West of Everest: An Oklahoma Football Podcast

Join us as we go through OU's improbable win over Auburn. Kip Lewis made the play of the year so far. Michael Hawkins did about as well as you would have hoped given the situation. OU hit some explosive plays finally. OU's kicker was not the one who missed key field goals. J.J. Hester came up big on a couple of plays. OU's tight ends made way too many mistakes. Seth Littrell's offense is still not...

After some brief introductory nonsense the guys jump into Michael Hawkins being named the starting QB for the Auburn game. How are we feeling four days removed from the Tennessee loss (2:05)? What do we make of rumors that Hawkins had been looking better than Arnold at practice for a while now (9:30)? Jacobe Johnson is being moved to WR. Lee thinks this could go somewhere while Grant thinks it's a...

It's all about extremes at OU. For several years we get to watch elite offense paired with truly terrible defense, and now we get to witness high level defense paired with truly terrible offense. Were there signs a season ago that Jackson Arnold would look this bad? How much longer does Brent Venables have at OU? When will Seth Littrell be fired? Hey, Michael Hawkins helped the offense show some s...

Brent Venables opens the show talking about Josh Heupel's return to Norman this weekend. What do we think about this storyline (1:35)? The first SEC Injury report featuring OU has been released and it looks like some key players may be suiting up for the Sooners this weekend. May Tennessee be down a key player on offense (7:55)? We dive into OU's matchup with Tennessee. Tennessee's defense has not...

It was much better this week as the Sooners withstood a second half surge from Tulane. OU's defense was really good, and outside of 2-3 drives Tulane did not do much of anything. That's a really good offense, so the Sooners' defense was up to the challenge in their first real test of the year. The offense was much better than last week, but still has a ways to go. Grant was encouraged by the perfo...

In the opening take, Lee tries to mentally prepare you for the content in this upcoming show. Then Grant joins as we talk way too long about OU's busted coverage that gave up a TD against Houston (03:30). Then we get to more pressing issues, like our lack of confidence in Seth Littrell and Brent Venables at this moment. We play soundbites from each coach that do not instill a lot of hope for the r...

If the first two games of the 2024 season are any indication, we should be preparing for a not very fun next three months of OU football. The guys go over the GOOD -- OU won the game, before spending almost the entire show on what was BAD -- which was pretty much all of it. The offense is terrible. Was Seth Littrell a bad hire? People are calling for Michael Hawkins to play. This team is undiscipl...

In the opening take, Lee recaps what he saw in his rewatch of the OU-Temple game. Then Grant joins to give his thoughts on the rewatch (5:00). A listener brought up other recent poor OU offensive performances on the WoE Facebook page. Was the Temple performance really the worst we've seen in years (18:10)? Jake Taylor will be available this week. Will Branson Hickman play? Can Jaquaize Pettaway be...

The guys are recording 15 minutes after OU beat Temple 51-3 to open the 2024 season. They spend the next 20 minutes or so going over the poor performance by the OU offense. A great start transitioned into a horror show for a significant part of the game (1:20). The defense forced 6 takeaways and did exactly what they should have done against a bad Temple team. Nothing really to complain about ther...

Hey Friday Night Lights are almost upon us! The guys begin the show talking about the NCAA suspending DeMarco Murray for one game. Lee rants about how much he doesn't like documentaries (2:00). OU is a 42.5 point favorite over Temple. The Owls' QB situation is a mess, they've got a bunch of new players on their team, their defense is going to atrocious, and if OU struggles at all during this game,...

After a bit of a preamble to set the table, the guys begin to talk about what Brent Venables said at his Monday presser. It sounds like the super fast, high up tempo Jeff Lebby speed offense may be a thing of the past (02:15). Tyler Keltner is going to get the first crack at kicking FGs and Lee was not thrilled with Venables explaining why Billy Bowman will be the one returning kicks (08:10). It s...

OU's Week 1 depth chart came out just before we started recording the show. There's actually a lot of stuff to talk about. We go position by position beginning with the offense (1:40). We switch over to the defense where Grant is quite worried by Jayden Jackson being listed as a starter by himself at DT. And I guess they're going for it with Billy Bowman taking kickoff return duties (15:40). Now i...

