When Chuck Fairbanks left the University of Oklahoma after five years as head football coach to take the New England Patriots coaching job, he made enemies of those who wore crimson and cream. Fairbanks not only left a good football program, he left it in a shambles.

Fairbanks died Tuesday in Scottsdale, Ariz. Brain cancer took him out at the age of 79. I would imagine not too many tears will be shed by fans who remember he “got out of Dodge” before the Sooners would be leveled with two years’ probation. Their beloved Sooners would not be allowed on television for two years and were not rewarded with a bowl game for two years. Fairbanks’ assistant Bill Michaels had altered transcripts of two high school players from Galveston—quarterback Kerry Jackson and lineman Mike Phillips—to make them eligible for college scholarships. Fairbanks knew what was coming down the pike in the aftermath and cut out for New England. Many believe Fairbanks knew of the transgressions and split, but that will never be proven.

His resignation was a blessing for Sooner fans in the long run because the university hired Barry Switzer to replace Fairbanks. Switzer turned out to be one of the best coaches college football has ever seen.

(Editor's note: With the offseason in full gear, BH will be providing previews of OU's 2013 opponents. We'll go in chronological order, starting with the Sooners' season opener over Labor Day weekend, the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks.)

In their first three games of 2012, the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks stunned Arkansas, 34-31, in overtime, lost to Auburn, 31-28, in overtime and nearly toppled Baylor. ULM tied for second in the Sun Belt Conference and finished the season with a 9-4 mark. The Warhawks were blown out by Ohio, 45-14, in the New Orleans Bowl.

Todd Berry, coach of the year in the Sun Belt Conference last year, begins his fourth year at ULM carrying an 18-19 overall record into 2013.

Offense

Berry will have eight returnees on offense, needing to replace a wide receiver, tight end and right guard. Senior quarterback Kolton Browning (6-1, 203), the Sun Belt’s player of the year returns. He completed 63.8 percent of his passes last year for 3,049 yards with 29 TDs and 10 INTs. He will not have his leading receiver (Brent Leonard) next year, but the next four behind him will be back. They combined for 167 receptions for 2,092 yards and 14 TDs.

Texas football has hit such a lull lately that it almost feels undignified taking jabs at the Sooners’ rivals to the south. Of course, DeLoss Dodds and Mack Brown start flapping their gums, and it gets awfully hard to resist.

These days, though, you don't even need an OU fan to beat up the straw men trotted out by Gasbag and Gassier -- not when Bevo backers are more than willing to do it themselves. Unless you’re talking to someone inside the well-heeled cabal of boosters who regularly play in Dodds’ foursomes and get their boots shined by Brown, I reckon plenty of UT fans share Scipio’s sentiments about marking time until the two bigwigs step down. Honestly, I can’t say that I blame them.

Brown may still have the charm reserves needed to woo high school recruits and their parents with the best of them, but he has devolved into a punchline as a coach. Meanwhile, Dodds continues to strengthen his bid for the title of “College Football’s Preeminent Producer of Intellectually Dishonest Bullshit.” (Watch out, Jim Delany.)

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: