I hope you’re all having a wonderful Thursday, everyone!

Speaking of wonderful, the 10 Big 12 head football coaches are likely feeling pretty good about the current status of their job security — at least according to CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd, who recently released his annual Hot Seat Rankings.

Lincoln Riley is the only Big 12 coach on the list who’s in the ‘Untouchable’ category, but what I found especially interesting was that none of the other Big 12 coaches’ ratings were worse than 2 (0-5 scale, 0 being the best, 5 being the worst).

Much of that is in large part to first-year men like Kansas’ Les Miles, Kansas State’s Chris Klieman, Texas Tech’s Matt Wells and West Virginia’s Neal Brown being given ample time to do their jobs. The rest is simply a testament to the positive direction in which coaches like Riley, Tom Herman, Matt Campbell and Matt Rhule are leading their programs. Then the two legends of the conference, Mike Gundy and Gary Patterson, can (for the most part) do what they please with their sustained level of success over the majority of the last decade or more.

With so many new faces in 2019, it’ll be interesting to see how much stability across the league remains intact beyond this season.

Now for today’s Hot Links! Lincoln Riley has eyes for another Sooners’ commit, Oklahoma men’s basketball is scheduled to play Stanford in Kansas City, Josh Norman questionably leaps over a raging bull and more!

OU Links

• It’s happening! Everybody remain totally calm pop any leftover fireworks you have from the Fourth because another verbal commitment is on the way! If you see me out there, just let me have this one, okay? It’s been a long offseason.

• In case you missed it, the Oklahoma Sooners were picked to finish atop the Big 12 standings in the media preseason poll. OU received 68 of 77 first-place votes, with the Texas Longhorns predicted to come in second.

• Over on Athlon Sports, Allen Kenney offered his offensive and defensive wild card picks for each Big 12 team. For the Sooners, at least one player could potentially find significant playing time in his first season with the team.
• On Nov. 25-26, Lon Kruger and his Oklahoma hoops squad will play Stanford, while Butler will play Missouri as part of the 2019 Hall of Fame Classic. Last season, the Cardinal went 15-16 and just missed out on the postseason.

• In case you missed it, 2020 OL Andrew Raym has re-committed to Oklahoma. The four-star Broken Arrow product originally verballed to OU in Nov. 2017 before de-committing the following May. Now he’s back on board with his in-state Sooners!
• Also, make sure you check out the latest Oklahoma Breakdown Podcast episode with Jack and Kamiar! With Big 12 Media Days around the corner, the guys have plenty to talk about as preseason picks and polls have been released. Also, what do they have to say about Alex Grinch’s recent comments on the recruiting trail? Give the pod a listen to find out!

Around the Sports World

• Serena Williams is on her way to the Wimbledon singles final after defeating Czech player Barbora Strýcová in straight sets. Wow, she really is the undisputable G.O.A.T.

• Los Angeles Chargers RB Melvin Gordon wants a new contract before he reports to training camp. If the two sides can’t agree to terms, he will reportedly demand a trade. I think they’ll find a way to keep him.

• Former New England Patriots defensive lineman Richard Seymour made a strong run in the 2019 World Series of Poker main event in Las Vegas, but went out after finishing 131st out of nearly 9,000 entrants. Still, not bad!
• Speaking of NFL players doing non-NFL things, Washington CB Josh Norman is in Spain for the annual Running of the Bulls festival. Check him out hurdling a pretty beefy bull. That’s probably not the wisest decision for your career, my guy. Hey, I’m not saying, I’m just saying.

Stick to Sports!

• Guthrie, you should be proud of this headline, and I’m not saying that in jest. Okay, maybe I am a little, but seriously, what on planet earth were these two doing with a pet rattlesnake and a radioactive substance? Of course it’s wrong, but I can at least begin to understand the whiskey. As for everything else? I need a feature film adaptation, stat.

• Today is July 11, which means it’s 7-Eleven Day! If you visit your local 7-Eleven store anywhere from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., you can help yourself to one small Slurpee on the house! I just hope the one I want isn’t out of order again.

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