soonerdudes

According to my wife, my lawyer, and at least two high school recruits I befriended on Facebook, I like the Sooners too much. They may have valid arguments. However, you won’t find me at the office or out with friends festooned in the signature OU paper clip. That’s because equally as critical as knowing what to wear is knowing when to wear it. One quickly develops a reputation as the guy who’s always wearing his team’s “gear.” If this is you, listen up and act quickly.

Step 1: Mind your surroundings.

You’re like those parents that won’t take their screeching child out of the theater. Train yourself to be self-aware. Ask yourself if the sharpest dressed man around you is draped in a logoed sweater (which I’m sure you own). Your sartorial objective as an adult man is to draw attention to yourself in a pleasing and subtle way. Trust me that this won’t happen as long as you’re parading your city in Sooners flip-flops.

Step 2: Retire that OU button-down.

It seemed like a great idea when you saw it on the clearance rack at Bedlam Zone (not the one on Broadway just north of the turnpike, the much trashier one inside Crest across from Santa Fe High School). I promise you, however, that there is no time or place in which wearing this garment is socially desirable. And no, the office is no place to broadcast your fanaticism to the masses. Strike up a friendly banter with the Poke in the adjacent cubicle and leave it at that.

Step 3: Ditch the accessories.

Under no circumstance are you to have a collegiate accessory near your person. This includes, but is not limited to: Ties, belt-buckles, watches, wristbands, cufflinks, croakies, socks, shades, necklaces or jewelry of any other kind. Execute Step 3 with diligence. You’ll thank me later.

The Style Dude Endorses…

Just because you shouldn’t accessorize yourself, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t accessorize your beverage. OU koozies are accepted, even recommended, for those hot early-season tailgate parties.

Left to Right:
Classic Foam, $2.99, available at amazon.com.
Zipper Bottle Suit, $6.94, available at koozeekingdom.com.
The Bottle Jersey, $5.99, available at fansedge.com.

The Style Dude welcomes your questions. Send him one with a comment below, or email soonerdudes@gmail.com.

Help the Dudes get back their “ness” by following them on Facebook.

Summer is drawing to a close, and that can only mean one thing. But since Oklahoma finds itself without a representative in this year’s WNBA Playoffs, we turn our attention instead to the Oklahoma Football Sooners. Yes friends, it’s that time of year when the heartland is buzzing about the annual Preseason Dudey Awards, the most prestigious honor known to Sooner Nation.

The results have been tallied, and we can honestly tell you that this year’s vote was the closest in Dudeys history. Dreams will be come true, hearts will be broken and recounts will be demanded. You don’t want to miss a moment of the action. So sit back, relax and enjoy the 2010 Preseason Dudey Awards (brought to you by Miller Light, Levi’s and 3M Scotch Brand Household Scissors).

Sam Bradford Award: Best Offensive Player

Ryan Broyles

Honorable Mention: Demarco Murray

Lee Roy Selmon Award: Best Defensive Player

Jeremy Beal

Honorable Mention: Travis Lewis

Bud Wilkinson Award: Outstanding Coach

Josh Heupel

Honorable Mention: Jackie Shipp

Adrian Peterson Award: Outstanding Freshman

Kenny Stills

Honorable Mention: Tony Jefferson, Brennan Clay

Brian Bosworth Award: Most Swagger

Travis Lewis

Honorable Mention: Ronnell Lewis

Quentin Griffin Award: Underrated player

Jonathan Nelson

Honorable Mention: Landry Jones

Game Ball Award: 2010 MVP

Demarcro Murray

Honorable Mention: Ryan Broyles

OCU Award: Rising Star

Tom Wort

Honorable Mention: Demontre Hurst

Most to Prove

Landry Jones

Honorable Mention: Donald Stephenson, Dejuan Miller

Marcus Dupree Award: Prized 2011 Recruit

Trey Metoyer

Honorabe Mention: Brandon Williams, Jordan Phillips

OU GQ Award: Sharpest in His Uni

Dejuan Miller

Honorable Mention: Ronnell Lewis, Travis Lewis

Best Game Day Libation

Miller Light

Honorable Mention: Coors Lights, Screwdrivers for 11 AM kickoff

Best ESPN Talking Head

Dari Nowkhah

Honorable Mention: Desmond Howard, None

Best Texas State Fair Menu Item

Fried Beer (This one wasn’t close)

