BRUTAL: Oklahoma Sooners Injury Update - Trell Harris OUT, Thomas Needs to PERFORM

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1:02Hit it! When you need a team that will do whatever it takes on game day, it matters where you stay. Hilton, for this day. The Oklahoma Sooner's latest injury news leaves us really once again. You are locked on Sooners. Your daily podcast on the Oklahoma Sooners. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up, Sooner Nation? Welcome to Locked On Sooners. Thank you for making Locked On Sooners your first listen every single day. Shout out to all the everydayers. Today's episode is brought to you by CalSheep for a limited time. Download the CalSheep app and use code Locked On to get $25 when you trade $25. CalSheed trade what's next. He's Jay Smith of unfair sports. I'm John Williams of Sooners. Why are on today's show? We're going to go through what Ben Arbuckle and Brent Metables had to say at their weekly press

2:02conferences. But we're going to start here, Jay, because Trell Harris, he's a tough, tough, tough dude because he got hit with a big shot and apparently it lacerated his liver and he's going to be out for some time. Yeah, that's a tough SOB not going to lie. I will 100% agree with you on that. But yeah, it looks like Trell is going to have to be out indefinitely. I was doing some research on it that can be forward to 12 weeks depending on the level of laceration because it's one of those where the liver's got to heal itself. And it's from that play where he took the big hit going across the middle. He made the catch. Then he was tackled, hung on to the ball, came out the game. This was in the first, came back in the third and had those three big catches and help with the big drive to score the touchdown. Yeah, he's tough, like very tough. I've got to give him a map props for that. But sucks. He's done indefinitely.

3:03We'll see how he heals. And if he gets to come back later in the year, hopefully we do enough to make it worth his while to come back. Yeah, that's going to be the question. What is Oklahoma's record looking like come November? Do they have a shot to make a run at a college football playoff birth? We'll see. But yeah, the toughness, the veteran presence, the leadership, all that stuff you're going to miss. And it's just kind of unfortunate because you didn't really get the Trell Harris experience now in 2026. You got four catches for a little over 40 yards in this game against Michigan. And now who knows what we're going to get out of them the rest of the way, but it creates opportunity, you know, we were hoping to see Elijah Thomas take that step to becoming a breakout player for Oklahoma this year. Now it's on the table for him. Yeah, now or never, this is your opportunity, ET. Go out there and not only block well, ball out, get open. And John just throw the ball up.

4:05Tell the dude to show his athleticism. At this point, I need to just see athletic plays. I don't need you to. No, I'll need you to be buttonaked open. Show me athleticism at this point. Well, and they looked like they had a really nice chemistry on that back shoulder. Yes. They connected a couple of times against you, you know, they had the one that actually went for a big play and then they had the one in the end zone they got called off. But that seems like an easy button throw for Matir and Elijah Thomas. It is. That play that we need to see a lot more of throw it up and make him go after like there was a couple of plays where ET was able to break away. He broke off the corner who was trying to press him, the corner slipped and he was getting some separation. Like the best one that he did that on unfortunately, Mackenzie Alene was wide open too. And he was buttonaked open. You throw that pass because Rock and Beers was also open across the middle. So it wasn't a situation where he just ignored him. It was just that he broke out in a play where Alene is wide open.

5:06Because of the defenders decided that they were going to double up on satania, which happens when you're as talented as he is, the gravitational pool is going to lead to that. Unfortunately, he's not as athletic as a Malachite Tony or Jeremiah Smith where you just throw it in the air and he's always going to catch it. But he's fast and he's a threat. So teams are going to double him. ET now needs to go out there and show us the athleticism of a Jeremiah Smith throwing in the air and show me that you can just go come down with it. If you do that, I think you'll see a Tom Moore balls come your direction. And that should open up the offense. I just want to see passes thrown to dudes where they can go try to make catches like mater did this last year. And I think this is what frustrates me the most. I've set this before I'm going to keep sitting over and over. If we hadn't seen him do this before, I'll I miss you again. I'll I Auburn. I'll I Tennessee where he layer past I'll I Alabama. He layer past hit a dude and let him go do an athletic play. Then I would totally have a reason be like, you know what?

