Oklahoma Columnist, by Clay Horning

One more column about John Mateer … and his so-called 'renewed confidence.'

Clay Horning — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 07:15:11 GMT

Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer poses for photographs at SEC Media Days. (OU Athletics Photo/John Baker)

On his way out of Tampa, site of SEC football media days, The Oklahoman’s Colton Sulley filed a fine story about Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer.

Sulley’s piece served a couple of purposes.

Underneath a headline proclaiming, “OU football QB John Mateer enters 2026 season with renewed confidence,” it shed light on a part of Mateer’s offseason we didn’t know about.

Apparently, he blamed himself horribly for his team’s failings, though the Sooner brass, general manager Jim Nagy and head coach Brent Venables, particularly, stepped in to make clear he remained valued.

“I struggled. I really did, but they had my back the whole time …” Mateer said. “Them bringing me back and wanting me to be here, and uplifting me to be who I am, means the world.”

It’s clear Mateer took his struggles hard.

In the same press gaggle that supplied Sulley’s story with its quotes, Mateer was asked what he thought were the reasons for the Sooners offensive inconsistency last season.

“I would say I was the reason,” he said. “I mean, to be honest, when you’d watch the film … I cringed when I watched the film.

“So, I’ve got to be better, we’re all working towards it. We’ve all done a great job, but if the quarterback doesn’t perform then it’s tough on everybody.”

Poor journalism over partial quote puts Sooner QB John Mateer in an unfairly bad light

Clay Horning — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 07:44:36 GMT

Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer awaits questions at SEC Media Days on Monday. (OU Athletics Photo/John Baker)

THE HOME OFFICE, Okla. — The problem with SEC Media Days, or any conference’s media days, is you can’t possibly be everywhere at once, and you really can’t be everywhere at once when covering it remotely.

Players and coaches may sit for a formal press conference, one producing a transcript all can read. There’s also bound to be exclusive sitdowns (or standups) for radio and television, or breakout sessions here, there and everywhere, maybe for hometown reporters who traveled, or just anybody standing around.

I’m not sure which Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer got himself involved with on Monday. I only know it did him no favors.

The Sooner quarterback was seated in front of an SEC banner, speaking into an SEC microphone, while the reporters appeared to be standing, crowding themselves around Mateer’s makeshift mount.

Often, it’s called a scrum. A rugby reference, even in America.

Whatever, it produced a kind of damning quote, showing up on Instagram and Twitter as though it was the entirety of one of Mateer’s thoughts.

The question was said to have been about reading SEC defenses and Mateer’s quote was said to have been the following:

“There’s not really any time to think. If someone is open you just throw it to them.”

It’s not the kind of quote you want following you around after a season in which you threw almost as many interceptions (11) as touchdowns (14).

In a tweet, reporter Chris Marler, who appears to have many employers based upon a look at his Twitter page, called it a “Potential Quote of the week on day one.”

Yet, as it turned out, the question wasn’t exactly about reading SEC defenses and Mateer’s answer wasn’t nearly all that was reported.

In fact, you can listen to both, beginning at about the 1:40 mark, on this video.

The question, though hard to hear every word, had to do with the decision to “stand in the pocket or extend the play,” and what Mateer said was this:

“Yeah, you don’t really have time to think out there, so it’s all instinct, you know, so you just play and feel. It’s all feel and instinct, but you train those instincts in the offseason. So, you just react and if somebody’s open you throw it to them and if the pocket’s breaking down, you go make a play.”

One, Marler, if he hasn’t already, should take down his tweet, as well as the story he produced for AtoZ Sports, which then found its way to Yahoo, built entirely around just a snippet of Mateer’s entire answer and nothing else.

Honestly, I’d be shocked if Marler was even in the scrum surrounding Mateer. Had he been, he should have known what the real question was and what the real answer was.

Yet, not being there — or being there and paying no attention — he went with his tweet and story anyway, designed entirely for clicks rather than any real understanding of what Mateer said.

Two, it’s still not a great look for Mateer, because it’s not really all feel and instinct, is it?

And when you say something like, “you just react and if somebody’s open you throw it to them,” even as part of a much larger answer, it still sounds a lot like “if somebody appears to be open you throw it to them” which was a problem of his last season, when beyond the TD and INT numbers, he completed only 62.2 percent (247 of 397) of his passes for just 11.7 yards per catch, which no longer approaches big-time college football adequacy, though it might have made you an All-Pro in the 1970s.

Perhaps if he’d said something about reading the defense.

Perhaps if he’d said something about his improved pocket awareness leading to better decisions in the coming season.

Of course, the question was not about what happens following the snap, but what happens when it’s time to hang or bolt, at which point it really does come down to feel and instinct.

Ugh.

Parsing is exhausting.

Then again, even the most non-forgiving Mateer critic should understand a quote like the one Marler tweeted (and others ran with) screams to be found in its complete form.

What Sooner fans should hope is what Mateer said about “training those instincts” comes true in the new season. Because, you may recall, pocket awareness was mostly not on his bingo card last year.

And so we move on, with a little more understanding of and for the Sooner quarterback, not to mention the inherent inaccuracy of stories and tweets designed not to inform, but just to be clicked and shared.

Four things about Sooner football from Tampa, Ben Arbuckle's hot seat included

Clay Horning — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 07:48:21 GMT

Oklahoma football coach Brent Venables takes the stage at SEC Media Days in Tampa, Florida on Monday.

THE HOME OFFICE, Okla. — Every time I write one of these, I begin by explaining how much I hate the form.

It’s a crutch, I explain. It crowds out real columns about single topics that demand real explanation, a real word count and strong writing.

Anybody can write a four things column.

It’s beneath me, dammit.

But it’s not, for there are times too much information has been expressed, and though a piece of it might make a great yarn, writing only about that piece would leave out too many pieces.

Hey, at least my first “thing” won’t be “Running game will be key for Sooners this season,” because for crying out loud, everybody knows it, just as they know it for the quarterback and the defense, too.

Or, even worse, “Running game could be key for Sooners this season.”

So, here we go.

Call it four takeaways of great import from the Sooners’ trip to SEC Media Days, where head coach Brent Venables, quarterback John Mateer, offensive guard Eddy Pierre Louis and defensive end Taylor Wein each met with conference media on Monday in Tampa, Florida.

Venables really likes his players (and that matters)

Here’s the quote Venables gave, or the first one.

One of the many reasons that gets us excited about this year’s team is finding the three guys [we brought here with us] and telling several other guys that were more deserving they weren’t going to make the cut. The depth of the leadership we have in our locker room right now is as good as we’ve had, better than we’ve probably had here in the five years at Oklahoma.

So he didn’t say it so artfully, but the point is clear.

He brought Mateer, Wein and Pierre-Louis (who is from Tampa) and it could have been any three of several other guys, all just as deserving, because OU is awash in leadership.

Before I finished the second half of the final sentence of Venables’ quote, my mind flashed to the 2000 national championship team, of which Venables was co-defensive coordinator, and thought, “really, as leadership-oriented as those guys?”

What I actually think happened was, he thought it, too, and self-corrected into since-I’ve-been-head-coach mode.

But it doesn’t matter, because he doesn’t say any of it if he doesn’t think his team is generally hard-nosed, like he is; possesses a ridiculous work-ethic, like he does; is committed to the process rather than the final result, like he is; and is prone to overachievement, as he has always been (seasons one and three as a head coach aside, of course).

And, if he’s right, it’s teams like that, full of players like that, that make winning plays that matter, that win the turnover and special teams battles, that develop winning x-factors well beyond straight up talent.

It kind of went that way last season, too.

At the end of his time, Venables went on about players that came from obscurity to star last season: Isaiah Sategna, Tate Sandell, Courtland Guillory. Previously he’d mentioned Wein in the same way.

“That’s going to happen again,” he said. “I don’t know who that is going to be … I think it’s going to be part of the story of this football team.”

Because he loves his players, loves their leadership and loves the development that leadership creates.

It’s a thing.

No reason not to believe in the offensive line

Most of this was in place coming out of the spring the moment Venables said, “We had more explosive runs this spring than we had in the previous three years, with all of those springs combined.”

That meant so much because Xavier Robinson and Tory Blalock mostly missed spring ball, leaving the running duties to Lloyd Avant, a junior transfer from Colorado State; DeZephen Walker, an early enrollee true freshman from Kansas City; and Jonathan Hatton Jr., an early enrollee true freshman from Cibolo, Texas.

It also meant so much because they did it behind the same offensive line that struggled for so much of last season, against a Sooner defense that should again be among the nation’s very best units.

On Monday, Venables said, “Up front, we’ve probably got nine guys that can play winning football for us right now,” but it’s the first six that appear to have become headline worthy and here they are:

Michael Fasusi, a sophomore, who made 10 starts at left tackle his true freshman season.
Eddy Pierre-Louis, a redshirt sophomore who started six games at left guard.
Jake Maikkula, a redshirt senior who made 10 starts at center after transferring from Stanford.
Ryan Fodje, a sophomore who played in every game last season, starting four at right tackle and two at right guard.
Heath Ozaeta, a redshirt junior who made seven starts at left guard.
E’Marion Harris, a redshirt senior, who started 11 games for Arkansas last season, primarily at right tackle, before transferring to Norman.

“I think there’s going to be a better version of all those guys,” Venables said. “I think they’re stronger, more confident, there’s more chemistry, cohesion, certainly there’s an experience factor, [which is] what it takes to be better in the SEC.”

