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Sooners on SI Podcast 360: Oklahoma Captures Its Third Baseball Title · The Sooners On SI Podcast

0:12
[SPEAKER_03]: What's up, ready?
0:13
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome on in.
0:14
[SPEAKER_03]: It is that time of week.
0:15
[SPEAKER_03]: It is.
0:16
[SPEAKER_03]: Check notes.
0:17
[SPEAKER_03]: I think the last sooner is on a side podcast of June officially will be on to July, which means we'll be on the media day season, all that fun stuff and thankfully, what better than a national title, the bridge to the gap from the end of school, everybody moving out, Norman is a ghost town for now, but it'll be packed.
0:37
[SPEAKER_03]: Tonight Wednesday evening as Oklahoma is celebrating skip Johnson and the baseball crews magical run all the way through Omaha that it done Monday night with a 13 to two victory over North Carolina.
0:50
[SPEAKER_03]: We got the whole crew here.
0:52
[SPEAKER_03]: I ran Chapman back from my travels.
0:55
[SPEAKER_03]: My travels not as in the mixer as exciting as fun as who in Carson's John was up in Omaha.
1:02
[SPEAKER_03]: What was a 12 day
1:05
[SPEAKER_01]: How did first stop before we got to everything who did you get to spend plenty of time with the nephew because I know you kept everyone very, very busy out there at Omaha so total total travel thing stretch was 14 days away from home got in yesterday afternoon so yeah 14 days man it was special is a special trip got to say I packed for basically three games I packed for them to win one and lose two
1:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Or if they were able to win a second one and still lose to you know what I mean?
1:35
[SPEAKER_01]: It was like you didn't expect this Oklahoma team 34 and 22 in the regular season leveled the place in the SEC 14 and 16 and South Eastern Conference play for the second year in a row You did not expect them no one did outside of that that dugout no one expected them to do what they did or get
1:55
[SPEAKER_01]: as far as they did or play as long as they did or certainly to win the national championship, no one.
2:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, yeah, it was a special trip.
2:04
[SPEAKER_01]: My first national champion to cover at Oklahoma, that wasn't a patigasso related.
2:10
[SPEAKER_01]: So my first actual time in the ballpark covering a team and owe you men's team to win a national championship.
2:17
[SPEAKER_01]: So when you think about how old I am and how long I've been doing this, that's pretty cool.
2:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I walked away from that stadium.
2:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like,
2:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I've never covered a national champion before.
2:26
[SPEAKER_01]: This is great.
2:27
[SPEAKER_03]: He's very old.
2:28
[SPEAKER_03]: He's been working for it.
2:28
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm kidding, kidding.
2:29
[SPEAKER_03]: He is far as that goes for who Carson had been waiting in the wings.
2:34
[SPEAKER_03]: You were, you're on an excursion through Colorado.
2:37
[SPEAKER_03]: And you knew the plan was in place.
2:39
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, you make the champ series.
2:40
[SPEAKER_03]: You'll be up in Omaha.
2:42
[SPEAKER_03]: Carson, at what point during the week did you start to realize like, hey, I know my plan is to shut up to Omaha
2:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, when they'd be George of the first time, I was like, oh crap, this might actually be happening.
2:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I admittedly picked them to be Alabama.
3:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought that was a good matchup.
3:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Those games in the regular season were fairly close.
3:06
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought they'd get past that.
3:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't expect them to limit George's offense like they did that George a team.
3:13
[SPEAKER_00]: If they were gonna win that game, it would have had to be 12 to 10 something like that I thought.
3:17
[SPEAKER_00]: But that was an awesome day by the pitching staff shutting them down.
3:22
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was pretty remarkable and that just was like, Oh crap, I got to figure this out.
3:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I got a pack, I got to do a laundry.
3:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Make sure my dog's all squared away.
3:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So, got all that figured out, though, and so glad I did, because it was a remarkable few days in Omaha.
3:35
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll have plenty from hoove and car synopsis there boots on the ground.
3:38
[SPEAKER_03]: Abraham, I were just watching from afar.
3:40
[SPEAKER_03]: I switched time zones a couple of times.
3:42
[SPEAKER_03]: I actually boys visited the birth of it all.
3:45
[SPEAKER_03]: When I was in traffic in Atlanta, there was a rerout that I told my mom was like, hey, if we cut through Georgia Tech's campus, we're going to miss this.
3:52
[SPEAKER_03]: And there is...
3:54
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm sitting at a stop sign and looking up and I look over to my left Ryan and there's Georgia text baseball field and I almost text you just to say who would have thought that when we were all just like watching back is Carson Brady and who were grinding during regional and super as neighbor and I just texted back and forth going well this is kind of nutty who would have thought that that was going to be the birth of this incredible run through Omaha Aver.
4:15
[SPEAKER_02]: I know it's just incredible.
4:17
[SPEAKER_02]: You should have taken a picture out from but beyond the batter's eye, where you can probably see Dayton talkies ball still love to still fly and over.
4:26
[SPEAKER_02]: But what a run for Skip Johnson and his group.
4:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, they just found some magic there in Atlanta.
4:35
[SPEAKER_02]: and wrote it all the way and this is a team that, you know, early in the season was a top 10 team and I think they were either in the top 10 or right bubbling outside, but this was a team that it looked like, hey, maybe this is a team that has a chance and then
4:50
[SPEAKER_02]: fell off during SEC play as got mentioned, you know, 8,472 times during the broadcast, they lost their last four SEC series, but found a way to get it together at the right time.
5:03
[SPEAKER_02]: The pitching was was phenomenal, especially the freshman arms there, and then the hitting to have that kind of a switch flipped.
5:17
[SPEAKER_02]: was just incredible to see the job that not only dating Taki, but to Saan Harris and, you know, on and on and on down the lineup, Jackson Willitz was just absolutely phenomenal during the college world series.
5:31
[SPEAKER_02]: And it just seemed like every night it was somebody different.
5:36
[SPEAKER_02]: coming through it and that was a tip of five by money nights game when you know branch drives in six runs and obviously turns in one of the moments of the tournament with his home run with his brother watching up in the stands.
5:49
[SPEAKER_03]: Pretty incredible as as things went on.
5:51
[SPEAKER_03]: I was just laughing with my mom as we're watching.
5:54
[SPEAKER_03]: She's like we're sitting outside of Georgia Tech space ballpark with her OU alumni plates and all that stuff.
5:59
[SPEAKER_03]: We're in various sports boards in Atlanta.
6:01
[SPEAKER_03]: We were watching as Georgia beat Texas to stay off elimination in the next night.
6:07
[SPEAKER_03]: the mom rolling it with her like clear bag that has the Oklahoma strap on it.
6:12
[SPEAKER_03]: She's like, I don't know for her in friendly territory.
6:14
[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, mom, the way they're playing on the game is going to say anything to you.
6:16
[SPEAKER_03]: Because they were one of the stories of the sports world.
6:19
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's start all the way at the beginning in Omaha, John.
6:21
[SPEAKER_03]: I know so much has been made and it has been talked about at various times throughout the season.
6:26
[SPEAKER_03]: We've talked about it, whether it's the starting pitching, the bullpin, the offense.
6:29
[SPEAKER_03]: They all had it cooking at different times and it didn't all kind of come together here until the end outside of when they were down in Arlington to start this thing.
6:37
[SPEAKER_03]: what would so crazy about all of it is that it wasn't just the fact that you had started this thing off with great starting pitching to put Oklahoma in the not just the winners bracket but in a big upper hand because they weren't having to really dive deeper to the bull pin or anything like that but the fact that court ranger was the guy that had started the year as the back into the rotation star but one of the starters for sure but then you had the
6:59
[SPEAKER_03]: the role reversal between L.J.
7:01
[SPEAKER_03]: and Zander McCurius is it's the freshman younger brother that's going out there and punching Oklahoma's ticket in from, hey, this is a good story.
7:09
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, oh my gosh, you're like, wow, this Oklahoma's he might be the one that is the stars are aligning for this.
7:14
[SPEAKER_03]: And then yeah, it was Alaska.
7:16
[SPEAKER_03]: It went from, hey, it wasn't L.J.
7:18
[SPEAKER_03]: and Johnson in court.
7:20
[SPEAKER_03]: It was court and his two classmates that really got things going.
7:24
[SPEAKER_03]: And that really set
7:28
[SPEAKER_03]: With you guys, you talking about that's on radio that the teams that succeed in Omaha settled in quickly and Oklahoma looked like they had made it their home despite the fact that the last trip for the program was 22.
7:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, when you think about three freshmen starters in your rotation, first, first team ever to do that and win a national championship in Omaha, three true freshmen.
7:52
[SPEAKER_01]: A court rager, by the way, does not look like a true freshman.
7:54
[SPEAKER_01]: He looks like Paul Bunyan.
7:56
[SPEAKER_01]: He looks like he's ready to go out and clear a forest with one swing of his axe, right?
7:59
[SPEAKER_01]: And his blue ox.
8:00
[SPEAKER_01]: The man's a lumberjack.
8:02
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a massive human being.
8:04
[SPEAKER_01]: He is in control in command of his full arsenal of pitches or he certainly was against Alabama in the first game.
8:12
[SPEAKER_01]: and uh... you know i think you want five uh... five ed finish five innings uh... in the second game that he won but to roll zander recurious out there and then it was lost he as your second third options just shows that skip johnson knows the thing or two about pitching he's got this little magic little kind of insider he can he can bring things out of people that they might not know they have inside and he just has this quality
8:40
[SPEAKER_01]: To not only find those intrinsic kind of qualities in his pitching staff, but in his whole team as well and if you talk to his administrators, you talk to his athletic director, you talk to, gosh, anybody around him, you know, they'll say immediately, hey, this is a reflection of skip Johnson, this is a reflection of skip, and the way that he's able to bring things bring something that you have inside of you out is just remarkable.
9:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And Abraham mentioned the rankings earlier.
9:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I think they got up to number nine in the polls after starting 11 and 11 and 2, 16 and 2, something like the S-16 and 2, and then they hit the skids and they go 18 and 20 over the next basically two months.
9:25
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the NCAA tournament starts and you're thinking, well, they barely got a two seed.
9:29
[SPEAKER_01]: What could they possibly do with it?
9:31
[SPEAKER_01]: They were almost a three seed, you know, they'd be on a 30, basically a 31 rank, 30-star strength team.
9:38
[SPEAKER_01]: And they go to the NCAA tournament and they make it, they go 11 and 2.
9:41
[SPEAKER_01]: And their only losses are to North Carolina and Georgia Tech.
9:45
[SPEAKER_01]: So something happened, something clicked, something along the way, got this team to where they are.
9:50
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you break it down, we're just from what we saw in Omaha.
9:54
[SPEAKER_01]: You saw the branch home run, we talked about that.
9:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Disson Harris has thrown from right for Mike Field on what should have been an RBI single to third base, to get the guy out at third base before the guy at home plate scores.
10:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think I've ever seen that in a baseball game before at any level where you throw behind the lead runner and get the guy before the first guy can go 90 feet.
10:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I've never seen that.
10:15
[SPEAKER_01]: And live action, I'm fired jumped on it, sitting nowhere.
10:19
[SPEAKER_01]: run doesn't count.
10:21
[SPEAKER_01]: All those little bits and little pieces guys added up every night, and it was like you said, someone different and it seemed, someone different contributing something big, something huge, sometimes every game.
10:34
[SPEAKER_01]: You never knew who it would be.
10:35
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's just such a reflection, the thing about 1994.
10:40
[SPEAKER_01]: They always talked about their motto was 25 guys pulling on the same rope.
10:44
[SPEAKER_01]: That came up this year, think it was Jason Walker said that in one of the post-game press conferences.
10:50
[SPEAKER_01]: 25 guys pulling on the same rope.
10:52
[SPEAKER_01]: That's exactly what we saw out of this Oklahoma team.
10:56
[SPEAKER_03]: And you look at it too.
10:57
[SPEAKER_03]: I feel like Carson, this resonates throughout the entire Ross, whether you look at everything that Camden did at third.
11:03
[SPEAKER_03]: Even if it wasn't like God, he got in numbers.
11:05
[SPEAKER_03]: What he did just saving runs in the field, decide setting the tone it felt like is saying that was going to be Oklahoma's night.
11:11
[SPEAKER_03]: Like when that happened, I don't know what the energy was like in the park, but at home, I was watching, go, hey, I know it's
11:18
[SPEAKER_03]: a two-old game and you go one-in-and-and-and-be-on, it's a three-one game, but then L.J.
11:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Maccurious comes in and that's another guy that Man Carson, if you have a team of a different character to have a guy go from starter to relieve a regardless of if it's a
11:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Skips talking about, you know, keeping as much juice in his arm and things like that to switch roles with your younger brother like there are a ton of other teams in the country that that wouldn't have got over perfectly and yet LJ seemed to take his game to another level it seemed like it lead at just the the arc of LJ I feel like that kind of speaks to the whole team to a certain extent throughout this whole run.
11:55
[SPEAKER_00]: It absolutely does.
11:57
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, this team's motto has been yesterday as dead, and there's nobody I don't think that embodies that as well as Elojamer curious, just looking at how Sharpie was early in the season.
12:07
[SPEAKER_00]: SEC play is just totally rough on the guy.
12:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Finish is almost a six ERA by the time SEC play is done, loses his starting spot.
12:16
[SPEAKER_00]: At one point, he was a Golden Spikes mid-season watcher.
12:19
[SPEAKER_00]: list guy.
12:20
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's how good he was early.
12:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Then obviously his ERA shows how bad he was in SEC play, but just being so electric out of the bullpen starting with the postseason just speaks volumes about his character, his belief in what they could do.
12:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought the quote that he gave after the game 3d about how the team was just still enjoying each other's company laughing, having a Bible study, doing all of these things just to grow this bond to this team.
12:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you said, Ryan, there are a lot of teams that you lose four series in a row, you're at one point Friday starter has an ERA in your six.
12:54
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that has all the makings of total collapse into
12:58
[SPEAKER_00]: to see him be an ace out of the bullpin, have a huge spot in game three, this team of course win the national championship does say a lot about LJ's character, but the character of all the men in that locker room.
13:11
[SPEAKER_03]: And it just feels like two.
13:13
[SPEAKER_03]: These guys became such big cheerleaders for each other.
13:16
[SPEAKER_03]: I think one of the things all meant for this team for years, years is just like, I know it's as simple, but you're batting, posing coach rolls out there to have a conference at the matter.