6:08I don't think he's got it. I've seen it. Please do it. But John, we did get some good news though. In the entry front. Scott force. Sounds like kid Lewis is coming back sooner than later. That's huge. Yeah. Because that was the one thing we were really concerned about. The linebacker play seemed to be seem to fall off when he came out. But it makes sense. He's the most veteran guy out there and he's the leader. So BV mentioned on his coach's show on Monday night that. Kips they they got looked out with whatever spray and he's dealing with on his knee. And he'll be back sooner than later, which tells me they're expecting him probably Georgia. Because I mean, that's what they said about Michael. And Michael showed up for Michigan. He looked pretty solid in that spot. On top of that Jonathan Hatton, he did warm up against Michigan. He didn't play him because they were concerned. But it sounds like he'll be ready to play too. So if you get Jonathan Hatton back. So I expect to see a ton of Hatton in this New Mexico game.

7:10And if he breaks out, then y'all been not complaining. Just be happy. Just be happy and see where it goes from there. But having him and kit back helps slightly soften the blow of losing trail hairs. Yeah. Having talented guys return to the lineup is always going to make a big difference. If Elijah Thompson can go have the impact that we think he's capable of having, that'll certainly change how we feel about the trail hair century. No doubt about it. Jonathan Hatton just needs the ball. That's just a guy you got to get the ball to. And I know this is going to be something we talk about in the next couple of segments. But in this New Mexico game, I want to see 30 carries for the running backs. Yeah. Just force feed it down. New Mexico's throat. Just I don't care what the box looks like. I don't care what the situation is. Run the ball. Run the ball. Run the ball. Jonathan Hatton, Tori Blaleck, get those guys up to speed because they're your biggest

8:15gamebreakers. They're the guys that have the biggest potential for big time plays. So having Hatton back to huge. If Lewis obviously made you cannot understate how important he is to this team from an energy perspective, a leadership perspective, a playmaking perspective, you got to have him right by the time you get to Georgia. You know, Owen Heineken, Cole Sullivan did a lot of really good things. The defense settled in in the second half and played a lot better than it did in the first. But you still want to have Kip Lewis available for every snap that you can have him available because he makes your defense better. Yeah, 100%. And so he's critical. The last big update that I think warrants conversation is Michael Fussusi. Sounds like he's coming back from a source shoulder. And that update from BVN staff is saying that he could be back by UGA. That's what would be really nice for this offensive line. So you get three pseudo solid injury updates to go with the awful news around trail areas.

9:24And yeah, I get everybody. I'm totally in the same boat. I hate that we get a new receiver and it needs hurt. But again, Elijah Thomas, Parker Livingston, go out there, do something. Well, our other and our other new receiver fumbles as we're trying to go score a gosh. Yeah. That's the guy right there that needs a big time makeup game. Oh, you know, you get on the field, you get an opportunity and then you fumble it literally. I don't, I don't, and it don't need to be New Mexico. I need to see this against Georgia. Yeah. That is your makeup game is UGA time to step up, step out and go make some plays. Coming up next, let's talk about what Brent Vettables had to say. We'll talk about what Ben Arbuckle had to say a little bit later here on locked on sooners. X zero back and so are predictions, who's going to make the playoffs, who are winneref more predictive market platform.