Others talked them up, too.

“I would argue they’re the closest position group on the team and that’s what makes them super, super connected and super talented,” Wein said.

“I love being around them. They love being around each other,” Mateer said. “But obviously, [in] the weight room, they stay after it more than anybody. I see it and I love seeing it. They’re getting on each other, like … the standard has been raised.”

On the off chance you’d rather hear about the Sooners than just read about the Sooners, join us on our podcast, this one all about the dropped knowledge from SEC Media Days.

When a few words mean something (about tight ends)

Mateer offered a fairly innocuously sounding quote when he said this about first-year tight ends coach Jason Witten, who’s most famous as an all-timer tight end for the Dallas Cowboys, for whom he turned in all-pro seasons in 2007, ’08, ’10 and ’12.

“He calls me and he gives me that wisdom,” Mateer said. “He wants to share his wisdom and we’ve seen that in the offense.”

Here’s the key part of that quote: “and we’ve seen that in the offense.”

That tells us there’s been changes.

It tells us there’s a new package for the position.

It probably tells us, given Witten’s contributions and those of newly-minted assistant head coach for offense Kevin Wilson — who also coordinated Bob Stoops’ Sooner offenses from 2006 to 2010 — Sooner tight ends playing under offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle this season will not only be a bigger part of OU’s blocking schemes, working more cohesively with the offensive line, but should also be a more consistent part of the passing game.

Though it doesn’t seem like it, tight end Jaren Kanak actually caught 45 passes last season for 533 yards. However, the first 18 catches, over the first four games, accounted for 307 yards and the last 26, over the last nine, accounted for just 226.

For whatever reason, Arbuckle and Mateer took one of the offense’s most profound weapons and turned Kanak into a check-down receiver, making him a very diminished weapon.

But if Mateer says Witten’s impact can already be “seen” in the offense, well, it would appear to signify change, which would seem to be good.

Welcome to the hot seat Ben Arbuckle

A lot of Mateer quotes appear to be getting into this “four things” column and here’s another one, telling by way of what he didn’t say.

The question mentioned many coordinators have their quarterback follow them to their new school, but most don’t get two years with their old quarterback at the new school. Given that, what’s Mateer looking forward to the most given another year with Arbuckle and what’s the biggest benefit of having another year?

He said this:

I think the relationship. You hear the relationship between the offensive coordinator and the quarterback is the biggest relationship in all of sports and I believe that.
Our relationship is only tighter now than it’s ever been, and that’s probably because of the struggle. Struggle brings you closer. And so I love that guy. And we’ve both learned so much together and it’s going to be real good.

Call me a naysayer, but my read of that quote is the best thing about Mateer and Arbuckle’s two-plus seasons together as starter and coordinator has been how close they’ve become under the strain of failure.

Sue me.

Because no quarterback in America’s stock sunk any faster than Mateer’s last season, plain and simple. He wasn’t accurate, period. He could not throw downfield, period. He became less effective as a runner. His mechanics were a mess … all under the tutelage of his good buddy Arbuckle.

So here we are.

The offensive line appears to be far better. The running back room is stocked. Everybody’s excited about the receiving trio of Sategna, Texas transfer Parker Livingstone, and Virginia transfer Trell Harris and maximizing the tight end position.

That leaves the quarterback and his position coach, who is the coordinator.

That leaves the coordinator.

It would seem to be a very big season for Ben Arbuckle.

Yes, we can save the defense for another day.

In this runoff, Franklin's Secretariat at the Belmont and Taylor might as well be lapped

Clay Horning — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 22:12:56 GMT

Robert Franklin (from his Facebook campaign page)

The great Jami Jackson-Cole, runner of Oklahoma Edvocates Facebook group, a haven for teachers and advocates in the midst of attacks on public education from the governor, the legislature, the former state superintendent and the impossibly embarrassing gubernatorial candidate Mike Mazzei, posted something on Monday.

From a candidates forum, it’s a video of James Taylor and Robert Franklin, passing a microphone back and forth, answering questions.

Taylor and Franklin happen to be the remaining two Republicans vying to become Oklahoma’s next superintendent of public instruction.

The runoff election is Aug. 25.

It’s a 12-minute clip, but just a couple minutes near the end will do.

The question came from a University of Oklahoma student.

Past superintendents have pushed their political agenda, rather than focus on us getting an education. What would you do to focus on the needs of K-12 students, rather than pushing your agenda on them?

“Oh, my goodness, that is a powerful, powerful question,” Franklin said.

In real time, what he said next lasted about a minute and a half.

Here it is:

We’ve been talking about the Mississippi Miracle and the injection of phonics.
What’s happening in Mississippi over the last decade?
They’ve been very targeted and they have raised their scores. But … if you look at scholarly research, what they’re saying is things start to flatten out in middle school and their ACT scores don’t look much different than ours, and that is the mathematical, statistical analysis that’s in play and we’re seeing it happen in many other southern states as well.
So, the first footprint that you just asked is, push hard in the early grades.
Third grade is far too late. I’ve heard my colleague here speak about it. Third grade is far too late to be talking about retaining children. That needs to be much, much earlier.
But we have to invest in the middle schools. If you have a middle school pre-algebra teacher and you have 35 children in your classroom, and that teacher is alternatively certified, your chances of scoring strongly on your ACT math score is really, really subdued.
OK, we have to invest in enough resources to get enough people back into this pipeline that are trained and want to be in the education space and will stick around long enough, and [be retained] long enough so that four, five and six years into it, they don’t leave us and they’ll stick around because the scholarly research will tell you it takes about five years to seven years to hit your stride as a teacher, to really become an effective, effective teacher.

Whoa.
A thunderbolt.

I think I learned more about the actual public education process in 90 seconds than I previously knew in a lifetime.

It was like listening to Bill Clinton in the old days.

He knew it and he knew it cold. Not only did he know it cold but he could explain it in a way that everybody knew he knew it cold and understood it themselves, too.

What do we hear when the vast majority of folks talk about education?

It’s all about third-grade literacy.
No, they have to be reading before third grade.
Class size is the problem.
Teachers are leaving is the problem.
Teachers are being replaced by non-teachers is the problem.
It’s about resources. You have to spend.
It’s not about resources. You don’t have to spend.

Franklin addressed it all. Further, he addressed it in a way that connects it all together, convincingly, leaving everybody in the room smarter than they were when they entered the room.

If the voice of the NBA, Mike Breen, were calling it, he’d give it a double “BANG.” (And the great Marv Albert would give it a double “YES.”)

As for the questioner, “past superintendents” likely referred to just one person, Ryan Walters, who cared not a whit about the education process, only his political future. A future his overreach, as it turned out, killed.

Now we have Lindel Fields, appointed by Kevin Stitt, who’s said all the right things and who, best we can tell, remains busy getting the department re-staffed and working the way it was designed to, of which we can all be thankful.

But even Fields can’t be in Franklin’s league, can’t know this stuff in his bones the way Franklin knows it. His background’s in career technology, not K-12.

We can do so much better.

Taylor took a crack at the question, too.

You’re right, the teachers are not trained. I’ve spoken about this many times, that our first-year teachers are kind of like thrown to the wolves. They know their subject matter, but they do not have the necessary classroom discipline.
That is my strength, and I will incorporate that into my administration, and we’ve got technology that we can do those types of things, and that would be my strength, and we’re going to do that.

It wasn’t all he said.

Taylor said third grade was too late for literacy, it has to come in the first grade, before going on about his young daughter’s reading ability, but not her penmanship, losing the thread of his answer, which already needed work.

The only convincing thing from Taylor appeared to be his contention that, because he can keep an overcrowded classroom in order enough for learning to take place — “That’s my strength” — he will therefore pass it on to every other teacher in the state, magically perhaps, which is patently absurd.

Taylor offers no confidence.

“We’re going to do that,” he said.

Gee, thanks.

Were Franklin elected, we now know his ability to speak to the legislature, uninterested in his own political clout, only interested in educating young Oklahomans, maybe like they used to be educated when Brad Henry, a Democrat, was governor.

The thing about that?

When you’re not in it for yourself, when you’re selfless, committed and awash in expertise, you tend to end up with all the clout anyway.

So there it was.

Two minutes between the two of them, offering everything you could possibly need to know.

One guy speaking rapidly, guessing, attempting to be convincing.

“I’ve spoken about this many times,” he said.

The other guy not even trying to convince, just explaining where we are and what needs to happen.

Taylor sounds like he’ll try hard.

Franklin knows.

They’re both running.

But it’s no contest.

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Mike Mazzei can't speak and has no plan, and is accidentally hilarious when he says he does

Clay Horning — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 20:36:40 GMT

Mike Mazzei, between words, being interviewed by KWTV’s Haley Hetrick.

One of the great Berry Tramel’s best columns came from 2005 Big 12 Football Media Days. Appearing in the July 22 Oklahoman, he reminded everybody Texas remained 0 for 5 against Oklahoma in the 2000s, before explaining Mack Brown, who’d coached the Longhorns to a 38-37 triumph over Michigan State at the most recent Rose Bowl, had a new plan to deal with it.

Call it the “Rose Bowl” strategy.

