Sooners Spring Cleaning

Every program experiences it. Players get buried on the depth chart, break team rules, and find out that they aren't quite the fit they thought they would be when they committed. The Sooners are no different.

In today's college football world , except on offensive line, defensive line, and quarterback, if you haven't made an impact by your third year on campus, it becomes doubtful whether you will ever make an impact.Players find themselves buried on the depth chart with little hope of moving up. Of course there are exceptions to every rule, but by in large the coaches know it and begin to recruit for expected attrition.

The Sooners also have several new coaches which complicate things further. Lincoln Riley's system and the return to more of an air-raid philosophy is a big change going forward. Some players will inevitably not fit like they used to in this new system. Couple that with Kerry Cooks having an idea of what type of player he is looking for at defensive back and you are in need of some spring cleaning.

Then you have players makes mistakes, all the way from poor decisions regarding class attendance and practice participatiion, to breaking the law.

Other players become cancers which lead to internal issues on a team.

When you put all of this together you get what the Sooners are now experiencing. Keith Ford has transferred, KJ Young was dismissed from the team, and now it appears that DB Tito Windham is transferring as well. And this is probably only the beginning.

For some this is a sign of trouble, but for me its an inevitable part of every program. It can also allow the team to move forward from less than ideal situations. Lastly, it can gives these players a fresh start, a second chance, and another opportunity which had otherwise seemingly passed them by.

Many people will look for reasons to point fingers, talk about a team fracturing, and wonder if the coaches have lost their ability to develop players or control the team. There is no smoking gun however.

Players leave programs each year, and for numerous reasons. It's simply a football spring cleaning.