OKLAHOMA SOONERS RELEASE FIRST DEPTH CHART; IT LOOKS LEGIT

The best preseason camps for a college football tend to be the quietest, and the silence from Norman has been deafening this month. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the release of the first depth chart of the season Monday didn’t produce any bombshells.

A few scattered thoughts:

*One of the few areas of intrigue was the offensive line. Walk-on Erick Wren’s bid to unseat Jonathan Alvarez at center apparently fell short. Meanwhile, Alex Dalton got the call at right guard, which means Dru Samia stays at right tackle for the time being.

I view Dalton’s presence on the first-string line as a promising development. It indicates that he made the job his own, beating out some some solid contenders in the process. Don’t rule out some shuffling on the o-line at some point this season, too.

*Theoretically, a gaggle of cornerbacks were competing for the starting spot across the field from Jordan Thomas when camp started. In reality, though, it doesn’t appear as though anyone made a serious run at O.G. Dakota Austin.

If there was a surprise to me at corner, it was actually P.J. Mbanasor checking in third behind freshman Parrish Cobb at that spot. Plenty of Sooner fans thought at the end of last season that Mbanasor’s size and pedigree would help him vault him into the starting role.

Likewise, despite the talk about the development of Antoine Stephens this offseason, true frosh Parnell Motley sits third behind Thomas and Michiah Quick at the other CB spot.

*That “OR” sitting between Ricky DeBerry and true fish Mark Jackson might be a harbinger of things to come for the second-year JACK linebacker. Frankly, I thought that DeBerry looked like more of a natural inside linebacker coming out of high school. Nobody asked me – big mistake, obviously – but I do wonder if a position change could eventually be in the cards for the Virginian.

*Speaking of ORs, Joe Mixon potentially returning punts?

*And, yeah, I know – Bob Stoops’ depth charts generally aren’t worth the PDFs they’re written on. I still suspect this is pretty consistent with what we see on Saturday afternoon in Houston.

-Allen Kenney