Honorable Mention: Fried Bacon

Best Place to Watch Outside Norman

Cotton Bowl

Honorable Mention: Your Sooner Man Cave

Best Off-Season Pastime

OKC Thunder Basketball

Honorable Mention: Waiting for football, Embarrassing Yourself on the Golf Course

Facebook Warrior

Brennan Clay

Honorable Mention: The Sooner Dudes

Best Game Day Fashion Decision

Jorts

Honorable Mention: Jersey T-Shirt

Most Hated Man in Sooner Nation

Mack Brown

Honorable Mention: Tim Tebow

Most Respected Program

Alabama

Honorable Mention: Nebraska, Duke

Miller Light Award: Most Fun to Have a Beer With

The King

Honorable Mention: Billy Sims, Capital Sooner

Stadium We’d Most Like to Visit

The Big House

Honorable Mention: Neyland Stadium, Bryant-Denny Stadium

Best Timeless Tradition

Cotton Bowl Split Down the Middle

Honorable Mention: “Play Like A Champion Today”

Best Mascot (Other than Boomer and Sooner)

The Stanford Tree

Honorable Mention: Starsky

Best Fight Song (Other than Boomer Sooner)

Hail to the Victors

Honorable Mention: The Aggie War Hymn, Anchors Away

Best Tailgating Spot

Lindsey Street

Honorable Mention: Parking Lot Northeast of the Stadium

Best Tailgate Activity

12 Oz. Curls

Honorable Mention: Cornhole

Best Pregame Spot on Campus

Old O’Connell’s

Honorable Mention: Louie’s

Team that is Owed the Most Payback

Texas

Honorable Mention: USC, LSU, Florida

Help the Dudes get back their “ness” by following them on Facebook.

It’s that time of year when the Dudes like to remind you that if you find yourself without a proper look for upcoming Saturday afternoons, it’s time to step up your game. You’re an adult, which means it’s no longer good enough to slap on the nearest pair of cargo shorts and a jersey that’s two sizes too big. Looking crisp while supporting your team isn’t about impressing your boys (although that’s important too), it’s about telling those around you that your school commands respect. And how does one infer such if you show up to the bar in a foam hat and OU Crocs? So whether you’re headed to the stadium, your local alumni gathering or just a buddy’s place to pregame with a few broheims, it’s time you come to play.

Rule No. 1: Invest in the right shirt.

You need a proper game day shirt for the 2010 season, and it needs to fit you properly as well. Don’t be afraid to go one size down, especially for those early season games. Sun’s out? Guns out. A slim-fit tee also shows the world you’ve got nothing to hide. The key here? If you wear a shirt and the Sooners win, you’re stuck with it the following Saturday. Otherwise it’s just bad karma, so choose wisely.

Clockwise, starting top-left: 
Adidas Grey Gym Class, $25.99, available at www.fansedge.com.
Colosseum Charcoal Slub Knit, 17.99, available at www.fansedge.com.
Original Retro Brand, $38, available at www.originalretrobrand.com.
Vintage Eight The Boz, $26, available at www.vintageeight.com.
Vintage Eight Half-a-Hundred, $30, available at www.vintageeight.com.
Vintage Eight Josh Heupel Burnout, $40, available at www.vintageeight.com.

Rule No. 2: Listen to your lady.