10:25now Oklahoma vs Georgia, we've just talked about that game. which is a big deal, but Oklahoma is now trading at a 20% probability. Actually, yeah, yeah, 20% is still what we're looking at. So if you trade $100, your chances of winning is your payout is $498.7. On cowshoe your trading gets peers in a live market, meaning there's no house. And as the probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position. Trade that pick, you can trade the game and more on cowshoe down to cowshoe app. Use code locked on to get $25 when you trade 25. It's K-A-L-S-H-I cowshoe trade, what's next? 18 and older restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Events trading, events contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Cowshoe products are not available on all jurisdictions price value and available market may differ from those mentioned for more information see cowshoe.com, for slash regulatory. Hi, this is Isaac Shade, host of Locked on College,

11:26basketball and Locked on Tar Heels. Today's episode is brought to you by ADT. Imagine you're watching the game at a buddy's house when you get a call that someone tried to break into yours. In a second, everything can change. That's why there's ADT. ADT security systems help keep your home safe 24-7 with the most company operated monitoring centers in the industry. The ADT plus app keeps you in control the whole time. Don't leave your home wide open during an emergency when every second counts count on ADT. Visit ADT.com or call 1-800-ADT-ASAP. Once again, thanks for making Locked on Sooners. You're first listening every single day. Shout out to all the everydayers out there to your net, subscribe to the show. Wherever you get your podcast, we're free and available on all podcast platforms and on YouTube. So hit that subscribe button, hit that notification button that you know when new episodes drop. When you want more Locked on Sooners, go check out the everydayer club at Locked on Sooners. supercast.com, where for $5 a month, you get ad free versions of Locked on Sooners plus members only access to our Discord channel

12:30and you get bonus content coming into your email inbox as well. So lots to talk about as Oklahoma gets ready for New Mexico. Yeah, John's been on that film study, man. So you've got to go check it out. It's totally worth your time. Yeah, it was not necessarily the funnest film breakdown this week as we looked at John Mateer's day against Michigan, but there was some positive to talk about at the end of the video for sure. Always positive if you want to. They're always the law for. It's there. And it's there. It's been. And I get and I get you guys don't want the sunshine pumping. I understand it, but we're just optimistic people by nature. And so we're going to do a pump sunshine. It's all going to be positive. That's just the way that we live our lives in general. So it's going to be the way that we talk sports as well. All right, Jay, what stood out to you about what Brent Metables had to say on Tuesday? I mean, I think it's very interesting that he, of course, won, put out there, you know, unwavering support for John Mateer, which you better have support for him.

13:31He's your quarterback. You got much of a choice. Yeah. You also need to, you know, get into his tail and let him know to, you know, shape up. Get better. Get that get right. Stop looking like the version of you that was hurt last season. Stop looking like the version of you that was nervous and scared. No, get your confidence going. Keep going and win games. Go do what you did best at the beginning when we first got you. That's what we're expecting out of you. Granted, we know you're used to playing against big 10 teams like Michigan. Could you play watched in that year before? No, focus. Give us what you got. I think that was, that was good, interesting talks. And also, you know, he gave his support to Ben Arbuckle, you know, working collaboratively with everybody. All the great coach speak that we got out of him. It's always fantastic. But he did mention that he thinks a lot of times he's ready for a breakout. Yeah. Let's go ahead and break him out. Can we break him out? I'm here for it.

14:32Yeah, I mean, he said that we need to get him in the ball. Like he's one of the most dynamic and explosive players that we have on this team. We have to find ways to get him the football. And that's probably going to come in some jet sweep options and I know you hate that sooner nation. But you get the right people, the ball in those situations and good things can happen. Fair. If you want to call a screenplay, give it to Elijah Thomas. That dude knows what to do when the ball is in his hands. He's a playmaker like that. So that's, that's a guy I want to see five to 10 targets. I want to see a lot of touches for Elijah Thomas moving forward because you've got to find a way to get players like that that have that speed and explosiveness. You got to get into the football. I thought what he had to say just about the run game was, I mean, it's important for Oklahoma's team identity to really come to fruition. You have to run the football.