Hey Mack. What did you have for dinner last night? Rose Bowl.
Hey Mack. Why did offensive tackle Jonathan Scott show up Thursday wearing crimson shorts? Rose Bowl.
Hey Mack. Why is Houston so danged muggy? Rose Bowl.
Brown credited Pasadena with, no fooling, everything from increased UT student applications to a rise in sales of Longhorn caps and shirts. You’d think it was the War of the Roses, the way he talked.

At the press conference myself, I remember thinking Mack’s inventing new ways to say “Rose Bowl,” but it was Berry who found a way to make it hilarious in print.

Good times.

Now, enter Mike Mazzei, one of two Republican gubernatorial candidates still standing, along with state attorney general Gentner Drummond, who’s adopted Brown’s strategy of saying the same thing over and over again, signifying nothing, but continuing to say it anyway.

Have you heard? He has a “plan.”

In his creepy, wavering voice, which listening to is a lot like watching a waterfall in slow motion — you know the falling water will eventually hit the still water, just as you presume Mazzei will eventually reach the end of his sentence, but goodness it’s taking forever — he is forever ready to tell you he has a “plan.”

Asked by KWTV-9’s Haley Hetrick for some differences between himself and Drummond, Mazzei stepped right back into the performance art of uttering his favorite word.

“On policy grounds, I, of course, have built a concrete plan to make Oklahoma a no-income tax state and abolish property taxes for seniors and veterans,” he said. “Drummond has said, ‘It’s just a false wish, can’t be done,’ and he’s for more government, new programs, higher spending.”

I don’t know if Drummond’s for those things, but I know this.

Mazzei’s “plan” is exactly that, a false wish that can’t be done … well, unless it’s only ending the state income tax and ending property taxes for the elderly and veterans, and then waiting to see which cataclysmic catastrophes occur.

But has he shown us a plan? He has not.
It’s been months and months and months and months and all he’s done is say he has one.

In his interview, Mazzei came up with a new plan.

Or, what he actually did, was say he had a plan for something else. Yet, by the end of his answer he appeared to have forgotten what he’d pledged that new plan for.

“Whether it was small business owners, or our hardworking teachers themselves, or civic leaders, everybody’s concerned that we can’t be 49th in education. That’s how I learned we need a concrete plan to tackle those challenges,” Mazzei said. “And if we do, and if we all kind of unite together around a solid plan, we can launch a wave of growth and opportunity for the next generation.”

Plan. Plan. Plan. Plan. Plan.

Now, three things:
What in the hell is he talking about.
I think Hetrick did a disservice to journalism by not laughing in his face.
If he were an Oklahoma football coach, he’d be John Blake.

Just try following it.

He’s running for governor but he didn’t know something needed to be done about education already? Not until people told him, “Hey, this 49th or 50th in the nation in education thing can’t fly. Something’s got to be done.”

You can’t make it up.

Then, having offered up another plan, and maybe realizing how ignorant he sounded, he was just looking for an exit?

“ … if we all kind of unite together around a solid plan, we can launch a wave of growth and opportunity for the next generation.”

What?

Maybe the “concrete” plan was for education and the “solid” plan for the future?

Too bad the “next generation” will have its own governors and Oklahoma needs leadership now.

Just not from Mazzei, whose specialty, it turns out, is accidental comedy.

It’s no wonder he killed his promise to return to Lawton to engage in a runoff debate put together by NonDoc and KSWO-TV, one he agreed to in advance at a May 28 primary debate should he find himself in said runoff.

He also has a history of not showing up.

As a legislator, in 2013, he missed 723 of 936 votes, prompting a scathing editorial from The Oklahoman. The following year, according to Oklahoman reporting, he missed 892 votes, or “nearly 47 percent” of senate votes.

Perhaps he had a plan to collect a paycheck without showing up.

As long as Oklahomans with their own plan to end his gubernatorial ambitions show up to vote on Aug. 25, I think we’ll be all right.

Now that’s a good plan.

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The trouble with being a polite Democrat (running for governor) in Oklahoma

Clay Horning — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 07:33:39 GMT

Not quite two weeks ago, I received a text message from Cyndi Munson. It was a form text, asking for money. It may not have been convincing enough.

On Wednesday I received another text, explaining she remained $1,572 short of her fundraising goal.

Give or take, I presume.

None of this is to say I begrudge the ask, because I don’t.

Politicians need money.

They shouldn’t.

Campaigns shouldn’t last forever, dark money shouldn’t be allowed, strict limits should apply to individual giving and public financing should remain an option to candidates who choose it. And not that long ago, at the presidential level, they did choose it.

But they do last forever, dark money abounds. Though limits remain on individual giving, they’ve been lifted when it comes to giving to political parties and campaigning on the public dime is quaint like one-car families are quaint and would you believe I remember the 70s when they were common?

Anyway, I received a text from Munson and here’s what it said.
Also, I may speak directly to Munson along the way.

Clay, I stand before you as the Democratic nominee for Governor of Oklahoma.

Nothing wrong with that.

The first name’s a nice touch and though perhaps I should wonder how she got my number, everybody’s got everybody’s number nowadays, so I won’t begrudge that either.

While I am honored by the trust Oklahomans have placed in me to build a better future, this campaign has never been about me: It’s always been about the future we have chosen to build together.

Uh, oh, here we go.

“… the future we have chosen to build together.” Who chose the future we’re living in now? I’ll tell you who. Republicans, that’s who. Their supermajorities run from 81-20 in the house to 40-8 in the senate.

It’s so bad, Democrats might try sitting a session out just to watch the one monolithic party destroy itself from within, which just might happen.

Anyway, I hope you win, I’ll vote for you, but there is no future we’ve chosen to build together and even if you win, which I hope happens, there still won’t be, because you’ll still be up against the supermajorities.

Quit sounding like a polite Democratic politician who doesn’t want to draw too much ire from an overwhelming Republican state.

Oklahoma is my home. Its people are my purpose. And my determination to fight for our communities has never been stronger.

I’m sure personal political ambition has nothing to do with it, but maybe it should if it were to lead to a far less boilerplate message than this.

You’re trying to raise money and you ought to be trying to change minds and this sounds like something farmed out by a campaign manager, to a comms director, to an underling whose only references are previous texts sent by previous Oklahoma Democrats running for statewide office who lost.

You’ve got to challenge people.

You’ve got to meet them where they are, and this isn’t that, or you’ll never win.

And “communities” sounds like checking boxes and, my goodness, can’t Democrats get beyond that and speak to everybody.

You need their voters.

Speak to everybody.

The work ahead won’t be easy, but I believe in Oklahoma, I believe in its people, and I know that our best days are still ahead of us.

Great, just great.

I believe in them, too.

My latest regret is the World Cup had no stadium option in Oklahoma. Otherwise, the world would be telling the world on YouTube just how great Oklahomans really are.

But these same people keep voting for the worst people, or for slightly less worse people who won’t reject the worst people.

What kind of a governor was Mary Fallin?
What kind of a governor has Kevin Stitt been?
Where do we rank in education?

Read, “… I believe in its people, and I know that our best days are still ahead of us,” and tell me you don’t hear the schmaltzy music playing in the background, too.

The road ahead will be our greatest challenge yet, but I have never been more confident in the strength of the people of Oklahoma and our collective fight for a better, fairer future.

It’s only a fundraising text but it’s political malpractice, too.

Do you hear yourself or do you hear a tone created in a different time, for a different state and a different nation, for a political party that still doesn’t know how to speak to voters and be heard?

Are you running to deliver pablum like this or to shake things up? To do something about education? To make teaching a destination profession? To take policy back from the state chamber and the whackadoodles, both?

Look, you’ve got to be angry.

You’ve got to feel these things viscerally.

You have to sound not like an interloper trying to crash a party, but make your opponents the interlopers, who’ve already crashed the state, because they have.

If you’re with me, I ask you to please consider contributing, even just $1, to drive my campaign forward and bring us one step closer to the Oklahoma we all deserve!

You nailed it.

It would have been a fantastic finish to a very different message, one that painted the stakes, which are huge, rather than sounding like it’s 1998 all over again, before Oklahoma’d been pillaged by the party in power.

A couple other things.

I think you were in Elk City a week ago. I believe you’re in Tulsa tonight. I would have liked to have seen you in Elk City. I would like to see you in Tulsa.

Where is your social media presence?

Your YouTube campaign channel has one video on it and it’s a year old.

I’d love for you to cut those appearances into smaller clips and post them and make some waves with them, leaving others to find them and share them.

It’s a lot, I know.
But it’s you or them.

You need to be heard.
You need to connect.
Need to raise money, too.

You can do better than this.
I’m sure of it.

Because I believe it’s too important, columns like this are not placed behind paywalls. For that reason, it’s important Oklahoma Columnist maintain a roster of paid subscribers to keep this type of journalism alive in Oklahoma. If you agree, please consider a donation in the form of a paid subscription for just $6/month or $60/year.

U.S. kicked in the teeth (by itself)

Clay Horning — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 07:05:28 GMT

U.S. goalkeeper Matt Freese, moments after allowing Belgium’s third goal Monday night at the World Cup, in Seattle.

If you know only the tiniest bit about soccer, about team dynamics generally and have a modicum of common sense, you also know what happened to the United States in Monday night’s 4-1 World Cup round-of-16 loss to Belgium.

Played in Seattle, the Americans needing a win to reach a quarterfinal round in which they’d meet Spain Friday in Los Angeles, the home team was not ready.

Not for the moment.
Not for prime time.
Not to take the next step.
Not even to go down swinging.

