Red Raider Gridiron | One Last Look at Missouri and Moving on to the Sooners

Official Site Preview of Oklahoma Sooners

Monday Press Conference:  Tuesday's are always a busy morning because it's the day after the Monday press conference.  If you are into Twitter, there's not a better person to follow during the Monday press conference than KLBK's Brandon Rawe. He's a good guy to follow.  Back to the press conference, head coach Tommy Tuberville always names his players of the game, and LAJ's Don Williams reports that RB Baron Batch, DT Pearlie Graves and KR Eric Stephens were the MVP's for Saturday's win.  I always like following who is playing hard on the scout team and here's who Tuberville recognized:

Scout team players of the week, offense: Offensive linemen Jonathan Guerra, Jr., Alex Dubois, Fr., David Neill, Jr., James Polk, Fr., Matt Scott, Fr., Kyle Clark, Fr. and Beau Carpenter, Fr.

Scout team players of the week, defense: DE Omar Ontiveros, Fr., and DE Jackson Richards, Fr.

I don't really know anything about Dubois, Scott or Ontiveros other than what's in the official profiles at Texas Tech.

Tuberville also lists 3 positives and 3 negatives from the game, per LAJ's Don Williams, and I thought these were pretty spot-on.  DMN's Mike Graham and LAJ's Don Williams also transcribe some questions and answers and there's always a ton of quotes that you could pull from these articles.  Tuberville addresses the idea of when how Potts is calling audibles and that next year's quarterbacks will have more latitude because they've been in the system longer, the lack of punt returns, RB Eric Stephens fumbling, and the reception of QB's Taylor Potts and Steven Sheffield.  Lots of good stuff with both articles. 

Tuberville talked a bit about the Sooners:

"This week, we're just going to go back to work and get a good game plan together," Tuberville said. "We go back on the road for the sixth time this year. That's hard to imagine that you go on the road six times in one season but we're used to it. Oklahoma hasn't lost a game at home in a long, long time but it's time we go play and continue to play the way we're playing. Get a little bit more consistent and see what happens."

I think I read something yesterday that OU has won 35 straight games at home and that 2008 game in Norman was one of the craziest atmospheres I've ever seen in my life.  During the intro, the players were watching the intro instead of focusing on the task at hand. 

Confidence Game:  LAJ's Don Williams writes that beating a top 15 team in Missouri helps the team be more confident moving forward:

"It gets confidence in the players that these guys (coaches) know what they’re doing," he said Monday, "and we’ve had no problem with that all year long. I think the players really enjoy what they’re doing.

"But when you make a game plan, go out there and put it on the field and execute it, that gives everybody confidence — coaches in the players, players in the coaches, fans in everybody."

Torres May Be Back:  LAJ's Don Williams reports that WR Alexander Torres is about 60% and may be back sometime this week.  The article states that Torres had surgery last week and could be back?  Wow!  Also hopefully returning is CB D.J. Johnson, who could be back this week.

Small World:  On the admin side of DTN, I can see where I'm getting linked to by other websites, and this morning I noticed that this link to an Auburn message board, The Auburn Eagle, with the following quote:

Guess who Kenny Roger's son is committed to play football for.....

And then a link to the Recruiting on the High plains write-up on commit CB Justin Rogers.  I haven't been following the Cam Newton story closely, but it appears that Kenny Rogers is the guy that allegedly made the offer of $180,000 to Mississippi St. for the commitment of Newton.  I found this article this morning from AL.com's Doug Segrest confirming that Justin is Kenny's son:

Rogers, a former Birmingham resident, runs Elite Football Preparation Inc., a training facility for college and high school athletes in Chicago. He is known in coaching circles not as an "agent," but as someone who can open doors.

He played a role in the recruitment of two former Vestavia Hills standouts -- defensive back Mason Wald and running back Justin Rogers, who is Kenny's son. Both signed with Nebraska in 2008.

"I didn't deal with Justin's father much," Vestavia coach Buddy Anderson said. "My relationship was with Justin and his mother, Sharon, who wanted nothing but the best for her son and is a good, Christian woman."

Wald is now at Samford after transferring. Justin Rogers also left Nebraska after one season. He transferred to Arizona Western Community College and has committed to play at Texas Tech in 2011.

I've had a hard time wrapping my head around everything that's happened with this story and the he-said vs. he-said allegations being volleyed by Rogers and John Bond. 

I don't know if there's anything more to this than Justin is a talented player that needed a place to play football next year and Justin chose Texas Tech, but the connections between Tuberville and Auburn seem more coincidental than anything else, but I've been wrong before.

Willis Named Coordinator of the Week:  The official site says that DC James Willis was named the coordinator of the week, but doesn't link to any article and I couldn't find one either.  Anyway, congrats Coach Willis!