Happy Monday, friends and fans!

The Oklahoma Sooners are off this weekend, but on Sept. 28, the Texas Tech Red Raiders are coming to Norman for OU’s first 11 a.m. CT kickoff of the season.

While most fans (and Lincoln Riley himself) don’t completely love the morning kicks, it’ll be nice to have the routine down before the Red River game next month. This team needs that experience in order to be best prepared for what’s to come, and TTU appears to be a good enough opponent to give Oklahoma a solid test. Okay, okay, maybe I’m just looking for the silver lining, but my point still stands. Also, like the UCLA game, this one will be televised on FOX.

Now onto this week’s Monday edition of Hot Links! Jalen Hurts continues to lead the Heisman conversation, Adrian Peterson moves up another notch on the all-time rushing TD list, a couple of NFL QB’s are expected to miss serious time and more!

OU Links

• OU Insider’s RJ Young broke down the top Heisman Trophy contenders at the quarter mark of the 2019 season, and Jalen Hurts is leading the way by a significant margin from a stats standpoint.
• Sooners Wire’s Kegan Reneau dished on his grades for every position’s performance against the UCLA Bruins. You can probably guess how QB graded out, but how about everybody else?
• Kyler Murray and his Arizona Cardinals lost a close one to the Baltimore Ravens and several of his former OU teammates. Check out these lifetime Sooners after the game (with a little horns down action!). From left to right you have Orlando Brown Jr., K1, Marquise Brown and Mark Andrews. Boomer!

• Speaking of Murray, even though he’s kicked off his NFL career with a 0-1-1 record, he’s still making a tremendous impact from a historical standpoint. Through two games, he’s become just the second QB to ever throw for more than 300 yards in each contest.

• Adrian Peterson also re-wrote the NFL history books on Sunday after rushing for the 107th rushing touchdown of his career, moving him to fifth-most all-time. Three more scores and he’ll tie Walter Payton for fourth-most.

• The latest SB Nation FanPulse Top 25 has been unveiled, and while OU fans kept their Sooners at No. 3, Oklahoma was jumped by LSU to fall to No. 5, nationally. Given who the Tigers played this week, yes, that’s a little perplexing, but check out how the rest of the poll shook out this week.
• In case you missed it, our Allen Kenney spotlighted the safeties as a position group that still needs improvement.

Around the Sports World

• Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger suffered an elbow injury to his throwing arm in Sunday’s loss to the Seattle Seahawks, and on Monday we learned that he’s expected to miss the remainder of the season after having surgery.
• New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees suffered a torn thumb ligament in his throwing hand and is expected to miss the next six weeks.
• After last season ended because of some shoddy placekicking in the playoffs, the Chicago Bears appear to have finally found a reliable kicker in Eddy Pineiro. He’s now 4-4 on the season, including making all three of his attempts against the Denver Broncos. Check out this 53-yard game winning boot. Great stuff.

• I’m no parent, and I understand it’s not advised to tell people how to raise their kids, but this just seems yucky to me. So Florida State coach Willie Taggart has started 2019 1-2 after missing a bowl game in his first season with the Seminoles. Apparently, some FSU parents thought it would be a great idea to involve their child in openly asking for Taggart’s job with the cute façade of a lemonade stand. I know they were going for the adorable, humorous guise, but this is in bad taste in my opinion.

• Sisters and WNBA stars Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike were the subjects of a crazed fan rushing the court following the Los Angeles Sparks’ win over the Seattle Storm. In the beginning of the video, you can see the same fan doing pushups on the sideline for whatever reason. Check yourself, my guy.

Stick to Sports!

• The Jurassic film franchise has been a worldwide sensation for decades, and now a mini installment has been added to the collection in the form of the short film, ‘Battle at Big Rock’. It takes place after the events of ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’, with the prehistoric animals now living among us. Check out what happens when a family finds themselves in the middle of an epic dinosaur showdown. Also, keep watching through the credits for more footage of these ancient beasts.

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