The U.S. had, in fact, reached the quarterfinal round before, way back in 2002 (and, oddly, in 1930).

But this team was not ready.

That or the United States, despite its vastness, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, can neither produce adequate defenders, nor goalkeepers, like it’s something in the water. But back-liners Sergio Dest, Antonee Robinson and Tim Ream, and keeper Matt Freese, can’t be that inept, can they?

No, they cannot.

Leaving the stage, not talent and ability, to be the issue.

Soccer, after all, is a game of levels.

This year it’s the World Cup.

Every two years, the next one coming next year, it’s the CONCACAF Gold Cup, featuring national teams from North, America, Central America and the Caribbean.

In ’28, it’s the Copa America, featuring national teams from South America, and sometimes the U.S., as it’s expected to again. In 2030, the World Cup’s back, hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

Not till then can the U.S. make up for the unthinkable nature of Monday night’s loss, because the only way to be seen as serious soccer nation is to make real noise in the world’s most important tournament.

And NEVER, EVER look as the U.S. looked against Belgium.

This team, it turns out, was never going to be up to it.

Leave alone the fact that Belgium’s first goal, coming in the ninth minute, could easily have been its third.

Concentrate only on the tally.

An attempted cross from the left side was deflected and then headed away from the American goal; a good thing for the Americans and an especially good thing given the ball was falling to earth at Dest’s feet.

Certainly he’d take the opportunity to clear it.

Nope.

Instead, like an infielder believing the play’s somebody else’s, he let it fall to the ground, made no play at it and watched as Belgium’s Nicolas Raskin swooped in to control it, put it on his left foot to cross it, and find teammate Charles De Ketelaere to bury it in the U.S. net.

Perhaps you’re thinking, hey, any third baseman can think the pop up belongs to the shortstop. Maybe, but this is soccer and the ball has to be cleared and better two teammates take whacks at it than any one let it fall in front of his feet for anybody to take.

Beyond the electric football, everybody-move-in-a-pile concept of the 8-and-under game, it’s bad soccer at every level.

As it happened, the U.S. tied the game when Malik Tillman, with another free kick from beyond the opponent penalty box, this time about 28 yards, received a fortuitous glance of a Belgian noggin to net his second goal of the tourney from advanced range.

No matter, 61 seconds after the ball was kicked off again, it was in the American net again.

You’d think two U.S. defenders marking one Belgian forward, De Ketelaere again, would be enough. But it wasn’t because De Ketelaere made his play for the ball with his head first, so when he pushed off Ream on his way to it, the referee let it go. Meanwhile, Robinson, off De Ketelaere’s right shoulder, was caught flat footed.

But hey, give all the credit to the Belgian. Great sports are about making great plays and De Ketelaere made one and his team led 2-1.

The worst arrived in the 57th minute when De Ketelaere — think this guy can play? — appeared to simply shrug off yet another American defender, Chris Richards, on a chase to a long ball, causing Freese to exit the U.S. penalty box and play it before De Ketelaere could reach it.

Yet, because the ball was bouncing, Freese had to chest it first, and though under pressure, time remained to kick it away with his left foot. Instead, for reasons known only Freese, and perhaps God, he panicked and stopped his lefty swing.

Then, Freese playing the ball with his right foot, De Ketelaere deflected it to Hans Vanaken, who found the open net.

Disastrous, impossible, unbelievable, embarrassing, pathetic.

The Belgians would add another goal in the rush of the final moments, but it was immaterial. None of the Americans’ fall from grace had to do with it ending in a three-goal deficit rather than two. Rather, it was all about the nature in which the they gave it away.

It’s possible the U.S. was never winning the game — Belgium claimed a 15-7 shot advantage and put seven on goal to the Americans’ two — but it was never supposed to look like this.

“We let ourselves down, we let the fans down,” said American midfielder Tyler Adams.

“We didn’t show our real quality as a team,” U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino, an Argentinian, said. “Never were we connected with the run of the game.”

In victories over Paraguay (4-1), Australia (2-0), Turkey (3-2) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (2-0), Pochettino may have gotten the U.S. to play better than any previous U.S. World Cup team.

Now it’s like those games never happened.

Sure, everybody loses.

But not like this.

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It's just racism

Clay Horning — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:36:36 GMT

On Wednesday, two people climbed to the very top of the Empire State Building, like they were George Willig or something. They were later identified to be Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, stars of Netflix’s 2024 documentary, “Skywalkers: A Love Story.”

They were arrested upon coming down, of course, but while at the tippy top, above the actual structure and straddling the antenna — at least I think it’s an antenna — two things occurred.

One, Beerkus, who is Russian, proposed to Nikolau, who is also Russian.

Two, they unfurled a banner that said this:

“WHEN THE POWER OF LOVE BEATS THE LOVE OF POWER, THE WORLD KNOWS PEACE.”

So subversive.
How dare they.

Here’s what I thought when I read about it.

I thought of P.J. O’Rourke, once editor of The National Lampoon, later the darling of libertarian conservatism in the 80s and 90s, writing for Rolling Stone and several books of his own, of which “Parliament of Whores” I heartily recommend. And though I can’t find the precise quote I heard O’Rourke speak, I know I heard it and it made great sense then and now.

I’ll paraphrase:

The people willing to swim to America, build a raft to get here, or otherwise risk everything for the chance to become Americans, are exactly the kind of people America ought to want.

No, not all willing to do that are in position to do it legally.

Even in the midst of a most liberal American government, Democrats running everything as Republicans run everything now, not everybody could get a visa, nor receive asylum. But if they have the ingenuity, the wherewithal, passion and chutzpah to get here anyway, well, we should want them to be Americans.

Or at least their kids to be.

Beerkus and Nicolau?

They might be here legally. I have no idea.

What I know is, if they’re willing and able to scale the Empire State Building with their bare hands just to offer a message of hope and peace and love? Yeah, that’s who we should want to be Americans. And if, by chance, that’s not available to them, for goodness sake, if they can get back into this country when their kids are born, let it be for them.

Why do you think it’s in the Constitution in the first place?

Good chance, nobody would call these two Russians birthright tourists, nor accuse them of climbing a skyscraper to game the system. Instead, that fury is reserved for black and brown parents who do not look like Beerkus or Nicolau, but who would willingly go to similar lengths to give themselves and their children a real shot in this glorious nation.

Yet, there are those, even on our Facebook timelines, who will tell you, oh, yes, it is about a thriving industry called birthright tourism (of which they can produce no evidence). And, oh, yes, baby factories are real things (though there’s no evidence of that either).

What it is, is fear of the other, who does not look like they do, a fear they’ve never felt from the offspring of the throngs who came before them, from Ireland, Italy and other European ports, and a fear they may have once felt but since forgotten of Cuban and Vietnamese Americans. But Fox News and it’s loonier impersonators were not around following the Bay of Pigs, nor the Mariel Boatlift, and a swath of Americans, encouraged by demagogues, feel it now.

About all of that, on Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, on the matter of the 14th Amendment, the Constitution to still be constitutional, preserving birthright citizenship. And because you may not have read the text of Section I of the 14th Amendment, here it is:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

What the Trump administration tried to do was drive a truck through “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” as though non-citizens on U.S. soil, because they’re non-citizens, are somehow not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” which of course they are, just ask Sir Paul McCartney, who was busted for possessing marijuana in Los Angeles in 1975.

Charges were later dismissed but not because, as a Brit, Sir Paul was not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Rather, because who wants to prosecute a Beatle in town to record new music? Nobody, that’s who.

I digress.

Right-wing nitwit anger-fueled commentator Megyn Kelly called conservative SCOTUS justices who sided with the court’s three liberals — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson — “squish conservatives” and Justice Amy Coney Barrett a “turncoat,” as though she and Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the majority opinion, are not there to interpret the Constitution, or even just read it, but to make her happy instead.

Kelly also said, “… anybody from China can come over here, have a baby and that baby will be an American, no matter what. They can leave the day after the child is born, the minute after the child is born,” as though that’s ever happened once.

Vice President J.D. Vance called the decision “an absurdity” as though the 14th Amendment did not exist in the first place and does not say what it specifically says.

Ben Shapiro, who sounds like a guy you’d never trust but who many Americans do, tweeted, “… it’s just more evidence that Congress and multiple presidents, in abdicating their duty on immigration for decades, have screwed America irredeemably,” apparently because we’re totally not the richest nation on earth, haven’t won two world wars, were never a superpower and have never been looked upon as a world leader.

What else is there to think?

Glenn Beck, who still has an audience, said “Citizenship is apparently a suicide pact,” as though the 14th Amendment’s been holding us back as a nation ever since its 1868 passage.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his dissent — justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas each wrote one, too — “Careful analysis of the text of the Fourteenth Amendment and the process that led to its adoption shows that it does not degrade the concept of United States citizenship in this way.”

That it does not “degrade.”

Really?

Are you $#@%#@% kidding me?

Some of us have major league citizenship and others have short-season rookie ball citizenship?

Degraded citizenship?

It is what it’s been.

It’s just racism.

Because I believe it’s too important, columns like this are not placed behind paywalls. For that reason, it’s important Oklahoma Columnist maintain a roster of paid subscribers to keep this type of journalism alive in Oklahoma. If you agree, please consider a donation in the form of a paid subscription for just $6/month or $60/year.

Paxton says voters want governance. Will he, others, endorse those who do, too?

