The annual feeding frenzy surrounding the NFL draft serves as a petri dish for lies, rumors and innuendo. One such suspicious report about Oklahoma safety Tony Jefferson came to light Tuesday, as NFL draft site WalterFootball.com produced a thinly sourced nugget supposedly emanating from the chatter around the campfire at Senior Bowl practices:

Scouts are saying that Jefferson has been getting trashed by some of his former coaches for horrible practice habits and a lack of work ethic in the weight room.

I'm not going to pretend to have any special insight into Jefferson or his work habits. I do, however, think this alleged whisper campaign raises an interesting issue regarding transparency between OU's coaching staff and NFL scouts.

Mystery recruit Dannon Cavil was ready to get started Sooner than later.

Oklahoma is still ranked in the top 20 by Rivals and ESPN. The Rivals rankings will only go up once K.J. Young and Charles Walker get their new evaluations (probably 3 stars).

OU has 20 commitments and four early enrollees in Dannon Cavil, Ahmad Thomas, D.J. Ward and Jed Barnett. (Sounds like Quincy Russell will need one more semester in junior college and will enroll in June instead.) OU’s class in theory could be as large as 29 recruits. I fully expect some more attrition between now and signing day, so OU going for a full 29 would not be a big surprise if the right prospects decide to become Sooners.

OU usually falls a little short. Still, it’s going to be a mad dash to signing day. I fully expect new names to appear and old names to resurface. The recent trend has been OU loses one long-time commit – let’s hope it’s over with the loss of Jordan Mastrogiovanni – and steals someone late.

Tony Jefferson, Kenny Stills and Tom Wort have decided to forgo their senior years at OU and enter the NFL draft. If history (of Sooners entering early) is any indication of how they’ll do in the pros, the bust potential seems high. Of those Sooners who decided to leave Norman early, only the All-Americans were successful on the next level.

Roy Williams was the eighth overall player drafted in the 2002 NFL draft after the Dallas Cowboys did some wheeling and dealing to get the All-American safety. Williams played seven of his nine years for the Cowboys and was named to the Pro Bowl five times (2003-07). He played his final two seasons at Cincinnati, but retired after a fractured forearm slowed his career.

Tommie Harris was the 14th overall pick by the Chicago Bears in the 2004 draft. The All-American defensive tackle played seven years in the Second City and was named to the Pro Bowl three times (2005-07). He was hampered by a couple of knee injuries (late 2006 and 2007) and signed with Indianapolis, and then San Diego. His career now appears to be through.

Adrian Peterson is going to the Pro Bowl for the fifth time, and he’s bringing a couple of Sooners with him to Honolulu on January 27.

Peterson had a remarkable year for the Minnesota Vikings by rushing for 2,096 yards after overcoming a knee injury late in 2011. Since turning pro in 2007, he has been voted to the all-star game every year except 2011.

As a rookie, Peterson was named the MVP at the 2008 Pro Bowl by rushing 16 times for 129 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Oklahoma fans have had a little more than a week to digest getting thrashed by Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl, a loss that wrapped up an eventful 10-3 season. The Skinny joins Homerism for a podcast to put a cap on the year and look at the state of the program going forward.

Skinny and I discuss:

*What happened against the Aggies.
*The status of the Big 12.
*The success of Mike Stoops' return to the Sooners.
*Does OU need to junk the spread?
*The chances that Bob Stoops can ever make another run at a national championship.

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

Last week’s shellacking from Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl has sent Sooner fans into a tizzy wondering how Oklahoma can get back on track. Fresh off of taking the OU coaching staff to task for poor preparation in bowl games, Tulsa World columnist John Hoover has further cemented his reputation as Bob Stoops’ chief watchdog with another scathing column. This one takes aim at the program’s offense.

Hoover's long-winded critique raises plenty of solid points about the diminishing returns from OU’s no-huddle spread* scheme. While the blog post hits on a host of tangential issues, the thrust of his argument is that the Sooners’ reliance on the spread is driving elite players away from Norman.

(*This is where I insert my normal caveat about my frustrations with the ubiquitous application of the term “spread offense.” In this context, I’m using spread to refer to OU’s version of the Air Raid.)

“If you can’t play defense, people will beat your ass.”

Legendary Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer made that statement to the Tulsa World three days after the Sooners lost to Kansas State last year. And the King is right.

The Sooners played horrible defense in 2012—ranking 45th in total defense by giving up nearly 379 yards a game and 40th in scoring by allowing 24.2 points per game. In four of the Sooners' final five games, OU’s defense yielded an average of 581 yards and 43 points.

Wow, the third quarter of the Cotton Bowl was the single worst quarter of football I've seen OU play since the second quarter of the 55-19 debacle against USC in the 2005 national title game. The warning signs were all there in the first half: Big-play drives by Texas A&M countered by long, time-consuming drives requiring constant execution by the Sooners.

The Good

*Tress Way had a good last game punting the ball for OU.

When the final gun sounded on Oklahoma’s 41-13 humiliation at the hands of Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl, I tried to write about the game itself.

About one of the worst defensive efforts in recent memory. About horrific offensive play-calling. About watching a team that slumped through the second half like they were on their way to a colonoscopy. About an ass-kicking typically reserved for Savannah State showing up for a paycheck game.

Maybe it reflects a lack of creativity or simple competency on my part, but I have run out of ways to write of the stunningly familiar disappointments of Bob Stoops’ tenure as Oklahoma’s head coach.

No. 9 Texas A&M (10-2) vs. No. 11 Oklahoma (10-2)
77th AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic
Jan. 4, 7 p.m.
Cowboys Stadium (Arlington, Texas)
TV: FOX
Line: A&M -3

Series: OU leads 19-11 (11-2 under Bob Stoops)

GAME PREVIEW