13:26
[SPEAKER_03]: And this is the huddle.
13:28
[SPEAKER_03]: Every time, and it started, it was like, hey, we're huddle up, and then it just seemed like, it was just guys being dudes, you know what I mean?
13:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Everyone has that team, whether they were in middle school, T-ball, if it was your high school team,
13:38
[SPEAKER_03]: To get that abre on the biggest state, I think you could see how quickly they were able to relax because it was truly every single person was financed since it's having fun.
13:47
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's part of why it felt like the offense, one through nine, the date and talky heater turned into a just raging fire up and down the line up, date and the chance.
13:57
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, this game at Oklahoma team that suddenly is said, yeah, we'll just hammer as many home runs that the chalk is you need for a team that's playing basically the minimum outside of the one hiccup
14:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, they did, I mean, heck, you just think about late in Monday's game, the way that I'm trying to think of it was, might have been Brendan Brock at bat, maybe it was Candid Johnson, was extending the bat eight nine pitches, and just the way that even up by, I don't think it was 13 to two at the time, might have been, you know, 10 to two or, or 92, but the way that they were
14:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Every pitch and how every foul ball, every ball taken outside his own was celebrated by the entire dugout and there's a great camera angle where you could see everybody right behind him, you know, hanging on.
14:53
[SPEAKER_02]: every pitch of that.
14:54
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know, you know, we've done a softball pat cast enough.
14:58
[SPEAKER_02]: You know how often I bring up Skip Johnson and his approach to things during that, but I think this team just embodied that in every way.
15:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's sometimes easy to say it's harder to put into action.
15:12
[SPEAKER_02]: But they were able to do it and to do it from the position that they were in after the regular season and the SEC tournament and you know make it a one-pitch at a time winning battles.
15:26
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean one of the great lines that I've heard is skip Johnson up there and Omaha saying, do you ever win really win at baseball?
15:34
[SPEAKER_02]: You just keep playing it.
15:36
[SPEAKER_02]: and that's just who he is and it bleb through this entire lineup and they bought into it in a way that I don't remember any team you know buying into the coaches philosophy the way that this team did and you know there've been some great ones obviously it's a very similar philosophy to Nick Sabin and Alabama football when they were on their great run but this team just up and down the lineup
16:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, absolutely, uh, you know, embody that mantra and carry it through the entire way.
16:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, bro.
16:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll give you my, my parallel.
16:12
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the 2000 national championship football team.
16:14
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the, it's, oh, you first big three baseball basketball, men's basketball football.
16:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Since that team, since 2000, there are some similarities in that they came from nowhere, but football doesn't allow you the, the, the, the, the, the,
16:27
[SPEAKER_01]: runway to come from nowhere and enter the postseason as an underdog.
16:32
[SPEAKER_01]: In back then it was, you were either ranked number one or two to play for a national championship.
16:39
[SPEAKER_01]: But that team, that 2010, the NCAA tournament was that team's red october.
16:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I said that was this team's red october.
16:48
[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't get hot and announced their arrival until the postseason.
16:52
[SPEAKER_01]: So a little bit different.
16:55
[SPEAKER_01]: in the way the schedule fell out, the way the season unfolded, but coming from nowhere and you know, nobody, nobody thought Stoops' 2000 team was gonna be great, much less compete for and win a national championship, and that's the part that this team has taken on is nobody thought they were gonna do any of this, and they didn't until the NCAA tournament started, which is wild to think about.
17:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's funny to bring that up.
17:23
[SPEAKER_02]: I was on the radio last week and talking about before the championship series, talking about unexpected titles in OU history.
17:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And to me, it's this one and the 2000 football national championship that are far and away above any, I know that 94 baseball team that we talk about wasn't the favorites going in and they made an incredible run.
17:48
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I'm old enough to have remembered that and the great Bucky buckles and all of that group, but, you know, just out of nowhere, but like you said, in football, you don't have the ability to do that, but I think that's the closest analogy for an OU national championship, previous national championship to what we saw during this run.
18:13
[SPEAKER_02]: It was just incredible.
18:14
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, it's a team to that, uh, especially in the baseball world, I think it's hard.
18:18
[SPEAKER_03]: Regardless of if they're not the national seed, if they're the 11th rank team in the SEC, it's hard for an SEC team going on a Cinderella run through the insane tournament to capture the hearts and minds of the country.
18:28
[SPEAKER_03]: You know what I mean?
18:29
[SPEAKER_03]: Because most people that tune it and watch, they're just like,
18:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Could we get anybody else, and especially to turn what we had less Virginia and everything that they were doing, Troy, incredible North Carolina, a team that I feel bad for every North Carolina Finn watched the broadcast, because I think that they can contractually obligate to bring up once every inning that they've been how many times and not yet won it.
18:48
[SPEAKER_03]: But it's 13, right?
18:50
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that is the 13, is that are we all sure on that?
18:53
[SPEAKER_03]: Are we on the 10th?
18:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Just three to the championship series or championship game?
18:58
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, they've lost the lost three times in 06 and 07 to Oregon state and then this time, I don't know what we saw more that graphic or the Kindle Wells home run chasing package that we were all tied up, but it's something to the John you were there in 2022 right and this was a team that didn't just capture the hearts and minds of
19:19
[SPEAKER_03]: just college baseball fans, but this is a team that I think the OU fan base really connected with.
19:23
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think circumstances were a little bit different in 2022 when it comes to you get to the champ series and as much as Oklahoma fans liked that team.
19:32
[SPEAKER_03]: That was Ole Miss going for the first time they've won anything anywhere.
19:36
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I think you're gonna get a little bit different oomph.
19:39
[SPEAKER_03]: It was night and day watching whether it be all your guys's photos and videos from inside the stadium whether you're just listening on the radio or watching on the broadcast and be able to hear all that through.
19:49
[SPEAKER_03]: It was a night and day different showing out from Oklahoma fans and I think that there was a little bit of that 22 but a lot of it just that they wanted to go watch this team because it was so much fun to watch.
19:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, don't forget that 2022 team won 45 games in the regular season, and they had 11 players drafted, which was the most of any team in the country.
20:10
[SPEAKER_01]: So that was a really, really good baseball team in 2022, and everybody knew it.
20:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think anybody knew or realized that they were good enough to get to the National Championship series like they did, but once they did,
20:22
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a, there was a, you know, hey, we could do this kind of feeling among the fan base and among the teams, and then to get there and, and, and, Owen too, you know, with the tough call on the one pivotal game against Ole Miss that, that's something, but this team, 34 wins in the regular season, we talked about it 11th in the, in the SEC.
20:42
[SPEAKER_01]: They go into the NCAA tournament, and that's what this was, what I was referring to with their Red October.
20:46
[SPEAKER_01]: They beat number two,
20:48
[SPEAKER_01]: number three, number five, number seven, and number 15, and the amount of wins that they compile against those team, most wins in NCAA history against NC against a seated opposition.
21:01
[SPEAKER_01]: So nine wins against NCAA tournament seated 16, what's that top 16 teams?
21:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Nine wins against the top 16, never been done before.
21:11
[SPEAKER_01]: So just remarkable.
21:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Lots of talent and Jackson
21:18
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we knew we had talent on this team, but when you put the talent with the coaching with the will, with the toughness and the resilience and the attitude, that's what you get.
