Happy Friday, friends and fans!

Three former Oklahoma Sooners will be playing in Super Bowl LIV this Sunday, all for the Kansas City Chiefs. One of those players is long snapper James Winchester, who is the lone Oklahoma native of the trio. With that in mind, check out this awesome good luck message from Coach Jeff Kulbeth and the students in his hometown of Washington.

For good measure, here’s one more for the hometown hero.

It’s safe to say the entire city of Washington will be watching Winchester play for football glory on Sunday, along with just about everybody else in the country. Let’s go, James!

Now onto this week’s Friday edition of Hot Links! Chandler Morris and his father are a lot closer following a turbulent end to 2019, Baker Mayfield buries the hatchet with his critics, LeBron and AD get inked up for Kobe and more!

OU Links

• The Athletic’s Jason Kersey recently wrote about Oklahoma completing its coaching staff openings and how the hires and timing of it all directly feeds into the recruiting trail. In order to check out the full article, you must be a subscriber to the Athletic.
• When Chad Morris was fired from Arkansas, it created a ripple effect-turned-tough-decision for his son and long-time Razorback commit, Chandler Morris. As it turns out, that ripple reached the banks of Norman, and the rest is history.
• Baker Mayfield learned a lot through his second season with the Cleveland Browns, and one thing he says he will strive to do differently is responding to criticism, writes ESPN’s Jake Trotter.
• In case you missed it, Oklahoma hired Jamar Cain out of Arizona State as its next outside linebackers coach. The 39-year-old comes with the seal-of-approval from a number of reputable coaching minds in the game today, including his former boss Herm Edwards. He also brings an established reputation of being one of the top recruiters in Pac-12 country and has past coaching experience at FCS powerhouse North Dakota State.
• Don’t forget to check out the latest episode of the Oklahoma Breakdown Podcast with Jack and Kamiar posted earlier this week. The guys discussed the hiring of DeMarco Murray as OU’s RB coach, dished on some recruiting nuggets, talked Sooner Hoops and more. Heads up, there is some NSFW language used on the pod. Note: This was recorded long before the Cain news broke.

Around the Sports World

• The 2020 NBA All-Star reserves were announced on Thursday night. Here they are separated by conference. Fans of the Oklahoma City Thunder are happy to see both Chris Paul and current Houston Rocket Russell Westbrook back as All-Stars. Keep in mind, however, that the teams will look a lot different because of the playground-style drafting system.

• Speaking of Westbrook, over the last couple weeks his offensive efficiency with the Houston Rockets has launched into orbit, and the reason could be because he’s quite simply stopped attempting three-point shots altogether, writes SB Nation’s Michael Pina.
• In other NBA news, Los Angeles Lakers teammates LeBron James and Anthony Davis reportedly both added some new ink as a tribute to the late Kobe Bryant.
• The Big 12 announced a couple of date changes for a pair of conference football games in 2020. The regular season finale matchups featuring West Virginia at Iowa State and Texas at Oklahoma State have been moved up by a day to Friday, Nov. 27 instead of that Saturday following Thanksgiving Day.
• Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the one and only, Tom Brady. Nothing more needs to be said. I really shouldn’t have even said any of that. Just disregard everything I’ve said up to this point. What? I’m trying to be vague and cryptic like the six-time Super Bowl winning QB of the New England Patriots. You want mysterious? Boom, I nailed it. I mean, I think I did. What is happening?

Stick to Sports!

• Finally! You can pre-order your very own, life-size Baby Yoda figure made popular by the Disney+ original series ‘The Mandalorian’. The units from Sideshow Collectibles won’t ship until August of this year, which should give customers enough time to set aside the money they’ll need for its exorbitant price. I want one, but I don’t know if I want one this bad.

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