No, not because she knows anything about men’s fashion (after all, she willingly goes out in public with you), but because you need the swagger that comes from knowing someone else thinks you look as good as you do. Plus, the last thing you want when trying to enjoy pregame festivities and a Miller Light is your date giving you the business. So, if she tells you that your polo makes you look like a high school golf coach, opt instead for the jersey t-shirt. You’ll be glad you did. Which brings us to…

Rule No. 3: Jersey is a state on the East Coast.

There’s only one scenario in which a man over 18 should concern himself with owning a Sooners jersey, and it includes being on a football scholarship at the University of Oklahoma. Even then, be sure it’s absolutely essential.

Rule No. 4: You want Bob Stoops’ job, not his style.

This means no pleated khakis on game day please. And unless you were at one time defensive coordinator for the Ol’ Ball Coach, leave the visor on the golf course.

The Style Dude welcomes your questions. Send him one with a comment below, or email soonerdudes@gmail.com.

Sooner \ˈsü-nər\ – “a person settling on land in the early West before its official opening to settlement in order to gain the prior claim allowed by law to the first settler after official opening”

Dude \ˈdüd also ˈdyüd\ – “a stylish, fastidious person”

Sooner Dude \ˈsü-nər ˈdüd\ – “An explosive, stylish, fastidious, committed, unrelenting fan of the University of Oklahoma Football Program, that never cared that the original ‘Sooners’ may have been cheaters.”

It seems just like yesterday when two band nerds extraordinaire — from E-town, what! — hopped into a black GMC suburban and headed to Norman for a football game.  Cap’s landline rang, his mom answered (cell phones? are you kidding me this was 1998).  On the other end was the Buck inviting Cap to his first game in Norman.  The rest is history as they say.

Here we are over a decade later, and one thing hasn’t changed — our love for the Sooners.  Sure CapitolSooner dresses better than the Buck and SchoonerPhil.  Yes, CapitolSooner has brought the Buck on the verge of tears during their online PS3 battles of NCAA 2011.  But every day of every year we talk about the Oklahoma Sooners.  We scour the message boards and every media source available on planet earth for tidbits about our favorite team.  Sometimes it borders on the insane and creepy (just look at how many facebook friends one of us has with committed recruits and current players on the team).

Look at me, I digress.  So what is a Sooner Dude really?  We are really just a few guys who want to talk about their favorite football team.  We hope to make you laugh.  And make you reminisce on Sooner glories and memories of yesteryear.  More importantly, we  intend look good while doing it.  You don’t believe me?  Check out last year’s gameday attire for the OU/Texas game!

We love your comments — except for the ones trying to sell us viagra, come on we are in our 20s!  And encourage you to visit us frequently, as we are ready to prepare you for the upcoming season with lots of good info and laughs surrounding this year’s team.  Next up, fear the ’stache…
- I’m CapitolSooner and I approve this message

Sometimes universities should just stay away from trying to reach their fan base on the internet. Especially universities with Kansas in their name.

Everyone who pays attention to college sports has seen the Kansas State “power towel, and Willie’s Chant” YouTube video from the days when Ron Prince was prowling the sideline in Manhattan. (scroll down for a reminder)

I guess it’s KU’s turn to embarrass the state of Kansas. The other day a video promoted by the school surfaced of the band’s drum major teaching fans how to clap along to the fight song.

Is your fight really that musically challenging that your fans can’t follow along?

Here is the K State power towel video, in case you forgot what it was all about:

And I gotta throw in this video. Classic. Georgia was so embarrassed they tried to make it private:

Some call it stalking. I call it love.

I’m talking about the type of love for which you find yourself, a grown man in your mid twenties, waiting six hours on a New York city street. The big payoff is that you momentarily see your favorite college student take stage clutching a jersey like he is sizing it up in front of a SoHo boutique store mirror. Your wife who understands such matters is alarmed at the number of adult men crammed next to you who find it suitable to wear jean shorts in the world’s fashion capital.

