Happy Monday, friends and fans!

As part of a season-long celebration of college football’s 150th anniversary, ESPN released its ranking of the 150 greatest games of all-time. According to the list, the Oklahoma Sooners played in eight of these games, including the No. 1 ranked showdown from 1971. Unfortunately for OU, the Nebraska Cornhuskers were victorious on that day.

The other games Oklahoma played in that appear on this list were as follows:

• No. 15, 1957, L vs. Notre Dame
• No. 19, 2007, L vs. Boise State
• No. 52, 1977, W at Ohio State
• No. 60, 2018, L vs. Georgia
• No. 71, 1951, L vs. Kentucky
• No. 75, 1958, L vs. Texas
• No. 104, 1988, W at Oklahoma State

I don’t know how much I should read into the fact that 75% of the games involving the Sooners are losses, but if anything it shows how much beating Oklahoma has meant for others over the decades. It’s a shame that nothing from OU’s national championship run in the 2000 season was featured, especially with where the program was just prior to Bob Stoops arriving. The win at Texas A&M certainly comes to mind. In any case, lists like these are great for creating discussions and reminiscing on some of the most memorable moments in this awesome sport’s history.

Now onto this week’s Monday edition of Hot Links! Gabe Brkic has become a true weapon, OU men’s golf brings home the hardware, the Browns release a player after a Twitter tirade and more!

OU Links

• It’s official. On Nov. 16, Oklahoma will play Baylor under the lights at 6:30 p.m. CT on ABC. If you’ve been irked about all the morning kickoffs as of late, you should be happy about these next two weekends. Also, if Baylor takes care of business in Ft. Worth, there’s a good chance of College GameDay coming to Waco for this one.

• On Monday, junior LB Kenneth Murray was named a semifinalist for the 2019 Butkus Award. He’s also only one of two players from the Big 12 to make the cut (Jordyn Brooks - Texas Tech). Through eight games, K9 has 55 total tackles, 2.5 sacks and two pass breakups.

• FOX college football analyst Joel Klatt has both Oklahoma and Baylor rounding out the bottom of his top 10 after the season’s first November weekend. With so many high-profile head-to-heads on deck, those teams at the top are about to do quite a bit of shuffling over the next few weeks.

• CFB guru Phil Steele is still at it with the stats and figures, and recently he shared a list of the season’s most prolific offenses in terms of yards per play. It should be no surprise who reigns supreme. Also, it’s interesting that Baylor, Iowa State and Oklahoma State are all in the top 16, as the Sooners will play all three over the next four weeks.

• One of the bright spots in Oklahoma’s loss to Kansas State was sophomore placekicker Gabe Brkic. Since he took over kicking duties for Calum Sutherland, he’s been a rock solid scoring option, making all 10 of his attempts, including one from 50 in Manhattan. The Norman Transcript’s Tyler Palmateer has more.
• The OU Daily’s Caleb McCourry took a look back on how Championship November became a legitimate thing for Oklahoma’s program and why it’s stood the test of time through this ever-evolving sport of college football.
• Speaking of which, Eric Bailey of the Tulsa World wrote about how Oklahoma will need another flawless run in the final month of the regular season to keep its hopes for making the College Football Playoff alive.
• The Baltimore Ravens were aided by a heaping helping of OUDNA to give the New England Patriots their first loss of the season. Check out some of the highlights from former Sooners Marquise Brown, Mark Andrews and Orlando Brown.

• The No. 5 OU men’s golf team was in Lahaina, Maui, Hawai’i over the weekend for the Ka’anapali Collegiate Classic, and the Sooners not only won the tournament, they re-wrote the program record books with both individual and team bests. Boomer!

Around the Sports World

• The Florida State Seminoles have fired second year head coach Willie Taggart after missing the postseason in 2018 and having the ‘Noles in danger of missing it again with a current record of 4-5.
• Cleveland Browns safety Jermaine Whitehead has been cut from the team after he responded to several fans on Twitter with a series of threatening tweets following his performance in Sunday’s loss to the Denver Broncos. A real life example of when keeping it real goes wrong.
• The 2019 MLB Gold Glove winners from the AL and NL were announced on Sunday, and I’ve got no qualms about this year’s group, even though it’s a glorified popularity contest half the time.

• ESPN’s Joe Lunardi released his latest Bracketology update, and the Big Ten and Big 12 conferences each feature exactly half of their members in his early-projection of the NCAA Tournament. The 2019-20 season tips off on Tuesday, Nov. 5.

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