In his first spring practices at Oklahoma, new offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh will have four starters back from last year and a few players who have playing experience as well. He recently told Jessica Coody of Sooner Sports TV that the best way to play the line is to be tough, physical, mean and nasty.

“I’m going to coach them hard and I expect them to be great,” he said.

But the problem isn’t that OU’s front wall isn’t tough and physical, because they had been tremendous in protecting Landry Jones in the pocket. The problem is that they hadn’t been mean and nasty when it comes to opening running lanes. Bedenbaugh, a former West Virginia line coach, is more of a spread offense guy, and the Sooners need to learn how to block better for the running game to develop.

Bob Stoops’ hire of Jerry Montgomery as defensive line coach doesn't seem as baffling as hiring Bill Bedenbaugh as o-line boss.

Montgomery and Bedenbaugh are supposed to be great recruiters. That’s fine and good, but a lot of time high school studs don’t turn into football stars on the collegiate level. Like Bedenbaugh, Montgomery's ability to coach 'em up is debatable.

Montgomery spent the last two years as Michigan’s d-line coach, and two years prior to that, he held the same position at Wyoming. Coaching the d-line the past four years for the Wolverines and Cowboys, Montgomery has produced no All-Americans and only one first-team all-conference honoree (tackle John Fletcher in 2009 at Wyoming). Defensive end Josh Biezuns was named to the Mountain West's second team a year later, and tackle Mike Martin was a second-team all-Big 10 honoree at Michigan.

Editor's note: We wanted to give the Sooners' 2013 class a little time to marinate before we really dug in. We've given each position a grade for both the quality of players acquired and how well OU satisfied its personnel needs. Enjoy.

(Editor's note: With the Sooners set to kick off spring practice on March 5, BH is doing a position-by-position preview. First up, of course, are the guys under center.)

All the scuttlebutt this offseason has been that the Sooners will have a mobile quarterback barking the signals this season. Some fans are excited to see Landry Jones graduate, because he couldn’t dodge defenders.

The most experienced of the group, Drew Allen, is reportedly looking to transfer. The leading candidate, Blake Bell, is the reason for the “Belldozer,” relieving Jones in short-yardage situations – most of the time getting a first down or touchdown.

The semi-youth movement on the Oklahoma coaching staff continued Saturday as word filtered out that Jerry Montgomery, a 33-year-old assistant at Michigan, has accepted an offer to fill the Sooners’ vacancy at defensive line coach.

Montgomery’s relatively short career makes it hard to get a great read on what he brings to the table. His quick ascension up the coaching ranks is a good sign, as is the fact that he was handpicked by to join the Wolverines by Brady Hoke and Greg Mattison, two well-respected tacticians with deep backgrounds coaching defensive linemen.

I should have more soon on Montgomery from the Michigan perspective. In the meantime, a few initial observations:

The NCAA needs to eliminate the dumb rule regarding helmets this year.

You know the one I mean: When a player’s helmet pops off during a play, provided it’s not a direct result of a foul, he must hit the sideline on the following play.

Say what?

Lane Johnson is rocketing up draft boards.

Six former Sooners will get to show their stuff at this weekend’s NFL combine in Indianapolis in hopes of improving their draft status in April—Tony Jefferson, Lane Johnson, Landry Jones, Stacy McGee, Kelly Stills and Tom Wort.

The NFL has provided an analysis for each on its web site:

*Jefferson’s height (5-11) doesn’t appear to be a deterrent to scouts taking a chance on him. The bottom line of his analysis is that his “leadership skills, physicality around the line of scrimmage and his coverage skills will entice teams to pick him early in the 2013 draft.”

Mark Mangino and 2014.

The Oklahoma football program is navigating through the most significant period of transition in Bob Stoops' tenure. What’s the endgame? In evaluating the Sooner shake-up – both in terms of what has already happened and what’s still to come – those are the two things that I keep coming back to: OU’s former offensive coordinator and the 2014 season.

Allow me to explain, and please bear in mind that I have zero inside information about the program.

Bill Bedenbaugh apparently will become OU’s new offensive line coach. Although not confirmed by the University of Oklahoma, if the reports are true, it seems Bob Stoops is not committed to improving the run game in Norman.

Bedenbaugh has served as the o-line boss at three schools (West Virginia, Arizona and Texas Tech) over the past eight years. He also served as running game coordinator and offensive coordinator for a few years at ’Zona. Bedenbaugh is supposedly an expert on the spread offense, which seems to have no respect for the running game. During his 10 years as an assistant, the best running game he oversaw ranked 48th nationally (158.4 yards per game) at Arizona in 2008. Other times, the running game has stunk where he was in charge.

He has produced zero first-team All-Americans and only two first-team all-conference players—Don Barclay in 2011 at West Virginia and Eben Britton in 2008 at Arizona. During the same eight years, the Sooners have produced three All-Americans (Duke Robinson in 2007 and 2008; Trent Williams in 2009). Oklahoma also had 10 first-team all-conference selections.

The poorly kept secret that Oklahoma planned to hire West Virginia's Bill Bedenbaugh as its offensive line coach finally got some confirmation on the Mountaineers' side of the fence, as columnist Mitch Vingle of the Charleston Gazette reported that a deal is now done.

Carely Murdock of SoonerScoop.com reported earlier in the week that OU intended to hire Bedenbaugh.

BH reached out to Patrick Southern of Blue & Gold News for a scouting report on the newest addition to the Sooners' staff.

Many thanks to Patrick for his insights.

Blatant Homerism: General thoughts on Bedenbaugh's tenure and accomplishments at WVU? How big of a loss is this to the program?