Happy Monday, friends and fans!

Even though the Oklahoma Sooners were off this past weekend, enough happened to keep things mildly interesting. On Monday, Lincoln Riley addressed starting placekicker Calum Sutherland’s public intoxication arrest as well as the rumors of true freshman WR Trejan Bridges’ possible move to defense. The Norman Transcript’s Tyler Palmateer covers those things here:

Riley will likely be asked more about both of these developments during his press conference at noon today, and probably throughout the week as well. From his answers during the conference call, it’s not clear how much time Sutherland will miss (if any at all), but the third-year head coach is clearly not happy about it.

“Disappointed by it,” said Riley. “We’ve got a high standard for those guys. He didn’t live up to that. There’ll be consequences,”

The rumors about Bridges moving to safety swirled about on social media, and with Oklahoma’s underwhelming play at the position through three games, the smoke seemed plausible. Still, until Riley says otherwise, we’ll have to maintain that smoke is all it is.

Now onto this week’s Monday edition of Hot Links! Jalen Hurts is keeping up with Oklahoma’s Heisman winners, the running backs are fresh heading into Big 12 play, Bryce Young flips his commitment and more!

OU Links

• The Big 12 Conference has announced that Oklahoma’s Oct. 5 game at Kansas will be at 11 a.m. CT on either ABC or ESPN. This mean that Oklahoma’s next three games (Texas Tech, Kansas, Texas) will have morning kickoffs.

• The Texas Longhorns suffered a number of injuries against Oklahoma State, many of which will impact the Red River Shootout.

• Transfer QBs are sweeping the nation and taking college football by storm, and according to ESPN’s Bill Connelly, Jalen Hurts is setting the standard for others to chase as he leads Oklahoma’s offense to unprecedented heights.
• Speaking of Hurts, through three games, he stacks up nicely with Oklahoma’s four Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks from a statistical angle. What he’s been able to do in Lincoln Riley’s offense has been nothing short of remarkable, and he’ll have another great opportunity to continue his hot streak against Texas Tech this Saturday in the Sooners’ Big 12 opener.

• Speaking of the Red Raiders, Oklahoma opened this week as a 26-point favorite over TTU, but the line has since dropped to 24.5. Either way, Vegas expects OU to cruise to 4-0 rather comfortably.
• The Oklahoman’s Ryan Aber wrote about the deep running back room and how important it’s been for guys like Trey Sermon and Kennedy Brooks to make it through four weeks of college football with no major physical setbacks.
• Alex Grinch grabs most of the headlines when talking about Oklahoma’s improved defense, but first-year inside linebackers coach Brian Odom has made quite the impact in his own right. The OU Daily’s George Stoia write about the Sooner State native, and how his career and abilities were shaped by his upbringing in Ada.
• The post-Week 3 results of SB Nation’s FanPulse Top 25 are in, and oddly enough OU fans dropped their own Sooners from No. 3 to No. 5 in the polls, matching the national ranking. That seems fair and objective, but still quite strange.
• In case you missed it, don’t forget to check out this new t-shirt from BreakingT promoting the positive message of living life anti-rat poison. Just say no to that stuff, but say yes to this tee!

Around the Sports World

• Mike Gundy didn’t take too kindly to a journalist making a lighthearted joke about T. Boone Pickens leaving him money for a haircut. I feel like ‘The Mullet’ could have handled this exchange a little better, but this sounds like a classic case of the Mondays.

• On Sunday, class of 2020 four-star QB recruit Bryce Young has flipped his commitment from his home-state USC Trojans to the Alabama Crimson Tide. Young is currently rated as the nation’s No. 2 dual-threat.

• LSU Tigers WR Terrace Marshall underwent foot surgery on Sunday after sustaining an injury against Vanderbilt and is expected to miss at least the next few weeks before he has a chance to return to the starting lineup.
• Jacksonville Jaguars CB Jalen Ramsey is reportedly feeling under the weather and is unable to practice because of it. Considering he’s already requested a trade, it’s difficult for me to buy his story, but okay man.

• Upon defeating the Los Angeles Angels, 13-5 on Sunday, the Houston Astros claimed a third consecutive American League West title. For a city that’s been through so much in the past few years, it’s an undeniable feel-good story.

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