15:32You have to be physical in the trenches on the offensive side of the ball. You can't have this on defense way. Tough physical football team or violent. We're going to bring it every single second one on the field. And then on offense, try to trick everybody and try to manipulate everything and not go at your opponent. You have to have the same kind of style and identity on offense that you do on defense. Because if you get the run game going, it only helps your defense. Yeah. 100%. You do that in it kills time. It gives people time to rest. You burn clock, which is always a plus in a football game, especially if you can take the lead. That's always a big deal. Now, if you're behind, stop burning clock. Find a way to stop the clock on a regular basis. Another thing that he did point out too that I'm here for. He gave some good praise, of course, to the defense and their resilience. But he pointed out this.

16:32He said, the tough moments reveal whether a team's commitment is real or conditional. And I want people to understand we've praised the culture here. If you're going to keep praising the culture here, you have one bad moment. You should be prepared for that culture to continue and be just fine going forward as in bounce backs should happen. Yeah. I'm here for the idea that they should bounce back. Like there's no excuse. New Mexico I'm not concerned about. They're going to be a tough game. No, they're not concerned about them. Georgia should be potentially a big time bounce back game or a very close one, right? Like they battle it out to where everybody's going to work for it. And if they pull that upset off, you're going to be pissed. Like once do you miss Michigan? Yeah. Because every game is different. That's how things work. But you should be happy if they're very competitive in that Georgia game because then that means that they can be competitive for the rest of the season. They can pull that out in Georgia. Then they should be able to pull the rest of the season out.

17:33No problem. I don't care where Texas is ranked. Period. There's no matter for, no, it doesn't matter. The town's there. We have the bodies. We have the players. We've shown it. And he's going to be healthy and he's going to go out there and play ball. And you should be fine. 100%. Yeah. John just needs to take care of business. That's really what it comes down to. And I posted a stat that talked about the difference in offensive and or passing and rushing success rate. And obviously the passing success rate is not great. If he can execute at a higher level, that's going to make the offense go in a much more efficient and explosive way. It comes down to your quarterback. And I've said it before on the show, it's not on the quarterback. It can't be all on the quarterback. Then our buckle has to make it to where it's not completely on the quarterback by running the football. When your quarterback plays well, this team is going to play well.

18:35They're going to win games. So even with that, the quarterback needs to play well. Exactly. And that's the thing we've seen it. So don't get in the comments and say was here he could do. Yeah, he can. When he settles his brain down. And he goes out there and plays ball. And he settles his feet and stop being scared of the pocket closing. He goes out there and puts up numbers. We've seen it. We've seen him play well. Even with the messed up thumb, we've seen them play well. Hell that gaming it's Alabama. We took the lead. A lot of the issues there was defense kind of fell apart too. They gave up 34 points. But if the offense just continues to push, we're fine. We got 17 on that game. But that's the thing that of course, flush traces is that, oh, all the stuff that we was hoping you do, you did it. And then you fell apart at the end. Right. The thing you came back and then you fell apart again.

19:37We just need consistency of not falling apart for like a full game against a really good team again. And so they blow out at P 14 and they get no benefit of the doubt for me. So to me, every game is 2421. We should be able to pull out a 2421 win at some point. Things still on the table as down maybe as I was about this team on Saturday in reaction to the loss. It's all still out there on the table. Peyton Bowen said it best. It's all still right in front of us. Yep. They control their own destiny. You win nine of the next 10 games and you're in the college football playoff of the chance to go content for the national title. And even better, John, the players still believe the players still believe. I've heard matters. The parents, the players still believe that they still believe that John can do it. They've seen John cook them in moments. They're like, Hey, man, get to your game. Do what you do best. Right. He's got to do it now. See if it happens. Yep. Got to play with confidence, man.

20:38And it's a sport that requires you to be confident not only in yourself, but everything around you. Exactly. Let's hear what Ben Arbuckle had to say or let's talk about what Ben Arbuckle had to say on Tuesday as well. Coming up next here on locked on. It's. Well, all off season for this now. It's time to make every NFL week count because fans do is making this your most rewarding season ever, whether it's backing a favorite team building a same game, Parlay, betting player props or making a pick on the biggest match as Fando gets fans more ways to play throughout the season. And one who's new to Fandole, there's an even bigger reason to make the NFL season count. New customers, you get it even better. Get $300 $350 in bonus bits. Get run to when you bet $5 every day for seven days. So I got to do is take a look at your favorite team. Go check out the NFL action.