Lee previews what to expect from the show over the next four days. We will release new episodes each day through Wednesday to celebrate the first full week of the college football season (0:00). What will we be looking for in the upcoming depth chart release this week (3:40)? We learned this week that Dasan McCullough is still not practicing (9:00). Andrel Anthony has no limitations right now in p...

After some brief talk about the incredibly hot weather in Oklahoma, the guys talk about the recent anxiety surrounding Jackson Arnold's play at fall camp (6:30). After listening to other OU podcasts, it certainly seems like the team is dealing with a lot of minor injuries that are keeping players out of practice. Is this a problem, or just a way to keep the guys fresh for the season (23:40)? Lee r...

Lee previews what is coming up on the show, followed by us thanking listeners for submitting new ratings/reviews for Apple and Spotify. Then the guys jump into the news that Jayden Gibson suffered a knee injury at practice. It does not sound good. What does this mean for the wide receiver room? Is it possible to replace what Gibson brings to OU's offense (6:20)? The Jovantae Barnes hype train cont...

In the opening take, Lee is excited that it's the time of year to hear about how awesome OU will be in the upcoming season. Then Grant joins as we veer off into a discussion about Colin Cowherd and shows like "First Take" (4:00). Grant has started to talk himself into OU being one of the best teams in college football in 2024. But he's not a fan of other SEC teams being given the benefit of the do...

The guys want to learn a lot of things from OU's fall camp, so they go over a lot of questions that they may or may not get answered in the next month. They begin with many thoughts and questions surrounding OU's offensive line (2:00). Will a trio of Sooners be able to practice in Fall camp (36:00)? We have several questions to ask about OU's running backs (40:15). Are we going to find out for sur...

We talk about everything we learned from OU this week at SEC Media Days beginning with Jackson Arnold's appearance (5:15). Danny Stutsman impressed with his appearance (17:25). Billy Bowman came back to OU to win a championship. Should we start calling him "Bill" Bowman (24:30)? Brent Venables is confident about the depth at offensive and defensive line. Venables also warned that there's no guaran...

The guys open the show briefly talking about Grant's recent trip Yellowstone National Park before jumping into their Preseason SEC Polls. Lee decided to rank his teams based on predicted order of finish, while Grant chose to treat this as a Power Poll of SEC teams. We both begin with Georgia as number 1 and predicted SEC Champion (2:40). Lee goes over his tier 2 teams that he thinks the floor is 9...

After a quick preview of what's coming up on the show today, the guys jump into OU officially being a member of the SEC. Will this show get a bunch of new listeners from fans from SEC teams (2:10)? We have to make some corrections from previous shows because we get things wrong sometimes. A listener gets an assist for showing us the way about a Dallas Cowboys topic. Does Lee have a blind spot for...

The guys open the show talking about OU's official entry into the SEC, which is set for Monday. Lee apologizes for bringing up a topic that we always beat to death during the offseason (2:00). We provide our thoughts on Bud Elliott's latest "Blue Chip Ratio" rankings. OU's improved their standing in this since 2017 (6:45). Grant has some season win totals that have caught his eye. We begin with a...

Lee questions why people put any stock into what national college football writers/pundits say. Grant explains why there's a big interest in what those people say and talks about why he's annoyed with the national narrative surrounding OU (2:45). Brent Venables got a new contract this week. Should this even be a story? Lee lays out the potential worst case scenario if it turns out that Venables is...

The guys begin the show talking about Deion Burks and Makari Vickers recently getting arrested. What does this mean for both of them? What kind of punishment can we expect? Lee looks back at how Dabo Swinney has punished Clemson players for getting arrested over the years. We talked about this story way longer than we expected (1:20). We received more clarity on upcoming OU kickoff times. This is...

The guys open the show talking about how they're not interested in really any type of summer camp, and provide an update on plans for SEC Football Media Days. Three former Sooners are on the ballot for the College Football Hall of Fame. Rocky Calmus should be a lock, but what about Josh Heupel (6:35)? The guys continue evaluating the Sooners' roster by placing each player into 1 of 6 categories. T...

The guys open the show with some brief talk about the OU softball team beating Florida and advancing to the WCWS. It leads to Lee admitting that he does not care much at all for the spring sports, so if you want in depth baseball/softball analysis -- go somewhere else (1:30). We've recently learned new kickoff times for OU games this fall. None of them are at 11am. Isn't this what we were waiting...