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The Dumbest, Wildest And Craziest Moments from the OU Football Coaching Search…

12:14 PM EST on December 7, 2021

What a strange and wild week it was!

Last week at this time, OU fans were still recovering from the whiplash of Lincoln Riley bailing for USC to begin his version of his next chapter. Now, here we all are, enthralled and captivated by the return of the man most of us wanted to help pack and move out of Norman 10 years earlier.

Yep, the Brent Venables era of OU football is officially here. I don't have a problem with the selection. I'm curious to see how well he adapts to being a head coach, but you can't argue with his success as an assistant. That being said, it is the safe, predictable hire. I'm not sure that matters, but it's something to note. I believe it's the great Sam Presti who once said "Safe Money Do Make Some."

Anyway, I'm sure we'll have at least two or three years to complain or cheer Venables as the new head football coach at Oklahoma. For this post, I wanted to focus on all the crazy, wild and wacky stuff that made the rounds on social media over the last week. From wild rumors to funny gaffes to Dean Blevins being Dean Blevins, it was a very entertaining week of social media engagement for OU fans who were refreshing Twitter every five minutes for updated news.

Here are some of the highlights and lowlights of the week the was...

Lincoln pulls a fast one on everyone

I guess we should start with the moment that started it all. I watched Lincoln say this as it happened, and something about it seemed weird to me. Riley's pretty good at coach speak and giving long-winded answerless responses to questions, so it was strange he was being this specific when shooting down a rumor. I guess we should have known something stupid and weird was up.

Spaulding Hefner spreads fake news about Riley's contract

Robert "Spaulding" Hefner the VIII decided to share "unconfirmed" – aka "my old frat brother knows someone in the USC athletic department, bro..." – details of Lincoln Riley's contract on Twitter. The news spread across the social mediasphere spread faster than an OU recruit bailing on their commitment, and was picked up by the online sports opinion media grifters.

Eddie Radio – a nominee for Most Entertaining Social Media Personality in a Leading Role during the coaching search drama – debunked the rumor when he noted Lincoln's two houses were for sale and on the market:

That whole tweet by Spaulding seemed far-fetched. Not only is every member of the Hefner family an unreliable source of information, but at the rate Californians and foreign nationals are buying up real estate in Oklahoma, there's no way Riley would sell his properties for only $500,000 over market value. He could get some Chinese black market weed growers to pay triple!

One publication did call out Hefner for his role in spreading fake, unconfirmed news across the internet for attention. You can read it here.

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Former Oklahoma Tax Commissioner inadvertently makes case for higher taxation of wealthy Oklahomans. 

Yep, despite the increase in taxes, Riley still chose to leave Oklahoma for California. I'm sure if some organization in California offered Jolley $13 million a year, access to a private jet, and to.. uhm... buy both of his houses at $500,000 over market value, Jolley would also leave the state for the privilege of living in California, taxes and all.

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Crazy QAnon Style Conspiracy Theories Emergy

Did you hear Demarco Murray confronted Lincoln Riley during the coaches-only meeting? Did you catch wind of the alleged affair between Lincoln Riley and a recruiting staffer? If so, congrats – you were officially immersed in the OU Q-Anon coaching search rumor mill. Both of these stories, which I'm pretty sure are total BS, made the rounds throughout the week:

No lie, I probably had 20 different people send me the second baseless rumor – which has more holes in it than a Riley-led defense – on Friday night. The only thing it was missing was a claim that the affairs were part of a sex trafficking ring that operated in the basement of Pizza Shuttle.

Also, it should be noted A) Carey denied posting that rumor and B) that Annie Hanson is following Riley to USC, and her husband is joining his coaching staff:

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OU fans suddenly like the compliance department

Former OU assistant coach Roy Manning was apparently out recruiting for USC while he was still technically employed by OU. I guess this is an NCAA violation of sorts, and once the word got out via an interview with a recruit, the OU compliance department tweeted Lincoln's eye emojis to show they caught him or something. I'm not sure it matters or anything will come from it, but it was funny to see OU fans cheer for the compliance department.

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"Hey, did you hear Drake is going to introduce Dabo Sweeny as the new coach and then perform Jumpan at a concert?"

This rumor picked up steam as OU fans were growing more and more delirious. It was one of those things that sounded too ridiculous and outlandish to be true, but just ridiculous and outlandish enough to be true.

"Dabo? Drake concert? Jumpman? This makes sense!"

Although it only took a morsel of common sense to see how far-fetched the rumor was – I don't think Dabo would do something that classless to Clemson – it did help explain Drake's appearance at a Thunder game, and also make OU fans feel that the Sooner program is for some reason better than Clemson.

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SoonerScoop has Twitter beef with TLO

The outlandish Dabo to OU rumors first originated on Carey Murdock member's only message board Sooner Scoop. That's a pretty good racket, huh? You spread baseless rumors about coaching searches, then get people to pay you $10 a month to read them! I don't know about you, but I need to start posting more rumors and hiding them behind the paywall! I'm slipping here!

In his post, Carey asked people not to share the rumor, or claim he was the one reporting them (which he was). As a result, I shared the following screenshot on social media:

This made Carey mad. He said I violated paywall bro-code, which I probably was.

First of all, I didn't tweet Carey's baseless and incorrect rumor to "generate interest" on my potential paysite. Whatever that means. I'm just a troll who wanted to let people know that OU's leading homer beat reporter is spreading insane rumors for profit on his website. Big difference. Either way, I did violate the paywall bro code, so I removed the screenshot and issued this tweet instead. Kumbaya.

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Sports Illustrated accidentally reports that OU hired Dan Lanning 

This was the biggest reporting gaffe of the week that was.

For what it's worth, Sports Illustrated apologized for the error. They claimed someone accidentally clicked the publish button on a draft. You know, kind of like how Lincoln Riley didn't meet with USC until early Sunday morning.

OSU goes full poke choke 

Lost in the OU coaching search was that little brother still had a game to play, and boy, they didn't disappoint, losing a close battle to the Baylor Bears in the Big 12 Championship.

I give OSU fans a hard time on this site, but I would like to offer my sincere condolences on Saturday's loss. That was brutal, but if any fan base can handle a brutal loss, it's OSU fans! They're used to it.

Also, I think the team's inability to gain an extra four inches and win the Big 12 may have been a blessing in disguise. With the way the weekend played out, I really do think the playoff committee would have put an undefeated Cincinnati squad that had a win over Notre Dame in the playoff over a 1-loss Oklahoma State squad that was beaten by Iowa State. Just like father time, Squinky is undefeated.

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Dean Blevins Annoys to Perfection

The week started strong when Dean pouted that Lincoln Riley stood him up for the "OU head coach show," as if Lincoln Riley cares about Dean Blevins.

"Lincoln, the plane's ready! Let's get to LA before the locals find out and rioting ensues."

"Wait. Before we go, I need to go talk to Dean Blevins. I don't want to stand him up and hurt his feelings."

Things only got worse for Dean from there. Watching him cover this coaching search reminded me of watching Gary England struggle with the giant iPad during the 2013 severe weather coverage. You can tell he's been passed by, something most people have known since about 2005.

In an effort to stay relevant and make people think he's connected, Dean tried to give vague, cryptic clues about the coaching search on social media that sounded more like a fortune teller grasping at straws.

The criticism of Dean was heavy on all channels. He even got in a Twitter spat with one of the now seemingly endless OU beat writers on social media.

On that note, how many of these guys are there now? Just like there's one marijuana dispensary for every 50 Oklahoma medical marijuana patients, there's now at least one OU football reporter/podcaster for every 50 OU fans. It also doesn't help that their names are so interchangeable – Tyler Pyrzbilo; Joey Buettner; John Chapman; Ryan McCuistion. I don't know who's-who, but they all basically share the same news, and they all seem more informed and connected to the team than Dean!

Also, not to pile on here, but Dean was at his cringeworthy worst during News 9's live coverage of the Venables plane landing. He wouldn't stop talking when Venables was speaking, and then goaded Stormy Jones to interrupt the coach while he was asking trivia questions to the crowd.

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OU airport madness

On Sunday night, hundreds, if not thousands, of still somewhat hurt and rejected OU fans flocked to the airport to see their new head coach Brent Venables. The whole scene reminded me of the honeymoon days of the Thunder, when fans would organically congregate at the airport to greet the team after a hard-earned playoff victory.

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Riley has Larry David moment

Can somebody give this video the Curb Your Enthusiasm treatment? You know, play the Curb theme music and zoom in on Riley's face. That would be funny. Also, I think we all underestimated the draw and power of the USC song girls. No wonder Reily took the USC job.

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Anyway, I'm sure I missed about 20 things for this list. if you have any, let us know in the comments. Boomer Sooner.

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