Happy Friday, friends and fans!

Sporting News is one of five publications that determines whether or not a college football player can be considered a Consensus or Unanimous All-American, and earlier this week their panel dropped their 2020 preseason All-Americans, a group that included Oklahoma Sooners center Creed Humphrey and placekicker Gabe Brkic on the First Team.

Humphrey figures to be atop several individual honors’ watch lists going into the 2020 campaign. As an incoming third-year starter, he’s manned the middle of some pretty stout offensive line units under the great Bill Bedenbaugh. Meanwhile, Brkic is entering his second season as OU’s full-time starter, and he’s yet to miss a kick in his career. It’s quite amazing he didn’t receive more recognition in 2019 for pulling off such a feat, but if he keeps up his unprecedented consistency, he certainly won’t go unnoticed on the national scene for long.

Now on to this week’s Friday edition of Hot Links! Sooner student-athletes continue to shine in the classroom, Oklahoma has a resume to prove its been one of the top college football programs over the last decade, an NBA legend retires from the game and more!

OU Links

• Lincoln Riley was up to his mysterious ways again Thursday night when he shared a tweet with this red circular emoji. Could it be a letter ‘O’ in which case would stand for Oklahoma? Or is it something much more exciting that has to do with the 2021 recruiting class? Stay tuned right here to find out (particularly on July 4)!

• Although the 2020 spring semester at OU was interrupted midway through by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Oklahoma student-athletes continued to put in the work inside their virtual classrooms. Collectively, these talented Sooners turned in the 17th-consecutive semester with an average GPA of 3.0 or higher, including 157 individuals who recorded a remarkable 4.0 most recently. Boomer!

• Going back to Sporting News, according to their formula devised to rank college football programs over the last decade, Oklahoma checks in at No. 4 behind Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State. The Sooners were also joined in the top 25 by Oklahoma State, Baylor and Texas at Nos. 16, 22 and 25, respectively.
• OU’s Annie Hanson has a message she’d like to share with all fans of college football and beyond. Hey, if this will help bring back the sport we all love and miss that much quicker, I think it sounds like a reasonable enough suggestion in my book.

• Speaking of which, make sure you give these sweet OU-themed face coverings a look if you haven’t already before. The folks over at Fanatics have several options for any Sooner fans wanting to represent Oklahoma.

• In case you missed it, check out Allen’s latest observations on how the developments surrounding COVID-19 are starting to affect the outlook on the 2020 college football season. Hope remains alive, but the data suggests that hope could be flickering as we head into the month of July.
• Also, a new episode of the Oklahoma Breakdown Podcast dropped on Thursday! This week, Jack and Kamiar discussed Mike Gundy and how he contrasts with Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma’s position battles still to be determined, the possible scenarios for college football’s postseason and more! As usual, keep in mind that there may be some NSFW language used on the pod.

Around the Sports World

• Nick Saban and his Alabama Crimson Tide football team came together to share a message on the importance and meaning of ‘Black Lives Matter’. It’s certainly one of the more up front, straight to the point videos of its kind that I’ve seen over the last month, and hopefully one that will continue a healthy discussion on race relations in this country.

• With the NBA restart in Orlando a little over a month away, players have been getting tested for COVID-19, and reportedly 16 out of 302 players have already yielded positive test results.
• The in-state rivalry between the Oregon Ducks and Oregon State Beavers has traditionally been known as the ‘Civil War’, but that will change going forward in light of its roots under the spotlight of the modern climate.
• Despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the NFL still expects its teams to begin training camp on-time as originally scheduled. For most organizations, that means players should be reporting in by Tuesday, July 28.
• Some call him ‘Half man, half amazing’. Others know him as ‘Vinsanity’. To sports fans across generations, Vince Carter has been a living example of when great talent meets great opportunity. After 22 seasons, he’s calling it a career. Enjoy some of his iconic highlights from when he splashed onto the NBA scene with the Toronto Raptors.

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