21:31
[SPEAKER_01]: You get a national champion.
21:32
[SPEAKER_01]: So impressive to watch.
21:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Chris, there's cool too to see not just tray and date and talky as far as that goes the date and the chance either, but Jackson will do does end up as your most outstanding player at the College World Series, one of the was at four.
21:46
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, you players on the all CWS team with Willets getting the big star next to him and you wrote about Jackson and just it's the immediate like, you know, ESPN rush is out and immediately after you can just see the emotion of he didn't dream of winning a college baseball national championship.
22:03
[SPEAKER_03]: He dreamed of winning one at Oklahoma with the Oklahoma like to to see that come true and to see a guy who
22:09
[SPEAKER_03]: the willets family obviously means so much to this program just top to bottom everybody in the willets family.
22:16
[SPEAKER_03]: I can't think of some more incredible just like story arcs and things like that with some of the veterans on this Oklahoma team.
22:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, it's pretty remarkable.
22:25
[SPEAKER_00]: You look at the year that he's had becoming a father, obviously, winning a national championship in his home state with his father as the hating coach.
22:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's something out of a Disney movie it seems like, and it's just such a fitting if this is the end, obviously, he's only a junior.
22:41
[SPEAKER_00]: So he can come back.
22:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Chances are he's gonna be picked in the first five or six rounds of the MLB draft.
22:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Most people in that situation would probably take whatever professional contract it ends up being, but if it is the end, I mean, such a remarkable way to go out, just playing under your father, playing under skip, who obviously you are very, very close to doing this all in front of your family, it's just really cool.
23:06
[SPEAKER_03]: And speaking of skip, it was something that I know that who of you in Carson were busy busy busy doing all the work and everything that comes with that a bright on how you took in Monday night, but I spent so much time and had nothing to do with the fact that they pick up coverage right after it made him a child or go as you are and I was like I'm done with this.
23:23
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm just scrolling on Twitter and just I kept coming back to everything that Hube and Carson were post everything that all the OEB guys were down there and just I kept finding myself trying to find skip in the photos and the videos We're really really lucky on radio skip
23:39
[SPEAKER_03]: sets aside a ton of time to just talk nonsense with Eddie and I basically every single Thursday.
23:44
[SPEAKER_03]: He gives us all the time in the world.
23:47
[SPEAKER_03]: He's one of those guys that a very old school coach that everyone that reports around script knows if you ever didn't think you just pick up the phone call and he's like, yeah, what do you need that kind of stuff.
23:56
[SPEAKER_03]: But Ryan, I don't think I've ever seen Skip Johnson smile so much.
23:59
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll never see think I've seen him so
24:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Happy now I've never come across him when he's mid-Vish or mid-Hunt.
24:06
[SPEAKER_03]: So I don't know if that side of skit looks like, but it's really, really cool for a guy a baseball life for three decades plus and to spend so much time next to one of the all time icons and legends of the game but to be able to be the top name on the lineup card and the one handed it in and things like that and get it done himself.
24:28
[SPEAKER_03]: especially in the context of that 2020 team never got to see how good they could be because the season shut down one of the hottest starts in school history.
24:38
[SPEAKER_03]: The 2022 team getting so close to see him come back in 2026 in a year that had been pretty frustrating by the end of it and kind of have this.
24:47
[SPEAKER_03]: It couldn't happen to a nicer dude.
24:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, absolutely.
24:51
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I remember talking to him the year that he was the pitching coach at OU under Pete Hughes after, you know, Aggie Gerido had been sort of, you know, pushed out at Texas.
25:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And you just,
25:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Baseball just oozes out of this guy.
25:11
[SPEAKER_02]: The way that he can talk about the game and not just his team, but the philosophy around the sport and pitching, I mean, there's a reason why
25:23
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, we talked about the way he brought this pitching staff together, but there's a reason why Clayton Kerschel, I can't say enough good things about Skip Johnson, but it's not just pitchers.
25:33
[SPEAKER_02]: It's, you know, Chris Davis a few years ago, when Chris Davis was still playing with Baltimore, played in the, the little league game in Williamsport, and they had to write like somebody that they were playing for that inspired them to get to the big leagues and Chris
25:53
[SPEAKER_02]: on his sleeve.
25:53
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think those things speak, I mean, core cluber, another great picture that, you know, skip Johnson, those, you know, did great things with and and for and you just, this guy loves the sport in a way that
26:13
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I wish I hope for everybody that they love something the way that he loves baseball and to to see him be able to do that, you know, I don't I'm always been the old school journalist, I say I don't ever root for for players or for for teams.
26:31
[SPEAKER_02]: or teams, not necessarily players, but you got to be happy for a guy like that and a guy who's carried himself so well and done such big things for a lot of people to finally have a chance to hoist that trophy and like you said, be at the top of that lineup card.
26:52
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's funny,
26:54
[SPEAKER_02]: haven't kept in close contact with skip since I stopped covering baseball regularly, but just reached out to him and said congratulations.
27:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And yesterday with as much stuff as he's got going on, I'm sure still got back to me very quickly.
27:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And just such a good dude,
27:12
[SPEAKER_02]: on top of everything else, but I think that goes, you know, up and down the line up and also you all were talking about, sorry to keep going here, but you know, we're talking about Jackson Willetz and his dad and everything, but how about the job that Reggie Willetz did and
27:29
[SPEAKER_02]: This team as much as they, you know, personified skip Johnson, they did the same thing to Reggie Will.
27:35
[SPEAKER_02]: It's Reggie Will.
27:36
[SPEAKER_02]: It wasn't, you know, nearly as highly thought of prospect as his sons have turned out to be just a guy who grinded his way into the big leagues and this team grinded its way into a championship and did it, you know.
27:53
[SPEAKER_02]: in a way that I thought really signified sort of the kind of player in person that Reggie will it's isn't was.
28:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to add something to that real quick since you were talking about Reggie Ryan and that is I covered him as a player in 2002 and 2003 transferred Junior College from Seminole State, you know, local kid Fort Cobb Brockston, small small small school consolidated
28:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Among the people that I interviewed talk to caught up with after the game, I just posted a story at noon today, check it out, it's on the website, Oklahoma, Sooners on SI.com.
28:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Among the guys who I talked to was a guy by the name of Eric Thomas, who remembers Eric Thomas, the left field there on leadoff hitter for that 1990-14.
28:43
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a long time coach at under Larry Koshel and he worked with Sunny and was real close with those guys.
28:51
[SPEAKER_01]: He actually recruited, he said, my favorite player that I ever coached and recruited was Reggie Willets.
28:56
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, I recruited Reggie Willets to Oklahoma.
28:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, if Eric Thomas, who played on that 1914, doesn't recruit Reggie Willis to Oklahoma, does he go to all you, does Jackson Willis go to all you, is he the MVP of the World Series, if he's not at all, you know what I mean?
29:12
[SPEAKER_01]: The amount of threads going through this team and the families and who played for who, and who was on that team in 1994, and who wasn't, and who came back, and it's just really remarkable.
29:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I'll add a quick little skip stories after the last,
29:28
[SPEAKER_01]: press conference on Monday night, you know, skip walks down and he walks across the podium and then walks down and back in front of us to to leave the room and he stops and shakes every report is hand who's still standing up or or getting ready to leave whatever the end town guys that the national guys the
29:45
[SPEAKER_01]: The local guys the North Carolina guys who ever stand in front of him huge shaking hands and he got to me And I said I said look at you skip Johnson you're a national champion and he stops and he looks at me Goes about that.
29:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I said yeah, just incredible.
29:57
[SPEAKER_01]: So it was cool moment
30:00
[SPEAKER_03]: It is really cool to see and somehow it's really cool to see how we had mentioned the convoy of Oklahoma fans are up there.
30:05
[SPEAKER_03]: It felt like Jenny Browncheck and Porter Moser and Barry Switzer had a residency up at Omaha.
30:11
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was thinking about this and I'm really glad you wrote about it.
30:15
[SPEAKER_03]: What a start for Roger Denny.
30:18
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not really things that he did.
30:19
[SPEAKER_03]: He's hopping in, getting to
30:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Learn on the job and it's like, okay, KJ Kinler shows and this is what the Saturdays for OU Women's Gym.
30:27
[SPEAKER_03]: Skip Johnson steps in and shows him, okay, this is what it looks like here at Oklahoma.
30:30
[SPEAKER_03]: What a better time though for skip in this baseball program at a time when, in my head, I think about it like this, John.
30:37
[SPEAKER_03]: Oklahoma's about to be fully funded in the SEC, they had a weird bridge year with the big 12 buyout and trying to,
30:44
[SPEAKER_03]: uh, work on a shoe string and maneuver and make this, they work.
30:48
[SPEAKER_03]: If you get to the end of this year, they're going to start caching that fool.
30:51
[SPEAKER_03]: As you see, paycheck and the idea behind that is going to be that, oh, I'm going to be able to pay for everything, right?
30:55
[SPEAKER_03]: Even in the revs share era, it's something that they saw coming that they don't want to just,
30:59
[SPEAKER_03]: have to fund football and then hope and pray that they'll be able to scrumst things together for everybody else.
31:03
[SPEAKER_03]: This is supposed to be where everyone's going to be able to eat and eat.
31:07
[SPEAKER_03]: He's talked about the resources that he needs to help Porter and and keep things going with Jeannie Baronshack and things like that.
31:12
[SPEAKER_03]: I can't help but think what what a time that can be family stadium.
31:16
[SPEAKER_03]: They're one for one.
31:17
[SPEAKER_03]: The Kimory family wins a national shape of chips every year that their names outside up on the mark keep things like that.
31:23
[SPEAKER_03]: But how important is this going to be for skip and Rogers any of of now you know that Rogers going to want to keep this going and keep funneling resources to skip because it is incredible this this is.
31:33
[SPEAKER_03]: No one's under any illusions, John, that Oklahoma's being funded baseball-wise at the same levels of LSU or anything like that, and to show that you can go to the SEC, it was one of the programs that we had said, I don't know how this thing's going to go, right?
31:46
[SPEAKER_03]: The baseball is one that's like, you are jumping into the deep end, well, they're now on top of the mountain, and that's with what it is now, it feels like this can grow and be even bigger and better and just kind of be fuel the skip's fire.
31:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I see.
32:00
[SPEAKER_01]: baseball probably is the sport that had the the furthest to go for Oklahoma when they joined front when they moved from the big 12 to the SEC baseball is the sport they were bought.
32:10
[SPEAKER_01]: They were maybe the furthest behind and that's how strange coming off a national championship in 2022.
32:16
[SPEAKER_01]: which was after the announcement that they were moving to the SEC.
32:20
[SPEAKER_01]: But that established to me that let you know what the SEC is.
32:24
[SPEAKER_01]: They've now won what seven, eight, seven consecutive national championships in baseball.
32:29
[SPEAKER_01]: So that tells you right there what where OU was shocker.
32:34
[SPEAKER_01]: They went 45 games and they go to this champ series.
32:36
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a shocking event.
32:38
[SPEAKER_01]: they go to the SEC they win 34 games and they win the national championship right and it's just a shocking but it just tells you and and skip talked about this the players talked about this how the SEC has shaped them and molded them and formed them into what you're seeing now which is a national champion and I asked Roger Denny I said you know hey this this must be feel easy for you you know you you walk in here and boom you immediately win a national championship because well actually this is our second since I've been here and I thought wait a minute
33:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, women's gymnastics one in April.
33:09
[SPEAKER_01]: He joined the staff in late February, but the women's gymnastics team, I believe, had already started their schedule, so does joke stickly, I'm still kind of getting credit for that one.
33:17
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what the logistics are in the rules, now I'm kidding.
33:21
[SPEAKER_03]: We can go back to the old contract today.
33:22
[SPEAKER_03]: We have shared to champions.
33:23
[SPEAKER_03]: This will be a just the Anna Rodgitini as well as KJ and skip and everybody.
33:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, yes, yes, so.
33:29
[SPEAKER_01]: But now he was, he was very complimentary of skip.
33:32
[SPEAKER_01]: He said he knew about skip.
33:34
[SPEAKER_01]: before he, not a month before he took the job but before he got to Norman basically agreed to take the job and then immediately started calling around about, you know, his coaching staff, hey, what do you know about this guy?
33:43
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you know about that girl?
33:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And immediately the feedback on skip was, oh, you got a real one in skip Johnson.
33:50
[SPEAKER_01]: This guy is, you're gonna love him.
33:52
[SPEAKER_01]: He is a serious baseball mind.
33:55
[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't take himself too seriously, but he takes the game seriously and that he just lives in breathes baseball.
34:02
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, Roger was very fired up.
34:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Like a lot of the people I talked to, I must have talked to him 15 or 20.
34:10
[SPEAKER_01]: different, you know, people from different walks of the different areas of the program, not just players, not just coaches, but administrators and, you know, the whole, the administrators kids and, you know, cheese.
34:24
[SPEAKER_01]: The vibe was, everybody was just like pointing fingers at skips and that's our guy, that's the reason we're here.
34:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, something that I know always talking to the great Greg Tipton, the sports advent, and it does a lot of a deputy very, very much.
34:38
[SPEAKER_03]: He works hand in hand with skip and he can ever say enough about it.
34:41
[SPEAKER_03]: And of course, when you look at it, we know that like the out the field stuff, the facilities, there's a plan in place, they're going to want to continue to push that forward.
34:50
[SPEAKER_03]: We've talked about a couple of times here throughout this run.
34:53
[SPEAKER_03]: You fire up the hay draft picks since whenever draft picks over the last five, ten years, whatever for the World Series field, stuff like that.
35:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Oklahoma baseball and skip really high up there in that.
35:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Now they've got a national championship, and now they'll have to lock everything down, and it's the world of NIL and the portal and all that stuff.
35:10
[SPEAKER_03]: But you're telling me that you can bring back skip talks all the time about hey, who out there has to replace
35:16
[SPEAKER_03]: their entire weekend rotation and comes back and feels great the next year.
35:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, guess what, Oklahoma has a prime opportunity to lock down Cordrager and say to be curious and Nicholsowski and say, we just want an astral title with a fresh ventrio.
35:32
[SPEAKER_03]: Why not bring those guys back and battle every single weekend in the SEC?
35:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, from a pitching perspective, it looks like it's going to be incredible next year, assuming they can retain all three of those guys, seeing how hot they looked in the povos season, just really caught fire up the right time and seeing obviously rancor as you talked about earlier, he was a back in the rotation guy early in the year, now he's looking like he might be the Friday starter coming in to twenty twenty seven, he just looked fantastic Santa Mercurius and that was low ski definitely not perfect pitchers by any means,
36:03
[SPEAKER_00]: but two guys that are going to be sophomores that you can already feel really really good about.
36:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the batting order is going to be more of something.
36:10
[SPEAKER_00]: That's going to be more of a shorter place seeing how many guys are older into their college careers.
36:15
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of guys are going to be drafted and we'll have some choices to make.
36:19
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's going to be an interesting piece of it.
36:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I think
36:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, kind of piggybacking off of what you guys said, this conference is still really, really dang good.
36:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm outside of Missouri.
36:30
[SPEAKER_00]: I think there are 15 teams in this league that if you tell me that team's going to win the national championship, I wouldn't be like, oh, there's no way.
36:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I think most of the teams in this league are talented enough.
36:40
[SPEAKER_00]: have the resources to do so.
36:42
[SPEAKER_00]: So now it's just building off of this monumental win.
36:45
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it is so difficult.
36:47
[SPEAKER_00]: You see the amount of good programs that have gone several times to Omaha, just gotten so close and never won.
36:54
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a hard thing to do and now I'll use done it for the third time in the program's history.
36:59
[SPEAKER_00]: once in the modern NIL, SEC era that they're playing in.
37:03
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's no discounting yet that should not be overlooked quickly, but now it's about building something even more.
37:09
[SPEAKER_00]: We see the kind of hangover effect that a lot of teams have after winning a national championship trying to avoid that, still be in contention for regional hosting and of course getting back to Omaha.
37:21
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a lot of stuff that
37:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, this team should celebrate for a good deal of time and they don't have to worry about class, game certainly not for a long time, but it is something that they're going to want to move pretty quickly, get some more good portal pieces.
37:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, they've gotten some good ones already, Carson Brumbaugh from Arkansas, the older brother of Kate and Brumbaugh, no use roster.
37:43
[SPEAKER_00]: He's coming in from Arkansas, that's a big getting some other pitcher's position players.
37:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this team has a really good foundation built and could really build on this,
37:52
[SPEAKER_00]: unlike most teams have done recently after winning an national championship.
37:56
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll see what the draft has to do in store for everybody.
37:59
[SPEAKER_03]: That's one of those things.
38:00
[SPEAKER_03]: You got some guys like Dayton, Taki, and Tray Gamble that are graduated out.
38:04
[SPEAKER_03]: And just even as we've been on the podcast, Tray Dickerson reportedly headed to the portal, Alec Blair reportedly headed to the portal as far as that goes.
38:11
[SPEAKER_03]: But as Carson said, they're often running with portal additions of their own.
38:16
[SPEAKER_03]: So many times you look at this and it's a business these days, it's the denial world, all that stuff.
38:21
[SPEAKER_03]: I find it really, really hard for anyone that was currently in the portal with some big time offers.
38:25
[SPEAKER_03]: If you see Ryan Gaines make the call or you're on the phone with skip and you're watching this Oklahoma team, I find it hard pressed that there's not going to be a ton of other portal targets out there that are like, man, that group, not only did they just dominate and kick butt all throughout the insane territory, but they look at the head of ton of fun doing it and look like a fun place to be.
38:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, no doubt about it and this is going to be an attractive destination for a lot of people.
38:51
[SPEAKER_02]: I think getting Broomball, that was a big, big ad for them out of the portal and just sort of another gut punch for Arkansas who we talk about all those SEC champions and his good as Arkansas baseball has been and as good as
39:11
[SPEAKER_02]: their fan base is supporting that sport.
39:13
[SPEAKER_02]: They're not one of them.
39:15
[SPEAKER_02]: I know who knows all about this, but I saw a lot of Arkansas fans and I still follow on social media that were grumbling about that and it just, you know, what to run again.
39:32
[SPEAKER_02]: But they're
39:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Every indication is that they're using this to build momentum to take the next step in a program.
39:41
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know it feels silly, sand that after they just want a national championship, but you've got to make it sustainable and give yourself a chance to do this every year, especially when you're in this league.
39:52
[SPEAKER_02]: And it seems like there at least taking steps in the direction to be able to be competitive on a year to year basis versus just a one-year thing.
40:03
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll see, too, as Major League Baseball is obviously put some stuff forward that would radically change roster construction as far as who is coming in and playing college baseball, how long they're staying in college baseball, stuff like that.
40:16
[SPEAKER_03]: I know that it's great to look back and go, man, a body with junior to gotten two years, or Eli, well, that's gotten two years.
40:21
[SPEAKER_03]: The fact of the matter is that Skipper's really good at building those relationships to another of those guys said connections obviously to Oklahoma.
40:26
[SPEAKER_03]: But it's not the only
40:28
[SPEAKER_03]: premium premium top in like high school talents that have been attracted by skip Johnson and the entire coaching staff.
40:33
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's exciting to see is that continues to get going.
40:37
[SPEAKER_03]: We're recording right now after noon on Wednesday.
40:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Looking forward to Wednesday night.
40:42
[SPEAKER_03]: They'll be at at Kimory Family Stadium.
40:44
[SPEAKER_03]: Carson would be there for us covered in the champs celebration.
40:47
[SPEAKER_03]: Any time you get skip Johnson to public speaking role like in front of everybody.
40:52
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't think I'm going to go too long as far as skip goes, but can't wait to see what that's going to look like is there are a ton of owe you fans at Omaha but this would be a great chance for the owe you fans that weren't able to make the trip or couldn't get off work or whatever to really post up and celebrate this crew as they went on one of the it's not just a matchground for Oklahoma you look at who have you mentioned it you look at some of the advanced metrics as far as like toughest runs through Omaha through a world series things like that Oklahoma is right at the top and all of them so
41:20
[SPEAKER_03]: It'll be a champion chip that is remembered for a very, very, very long time and excited to see what Elskip Johnson has for everybody here in years to come home.
41:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a hope that a lot of people are going to turn up tonight.
41:33
[SPEAKER_01]: the weather's going to cooperate and the place is going to be sold out.
41:37
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?
41:38
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just going to be packed.
41:39
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what my hope is because right now, I was just looking at the 24-7 sports rankings of SEC baseball attendance, average baseball attendance in the SEC's 5,800.
41:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Oklahoma average this year, according to this 24-7 report, 16 conference games, average 2016 per game, 2000 fans per game.
42:03
[SPEAKER_01]: That ranks 15th out of the 16 SEC teams, just ahead of Missouri who only averaged 1200.
42:09
[SPEAKER_01]: At the top you've got a Mississippi State 11,500 LSU 11,100 Arkansas 9,500 Mississippi 9,200 Texas 7,200 South Carolina 65 Florida 6,000 Tennessee Auburn A&M even averages 57 Alabama down there near the bottom at 38.
42:28
[SPEAKER_01]: 100 more than 38 hundred per game.
42:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Oklahoma is just behind Vanderbilt Kentucky and Georgia in the number of fans that they average per game So you want to see those numbers.
42:38
[SPEAKER_01]: You want to see those numbers grow in the future.
42:40
[SPEAKER_01]: You want to see this college world series national title produce some fruit
42:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Kimory Family Stadium is a destination, but it's going to be even better in the future when they get finished with all the renovations, all the projects, all the spending, it's going to be a palace.
42:58
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be a baseball palace and it's going to be worthy of the SEC.
43:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Now the secret Ryan Chapman, as you mentioned in a text message earlier in the week, if Skip can sustain what's happening right now and produce a college world series contender every year.
43:14
[SPEAKER_01]: produce a winning program, a championship winning program every year.
43:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Someone who's going to compete in the SEC for the championship every year.
43:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, they have to win it, but compete for it.
43:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Then I think you'll start to see that fan base grow.
43:27
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll start to see that interest continue to grow.
43:29
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll start to see bigger numbers across the board for everything regarding OE baseball.
43:35
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think too Abraham that we saw a little bit of the 22 team brought a little bit more of that and that, you know, that regional that was super well.
43:44
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know if you would have seen that in years past and I think you just grow and grow and grow and and skip as not shadow away from loves all the fans that companies always say we need more we need more need a bigger atmosphere things like that.
43:55
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think this would be a great opportunity to certainly continue that growth process ever.
44:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think, you know, just listening to Hoover eat out those numbers.
44:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And yes, they've got to make progress there and get people out more consistently.
44:09
[SPEAKER_02]: But I would love to see the numbers from the few years before that, because they had been, you know, trending in a positive direction, especially, you know, it's been quite a while now.
44:21
[SPEAKER_02]: But started the outfield, uh, bunch.
44:25
[SPEAKER_02]: There that started to build a fan base, and now you've got to imagine that that's going to take a big step forward, but it'll be interesting to see how many people are out there tonight should be a great celebration of this team, this program, and a next stepping stone for what this program, what that ballpark can become.
44:48
[SPEAKER_01]: right in real quick they're your attendance for the 2020 team that went to the cause real series and produced 11 and MMOB draft choices.
44:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Those guys that were really really good 145 games of the regular season.
45:02
[SPEAKER_01]: They finished averaging for the entire season not just the SEC but for the entire season they only average 1600 per game.
45:08
[SPEAKER_01]: So that shows you in just four years since going to the National Championship series how this program has grown and expanded and
45:17
[SPEAKER_01]: gotten money in from the camera family, gotten donations to where the facility is worth so much more, and it's worth taking your family to a ballgame now, it used to be just a concrete thing with some whole dugout and that put a diamond around it, put a fence
45:36
[SPEAKER_01]: some nice grass and it was a it was a good field and but you had you know concrete bleachers and aluminum bleachers on concrete and it was just like okay just to baseball stadium it now it looks totally different and in five years from now maybe another college world series run who knows but five years from now it's going to look even even more totally different than then it does now so a lot of growth ahead for this program and the people who love it
46:01
[SPEAKER_03]: It'll be the perfect clothes on basically the 225, 226 seasons.
46:06
[SPEAKER_03]: At the academic year, all that fun stuff.
46:08
[SPEAKER_03]: And suddenly we'll look up and we're just a couple of weeks away from SEC media days and getting to Tampa and all that fun stuff and really the full on March to the college football season.
46:19
[SPEAKER_03]: Some of the little fat college football in everybody.
46:21
[SPEAKER_03]: elsewhere in the world of college sports, the D1.
46:23
[SPEAKER_03]: I think this one was the cabinet.
46:25
[SPEAKER_03]: I can't remember if it's the cabinet, the committee, which see of the D1, but they've rubber state, they've approved the new five years to play five, where basically eliminating red shirts, either your enrollment or your 19th birthday, whichever starts first, you'll have five years.
46:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Don't have to worry about four years plus four games from football, stuff like that.
46:44
[SPEAKER_03]: The exceptions being
46:45
[SPEAKER_03]: going on mission military service than pregnancy as far as that goes.
46:50
[SPEAKER_03]: It will not include anyone that finished their senior year concluding in the spring, 2026 semester will not magically get an extra year going, but everybody else will be able to rock and roll there, which will have long, massive ripple effects across everywhere in all sports on all campuses across the country.
47:09
[SPEAKER_03]: But of course,
47:13
[SPEAKER_03]: We're simplifying things.
47:14
[SPEAKER_03]: We're not having to do back in the napkin math of how many games is this person played in and that and this and that, all that stuff.
47:20
[SPEAKER_03]: How many seven different waivers has the NCAA given?
47:23
[SPEAKER_03]: But also, we know football has had a red shirt rule.
47:26
[SPEAKER_03]: Nobody else has been able to figure that out.
47:28
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm excited for the basketball programs on campuses, the softball and baseball.
47:33
[SPEAKER_03]: And everybody actually being able to have that same opportunity to develop and still have the carrot out in front of freshmen that maybe aren't.
47:40
[SPEAKER_03]: ready to go from day one, but still being like, no, no, you can contribute.
47:43
[SPEAKER_03]: You can get experience.
47:45
[SPEAKER_03]: You can keep going and still it doesn't count against their year or take anything away.
47:50
[SPEAKER_03]: I think this is going to be the rare like W for the NCA.
47:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, I tend to agree.
47:56
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't really see much pushback from anyone about it.
47:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I know Brent, then a bull's last year said that it was admittedly challenging.
48:03
[SPEAKER_00]: As big as that, oh, you football staff is to do that enough.
48:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, is this guy played in four games?
48:08
[SPEAKER_00]: This is only three.
48:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Can we put this guy in?
48:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Wait, and this blow out win, Missouri's only scored six points.
48:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we could give him some reps. Now they really don't have to worry about that.
48:17
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's big for not only OU staff, but staff, so I'm never
48:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I say a smaller basketball baseball, big sports that have that don't have the same wrench or rules as football.
48:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Getting the give some of these guys innings, minutes, whatever it is and maybe even lopsided competition just getting some sort of game experience in your first year opposed to having to sit out the entire time.
48:45
[SPEAKER_00]: you feel for some of these true freshmen that didn't get to play any during this magical baseball run that they went on.
48:51
[SPEAKER_00]: So just having that across the board, I think it's something that benefits or at least should benefit every campus across the country.
48:58
[SPEAKER_00]: So like you said, I think this is a win.
49:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Here in the months that come on, we'll maybe target in on the various programs across campus and who are going to be the big beneficiaries currently on campus from things like that.
49:12
[SPEAKER_03]: But that'll be something that we carry through here these next couple of weeks.
49:16
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, elsewhere.
49:17
[SPEAKER_03]: money getting handed out in the area in BA realm triung and Austin Reeves both that caching out very on different coast one in Washington, one in LA obviously so good vibes there but otherwise we're about to hit I think a couple of weeks of the true dog gaze until everybody in the SEC makes their way down to Tampa and it's a
49:39
[SPEAKER_03]: a well-earned race for guys like Hove and Carson who have been absolutely grinded in here.
49:44
[SPEAKER_03]: If you guys missed any of it, be sure you had Oklahoma suitors onSI.com all over our front page.
49:50
[SPEAKER_03]: You can click on the baseball tab and just keep scrolling.
49:53
[SPEAKER_03]: They've got content on content from the stay in Omaha.
50:00
[SPEAKER_03]: off the field.
50:00
[SPEAKER_03]: I know you're down there for the champ series, but it's one of the spectacles in college athletics, just in sports in general.
50:07
[SPEAKER_03]: What are you going to remember?
50:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Not just the dog pile and stuff like this, but when you look back on Omaha, 2021, six is Oklahoma team.
50:13
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, it's something that might not be the first thing that pops up on the ESPN package, but you're probably going to stick with you for a long time from that Omaha track.
50:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think it just has to be the under the radar guys that stepped up in the biggest moments.
50:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Like Dayton talk, I mean, they're not there without his swinging against Georgia Tech in the 10th inning.
50:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Kyle Branch, who admittedly struggled in Omaha, having that late home run a huge hit.
50:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe that was game one.
50:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Just some of these under the radar guys, Mercury is going back to him, awful middle of the season, awesome postseason for him.
50:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Just the true underdog story of those guys, but this whole team being the 11th best team in the SEC and the regular season, and I've said this on the podcast, it felt like they were of that or worse heading into the NCAA tournament.
51:01
[SPEAKER_00]: This was a team playing bad baseball and suddenly, when it mattered most, they were the best team in baseball, just pretty remarkable.
51:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know I tweeted this to, if you've never been to Omaha, you've got to go at least in once in your life, if you're a sports fan, it is remarkable.
51:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Whether your team's playing or not, me and my dad went up in 2017, we got the general admission, but if it don't do this anymore, no general admission seating, but it was
51:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Third sheep at that point got to see all 18s there and it was just magical this time being a media member Similarly awesome getting to see all the OU people that came out the UNC people that came out it is Truly I don't know if unmasked is the right word, but there's nothing like it really is Nothing like the experience in Omaha so you got to check it out.
51:45
[SPEAKER_00]: It was it was a fun 72 hours I guess out there Yeah, it was a blast
51:53
[SPEAKER_01]: It was hard to believe that it was unfolding like it was that all you just went out and kicked the crap out of everybody in bracket play.
51:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I know four three against Georgia, but just what's going to stand out to me is probably two things I would say one is dishon Harris's throw Just that was sick that was just on I know we can play out field.
52:12
[SPEAKER_01]: I know he's a good
52:13
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got a good army, he's a good player.
52:15
[SPEAKER_01]: But to make that throw in that moment and to create this line of separation that we are over here, we're all you, we're gonna do this and you are now North Carolina and you are.
52:25
[SPEAKER_01]: less than us.
52:26
[SPEAKER_01]: You are beneath us.
52:27
[SPEAKER_01]: You are going to lose this game.
52:29
[SPEAKER_01]: That was the delineation for me.
52:31
[SPEAKER_01]: But the real thing that's going to stand out is, you know, catching the people around the program.
52:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I was lucky enough to catch the people around the program.
52:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Like the Eric Thomas situation where he said, you know, the left fielder and lead off guy for the 94 team, one national championship was in on the dog pile.
52:48
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, we just want to be a team, the 94 guys.
52:52
[SPEAKER_01]: We want to be guys that
52:54
[SPEAKER_01]: get together for reunions.
52:56
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't want to be the team that everybody calls every time we go to the college world series.
53:00
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't want to be that team that lasts soon or team to win a national championship.
53:03
[SPEAKER_01]: We want these guys to experience that and then we'll just you know go off and be the team that gets a has a little reunion every year or something like that.
53:10
[SPEAKER_01]: So I thought that was really poignant that the 94 bunch, there was 12 or 13 guys there at the stadium every night.
53:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Every night, somebody from the team was flying in, somebody had to go to work.
53:24
[SPEAKER_01]: and they just wanted this team to experience that joy and that, you know, unbridled kind of ecstasy that they did in those moments.
53:34
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, here we are.
53:35
[SPEAKER_01]: They did exactly that.
53:37
[SPEAKER_01]: And the 1914 was just so grateful to be a part of it and effusive with their praise and just couldn't get enough of these guys.
53:46
[SPEAKER_01]: And I thought that was a really cool full-circum moment.
53:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And how about the fact that not only Eric Thomas, but also Tim Walton came there from the Florida cut softball coaching staff to be a part of that.
54:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Didn't see if Kenny Gayeski was up there.
54:04
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if it's as easy for him to fade back into
54:09
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, being an old you guys are hoping he would.
54:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I was sure hoping he would show up.
54:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, he is he himself has said it's impossible to have a legacy at two different schools that no one has ever been able to do.
54:18
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, Kenny has.
54:19
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, that's who.
54:24
[SPEAKER_03]: and see if Kelly Maxwell made her way up to Nehme nevermind.
54:26
[SPEAKER_03]: So the last, the one thing that Cassidy Pickering did, yeah, she did, it was a bigger, I will always think of, and I think I only thought of this because I was watching a lot of these games with my mom, as we were traveling, her, the number of times she just looked over and she said, I could not imagine.
54:44
[SPEAKER_03]: being Mrs. Maccurious where I feel like it times entire games are resting like even if you're in the parent sections entire games are resting on your shoulders what it goes from Zander to LJ or LJ's cover I'm glad that she was able to continually make her way out there because it's a long haul for everybody.
55:00
[SPEAKER_03]: So an absolutely incredible run it will
55:03
[SPEAKER_03]: throw us into the offseason next week.
55:05
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll do a lot of catch up on some other stuff.
55:07
[SPEAKER_03]: We missed the portal's raging on the softball side of things.
55:10
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll see what Oklahoma baseball has done, the moves that they've made as well.
55:13
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll kind of set the table for July as we go straight into the middle of summer workout slash the team led OTAs, which is kind of what July is about on the football front.
55:24
[SPEAKER_03]: And the time that we circle back to July, it'll be like Holy Cowboys will be
55:28
[SPEAKER_03]: Two weeks away from Texas Tech, Cran Lake Babies.
55:31
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, going to Big 12, Media Day, and I'm sure that that'll be hailed great.
55:35
[SPEAKER_03]: And then like we said, suddenly, we'll be in Tampa and the eyes will be on the SEC world, which would be kind of incredible as far as that goes.
55:42
[SPEAKER_03]: Be sure to head to the website, OklahomaSuitarsonasside.com.
55:45
[SPEAKER_03]: Everything completely free and trust me.
55:47
[SPEAKER_03]: It's one o'clock right now on Wednesday as we record this.
55:50
[SPEAKER_03]: There was no way from Monday night through one o'clock today at Wednesday.
55:54
[SPEAKER_03]: We could get just physically all of the great content that who've and Carson both took in produced all that fun stuff.
56:00
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's going to keep rolling out here all throughout Wednesday into Thursday probably to carry you into the weekend.
56:06
[SPEAKER_03]: So be sure headed there.
56:07
[SPEAKER_03]: open the suitors on a side dot com you can read every bit of copy from these boys as they did a fantastic job out there in Omaha.
56:15
[SPEAKER_03]: But that's all we got for today.
56:17
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll see you guys next Wednesday.
56:20
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll kick off July and style like I said, we'll play some catch up on everything else from the off season is it kind of rolls on the big thank you as always to ABER
56:27
[SPEAKER_03]: Very, very happy that Hub and Carson both had safe travels back in, give some extra pets to the Pumps, too, because I know it's like to be away from a little bit too long.
56:35
[SPEAKER_03]: But until next time, for a report, Carson, for Hub, I'm Ryan Chapman.
56:38
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll talk to you guys next week, here on the sooner's on SI and podcast.