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22:42Just listen every single day, shout out to all the every years out there. Jay, what stood out to you about Ben Arbuckle's press conference on Tuesday? I love how you talked about McKinsey, Elaine's day in skinny and getting open. It's like why don't we put him in the game before? But what else? I'm glad that they did take advantage of that. I'm glad they leverage to him in a play that vertical play. That was an example of the vertical plays they were talking about that. The way the Western Michigan was able to exploit out of them was the way when they match up in those type of those setups. And the good thing is is motioning over into that bunch led to, like I said, the double team of satania, he's a gravitational pool. Teams don't want him to be able to run open on a out route or a wheel route because they know that he's going to catch it and he's going to be hard to catch because he's so fast. But having a lean there ready for it, big. Besides that though, he took ownership and said his own hymn in getting everybody in the right spots and making sure everybody's good to go that they missed out on a bunch

23:45of layups. Yes, Ben, we know. But thank you for taking full accountability of that. Now fix it. That's really all we want you to do is fix it. If you go out and fix it, if you go last New Mexico more than you did, you tap like this is one of those games where traditionally, I'm like, and going there, beat them, take a big lead early and just, you know, chill. No, no, no, no, no. Try to put 70 on them, show me that the offense can actually produce something like that again. Because levy did it. He did it year two and you're like, oh, okay. You need to do the same thing, Ben. Show us that you're capable of producing an offense that will throw up stupid numbers. I think everybody will settle down. Yeah, I was a little bit annoyed, kind of watching Ben Arbuckle on Tuesday. It just as much as people talk about he accepted accountability, I didn't really feel like he'd learned much from the game that we saw on Saturday.

24:50Yes, he talked about how geometry has got to execute. Well, yeah, of course, it's got to execute. At the same time, it's still not understanding that to be what Oklahoma needs to be, they need to be a running team. They need to be willing to just turn and hand the ball off. He wanted to explain how the jet sweeps and all the RPO stuff was an effective and efficient part of their offense. And at a couple of times it was, but some other times it was like a lot of extra stuff to just get one or two yards where you're giving the ball to satania a lot. You give them three carries and then you give them like a pop pass or two. And then Trell Harris gets a couple of pop passes and you're asking them to go be running backs now. That's the part where there still seems to be a bit of a disconnect between what Brent Venables is saying we need to run the football and sustain giving the running backs the

25:55ball. And what Ben Arbock will even said after the game like, no, I got to, I got to commit to giving them the ball more. But then on Tuesday's like, no, we were fine. It was all there. We just got it executed. No, dude, you didn't learn anything in the last few days. I'm hoping the conversations with him and the other staff members are the dialogue is continuing in there and they're working through that. And his confidence he needs to have some as a coach. Sure. That's the existence that he's going to need. I agree with you. I don't know if he's learned, but I hope he, I hope whatever he's figured out works going forward because if it don't, man, it's going to be bad. You should know what you're doing with a blue blood and a program that's used to consistently winning. Yeah. You should be ready for all the backlash that you're going to get. It comes with the game, baby. This comes with the game. You know, I mean, he goes on to this tyrant and talking about how, you know, super bowl-winning

26:56teams have to be able to run the ball effectively. And yet he does not seem all that concerned about making sure that Oklahoma ball effectively. Yeah. Unless it's John Mateer running it. Like he's happy to give John Mateer as many pot, you know, carries as possible. But when it comes to actually just giving the ball to the running backs, that, that part isn't as important to him. Is it insane like it now? It does open it. Yeah, it changes. I hope that changes here against New Mexico and then really changes against Georgia because it's going to be tough against Georgia, but you still got to do it. Yeah. You got to establish some run. You got to establish some run lane. You establish some run lanes against Michigan. You have Michigan all over the place. And then you just stopped. When we run the ball 30 plus times, we are way more successful. Do that. Hand the ball off. Hit some holes and go give me some Jonathan had an action. To see that boy break out, give me some hearings in New Mexico. Like again, I need numbers. I need numbers.

