New assistant coach Jay Boulware has taken over as special teams coordinator for the Sooners this spring in addition to coaching the tight ends. His most recent special teams tutelage was at Auburn. The Tigers’ punt coverage unit ranked second nationally, allowing four return yards on 70 punts. You read that right: F-O-U-R yards. Auburn’s opponents only returned 5 of those 70 kicks.

The Tigers averaged 8.9 yards per punt return last year, far less than OU’s 14.3 in 2012. Auburn was third nationally in kickoff coverage, yielding 16.6 per return. The Sooners gave up 18.8 per return last year, but had a better return average than the Tigers (25.8-22.4).

So, what does the new coach have to work with at OU this spring? He's breaking in a new punter. That’s it. Everybody with some experience returns.

The spring has seen big changes in recruiting strategy by Oklahoma. The Sooners are moving towards a new strategy that I call “Total Recruiting.” The key changes include:

*Instead of hosting big recruiting weekends for juniors, OU seems to be focusing on events throughout spring practice whenever prospects can visit. The prospects are being told that OU has an open door policy for spring visits – come when you can come up. It requires greater effort on OU’s part, but it also allows for more focused attention for the recruits and greatly extends the chances that OU will get more 2014 kids on campus.

*OU is handing out more early offers to both Texas and national prospects. OU is aggressively pursuing the top prospects around the nation and regionally.

Time for a break from football for March Madness. The Skinny joins Homerism for a podcast to talk about their picks for this year's NCAA basketball tournament and take a deeper look at the four regions.

Skinny and I touch on:

*Oklahoma's matchup with San Diego State on Friday night in the first round.

*The games we're most looking forward to.

*Players to watch.

*Sleeper and upset picks.

*Our Final Four predictions.

*And more.

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

Steve Davis wasn't the quickest wishbone quarterback to ever play at the University of Oklahoma, but he achieved something no other was ever able to accomplish—two national championships.

Davis, 60, died Sunday night while onboard on a jet that crashed into three homes in South Bend, Ind.

A product of Sallisaw, Okla., he came to OU in 1971 and was eighth among eight quarterbacks on the roster. Two years later he beat out four others to become the starting quarterback. Davis started 34 games for the Sooners from 1973-75 and helped Oklahoma to national championships in 1974 and 1975.

Ugly ass uniforms are turning up everywhere these days in sports arenas. Thursday night Baylor’s basketball team wore some ugly unis with black/gray shirts and shorts. It looked like they traded their traditional gold for highlighter yellow.

It looked to me like they were trying to win the game by freaking out their opponents, which happened to be Oklahoma State in the second round of the Big 12 basketball tournament. It nearly worked as OSU blew a huge lead, but held on to win by two points.

When watching some of these teams in their throwback uniforms, it makes me thank God that the Sooners don’t whore themselves for a buck when it comes to major uniform changes.

I make one exception for the Harlem Shake – when the Sooners bust it out and convince some Crimson and Cream legends to join them.

Since Oklahoma's disastrous blowout loss in the Cotton Bowl to Texas A&M, the program has lost:

• Three fired assistant coaches, which is pretty much unheard of since Bob Stoops became head coach 15 years ago;
• A four-year starter at quarterback;
• Its two leading receivers;
• Both starting safeties, including the leading tackler from a year ago;
• A left tackle who might be among the first 10 picks in April's NFL draft;
• Three defensive linemen with starting experience;
• A three-year starting cornerback;
• A three-year starting linebacker;
• And, for good measure, an elite punter.

That massive turnover provides the backdrop against which the Sooners will start spring practice on Saturday. The sentimental types among Sooner Nation may lament the loss of a number of accomplished stars. The more demanding among us could view it as a chance to inject some new blood into a program that has been good-but-not-quite-good-enough for four years, an eternity in Norman time.

Naturally, though, that kind of upheaval leaves plenty of questions to be answered as the young bucks assemble for spring ball. Chief among them:

The Sooners’ secondary was the strength of the defense last year, but only one starter, Aaron Colvin, will be around for 2013. As such, secondary coaches Mike Stoops and Bobby Jack Wright have some work to do this spring figuring out who's going to be in the mix this fall.

Colvin (6-0, 181), who opted to stay for his senior year, will be one of the leaders of the defense this year. He finished third on the team in 2012 with 61 tackles, 4 interceptions and 11 passes broken up.

The defensive backfield would have been stronger if safety Tony Jefferson had hung around for his senior year, but he opted for greener pastures in hopes of getting drafted by the NFL. Mike stated in OU’s spring football press conference Thursday that Gabe Lynn (6-0, 199, Sr.) would be the starting free safety going into spring camp. Lynn hasn't exactly lit it up in his OU career, but he has made some improvement since 2011. He appeared to make some strides as the full-time nickelback last year.

The Sooners’ defense will be a huge question mark this season, just as it was last year when the “D” had many folks scratching their heads. As is the case with the defensive line this spring, uncertainty is the dominant theme at linebacker.

There’s talk that defensive coordinator Mike Stoops is going to switch from the 4-3 to a 3-4 base defense. Whatever he does, he will need to get some consistency from his second line of defense. It got so bad with his 'backers a year ago that Mike was throwing out seven-man secondaries that proved useless against mobile quarterbacks.

One of the bigger developments this offseason at the position actually involves someone who won't be there this spring. Middle linebacker Tom Wort seemed lost in adjusting to Mike’s defensive scheme, prompting Wort to leave early for a possible stint in the NFL.

Just who is Jay Boulware, the latest hire by Bob Stoops to coach the tight ends and special teams?

For starters, he is a Longhorn. He was an offensive tackle for Texas in 1991-95. Can’t find any information if he was a starter or not, but he’s definitely a Longhorn. I guess we shouldn’t chastise him for that now that he has come over to the good guys. The Burnt Orange fans probably see things differently.

After he got a degree in Austin, he hung around and coached tight ends as a graduate assistant for the Steers from 1994-96. Pat Fitzgerald was one of his pupils. (No, not the one who coaches Northwestern.) Fitzgerald was an AP All-American in 1996, so there's that.