West of Everest: An Oklahoma Football Podcast

The guys are back to talk about Jim Knowles leaving Ohio State, but not taking the OU job. Grant's not happy that OU may have lost a head-to-head battle with Penn State. Could OU have matched Penn State's offer and chose not to? Was this all about Knowles getting closer to home? We think the ceiling for 2025 could have been much higher with Jim Knowles on staff. Plus more comparisons to the 90s (1...

The guys are back to talk about the latest Jim Knowles rumors (2:00). Curtis Lofton stepped down as OU's GM recently (27:10). We begin our season-long watch of John Mateer and Ben Arbuckle at Washington State. First up is Wazzu's Week 1 win over Portland State (36:00). The guys give their thoughts on Ohio State winning the National Championship and Grant is still not enjoying the expanded playoff...

Grant opens the show with some recent news that required a visit to urgent care. We get past that to get to the great news that R Mason Thomas is coming back and FSU transfer Marvin Jones Jr. will join him on the defensive line (3:20) OSU transfer Kendal Daniels is joining the roster as well. What will be his role? Grant seems to think he could play more linebacker than DB (11:20). Lee saw a tweet...

In the opening take, Lee gives his thoughts on Zac Alley's departure from OU's coaching staff. Then Grant joins to give his take on the matter and what it may mean (7:40). Who's going to be hired as the next defensive coordinator? What will it tell us, if anything (17:00)? OU has gotten some good news lately with some important players announcing their returns in 2025. What's up with that cryptic...

OU closed out the season with a 21-20 loss to Navy in the Armed Forces Bowl. The Sooners finish 6-7 for the second time in the last three years. Join us as we go over all the ups and downs of another OU loss, read your 3-word reviews, and try to figure out what's going to happen next in the world of OU football. | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25...

The first 10 minutes is Grant announcing this is now a basketball podcast, Lee asking Grant a pressing question about Colosseum in Rome, and the history of humans consuming combat sports. To OU football and the news that John Mateer received a call from Baker Mayfield. Lee wonders if Brent Venables is trying to recreate the Jeff Lebby/Dillon Gabriel recipe? Looking at OU's transfer portal addition...

Grant is back from Rome. Deion Burks is returning to OU. Grant is hoping OU is not breaking the bank for him. Lee struggles to care about all the money stuff (2:30). BREAKING: John Mateer commits to OU in the middle of the pod. Will/can OU now go get a top tier WR out of the portal? The tight end room looks to be a mess and an unknown (13:10). Is OU bargain shopping in the portal? Will Joe Jon Fin...

In the opening take, Lee tries to figure out what OU's going to do to address their need for wide receivers in the transfer portal. Then Lee continues this solo show by talking about why he's struggling to find interest in all the recent OU news. He goes over some of the non-wide receivers who are departing through the transfer portal before taking a first look at the Sooners Armed Forces Bowl mat...

The guys open the show briefly talking a little bit about Grant's upcoming trip to Europe, before getting into more important topics like Ben Arbuckle being hired as OU's offensive coordinator. We give our initial thoughts and go over some positive numbers. We also compare some of Arbuckle's numbers to Lincoln Riley and Seth Littrell (2:40). Venables announced that he will retain the offensive sta...

The guys discuss OU's 37-17 loss at LSU to close the regular season at 6-6 (2-6). It does appear the Alabama game was indeed an outlier outcome as the Sooners reverted back to what they've been for most of 2024. Grant has some historical analytical stats that show where the program is now compared to the 90s. After much big picture discussion, the guys jump into the actual game and go through all...

Brent Venables opens the show with his story of late night Taco Bell following the win over Alabama. The guys are incredibly excited about this development and go into detail about why (00:00). Venables admitted he failed on the Seth Littrell hire. Does this do anything for you? Did the Alabama game show us what OU could have been this season with a competent offense (10:10)? Venables joked about...

The Sooners proved us wrong in all the best ways by beating No. 7 Alabama 24-3 Saturday in Norman. The offensive gameplan was terrific and included a lot of creative designs in the run game. Xavier Robinson continued to look like the best running back on the team. Joe Jon Finley deserves a ton of credit for his gameplan and execution. OU's defense was fantastic against a great Alabama offense. Tha...