The rampant jorts are not the only indication that getting into the NFL Draft is unique from most other pursuits in our society. For starters, there’s the public urination. Since most around you extend the courtesy of using an empty soda bottle instead of your shoe, this doesn’t bother you. Nor does the six hours on line. It’s the same portion of your life spent bumper-to-bumper on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway on your way into Manhattan the previous day. That’s not stalking—That’s love.

I guess you could say what transpires next is debatable. Regardless, I found myself at a midtown New York establishment shaking hands with Trent Williams and Gerald McCoy minutes after they were selected in last month’s NFL Draft. Malcolm Kelly is there too, sitting at the bar, where it is the first round of a different draft. Williams and Kelly, each now a Washington Redskin, are close friends, Kelly mentoring Williams through the burdensome transition of becoming one of the wealthiest men on the planet.

I congratulate Williams on becoming a Redskin as Jermaine Gresham becomes the fourth Sooner taken in the first round on the TV behind us. “Great day for the Sooners,” I told Williams. “Yes sir.” Silverback is a man of few words. He is, however, physically imposing, much more so than he appears on TV.

Just after 10 PM ET, Tim Tebow has just been selected 25th overall by the Denver Broncos. As everyone else watching, Gerald McCoy is highly amused. My wife and I snap a souvenir, excuse ourselves and allow the newest NFL Sooners to enjoy their accomplishments in peace on that fine evening in the Big Apple. It is a great night to be a Sooner.

The University of Oklahoma, said Sam Bradford, is where he dreamed of being his whole life, where he envisioned becoming the next great Sooner. Now, every young man in the state wants to be No. 14, one of the greatest Sooners in a long line of Sooner greats. Read more over at Tilting at Windmills.

From sideline to sideline, a Crimson Curtain has descended across the field.

Late last night ESPN blogger Tim Griffin put up some posts about the Sooner D that will give you the excitement jitters like you haven’t had since you were 9 years old on Christmas Eve.

Tim’s first post, “Sooners see tight battle for DE,” backs up everything The Buck has said about Jeremy Beal: ”Oklahoma defensive ends coach Jackie Shipp said that Beal is the only player who assured himself of a starting position after the first week of preseason practice.

“It’s still really a battle for the first three guys,” Shipp said. “Frank is coming on and playing well and R.J. is stepping out. But Jeremy Beal is standing out well…..Austin and Frank are still competing for the starting job,” Shipp said. “The competition is really stiff for us.”

As a Sooner fan, those words are music to your ears. Regardless of who gains the opposite starting spot from Jeremy, our second rotation will be just as strong as the starters. How does it make you feel knowing that our second rotation of DEs, and the entire DL for that matter is good enough to start at any other of the 118 D-1 schools?

Tim then posts a second late night post about our up-and-coming safeties, “New OU safeties thriving in starting roles.” I know that we know nothing until we see the Sooners on the field, but Tim brought some comfort and confidence in what many analysts believe is the Sooners biggest weakness.

Dom Franks, who I believe will be the best corner in football this year, said of the new safeties, “We don’t consider Q a new guy…he’s been back there three or four years and knows our system. He’s also started for us for a few games and we didn’t miss a beat…It would make you afraid to jump a lot of routes, but knowing you have a veteran guy like Q or Proctor lets you play a little differently…they’ve been in the system and we know they can play. A lot of fans might not know if they play, but we know it. We trust them. It gives me or Brian confidence to take a chance and jump a route. Having them makes it a lot easier for our corners.”

After all, they shouldn’t consider Q a new guy, as Tim so gently reminded us when he brought up Q’s decleating of Jeremy Maclin in the Big XII Championship game last December:

Boom. Roasted.

With all this pre-season hype surrounding the D, I really can’t wait to answer the question: “How good is this Oklahoma defense?” Could this be one of the best D-units in OU history? Out producing the defenses of the Selmon brothers’, the Casillas’s, the Boz’s, the William’s, the Calmus’s?

