Happy Monday, friends and fans!

Oklahoma Sooners LB Kenneth Murray was named to the 2019 Butkus Award watch list, an honor given to the nation’s most outstanding linebacker.

Murray comes into his true junior season with high expectations after serving as a full-time starter in his first two years in college. If you recall, he was also named the Big 12 Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, and is on the Bednarik Award watch list as well.

In program history, only Teddy Lehman (‘03), Rocky Calmus (‘01), and Brian Bosworth (‘85 and ’86) have been named Butkus Award winners. It’s been a number of seasons since OU produced a top-shelf linebacker, but Kenneth Murray certainly has the experience, the physical tools, and the mental drive to keep himself in serious contention late into the season. As long as DC Alex Grinch’s revamped Sooner defense can make considerable improvements as a whole, K9 should receive the national attention he deserves.

Now onto this week’s Monday edition of Hot Links! A new OU shoe is available for purchase, Brett Favre is a fan of Baker Mayfield’s game, a Patriots cornerstone will be out for weeks and more!

OU Links

• In case you missed it, Nike has released the OU Air Zoom Pegasus 36! Its arrival also means fall camp is just around the corner, so if nothing else, that has to excite your football fanaticism. Get yourself a pair right here, right away!

• It’s become an annual tradition for the coaches to throw a summer cookout for the team before fall camp gets underway, and even though he hasn’t coached a game for Oklahoma just yet, defensive coordinator Alex Grinch clearly knows the drill. I’m willing to bet they went through a lot of BBQ sauce.

• Kyler Murray recently paid a visit to the Heisman House with fellow Sooner alum Baker Mayfield and other past winners of college football’s most prestigious award. I know these commercials this season are going to be fire with K1 and Bake chopping it up.

• Speaking of Mayfield, NFL Hall of Fame QB Brett Favre says that he sees a lot of the same qualities that made him a great quarterback in Baker.
• Make sure you check out Allen Kenney’s piece about junior QB Sam Ehlinger and why he’ll need to take his game to another level if the Texas Longhorns want any hope of dethroning Oklahoma from atop the Big 12.

Around the Sports World

• Ireland’s Shane Lowry secured the first major victory of his career this weekend at The Open, winning by an impressive six strokes.

• New England Patriots receiver Julian Edelman — MVP of Super Bowl LIII — has been sidelined with a left thumb injury and is expected to miss as least the next three weeks of on-field activity.
• Manny Pacquiao looked to be in great form after defeating Keith Thurman in a welterweight bout. Although it was a split-decision, the 40-year-old striker showed he can still bring it in the ring.
• New York Mets pitcher Seth Lugo is the new wizard on the block for throwing a strike as he fell off the mound. That had wild pitch all over it, but magical folk like Lugo aren’t bound by earthly physics.

Stick to Sports!

• Nirvana’s live performance at Seattle’s Pier 48 on Dec. 1993, titled ‘Live and Loud’, is scheduled for release on vinyl and digital streaming services for the first time on Aug. 30. The 17-track set features classics like ‘Drain You’, ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ and ‘Lithium’. It’s almost hard to believe it’s been nearly 26 years since this recording originally took place.

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