Clay Horning — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 23:31:01 GMT

Oklahoma’s senate president pro tempore is Lonnie Paxton, Republican from Tuttle, and whether he likes it or not, the face of how close to reality state legislature Republicans are willing to present and govern our fair, though infuriating, state.

He doesn’t speak in slogans, doesn’t trash Democrats only because the day’s talking points say he must. His manner is reasonable as he seeks to keep the barbarians at the gate, all of which are fellow Republicans.

And about a week ago, on KWTV-9, Oklahoma City’s CBS affiliate, he had this to say about the most intransigent wing of his party, operating in both the house and senate.

“The Freedom Caucus likes calling names and likes saying things that are not true, or taking things out of context and the Oklahoma voters saw through that.”

Primary results say he’s right.

The Freedom Caucus, chaired by Sen. Shane Jett, R-Shawnee, who’s about to be term-limited out, and whose most ubiquitous face is Rep. Dusty Deevers, R-Elgin, appears to be in retreat.

Deevers, for instance, is also on the way out of the legislature, having fallen to two different opponents in the June 16 primary.

Meanwhile, seven lawmakers, deemed the “Swamp Seven,” targeted for removal by the Freedom Caucus — Sen. Chuck Hall, R-Perry; Sen. Ally Siegfried, R-Claremore; Sen. Bill Coleman, R-Ponca City; Sen. Tim Woods, R-Westville; Sen. Bill Gollihare, R-Kellyville; Sen. Grant Green, R-Wellston; Sen. Brenda Stanley, R-Midwest City — all survived their primaries.

Even for the smattering of Democrats at the state capitol, it’s a good thing, because you’d rather deal across the aisle with folks like Paxton than folks like Jett, Deevers and other Freedom Caucus yahoos.

Not to mention, results like that ought to fuel Paxton’s and others’ willingness to speak out, influence and straight up politically pressure the worst of their party to quit throwing flames and begin governing because the whole state’s in the balance.

“I think Oklahomans will look back on 2026 and say, ‘That’s the year we kind of got embarrassed as a state with our education rankings,” Paxton said. “It’s also going to be the year that we turned things around.”

Hear, hear, if he’s right.
But how to make himself right?

Certainly, Paxton and his like-minded cohorts will use their new political capital to get others like them into the state’s most important elected positions.

Like, perhaps, governor and state superintendent, championing Gentner Drummond over Mike Mazzei and Robert Franklin over James Taylor.

If it’s as Paxton says it is, if it’s more about governing than just winning — which it’s long been about for most Republicans and we have the wrecked state to prove it — they need to get behind others like themselves, who seek to govern, too.

Let’s take a moment and remember Mazzei’s biggest hit, number one with a bullet among audiences as crazy and creepy as him.

“What nobody’s really talking about is how do we change an education system that has been hijacked by the radical left,” he said at a May 29 Republican gubernatorial debate. “We have 77 counties in the state of Oklahoma that voted for Donald Trump three times in a row. We’ve got 541 school districts that are run by liberal left-leaning radical socialists.”

He wants to eliminate the state income tax and abolish property taxes for veterans and seniors, too; presumably because why worry about the welfare of Oklahomans without lobbyist and PAC representation and who cares about public school funding?

Forget about the haves and have nots.

If Mazzei gets his way, Oklahoma will be down to the haves and the don’ts.

Paxton and his folks can’t be for that, can they?

Then there’s Taylor, who goes to show you Ryan Walters can burn up his political future less than three years after winning election, but you can’t take the crazy out of the true-believing faction that led to his winning in the first place.

Taylor, a teacher in the Little Axe district and a preacher on the side, or vice-versa, has challenged U.S. Rep. Tom Cole in the 4th District four different times.

He was also fired, along with five others, by Oklahoma City Public Schools, for refusing to wear a face mask during the COVID crisis in 2021.

Then there’s these two paragraphs, written by Oklahoma Voice’s Nuria Martinez Keel, part of a profile written prior to the primary election.

He said “I would do everything I can” to reinstate social studies standards that explain the Bible’s influence on the country’s founding.
“I appreciate what Ryan Walters was attempting to do,” Taylor said. “I really do, and (it) had nothing to do with me being a pastor. It has to do with history. And so, I appreciate what he was doing. I just think he was flawed in his methodology in many ways.”

A wolf in sheep’s clothing?

Six days ago, Taylor tweeted this:

“When a child leaves a public school, the education dollars allocated for that student should follow the student — not stay with the system.
“That’s why, under my administration, we will pursue every avenue to expand school choice in Oklahoma and put parents back in control.”

Just to be clear, a potential state superintendent of PUBLIC instruction can’t wait to forfeit funding for public instruction.

So where are the endorsements?

Where are the endorsements from Paxton and those like him for those who want to govern well, not blow up the system from the inside, who aren’t convinced they know more history than actual historians?

You get elected because you stand for something. Once elected, you have the opportunity to prove you stand for something.

Or do I have that wrong?

You just said the voters have had it with this @#$% and you have, too.

Look, I’d rather Democrats win all of these jobs — well, all but state superintendent, because Jennettie Marshall, also a pastor, and all but abandoned by the state party is no great choice — but if they can’t, and we know they won’t, I’d rather folks like Paxton, Drummond and Franklin hold sway.

Paxton and his folks claim to have the capital.

It’s time to spend some of it on Drummond and Franklin.

The runoffs are Aug. 25.

Republicans who claim to be serious about governance are on the clock.

I’m not holding my breath.

Surprise me.

Because I believe it’s too important, columns like this are never placed behind paywalls. For that reason, it’s important Oklahoma Columnist maintain a roster of paid subscribers to keep this type of journalism alive in Oklahoma. If you agree, please consider a donation in the form of a paid subscription for just $6/month or $60/year.

A long look at the Sooners' latest national championship. It's all you need to know.

Clay Horning — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 05:29:57 GMT

The final word on the Sooner baseball season?

It’s all right here.

You want perspective, we give you the perspective.

Want to understand where it ranks among other Oklahoma national championships, like, say, 2000 football and 2000 softball, each of which appeared so unlikely before they occurred. We’ve got that covered, too.

Or how it compares to other seemingly unlikely championships won by anybody.

That’s all there, too.

Or, if you know me, or have followed me, or have just read me, you might as well familiarize yourself with the method to the madness, because it’s here, too.

Enjoy.

Where's the cavalry coming to support Mazzei? It hasn't arrived yet

Clay Horning — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 07:06:06 GMT

Gentner Drummond, left, and Mike Mazzei. (CNN Graphic)

Two weeks ago, Oklahoma City ABC affiliate KOCO-5 anchor and reporter Chantelle Navarro interviewed Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Mazzei in the wake of his receiving President Donald Trump’s endorsement, and you had to love the way Navarro waded into the big question.

“So,” she said, “you’re saying you did not pay for it?”

Boom goes the dynamite.

Kudos to Navarro for being so direct. From rough and tumble Chicago, perhaps that makes it easier. And a lack of kudos to anybody who didn’t glean what Mazzei had to say, or didn’t say, in reply.

“I think it’s incredibly bizarre and absurd for anybody to think that … President Donald Trump does not make his own decisions about who he wants to endorse,” he said. “And, of course, he’s got a special place in his heart for the people of Oklahoma because he’s quite aware that Oklahoma is the only state in the nation where he won all 77 counties.”

A special place in his heart? Rich.

Of course, I was looking for a much simpler answer.

“Yes, that’s what I’m saying.”

“No, I did not pay for it.”

Something like that.

You know, a denial.

Rather than a non-denial, denial.

Now, I’m not saying he paid for it.

I’m saying when he spoke to Channel 5 he didn’t say he didn’t pay for it.

Interesting, don’t you think?

So, there’s that.

There’s also this.

Now that we’re down to Attorney General Gentner Drummond and Mazzei as the remaining Republican hopefuls in the race, where are the endorsements of Mazzei from his vanquished opponents?

Like, why hasn’t Chip Keating endorsed Mazzei? Why hasn’t Charles McCall?

Take each at their word and they’re the biggest Trump fans ever. True believers. Like NBA action in the ‘80s, they think Trump’s fantastic.

Right?

Keating, after all, couldn’t wait to spend a bunch of state money to build something called the Trump National Laboratory for Energy and National Security. I’m pretty sure I wrote a column about it.

Before McCall chopped a banana in half, the voice-over and lettering on the screen both proclaimed, “Charles McCall. Pro-Trump. Anti-Woke.”

So why haven’t they jumped in over the last week, especially given what Trump called Drummond on Truth Social?

“Gentner Drummond … is a FAKE Republican,” Trump wrote. “The Drummonds donated to SLEEPY Joe Biden, and the totally corrupt Lincoln Project, at levels that are shameful — Frankly, that makes him a Radical Left Dumocrat.”

Why aren’t they falling all over themselves whacking Drummond like a piñata?

It’s true, they have time, the primary runoffs don’t arrive until Aug. 25.

It’s possible, too, they don’t want to back a loser, because Mazzei’s presents creepy as all get out, while Trump’s on course to pay Iran about $300 billion to get out of a war he never had to start, even as getting out of it throws the door wide open for the Epstein files to again dominate the news.

But let me offer another theory.

As candidates, because they have no scruples when it comes to getting themselves elected, no shame they’re not willing to endure, no joke they’re not willing to become, they’ll grovel till the cows come home, slobbering all over Trump hoping to win Oklahoma voters.

