Oklahoma
Oklahoma DT David Stone’s First Sack Was ‘Surreal’
NORMAN — In the third quarter on Saturday, Oklahoma defensive lineman David Stone finally got his moment.
Facing third-and-5, Stone cut through the Black Bears’ offensive line to smother Maine quarterback Carter Peevy for a 10-yard loss.
It was Stone’s first sack as a Sooner, and a moment months in the making after the 5-star recruit has done most of his work behind the scenes in 2024.
“I was talking to the coach before that drive and let him know that it’s coming. It’s going to be this one,” Stone said after the 59-14 win. “I told him I was going to point to him, but I got a little too carried away, too excited and lost myself. It was a good time being out there with the guys.
“Doing what we talk about, dominating the game in the moment. Being able to do that was a surreal feeling. Come on the sidelines, everybody was hyping me up. It was a good time.”
Coming in an immediately making an impact along the line of scrimmage is hard for a true freshman, even one who starred at IMG Academy.
Stone’s high school teammate, Jayden Jackson, is an outlier.
And while Stone’s chances on the field have been limited so far in 2024, OU coach Brent Venables has consistently praised Stone’s work ethic.
“He’s up in the coach’s offices every night just trying to get a little more knowledge,” Venables said last week. “And just, he’s a gym rat and doesn’t shy away from tough moments. And I love that about him. He’s gonna be a fantastic player.”
Stone is no stranger to working hard, but he did have to shift his mindset throughout spring football and fall camp.
“I’ve just been staying patient, focused on what I need to do,” Stone said. “Develop, become a great player. Coach has been preaching just stay humble, down, stay ready. I’ve been doing that.
“… Getting the advice from guys who had been in the same position as me, it made everything a little bit easier. They were telling me don’t take it as a, ‘You’re waiting.’ You’re not waiting. You’re getting ready. You’re preparing for a battle. Whenever the battle comes, be ready for it. That’s all I’ve been doing.”
Stone now has five total tackles on the year and two tackles for loss including his sack against Maine.
He’s gotten defensive snaps in small doses throughout SEC play, but the meeting with the Black Bears allowed Stone and the other young pieces of OU’s defense to get crucial experience late in the season.
“We’ve got a long of young guys that are good players,” Oklahoma defensive coordinator Zac Alley said. “The details obviously matter. You don’t like giving up the two drives at the end of the game.
“I tell them all the time, the standard doesn’t change. Just because you’re not the starter or you haven’t played as much as the other guys. When you get in the game, the expectations are the same as they are for everybody else.”
Stone took his chance on Owen Field, and he’ll continue to stay mentally ready if he’s needed in a larger role in the Sooners’ final three conference games.
“It was fun, playing football. It’s what I enjoy doing,” Stone said. been doing it since I was 4 years old. It was a great time. “… We take it as it comes. One game at a time. Onto the next. Watch film Sunday, Monday, learn from our mistakes and keep going. Onto Missouri.”
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State expected to lose talented EDGE to transfer portal
Oklahoma State EDGE Kyran Duhon plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal, On3 has learned. Duhon was a member of the 2024 recruiting class.
Duhon spent one year at Oklahoma State, logged 16 total tackles (eight solo) across nine games. He began his career at UTEP, where he had a productive true freshman season, Duhon finished 2024 with 43 total tackles, including seven sacks and two PBUs.
At UTEP, his one season there resulted in second team All-Conference USA honors. He was also named to the On3 True Freshman All-America Team as well as the the Conference USA All-Freshman team.
However, Duhon’s stay in Stillwater didn’t go as expected. Oklahoma State finished the season with a 1-11 record, which included the Cowboys firing longtime head coach Mike Gundy after a 1-2 start. Doug Meacham was named interim head coach but ended the year 0-9.
Eric Morris has since been named as the program’s next head coach. He comes from North Texas, which finished with an 11-2 record and a trip to the American Conference championship game this past season. However, it doesn’t appear that Duhon will be sticking around during the changing of the guard at Oklahoma State this offseason.
