Happy Thursday, friends and fans!

Oklahoma Sooners linebacker Caleb Kelly is currently in his fourth year at OU, but in early April he had season-ending surgery for what was disclosed as a “lower-body injury.” Whatever the case was at the time, it now appears that the former five-star LB is eyeing a possible return sooner rather than later. The Tulsa World’s Eric Bailey has more:

If he happens to be dealing with a torn or even partially torn ACL (which was never officially announced), those types of injuries typically take anywhere from nine to 12 months to properly heal, plus additional time for the athlete to fully trust his body again. Kelly has always been one of the more athletically gifted players on Oklahoma’s roster, and while that’s obviously not all that’s necessary to succeed at football, it could at the very least help expedite his recovery process.

For now, the plan is for Kelly redshirt this season at OU to have one year of eligibility left. If by some miracle he does come back this year, he could appear in as many as four games and still preserve one final go-around. In this regard, I’ll keep expectations low, but hopes high. He’s been a shining example for Oklahoma as a student-athlete throughout his career, so any amount of positivity coming his way is well-deserved.

Now for today’s Hot Links! Lincoln Riley wants you to slow down on thinking Trejan Bridges is a DB full-time, Erik Swenson is gradually finding his way up front, Urban Meyer is asked about coaching Michigan and more!

OU Links

• According to Lincoln Riley, the Trejan Bridges move to DB has been made into a bigger story than what is reality. The head coach also reiterated that the move is not intended to be permanent, write OUInsider’s Joey Helmer.
• ESPN College Football Playoff correspondent Heather Dinich shared her 12 teams that are currently CFP contenders, and Oklahoma checked in with the fifth-best odds. That’s not a shock, but surprisingly, the Texas Longhorns didn’t even receive honorable mention. I’m just saying, if UT wins out (they won’t), they’re in.
• Redshirt junior Erik Swenson has split time at left tackle for Oklahoma through three games, but hasn’t been as consistent as Bill Bedenbaugh would like. The Norman Transcript’s Tyler Palmateer wrote about the former Michigan commit coming into his own amid a mostly inexperienced offensive line.
• Sooners Wire’s Kegan Reneau wrote about former Oklahoma defensive backs coach Kerry Cooks and how his new role as a Texas Tech assistant adds to the intrigue of this weekend’s matchup.
• Former Sooner and current Baltimore Ravens OT Orlando Brown Jr. has been a beast in his second season in the league. Check out how he completely humiliates the Kansas City Chiefs’ Alex Okafor, who just so happens to be a Longhorn.

• In case you missed it, check out this excerpt from Ian Boyd’s book ‘Flyover Football: How the Big 12 Became the Frontier for Modern Offense’. In this section, Boyd revisits the epic 66-59 shootout in 2016 between Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield and Texas Tech’s Patrick Mahomes.
• In case you also missed this, make sure you read up on Allen Kenney’s Big 12 observations outside of Norman. While Kansas State has surprised through the first three games, TCU and Iowa State appear to be struggling a bit more than some originally expected.
• Speaking of Allen, you’ll want to catch up on the latest episode of the Blatant Homerism Podcast with his brother ‘The Skinny’. Once again, Week Five of the college football slate features a number of games that could realistically go either way, and these two are back to make their gambling picks for your pleasure.

Around the Sports World

• Former Ohio State Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer has enjoyed his second retirement from the sideline, but recently he was asked on a Columbus radio station if he would entertain the idea of putting on the headset once again, only this time for the Michigan Wolverines. That won’t happen. I mean, that can’t happen. That would just be wrong. Right?
• Four games into the 2019 campaign, the 1-3 Tennessee Vols are not only hurting in the win/loss column, they’re starting to pile up the attrition on the roster itself. Three more players have decided to leave the program this week, which makes a grand total of five departures since the season kicked off. Something tells me this situation will only get worse before it gets any better.
• Los Angeles Chargers RB Melvin Gordon is finally ending his contract holdout and returning to the team this week, but will not be activated in time for the game against the tanking Miami Dolphins.
• NY Times writer Marc Stein reports that NBA teams have been instructed to report the official heights and ages of all their players within the first week of training camp. This is largely in response to past controversies regarding players’ ages and measurements, such as Buddy Hield being a year older than originally believed and Kevin Durant totally not being 6’9”.

• Speaking of the NBA, ESPN has been ranking the top 100 players going into the 2019-20 season, and LeBron James is not No. 1 for the first time in the history of the ranking. You can find the list from No. 10 to No. 3 here, with the top two players being revealed (you can figure it out who they are now) on Friday.

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