Yet, now out of the race, knowing they’ll have no power to wield, they might just be inclined to do the right thing: refusing to sell out the state to a slow-talking, creepy-sounding man who claims to have a plan for everything, who believes every school district in the state is run by a radical socialist, whose numbers do not begin to add up.

It’s true, Drummond himself has done all he could to portray himself as a Trump loyalist, but his heart’s never been in it. The tell has been his attachment to Trump specific issue by specific issue, rather than in full.

Really, when you think about it, his time as attorney general has mostly been about three things, or perhaps only one.

Rooting out corruption.
Preserving the rule of law.
Adhering to the Constitution.

If you’re serious about the last one, maybe the first two just fall in line.

And none of it sounds anything like Trump.

So maybe, though Keating and McCall really, really wanted to be governor themselves, and were willing to sell their soul to Trump to get there, they also know he’s ridiculous, dangerous and dumb and they know Mazzei is too, here for himself, his contributors and nobody else.

Every day they don’t come out for Mazzei, that’s just what it looks like.

They’ll disgrace themselves to win the job, telling themselves they’ll thread the needle between supporting Trump and doing right by the state. But now out of the race, they’re done making deals with the devil.

It’s screwed up, man.

It’s also par for the course and has been for a long time in our Republican super-majority state.

Because I believe it’s too important, columns like this are never placed behind paywalls. For that reason, it’s also important Oklahoma Columnist maintain a roster of paid subscribers to keep this type of journalism alive in the state. If you agree, please consider a donation in the form of a paid subscription for just $6/month or $60/year.

The Voice, Toby Rowland, got it all just right as Sooners did what no other Sooners ever have

Clay Horning — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 08:06:32 GMT

I wish another job for Toby Rowland, voice of the Sooners, maybe the best.

John Brooks was fantastic, a maestro, a major league talent calling football and basketball in the 70s and 80s and Blazers hockey, too.

Soundtrack of my youth.

Still, it feels like it’s Rowland.

So distinctive.

Sympathetic, but not sycophantic. Threading the needle just so.
When Oklahoma’s bad, he won’t tell you it’s good, though wishes it were.

A man for all seasons, too, which put him on the call Monday night in Omaha, Game 3 of the Men’s College World Series championships series, one contest to decide it, one chance to nail it if the Sooners did the job, which they did, and here it was, in full, because he captured it all, his voice cracking as it became official.

Sooner fans on their feet, phones in the air, they want to capture the moment.
Two outs, no balls and two strikes, Jackson Cleveland the pitch …
Got ’em, book it. They did it. They really did it.
You can unhitch the wagon, put the ponies in the barn, the Oklahoma Sooners are the champions of college baseball.
They wouldn’t stop.
They never stopped.
The dogpile is on.
The most improbable, inconceivable, unbelievable run in OU history.
1951 and 1994, you’ve got company.
The Sooners are the champs again in 2026.
The most magical three weeks in OU baseball history. Un-stinkin’-believable.
The final score in the national championship game, it’s Oklahoma 13 and North Carolina 2.

Goodness, what a call.

Vin Scully might have laid out and let the crowd take over after “They did it.”

Jack Buck might have said, “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I can’t believe what I just saw.”

Rowland can’t lay out too much because he’s got the best tagline in the game — “Unhitch the wagon. Put the ponies in the barn” — and the rest of what he said was just right, too, right down to his proclamation that brought all the other sports in, too, because it really was what he said it was:

“The most improbable, inconceivable, unbelievable run in OU history.”

The 2000 national championship the Sooners won at the 2001 Orange Bowl?

Close, but OU was ranked coming out of the gate, proved it was no fluke early by reeling off Red October and wound up winning it all, also by a 13-2 final score, over Florida State.

Also, that team held on, its defense carrying its offense at the end.

This Sooner baseball team did not hold on, but won going away: nine-hole hitter Kyle Branch going deep, eight-hole hitter Dayton Tockey going deep (again), seven-hole hitter Dasan Harris adding his sixth multi-hit since day two of the Lawrence Super Regional.

The 2000 softball national championship felt like it came out of nowhere and it kind of did. Never before had the Sooners been to the World Series. But they got there as a regional host, back when there were only eight and each one included eight teams. So OU was supposed to get there.

But this Sooner baseball team, after losing its last four SEC regular-season series and its first game at the SEC tournament, was judged to be nation’s No. 31 team, hence being sent to challenge No. 2 overall national seed Georgia Tech at the Atlanta Regional.

The team K.J. Kindler coached to the program’s first women’s gymnastics national championship in 2014 birthed a new following that’s led to big Lloyd Noble Center crowds since. But the 2013 team finished national runner-up.

Nope, Rowland’s right, there’s never been anything quite like this.

In conference play, a span of 30 games, OU scored at least 10 runs three times. In NCAA tournament play, a span of 13 games, OU scored at least 10 runs five times and once scored nine and twice scored eight.

Also in conference play, the Sooners allowed at least 10 runs 12 times, or 40 percent of their games. In NCAA tournament play, they allowed 10 or more runs not once and only four times allowed as many as five runs.

One must exit Sooner history to find real comparisons and still it’s difficult.

Buster Douglas? He knocked Tyson out, but he did not dominate the fight.

Villanova over Georgetown in ‘85? Now we’re talking. Coach Rollie Massamino’s Wildcats were an eight seed.

Jim Valvano’s North Carolina State squad that beat Houston’s Phi Slamma Jamma in ‘83 came from nowhere, but were still a six seed.

The ‘06 St. Louis Cardinals went 83-78 in the regular season, yet won the World Series.

Muhammad Ali was an 8-to-1 underdog to beat Sonny Liston on Feb. 25, 1964 in Miami and knocked him out; then was a 13-to-5 underdog in the rematch in Lewiston, Maine, and knocked him out again.

Maybe that?

It’s a fun exercise.
But you’ve got to dig deep.

Just as the Sooners dug deep in Atlanta, then Lawrence, then Omaha.

Just as Rowland dug deep to make an amazing call of an amazing championship, getting it all just right, crushing the perspective, without a script.

Why wish him another job?

I wish he called baseball 162 times a year, in the big leagues.

I’d finally have a team to listen to and watch.

He’s that good.

He proved it again.

People should know.

Hitting in bunches, watching from far away, expecting even more. This is Sooneer baseball.

Clay Horning — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 03:59:48 GMT

Oklahoma’s Deiten LaChance runs the bases after one of his two home runs Saturday afternoon at the College World Series. (OU Athletics Photo)

Author’s Note: At the moment I posted this the first time around, the time of Sunday’s game had yet to be changed. For that reason, I’m sending it out again to all of my subscribers with the correct time entered in the story. If reading it for the first time, proceed. All information is accurate.

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico — After Oklahoma retired North Carolina in the bottom of the eighth inning, the ESPN broadcast flashed the Sooners due up in the top of the ninth.

UHere’s what it looked like on the screen … as well as I can remember it, at least, watching only thanks to the VPN I created on my laptop, allowing for ESPN viewing as though I were still in the states.

• Johnson 2-4
• LaChance 2-4
• Willits 2-4

Cam Johnson walked. Deiten LaChance, who’d already hit two home runs, singled. Willits hit into a double play, though it managed to score Johnson, thus forging the final score of OU’s 9-3 victory over North Carolina in Game 1 of the best two-of-three championship series of the Men’s College World Series Saturday afternoon in Omaha.

Look, I don’t have time to write 800 words on another Sooner victory, their ninth straight since having to stop No. 2 national seed Georgia Tech back-to-back in Atlanta a few weeks ago, just to receive the honor of meeting Big 12 champion Kansas in Lawrence.

I’m on vacation.
This has to come out fast.

What I do know, though, is the graphic shown on the screen as ESPN went to break between the eighth and ninth innings is exactly what OU baseball’s become, at least when it holds the bats.

It’s a barrage.
Hits are expected.
Hits in bunches are expected.
The Sooners expect it of themselves.
It’s magical.

Though it’s not like I’ve been paying attention to every single postseason baseball series, college and pro, over the last 30 years, I’ve still watched a lot of them and only two things of yore spring to mind.

One, the ALCS in which Boston trailed New York 3-0, only for the Red Sox to come back and win four straight, dispatching the Yankees and, soon after, claim the 2004 World Series.

The other — if you’re ahead of me, salute — was the 1990 World Series, in which manager Tony LaRussa’s Athletics had become the biggest baseball heels of my lifetime, threatening to break the game behind Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire and Dennis Eckersley, only to be swept by Cincinnati in four games.

The Red Sox.
The Reds.
Big Red.

Do you detect a theme?

Now, with two chances to win one game to claim the program’s third national championship, it would appear the Sooners’ time has come again.

I’m afraid that’s all I have today.
The great Gwenda and I are due on a boat to take us to the arch.

Just google “Cabo Arch” and you’ll see it. It might be your screensaver already. It’s exactly that on the Samsung in our OKC bedroom, we just realized.

Who knew?

Not sure if I’ll have time to write something after the next one, but I’m happy to step in with this now.

Oh, yeah, if you’re not or haven’t been watching, watch.

The Sooners and Tar Heels meet again at 1:30 p.m. Sunday where you are and at 11:30 a.m. where I’m at.

They’re playing for a national championship, for history, for never being forgotten.

You should really turn it on.

Hitting in bunches, watching from far away, expecting even more. This is Sooneer baseball.

