesting matchups in the Big 12 this week (54:50). Time to make our picks, which were pretty good last week. Tennessee-LSU/TCU-Kansas/Utah-UCLA/Washington State-USC/Florida State-NC State (59:10). Grab bag topics at the end include Baker Mayfield playing bad football, Jalen Hurts looking great, and Tua's concussion (1:14:25). | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonNews9