Once thought to be a sure first-round NFL draft pick, Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones passed on the money for an extra year in school. The gamble didn’t pay off. After an up-and-down season in 2012, Jones waited until the fourth round to hear his name called.

In the analysis surrounding the quarterback’s draft status, the focus actually seemed to move away from Jones’ play to his coaches. It started with his appearance on ESPN analyst Jon Gruden’s annual televised skull sessions, when the Super Bowl-winning ex-coach pinned Jones’ struggles on “boredom” and poor scheming ($).

Saturday afternoon, pro football’s most notable game manager, Trent Dilfer, was far more blunt in his criticism. It was a variation on the same theme as Gruden, though: The Sooners pass-heavy offensive is gimmicky; all sizzle, no steak.

I recently came across a post from our buddy Dave Bartoo at cfbmatrix.com about drafting quarterbacks that might raise the interest of Sooner fans.

With the NFL draft quickly approaching, Bartoo found an intriguing relationship between his "Coaching Effect" statistic and quarterback play in the NFL. (A team’s Coaching Effect reflects the difference between the number of games it wins and the numbers of games that it should win based on talent and schedule – positive means the team won more games than it should, negative means fewer.)

Essentially, using data dating back to 2004, he found that quarterbacks who played for programs with a negative Coaching Effect tend to crap out in the pros at a disproportionately high rate (80 percent versus an average miss rate of 66 percent, based on Bartoo's subjective analysis of QB busts). To illustrate the relationship, consider Charlie Weis, owner of a decidedly negative Coaching Effect score. Despite learning at the hand of the man who purportedly molded Tom Brady into one of the best NFL QBs ever, Weis' two college protégés, Brady Quinn and Jimmy Clausen, have flamed out in the big leagues.

Did you ever have to make up your mind? Pick up on one and leave the other behind.

Those are the lyrics to a Lovin’ Spoonful classic song released in 1966. It reminds me of Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy.

A couple of weeks ago, Gundy declared that Clint Chelf would be his starting quarterback this season.

Oklahoma had a big recruiting weekend around the annual spring game, with over a dozen visitors from 2014/2015 prospects and nearly a dozen 2013 signees. Add in a crowd of around 29,000 and a QB battle being aired for the first time this spring, and the event had a lot buzz.

Hours before OU’s current trio of QBs went to battle for the starting spot, Justice Hansen verbaled to the Sooners, becoming the key QB recruit in the 2014 class. Hansen was the only QB offer and had decided that he would verbal at the spring game of either OU or Texas A&M, which were going on at the same time last weekend.

Hansen is a big-time pickup for the Sooners. He’s been to OU summer camps the last two summers. As a quarterback, he has excellent mobility to go with a great arm and accuracy. He put up over 3,000 yards passing and 700 yards rushing last year. Hansen is playing in the Under Armour All-American Game and will be a top 150-type prospect.

Spring football has wrapped up for Oklahoma following last weekend's Red-White Game. OU beat reporter Jason Kersey of NewsOK.com joins Homerism for a podcast to break down the annual spring game and talk about the news coming out of Norman.

Jason and I touch on:

*The leader in the quarterback derby.

*The influence of new members of the coaching staff on the team.

*The Sooners' stable of wide receivers.

*A surprising standout on the defensive side of the ball.

*Concerns about the defensive line.

*And more.

(Subscribe to Blatant Homerism's Podcast through iTunes. Please rate and review the show if you get the chance, too. Thanks.)

By April, the lack of college football can turn a spring game into the ultimate fools’ gold for fans. When a program locks down for spring ball the way that Oklahoma does, the temptation to jump to grand conclusions based on the annual Red-White Game is strong.

Stars usually see little action and coaches typically keep the schemes pretty vanilla in the spring, which also add degrees of difficulty in assessing the scrimmage. All that said, Homerism bravely tried to cut through the clutter to give loyal readers a rundown of the key takeaways from our last look at the Sooners until the fall.

Note that given the unique nature of the situation, I focus my attention on individual players, as opposed to the squad in general.

Bob Stoops' comments to Matt Hayes of SportingNews.com in a column earlier this week touched off a big of firestorm about compensation for college athletes. One thing I happened to notice from the jump: For all the bluster from Stoops about athletes going hungry and and the value of a college scholarship, Stoops never said he's against full-cost-of-attendance scholarships.

Full-cost-of-attendance scholarships include stipends to make up the shortfall between what is covered by an athletic scholarship and the full cost of living for a college student. A proposal to offer athletes a stipend of up to $2,000 per year to cover their living expenses is stuck somewhere in the NCAA legislative morass at the moment. (I did a podcast with NCAA expert John Infante on the subject this week.)

Columnist Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman followed up with Stoops yesterday, and OU's coach said he is in favor of stipends. As Tramel points out, that doesn't mean he's backing of his "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" message. However, the positions aren't exclusive.

So, apparently, Bob Stoops has an opinion about the pay-for-play proposals for college athletes. OK, a strong opinion.

In an interview with Matt Hayes of SportingNews.com, Stoops dismissed the suggestion of stipends for athletes. He did it in his typically blunt fashion, which naturally caught the attention of the national media.

A guy who makes $5 million a year comes out against paying players what looks like peanuts? “You’re not the first one to spend a hungry Sunday without any money.”

Way back in 2007, Oklahoma hosted Missouri in a battle for Big 12 supremacy so big that ESPN GameDay made its way to Norman for the game. Actually, that has been pretty commonplace at OU since Chris, Lee and Kirk started blazing a trail around the United States chasing the best matchups college football has to offer. I remember essentially nothing from the broadcast, expect for one thing.

The GameDay crew brought Bob Stoops out for an interview that morning. The producers decided to tease the spot going into commercial by panning down a row of cheerleaders and ending with Stoops.

Man, I wish I had the video of that for this article. When all was said and done, Stoops was standing there looking like he had fire ants in his jockstrap.

West Virginia's first season in the Big 12 started hot and fizzled fast. The Mountaineers began 2012 with five straight wins, but they finished 2-6 down the stretch, including a humiliating 38-14 loss to former Big East conference mate Syracuse in the Pinstripe Bowl.

Dana Holgorsen brings a 17-9 overall record into his third season as West Virginia's head coach.