Clay Horning — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 23:28:06 GMT

Oklahoma’s Deiten LaChance runs the bases after one of his two home runs Saturday afternoon at the College World Series. (OU Athletics Photo)

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico — After Oklahoma retired North Carolina in the bottom of the eighth inning, the ESPN broadcast flashed the Sooners due up in the top of the ninth.

• Johnson 2-4
• LaChance 2-4
• Willits 2-4

I’m on vacation.
This has to come out fast.

What I do know, though, is the graphic shown on the screen as ESPN went to break between the eighth and ninth innings is exactly what OU baseball’s become, at least when it holds the bats.

It’s a barrage.
Hits are expected.
Hits in bunches are expected.
The Sooners expect it of themselves.
It’s magical.

One, the ALCS in which Boston trailed New York 3-0, only for the Red Sox to come back and win four straight, dispatching the Yankees and, soon after, claim the 2004 World Series.

The Red Sox.
The Reds.
Big Red.

Do you detect a theme?

Now, with two chances to win one game to claim the program’s third national championship, it would appear the Sooners’ time has come again.

I’m afraid that’s all I have today.
The great Gwenda and I are due on a boat to take us to the arch.

Just google “Cabo Arch” and you’ll see it. It might be your screensaver already. It’s exactly that on the Samsung in our OKC bedroom, we just realized.

Who knew?

Not sure if I’ll have time to write something after the next one, but I’m happy to step in with this now.

Oh, yeah, if you’re not or haven’t been watching, watch.

The Sooners and Tar Heels meet again at 1:30 p.m. Sunday where you are and at 11:30 a.m. where I’m at.

They’re playing for a national championship, for history, for never being forgotten.

You should really turn it on.

Victorious and adaptable, Sooners play for national championship beginning Sunday

Clay Horning — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 05:47:46 GMT

Dasan Harris, one of two Sooners to hit two home runs against Georgia on Wednesday, enjoys the Omaha night. (OU Athletics Photo)

Two things from Oklahoma’s Wednesday night College World Series victory over Georgia, neither having a whole lot to do with the Sooners’ 11-4 victory, the one that has them a best two-of-three-championship-series triumph over North Carolina from the program’s third national championship.

But who’s counting.

One, Jason Walk, who had a mammoth game otherwise, led off the top of the fifth inning by drawing a walk from Bulldog reliever Matt Scott. Then, simultaneous to Camden Johnson striking out, he stole second base.

Deiten LaChance then grounded out to third, with Georgia’s Trey Phelps looking Walk back toward second before throwing across the diamond. Yet, just as Phelps threw, Walk took third base anyway. No matter, Jaxon Willits, who had an otherwise mammoth game, too, struck out to end the frame.

Why the explanation?

Well, LaChance would have hit into a double play had Walk not stolen second. And because he advanced another 90 feet to third, he might have come home on an in-the-dirt offering from Scott. He didn’t, because Georgia catcher Daniel Jackson blocked it, but he might have.

Two, top of the sixth and Trey Gambill, who also had a mammoth game, led off with a single and stole second; and because he did and because he was thinking about third base as soon as Brendan Brock took a ball toward the left-field wall, he was waiting to tag up as it was caught, which he did.

Next up, Dasan Harris, who also enjoyed a mammoth game, though he grounded out to second base, plated Gambill nonetheless.

Here’s the thing.

OU didn’t have to win a tight game.

Again the Sooners received fine pitching and so many, as mentioned, played mammoth games. But had OU needed to steal a run or two to win, or merely reach extra innings, it’s executing that kind of baseball, too.

The Sooners just didn’t need it on a night they lashed five home runs, three doubles and 15 hits.

That’s how well OU’s playing.

That’s the story of this team right now.

Whatever it takes.

Now, let’s get to those mammoth games.

Walk and Harris, who entered with a moderate four home runs each, combined to hit four home runs.

Walk pounded a third-inning offering over straight-away center field, the game’s first run and the first such knock since the World Series began. He belted another solo shot in the eighth, pushing OU to a 9-3 advantage.

Harris delivered his first yard ball in the top of the fourth. Perhaps the game’s biggest swing, the two-run shot, thanks to a single from Brock, put OU in control 4-0 at a time starting pitcher Nick Wesloski was rolling.

Later, in the eighth, two batters before Walk hit his second, Harris hit his second, a no-doubt crush and another two-run job thanks to another single from Brock.

The most runs Harris had ever driven in previously was three. Wednesday, he drove in five and lifted his batting average to .359.

Gambill, meanwhile, went 4 for 5, drove in three and scored twice. He also went deep in the fourth inning, two batters before Harris cleared the fence the first time.

Willits, after striking out his first three turns at the plate, came through with an RBI double in the seventh, plating Kyle Branch, who’d walked, to make it 6-3, right after the Bulldogs had sent eight to the plate in the bottom of the sixth, scoring twice to make it 5-3.

Willits closed with a second double in the ninth, before coming home on a Gambill double to score the Sooners’ final run.

On the mound, it was Wesloski’s turn, yet another true freshman, just like Cord Rager and Xander Mercurious before him.

By the book, he tossed 5 2/3 innings, allowed four hits and three runs but just one earned thanks to Dayton Tockey’s error at first base, struck out four and walked two. Two of the runs charged to him, though, were walked home by L.J. Mercurious, who relieved him.

Mercurious eventually settled in and wound up throwing 3 1/3 innings, allowing two hits and a run, good for his fourth save since joining the bullpen.

The ESPN crew has had great fun referring to where the Sooners were only to be gobsmacked by where they now are.

Like, when May began, OU ranked 125th in the nation in home runs, but is now up to 30th; or how 43 of the Sooners’ 91 home runs have come in the last 16 games; or how they ranked 14th in the SEC in home runs during the regular season, but have hit more than any team since NCAA play began.

At one point, play-by-play man Karl Ravech referred to OU as “a team that’s on a tear like we’ve never seen.”

Right after, color man Chris Burke offered, “They keep surprising me, but this is just who they are right now.”

They are.

Saturday, the championship series begins.

Both teams will be rested and both will have all their pitching available.

Somebody’s got to win.

The Tar Heels were the better team all season.

Nobody’s better than the Sooners now.

Strikes, long balls, detail work push Sooners past Georgia, one win from championship series

Clay Horning — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 07:22:07 GMT

Oklahoma starting pitcher Xander Mercurious in Omaha, Monday night.

Oklahoma beat Georgia at the College World Series Monday night.

It now has two chances to win one game to reach the best two-of-three championship series and, if you’re curious, the squad on the other side of the bracket in the same spot is No. 5 seed North Carolina.

After topping the Bulldogs 4-3, the Sooners are in the same position they found themselves in 2022 when they met Ole Miss for the crown, and kind of the same spot they found themselves in 1994, when they beat Georgia Tech to win it all, though the best two-of-three series to decide it had yet to be imagined.

And while that’s great and all, potentially historic given OU wasn’t considered among the nation’s top 30 teams when NCAA regional bids were announced three weeks ago, can we just put all of that aside for a moment and talk about Xander Mercurious?

Nothing to it as Sooners return to World Series

Clay Horning — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 01:00:48 GMT

Oklahoma starting pitcher Cord Rager celebrates at the College World Series on Saturday, where OU topped Alabama 9-0. (OU Athletics Photo)

You know how Oklahoma’s been piling runs since NCAA play began?
This was better.

You know how well freshman pitcher Cord Rager’s been pitching?
This was better, too.

You know how it’s been a whole new world since the Sooners dropped two of three its last four SEC regular-season series and its conference tourney opener?

That world just got bigger.

We’ve made much of how hot OU’s been since regional bids were awarded and still none of it foreshadowed just how easy the Sooners would make it look upon returning to Omaha and the College World Series.

Saturday afternoon, OU dispatched Alabama 9-0 like it was a walk in the park, earning a day off and the honor of remaining in the winners’ bracket, which is kind of everything.

So good, the only negative anyone might level at the Sooners, who spent four years away from the CWS since reaching its best two-of-three championship series in 2022, would be to accuse them of peaking too early.

They were that good.

Let’s begin with Rager, who never lost his job in coach Skip Johnson’s rotation even as he pitched to a higher earned run average than those who did. Since NCAA play began, he’d thrown 12 innings, allowed eight hits and three runs, walked one and struck out 14 prior to Saturday.

All good.

Saturday, he threw seven innings for the first time, allowed three hits, no runs, walked nobody, plunked one and struck out eight, the last three Tide batters he faced included, the very last one being Eric Hines, after which ESPN analyst Ben McDonald called Rager “as dirty as a Bourbon Street martini.”

You’ve got to love it.

Rager did it all in 88 pitches (63 strikes). Along the way, he became the first freshman in World Series history to throw four no-hit innings and pushed his personal scoreless-inning streak to 15, which is bananas.

Then there’s catcher Deiten LaChance, who’d led OU with three home runs and 11 RBIs since NCAA play began, yet who severely twisted his left ankle rounding second base following Jaxon Willits’ first-inning single.

The rest of the way, LaChance limped horribly; when he ran, when he backtracked from the plate to catch a foul ball, when he went in and out of the dugout.

But he never left the game, made it home on Trey Gambill’s two-run first inning double to the right-center field gap, and two at bats later delivered the contest’s biggest blow, a screaming two-run sixth-inning home run that left his bat at 110 miles per hour and traveled 410 feet without hardly getting in the air, finishing beyond the bullpen tucked behind the left-field fence.

After Jason Walk walked to begin the top of the eighth, LaChance’s single was the first of five Sooner hits to produce four more Sooner runs. Even the double play he hit into in the third inning plated OU’s third run.

He wasn’t all.

Every Sooner in the lineup but nine-hole hitter Kyle Branch finished with at least a hit and OU finished with 11 total, creating its offense from the ground up, scoring all its runs with the benefit of just three walks and one hit batsman.

In the two-game super-regional round at Kansas, Jayhawk pitchers walked or plunked 14 Sooners.

This is how good it went for OU.

In the bottom of the sixth, after Alabama’s John Lemm and Eric Hines led off with back-to-back singles, Crimson Tide coach Rob Vaughn, his team down 3-0, for no apparent good reason, sent seven-hole hitter Brennan Holt to the plate to sacrifice.

Holt jabbed at the ball a couple times only to produce a two-strike count. Then, also for no apparent good reason, OU kept its corner infielders in rather than sending them back to regular depth.

Holt then lashed a hard ground ball, but with a garden hop, to first baseman Dayton Tockey, who turned and threw to shortstop Willits, covering second base, who fired back to Tockey at first and the Sooners were all but out of the frame. Next up, Luke Vaughn grounded to Branch at second base and they were out of it.

Easy peasy.

The twin-killing wasn’t OU’s only defensive moment.

After giving up a leadoff single to Holt in the eighth, Sooner reliever L.J. Mercurious got Vaughn on strikes before Peyton Steele hit into a 6-4-3 double play to end the frame.

A tough day for Steele, no Tide batter hit the ball harder than he did in the third inning, only for Sooner third baseman Cam Johnson to spear it with a dive and throw him out.

The Sooners’ last error came 26 innings ago, when Johnson misplayed Kansas’ Dylan Schlotterback’s ground ball.

OU and Alabama met for a three-game set the first weekend of April in Tuscaloosa. Alabama won the opener 10-7. OU won the next one 4-2. Alabama won the next one 3-2. Rager, out with an oblique strain, did not pitch.

A blessing in disguise?

Or maybe the Dodgers weren’t doing anything against Rager on Saturday either.

Georgia and Texas are playing right now and the Sooners get the winner at 6 p.m. Monday.

Texas swept OU the last weekend of March. Georgia and OU have not met.

No matter.

The Sooners have reinvented themselves.

Perhaps into the nation’s best team.

The end of youth

Clay Horning — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 07:55:24 GMT

Chris Kenney and his son, Drew, in 2012, back when the Thunder were good the first time around. I pulled this photo from Chris’ Facebook page. I wish I had one of us together.

I had a column cooking about noted gambler and Texas Tech quarterback, for now, Brendan Sorsby, but I can’t write it.

Maybe later.

I can’t write it because I got a phone call from my friend Tim Aven on Wednesday, that another friend, my very best friend from high school, though David Quinn offered real competition, but David was not on the golf team, a huge Atlanta Braves fan, nor a purveyor of heavy metal, had died.

Tim called to tell me Chris Kenney had died.

Over last weekend, he said.

Perhaps a cardiac event, which I include because whenever somebody’s died before their time our mind goes to another cause of death. I was told it wasn’t that.

Because I could not find mention of his passing anywhere online, nor an obit, a death notice, a funeral arrangement (and still can’t), I very nearly texted Chris just hours after getting the call. But my daughter, who’d met him and who I’d told, found a mention on social media from a loved one.

Confirmation.

I’ve had three best friends in my life, or four or five if you count Barry Webster, who I thankfully still know, and Travis Howard, who I lost track of between fourth and fifth grade, when he and his mother moved to Houston, who I’ve not been able to locate since, though I’ve tried.

But mostly three.

Chris Bright, since forever.
Brent Cooper, since college.
Chris Kenney, since arriving at Bishop McGuinness in the fall of ’82.

Brent died on Dec. 30, 2017.

A brain tumor, after outliving his prognosis for years. I didn’t think I could write a whole column about him for the newspaper, so I memorialized him like this.

I hate now having to do that for Chris. But I must.

I’ve cried three times since writing the headline you see at the top, which I usually write last but this time wrote first. It’s the way I pay tribute, the way I grieve, the way I get through the worst of it.

I never really cried after my father died, but it was a long goodbye, the majority of which he endured in good spirits until the illness killed the spirits and his body a couple of weeks later. And I got to write about him as it was happening, even in the sports pages he’d first graced as a young basketball star, managing to put him in touch with some old friends along the way, which he appreciated.

I digress.

Let me tell you about Chris.

Let me begin with a trait of his that wasn’t my favorite, because it will take us to the ones that are.

He’d hang out at my house. Maybe we were headed to the golf course, maybe it was in high school, college summers, or even after he’d finished law school and I was home for some reason during my early sports writing days.

We’d be talking, about baseball, pro wrestling, music, whatever, and my dad, an Oklahoma City attorney of note, would enter the room behind me and before I knew it, Chris had ended our conversation mid-sentence, bounded off the couch, put his hand out and said something like, “Good to see you, Mr. Horning.”

Who’s this Mr. Horning, I would think for about half a second before putting it together and realizing my dad was there.

Times he and I had social plans in our 40s and 50s, only for him to push them back to the next week or the next one, I tended to believe another “Mr. Horning” must have entered the room.

But I didn’t sweat it.

It was just a part of him and we’d see each other eventually.

Though there were times we’d go long periods without seeing each other, I still knew he valued the friendship. I’d get a text during the World Series, during an OU football or basketball game, or from the theater as he watched “The Iron Claw,” the movie about the American tragedy that was the Von Erich family.

Always, I knew when we spoke again, it would be as it had always been, as though no time had passed, and it always was.

To be fair, I struggle horribly with friendships.

Struggle to pick up the phone. Struggle to text. It’s so easy to insulate within yourself. If you’re very lucky, you get to share your life with your person, your best best friend, who encourages you to stay in touch with your other best friends.

I have been very lucky.

That, and after my dad died, Chris woke me up with a phone call after the obit ran. It was a loss for him, too.

When we’d get together, as we did last, after a couple postponements, maybe three months ago, it was terrific. He was happy to see me, happy to meet Gwenda, interested, full of life, generous.

We always talked politics, yet later in life I couldn’t pin him down. In high school, we had the same heroes, yet the bigger he made it, and he made it very big, I think he occasionally drifted toward the party of those who’d made it big.

But his core values, I’m pretty sure, never changed.

He was always the same guy I grew up playing golf with, talked sports with and who introduced me to bands like Dokken when Breakin’ The Chains came out in ’83, and Whitesnake when Slide It In came out in ‘84, three years before David Coverdale began making videos with Tawny Kitaen and they took over the world.

Here, four things, apropos of nothing, about Chris and our friendship.

I’m a funny guy, a counterpuncher, who doesn’t tell jokes but gets off good lines. Meanwhile, nobody laughs — let’s stick with the present tense — nobody laughs more or bigger than Chris. So there was chemistry, but something more. He heard you. When he was there with you, he was there with you.
I mentioned the Braves. When we were in high school, we’d be on the phone for an hour, both watching the Braves live as we talked, both wringing our hands over the Braves’ inability to come up with a left fielder they could trust, both guessing what the next pitch would be, both managing the team.
The first flop shot I ever saw came from just off the back and left side of the first green at Lincoln West. Chris hit it. The pin was in the middle of that very large green and what I thought would be a routine chip came out 10 feet in the air and finished three or four feet from the cup. Amazing. I’ve never used it from that near the green, but I wanted that shot, learned that shot and have used it from all over the place since. I don’t use it like I used to, but I’ve still got it and it all goes back to Chris.
We both had great affinity for the intricacies of officiating sports. For instance, we were aficionados of called third strikes. If you know, you know. And we particularly loved basketball referees blowing the whistle and waving their arms in a rush to reveal, “no basket,” and if it was “charging, no basket,” even better. There’s very little personality among NBA refs these days. But in the old Big Eight, they had style.

We just connected. Like Brent and I connected. Like Chris Bright and I connect.

About Brent I wrote, “He was sweet, not cool; gracious, not fearful; helpful, not selfish; open, not shut.” I think Chris achieved coolness, but the rest of it goes for him, too. He was one of the good guys and what’s better than that?

I’ll miss him.

I loved him.

I fucking hate that he’s gone.

Until 10 days ago, we were the same age.

I hate that, too.

If you knew Chris and would like to share this with others who might have known him, please feel free.

Everything you need to know about Sooner baseball as it chases a national championship

Clay Horning — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 17:58:13 GMT

As you may know, Sooner baseball has come from the depths of depravity, or just a very difficult final month to its regular season, to the College World Series.

The event begins Friday in Omaha with Troy (yes, Troy!!!) taking on West Virginia at 1 p.m. and Ole Miss facing North Carolina at 6 p.m. Saturday, Oklahoma faces Alabama at 2 p.m. and Texas meets Georgia at 7 p.m.

From the losers’ bracket at Georgia Tech, the Sooners defeated the No. 2 overall national seed Yellow Jackets back-to-back to advance to the Lawrence Super Regional, where they topped Kansas, also back-to-back, 8-1 and 13-2.

The last time OU reached the CWS was 2022, also without playing a single postseason game at home, it reached the best two-of-three championship series, eventually falling to Ole Miss.

Could another deep run be on the table?

The way the Sooners are playing, absolutely.

Want the lowdown?

Just click.