Sooners' initial two-deep for Week 1 tells a lot more about what Brent Venables is doing in Oklahoma than we may realize

On Tuesday, he had a press conference, and in that press conference, he detailed one specific way in which he has turned around the program from when he got there. It's not always about wins and losses, because these are young men, too. There is a life after football, and he has helped them figure that out. In his arrival a few years ago, he stated that the team GPA was a 2.2, which is just terrible. He also stated that the team had players constantly failing drug tests and things of that nature. Now, that just doesn't happen.

Now he just has to start winning football games, and he will have it all put together. Part of that is recruiting, and if you were to ask the fan base how he's done, they would tell you his recruiting has been terrible, or things of that nature. But that couldn't be further from the truth. I think the Sooners' initial two-deep depth chart shows that, too.

Sooners' initial two-deep depth chart

Now, take every two-deep depth chart with a grain of salt these days, especially when you see a bunch of "OR's," and especially when it's Week 1 against an FCS team. A lot of fans are freaking out about some of the things on the depth chart, specifically the fact that star running back Jaydn Ott is RB3 on it, while Javontae Barnes and true freshman Tory Blaylock are ahead of him. But it's not a big deal.

Ott has missed a lot of fall camp nursing an injury. They're going to have him on a snap restriction for this game, so he can stay healthy or recover faster for Michigan in Week 2. This does not mean that he isn't good or lost his spot, no. So, I'm glad that's out of the way.

When you first look at it, you will see that there are so many young players who are in position to be starters against Illinois State, a few of them are true freshmen, too, like Michael Fasusi and Courtland Guillory. Then there are the sophomores who made the jump from last season, like Michael Boganowski, Heath Ozaeta, and Jayden Jackson.

Looking at it from that perspective, and knowing that these are very young players who are making significant contributions right away to a team that is expected to be good, shows just how well the Sooners have been recruiting. And, it shows that star ratings don't always matter. In fact, they don't matter at all. It's what you see on film that matters.