Before college, Duhon was the No. 1,706 overall player in the class, and was recruited as the the No. 165 linebacker during the cycle, per the Rivals Industry Rankings, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. He was ranked as the No. 242 overall player out of Texas.
Once the NCAA transfer portal opens on Jan. 2, players can officially enter their names in the NCAA transfer portal and go on to initiate contact with their preferred schools. The portal will be open for 15 days and close on Jan. 16.
Notably, players who are on teams competing in the national championship game are allowed five extra days to make their portal decision. The College Football Playoff championship game will be played on Jan. 19, so the players on those teams will be allowed until Jan. 24 to enter the portal and choose their next school.
To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma man doing target practice in back yard charged in fatal shooting of neighbor
A man in Oklahoma is facing a manslaughter charge after he allegedly shot a woman several blocks from his home while firing a gun he got himself for Christmas at an energy drink can in his back yard.
As told in court documents reviewed by NBC News, the death of Sandra Phelps at the hands of Cody Wayne Adams illustrates how deadly the consequences can be when those engaging in the US’s prevalent gun culture do so unsafely. Adams’s back yard was not equipped to stop bullets from leaving the property and striking unsuspecting people in the surrounding area, according to authorities.
Phelps was sitting under a covered porch with family on Christmas and holding a child in her arms when they heard gunshots north of the house, said an affidavit laying out the circumstances of Adams’s arrest.
“Sandra commented that someone got a new gun for Christmas and then shortly after Sandra said ‘ouch’ and collapsed,” the affidavit said. It said there were no more gunshots after that.
Emergency personnel were dispatched to Phelps’s address at about 3.15pm Thursday, the Stephens county sheriff’s office said in a statement.
“We later received a call stating an individual had just received a gun for Christmas and was target practicing in his backyard and that they believed it would be pointing in the direction of the scene,” the sheriff’s office statement added.
“Investigators went to the reported address and spoke with an individual [who] confirmed he was shooting a target in his back yard and that he had heard that someone has died from a gunshot wound a couple of roads over.”
That individual was Adams, 33, who showed deputies a Red Bull can in his back yard that he had been shooting with his handgun, according to the affidavit justifying his arrest.
Authorities allegedly concluded that the vantage point from where Adams was shooting aligned with the angle of the bullet that killed Phelps. They also determined the home lacked a suitable shooting backstop meant to protect those in the surrounding area from being struck by stray bullets.
“Adams became visibly upset and began to cry” when he learned of Phelps, the affidavit added. He was arrested on a count of first-degree manslaughter and later released on a $100,000 bond.
In the US, unintentional deaths from firearms are a small percentage of gun deaths in the country. But they occur four times more often in the US than in comparable countries – and most involve a handgun.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma man accused of shooting neighbor dead during Christmas target practice
What began as Christmas Day target practice in an Oklahoma neighborhood ended in tragedy when a stray bullet fatally struck an elderly woman as she sat on her front porch holding a baby.
Cody Wayne Adams, 33, has been charged with first-degree manslaughter after firing the fatal shot, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by ABC News.
The woman, whose identity was not disclosed, was sitting on the front porch with family members at a home on County Road 1800 on Thursday afternoon when she was shot from several blocks away, the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.
According to the affidavit, the victim was seated on a love seat and holding a baby in her left arm when she was struck in her right upper arm. The bullet then entered her chest cavity.
Family members told the responding deputy that they had heard someone firing five to seven gunshots and that the victim had “commented that someone got a new gun for Christmas” and shortly afterward “said ‘ouch’ and collapsed,” the affidavit stated.
As investigators canvassed nearby properties north of the shooting, deputies found that all but one home had “suitable shooting backstops or firing locations,” according to the affidavit. The only exception was Adams’s home.
Adams allegedly told deputies that he had been shooting a Glock 45 he recently bought for himself for Christmas, using a Red Bull can as a target in his backyard, according to the affidavit.
When a deputy told Adams he suspected the shooting may have caused the woman’s death, Adams “became visibly upset and began to cry,” the affidavit stated.
Adams made his first court appearance Friday. A judge set his bond at $100,000, according to online court records. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for February 26, 2026.
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