The guys start out with some positive news about Xavier Robinson being available this week against Alabama. However, it slowly transitions into the negative because we have no interest in sugar coating this stuff (2:30). Do you want to see other QBs play the rest of the season? We revisit the Dillon Gabriel/Jackson Arnold discussion and Lee has came around closer to where Grant was months ago (11:...

Lee tells us what's coming up on the show today before the guys briefly talk about OU's upcoming primetime kickoff against Alabama (0:00). Joe Harroz and Joe Castiglione gave Brent Venables a vote of confidence this week. For some reason the discussion leads Lee to think of former Tennessee HC Butch Jones (7:40). Joe Castiglione stopped short of committing to Brent Venables for next season (17:45)...

OU's loss to Missouri was more of the same as the Brent Venables era looks to be coming to a close. The only question is, "When?" | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 | Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeBensonTweets

In the opening take, Lee talks about something very serious that impacts everybody who listens to this show. Please listen to this critical message. Then Grant joins to talk about getting after it a little too much bending the elbow and how to combat a hangover (4:30). Grant gives his thoughts on the OU-Maine game. Jovantae Barnes and Xavier Robinson are discussed. Jackson Arnold's play and the de...

Oklahoma picked up its 5th win of the season beating Maine 59-14 Saturday. Lee talks about the offensive explosion, this new version of Jovantae Barnes, Jackson Arnold continued his solid play, and a big picture look at OU's defense that doesn't bode well for Brent Venables. Plus we read your "3-Word Reviews". | Like the show on Facebook: @westofeverest | Follow Grant on Twitter: @GrantBenson25 |...

In the opening take, Lee tries to find out the correct degrees of blame for OU's offensive line being terrible. Then Grant joins to give his thoughts on the offensive line and push back on some of the points Lee made. As much as we didn't want to do this, we do a long segment on the offensive line, previous recruiting classes, Bill Bedenbaugh's coaching ability, and how much blame Lincoln Riley de...

Definitely a tale of two halves in Oxford this weekend. OU went into halftime enjoying a 14-10 lead over one of the better teams in college football, but the Sooners came back down to earth in the final 30 minutes. What went right? What went wrong? Jovantae Barnes had his best game as a Sooner. Jackson Arnold played solid and does seem to have a lot of potential. This OU's best game running the ba...

Lee strikes a negative tone to start the show, which Grant calls him on. Early thoughts on what to expect when OU plays Ole Miss this Saturday (0:00). Brent Venables talked for the first time about firing Seth Littrell. How is OU going to deal with recruiting offensive players during this time (8:00)? What will Venables be looking for in his next OC? Lee has a bit of a problem with what Venables s...

Lot to talk about today. Grant wants people to stop saying "is this rock bottom?" (0:00). What does it mean for the future of the program now that Seth Littrell has been fired? Do you have any confidence that Brent Venables can find the right offensive coordinator? (6:00). The rest of the episode is essentially us talking about why it's over for Brent Venables (16:00). We go to the WoE Facebook pa...

OU had a players-only meeting after the loss to Texas, so that must mean everything is fixed. Brent Venables had some puzzling thoughts about OU's running game against Texas when it comes to efficient successful plays and explosive plays. Is OU's offense too complicated? Grant gets going early with a rant about the state of the program (2:25). We're not interested in how Lincoln Riley left the pro...

One host is a little more fired up than expected, while the other host is apathetic towards OU's latest beatdown at the hands of Texas. One thing we can all agree on is the offense being awful. The Sooners are officially the worst offense in P4 football. The one thing we can't agree upon is the state of the defense and how well (or not well) it played Saturday at the Cotton Bowl. How is it possibl...

Grant briefly describes being at the Minnesota-USC game and storming the field after the Gophers' win (1:10). We jump into what we learned from the Brent Venables news conference. Should OU use Texas as a measuring stick? OU's been the better team several years over the last generation and we wish the Sooners would have won more of them (3:00). Lee was proven wrong following last week's injury-rel...

The guys open the show talking about lunch, feelings about bye weeks, and Grant's plans to attend the USC-Minnesota game this weekend (00:00). Deion Burks and Taylor Tatum have a chance to play against Texas in a couple of weeks (7:40). We dive deeper into several of OU's injured players. Who will play again this season? Who will not be back? We play a stupid game to give our answers. Lee has a th...