Happy Monday, friends and fans!

More COVID-19 testing results were released for Oklahoma Sooners student-athletes and staff members. This time, both men’s and women’s basketball teams were included in the tests. Out of 26 players (one football, 14 men’s b-ball and 11 women’s b-ball) and 74 staff members (46 football, 13 men’s b-ball and 15 women’s b-ball), only one case turned out to be positive as of Friday, July 17.

While the name of the student-athlete who tested positive for the coronavirus is protected, OU disclosed that the player is from the women’s basketball team. Both she and someone deemed in close contact with her recently have been quarantined and will follow the school’s existing protocol until a full recovery is made.

This news is another major win for Oklahoma’s Athletics Department. The safety measures being taken are clearly paying off with so few positive cases compared to most other programs around the nation. What’s even more promising is how effective the Sooners have been at mending their positive cases while limiting further spread. The players and coaches are listening to the medical professionals, and their advisement is working like a charm.

Now onto this week’s Monday edition of Hot Links! Another Sooner is on another award watch list, Lincoln Riley has been up to the unique challenge of recruiting during a pandemic, LeBron’s rookie card sets a new standard for exorbitance and more!

OU Links

• On Monday, junior LB DaShaun White was named to the 2020 Dick Butkus Award watch list — an honor reserved for the nation’s top linebacker. Since the award’s inception in 1985, no school has brought home the hardware more than Oklahoma. With a stellar year, White could potentially join past Sooner greats Brian Bosworth (‘85, ‘86), Rocky Calmus (‘01) and Teddy Lehman (‘03) as the program’s lone recipients.

• While the upcoming college football season remains in the balance, OU is hard at work. These edits always make me want to get back into the gym...until I get back into the gym that is. Keep grinding, young men!

• John Hoover of SI Sooners recently wrote about Oklahoma’s 2021 recruiting and how the ongoing pandemic has affected the shape of the current class. Lincoln Riley admits that the limitations and regulations have made the selection process much more difficult, but if any program is thriving during this period, it’s OU.
• According to the latest projections from SportsLine, redshirt freshman QB Spencer Rattler has the fourth-best odds to win the 2020 Heisman Trophy. If it happens, he would become the eighth Sooner to win the prestigious award in program history.
• If you’re an OU fan and a Madden head, you’ll be interested in knowing where each former Sooner currently in the NFL stands as far as their overall player rating is concerned. Trent Williams (92), Lane Johnson (89), Mark Andrews (84) and Joe Mixon (89) have the highest ratings among former OU players, but which guys are severely underrated?

Around the Sports World

• Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis believes a decision on fan attendance at NFL games needs to be universal across the league, meaning all teams can allow fans or none of them will. I agree with this, but also, I think they just need to scrap the idea of fans in the stadium if they really want to play games this fall. Too many moving parts and not enough stability in place.
• The TCU Horned Frogs have added a grad transfer WR in former Nebraska Cornhuskers pass-catcher JD Spielman. After three highly productive seasons in Lincoln, he now heads to Ft. Worth to suit up for Gary Patterson’s crew.
• Over the weekend, Texas Longhorns redshirt junior CB Kobe Boyce announced his decision to step away from the football team to focus on overcoming his struggle with depression. The fourth-year defender was expected to compete for a spot in the UT secondary’s regular rotation this fall.
• A LeBron James rookie card was recently sold at an auction for $1.845 million, breaking the record for the most any basketball player’s card has ever sold for, and is officially the most expensive modern-day card in history.

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