27:56Numbers is what will make everyone forgive and forget numbers. And you got to do it. Yeah. And I think so much of it is just creating an offense that allows for so much decision making to happen at the line of scrimmage or post snap as opposed to like, dude, we're running off tackle right now. I don't care what the box looks like. I don't care what the read is. We're running off tackle or we're running dive or we're running inside zone. Use some of the I can to use the motions to just create some of those effects, but still just hand the ball off. Not everything has to have an option to it. Not everything has to have a check at the line of scrimmage. Sometimes you just need to say, you know what, for our offensive line, we're just going to run the ball. Yeah. We're just going to our guys are better than yours.

28:57We're going to push you out the way. We're going to get physical. We're going to try to hit you in the mouth. That's what Michigan did to our offense and we didn't respond because we tried to go sideline to sideline with everything as opposed to getting downhill. And I think that really put us in a situation where we were on the defensive offensively all game long. Yeah. I mean, let's go to the South Carolina game plan on the road at South Carolina. That was that was good. That was good against a good defensive line, mediocre linebackers. Okay. Secondary, but you just ran the ball. You found holes, you found spots and that's even with the tight ends we had last year that weren't really just blockers. Yeah. We're pass catchers. You figured it out. Twelve personnel. Give me some outside zone inside zone split zone. I'll take you be counter to.

29:57Yes. That's true because that works. That helps to make having that extra man and he been being said it having that extra man is a threat is is very helpful to establishing that. But the problem is is everybody's looking at you saying being warned to run the ball. That is the question everybody's asking and you should be looking into me saying, yeah, you're right. I should have run the ball. So let's go ahead and run the ball. And I don't mind John Matier carrying the ball either. And I don't mind the read option game where it's John Matier in the running back at the mesh point and we're deciding what's happening based on what the edge player is doing. Some of that's fine, but it can't be the staple of your offense. Again, it can't be your thing. Right. And you run the ball. You show that you're willing to give it to the running backs and then teams will start believing you're actually going to give it to the running back, which is going to make the John Matier poll, the John Matier quarterback counter, the quarterback dive, the quarterback

30:58power stuff. That will be more effective when teams know and believe that you will actually hand it to Lloyd of on 15 times again, or your play action will be more effective because teams will know you're more willing to or you're willing to hand the ball off to your running backs that are in the back. The back, the running backs are not decoys. They're not there just to create eye candy. They're there to go make plays for you. Let them make plays and let them make things simpler for you offensively. I like plays, BMA. Yeah. Anyway, dude, you talk about New Mexico, man. I need to see them against Georgia. Go do something in the run game to make this offense actually be efficient and move forward. I don't want to see it agree. Go backwards. It's sorry. I'm still just flabbergasted. I'm just a little bit more focused on what we saw against Michigan. All right. We'll have you ready for New Mexico all week long here on Lockdown Sooners.

32:02So make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcast. Go follow Jay ad unfair sports. Go check out his channel. Unfair sports for more Oklahoma. Seniors coverage. You can follow me at john nine Williams and remember it. Covering the seniors over at seniors wire dot com. The show is that locked on sooners on all of your favorite social media platforms. But until next time, he's Jay Smith. I'm John Williams. We'll talk to you then boomer sooner. We're living through one of the greatest shifts of wealth in history. Whether you're building wealth, exiting a business or preparing to pass on your wealth, the decisions you make today can shape generations. A UBS financial advisor can help you with personalized advice, global capabilities and long-term planning to help you move forward with confidence. This is a new era of wealth. Find out what's possible at ubs.com slash new era. UBS financial services. Zing member finra s IPC. That's the sound of Lego Pikachu training for battle.

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