It has its potential, Dom Franks is on the Jim Thorpe Award watch list, McCoy is on the Outland and Lombardi list and a guarantee to be on Bednarik list released later today, Beal and English are on the Hendricks list, and the list will expand next week when the Nagurski and Butkus lists are released.

Brent Venables has the tools in place. A returning D-line that recorded 42 sacks last year, tied for third in the FBS. A healthy Ryan Reynolds, who, if he can stay healthy will be on the stage as a finalist for the Butkus award, playing along side LB phenom Travis Lewis. And two shut down corners, playing with a safety that can lay the wood. While watching Sam and his offensive machine is fun, I’m excited to get back to the Sooners of the beginning of the Stoops era.

Tenacious defense.

Speculation:  Best served SOONER rather than later

Ladies and gentlemen … Boys and girls … Sooners and losers …

The time has come for you to develop some fortitude—yes, the kind that is in your “downtown.”  It’s August, and as a fan you have one job to do: Speculate!

I’m not talking about the kind of predictions that you make after hours of research. Those don’t count.  Don’t watch game tape from last year.  Trust me, I believe you when you say that you are an expert of defensive schemes and it really would be unfair for you to provide your analysis.  Don’t read Phil Steele’s prediction of the ‘09 season.  Definitely don’t go to ESPN, foxsports.com, cnnsi.com, or any other sports publication.  In fact, stick to the boards where speculation has been turned into a science for your info.  You think I’m joking but I am dead serious!  When ILUVSOONERSDIEUTERIS or ADSHOULDAWUNDAHYSMAN28 posts on the boards that he/she heard that Bradford (aka the Big Easy) once threw a football over them mountains (est. distance of 10km), you send out an email to all your friends and tell them that, without a doubt, Bradford is going to double his production from last year. That’s right folks, Sam’s going for over 9400 yds. of production this year.

Why, you ask?  Because it’s August, baby!  It’s the time of year that you cannot be held accountable for anything you say.  What fun is it to predict that the Sooners are going to win the big 12 championship 10 games into the season, anyway?  The way I see it, the best part about college football is setting lofty goals for your respective team.  It’s the endless conversations we have about our favorite teams and the young men that make them up that makes the season so fun.  So get started early.  And just like a good political conversation, disputing the probable goals for your team is best when you are completely clueless—it frustrates your opponent and leaves them in a cloud of confusion and anger that doesn’t wash off for days, maybe even weeks.  Just make sure you believe what you say without a reasonable doubt. Make sure you yell when people tell you that you are wrong—I mean it, really get mad, because it’s more fun that way.

I asked the dudes to make a bold prediction for this year.  Schooner Phil and The Buck didn’t disappoint.  Their statements are as lofty as ever.  I know in my heart they believe our Sooners will achieve greatness this year, I mean we do this every year.   In fact, my boys are probably stopping strangers on the DC metro to inform them that this year’s Sooner team is better than most NFL teams, and that we would only lose to the patriots if Belichick brought his army of spies.

So after 10 minutes of solid thinking, without any true analysis and definitely without any reservation, I present you the Sooner Dudes Cold Hard Facts for August:

SchoonerPhil:  “OU wins number 8.  Period”

The Buck:  “Oklahoma will achieve a decisive victory in the 2009 Red River Rivalry and the Sooners’ defense will hold the Longhorns to under 20 points. Texas will lose a second regular season game to Oklahoma State and miss out on the Big XII Championship Game. The Sooners will bring home their fourth consecutive Big XII title.”

CapitolSooner:  “Austin English will be our best defensive linemen.  He is back and healthy and at this juncture only one thing can stop him and that is zero-gravity:  without being overly scientific the lack of gravity would neutralize his superior manimal instincts and strength.”

There you have it.  A national title, a conference title, and the resurrection of a lost hero.  And until proven otherwise, these are the cold hard facts about Sooner Football.  Man, I love August!