Ep. 425 - OU Football Breakouts, Red Flags, and SEC Predictions

Ep. 425 - OU Football Breakouts, Red Flags, and SEC Predictions Lee and Grant open with a look at OU’s second-year players heading into the 2026 season. Which young Sooners will contribute, and which players will disappoint? Lee and Grant also discuss Oklahoma’s SEC Media Days representatives — John Mateer, Eddie Pierre-Louis and Taylor Wein — and whether there is any real meaning behind who Brent Venables chose to bring to Tampa. Then the guys finish their SEC team-by-team predictions ahead of SEC Media Days. This episode covers Florida, Alabama, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Mississippi State, LSU and Texas. The show closes with Lee and Grant unveiling their full predicted SEC order of finish, SEC Championship Game picks and SEC champion predictions. Chapters/Timecodes 00:00 — Welcome. Lee’s sunburn advice 02:15 — Which second-year Sooners could contribute in 2026? 06:32 — Lee picks Darius Afalava as a possible offensive contributor 09:15 — Why Oklahoma’s offensive high school recruiting track record is concerning   12:24 — Omarion Robinson and Trent Wilson as obvious defensive breakout options 17:36 — Marcus James, high school recruiting and the modern transfer portal era 22:02 — Nigel Smith and whether 2026 is his make-or-break year 24:51 — Lee picks Elijah Thomas as a possible offensive non-factor 27:03 — Grant’s concerns about Emmett Jones and wide receiver development 30:45 — J.J. Hester’s strange Kentucky stat line 33:47 — John Mateer, Eddie Pierre-Louis and Taylor Wein heading to Tampa 41:54 — The Athletic’s All-SEC team and Kip Lewis being left off 43:17 — Lee’s Florida breakdown: John Sumrall, Buster Faulkner, Aaron Philo and Jadan Baugh 45:35 — Grant agrees on Florida going 7-5 47:18 — Florida’s skill talent and offensive line concerns 48:43 — Could Florida have the worst quarterback situation in the SEC? 51:25 — Grant predicts Alabama at 9-3 55:36 — Could Kalen DeBoer struggle with the Alabama culture fit? 56:32 — Ole Miss prediction. Crossfire here. 01:02:15 — Texas A&M prediction 01:02:54 — Grant’s hesitation with the Aggies and Marcel Reed 01:07:34 — Arkansas prediction 01:09:16 — Mississippi State prediction 01:11:40 — LSU prediction. Grant’s skeptical, but still high on LSU. 01:14:54 — Lee predicts LSU at 11-1 01:17:40 — Lee’s hopefully wrong Texas prediction 01:20:09 — Texas red flags: offensive line, Arch Manning and portal questions 01:22:47 — Full SEC predicted order of finish 01:23:34 — Grant’s Oklahoma prediction in the SEC standings 01:24:21 — Georgia as the default SEC champion pick, Lee’s surprise teams 01:26:39 — Most confident and least confident SEC predictions 01:27:54 — Grant’s Oklahoma uncertainty: SEC champion or 6-6? 01:28:50 — Bonus World Cup and soccer talk 01:31:59 — Why the U.S. still lags behind elite soccer countries 01:35:43 — Soccer popularity, money and American sports culture Follow West of Everest Subscribe to the West of Everest YouTube channel for full episodes, clips and Shorts. Follow the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and please leave a five-star rating and review if you enjoy the podcast. Follow West of Everest on X, Instagram and Facebook. #OklahomaFootball #OUFootball #Sooners #CollegeFootball #SECfootball #SECMediaDays #WestOfEverest