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Tag: University of Oklahoma

  • Can I Borrow Your Band, Please? – Philadelphia Sports Nation

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    Saturdays matchup at Lincoln Financial Field was historic for all kinds of reasons. Let’s start with a quick request. Number 13 Oklahoma’s band was not able to travel to Philadelphia for budget reasons — so they reached out to St Joseph’s Band (who doesn’t normally play during football season) for a little help. The result between the two was a competing musical background delight that was almost so good that for a moment you even forgot that a football game was being played.

    Earlier this week — several Oklahoma reporters were caught on hot microphones categorizing the matchup with the 2–0 Owls as a “high school game.” And while it was evident on Saturday that being in the top 15 as a 2–0 and being 2–0 in the American Athletic Conference are quite different — there is sure a lot to like about KC Keelers team this season. Last weekend — the Owls improved to 2–0 with a 55–7 rout of visiting Howard.

    Two weeks ago — Philly college’s season began on another high-note. Temple Football began the K.C. Keeler opened his chapter as Head Coach with a 42–10 win over UMass including a 128-yard performance from Jay Ducker and 467 total yards of offense and six touchdowns from quarterback Eric Simon.

    Under former Temple Head Coach Matt Rhule — Temple started 7–0 in 2015. Twice during the World War II era — the Owls started 6–0 (1945) and a 6–1 start in 1941. Even the ejection of Oklahoma star and sack leader R Mason Thomas couldn’t stop Temple lost surrendering 515 total yards to the #13 team in the country — all is not lost for the 2025 season. 

    Next up is at Georgia Tech on September 20th.

    The post Can I Borrow Your Band, Please? appeared first on Philadelphia Sports Nation.

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    Michael Thomas Leibrandt

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  • These 3 Oklahoma schools made the Forbes Top Colleges list for 2025-26: See rankings

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    While U.S. News and World Report crowned the top four Oklahoma colleges, Forbes is coming in with their own list of the best schools in the nation.

    The 2025-26 Top Colleges list includes 500 universities and colleges that Forbes considers producing “successful, high-earning, and influential graduates from all economic backgrounds” with low student debt, according to an article that accompanied this year’s list. The rankings also reflect factors like enrollment and outcomes for low-income students.

    “Schools ranked highly on our list if their students returned after the first year, graduated on time, secured high salaries after graduation and left college with little student debt,” the article stated.

    The Massachusetts Institute of Technology reclaimed the top spot on Forbes’ list, second place on U.S. News’ list; meanwhile, three of Oklahoma’s schools made it to the top half of the list.

    See how Oklahoma colleges and universities fared on Forbes’ latest rankings.

    Oklahoma schools on the Forbes ‘America’s Top Colleges’ list

    Only three of Oklahoma’s colleges and universities made the top 500 schools list for Forbes. While the University of Oklahoma took the top spot, the other two schools were similar to the U.S. News list.

    The Sooners scored 96th on the 2026 Top Colleges list nationwide, with high marks in colleges in the South (22nd) and Research University (77).

    Sitting at 96th, this puts the University of Oklahoma in conversation with schools like Indiana University, Bloomington (94), Babson College (95) and California State University, Long Beach (97).

    The top colleges in Oklahoma, according to Forbes, are:

    Oklahoma State and Tulsa both come in just shy of the 250 halfway mark of the list. This puts the Cowboys just below Oberlin College in Ohio and schools like Bentley University, Saint Louis University and Whitman College between the two northern Oklahoma schools.

    Both schools still got distinctions in other categories.

    OSU was ranked the 44th best school in the South and 138th for research universities. While Tulsa scored 46th in the South, 140th in research and 119th in Private colleges.

    See the full rankings online at forbes.com/top-colleges

    This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Forbes named these 3 Oklahoma schools the among nation’s best: See list

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  • Renck: Broncos left guard Ben Powers wants to re-establish physical brand of football in Denver: “Getting dirty, man, there’s nothing like it”

    Renck: Broncos left guard Ben Powers wants to re-establish physical brand of football in Denver: “Getting dirty, man, there’s nothing like it”

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    It was not an inscription but a premonition.

    On Father’s Day in 2012, Todd Powers received a book from his children. They thanked him and wished him well, but one sentence remains etched in his memory. It read: “I want you to know I will never stop being your kid when I am the best offensive lineman in the NFL” – Bennett.

    Bennett is now Ben and he’s a big deal, one of the linchpins of an offensive line that is being counted on to form the F-around-and-Find-Out identity of the 2024 Broncos regardless of when Bo Nix starts.

    “Ben already had in the back of his mind what he wanted to do,” Todd said on Wednesday. “He was ready to work to make it happen.”

    What makes Ben’s vision surprising is that he was the only one who saw it. Looking at the 6-foot-4, 310-pound left guard now, it is hard to believe he was a late bloomer. His entire family played basketball for decades, including his father and seven aunts and uncles at Friends University. Prior to his sophomore season at Kapaun Mount Carmel Catholic High School in Wichita, Kan., Powers’ body began to look wrong for hoops.

    “The coach said he didn’t need me on the team,” Power recalled.

    This watershed moment ushered Powers into his pro football future. He took up wrestling, learning footwork and the art of physical confrontation that translated seamlessly to the gridiron. As a senior, he lost the state championship in overtime, which “remains one of the biggest regrets of my athletic career,” Powers said, shaking his head.

    The thing is, the Powers kids were raised to compete. “And you know what makes competition fun?” Todd asked rhetorically. “Winning.”

    With his athleticism improving and his body growing, Powers was determined to earn a college scholarship. One problem. None arrived. Pittsburg State, a Division II powerhouse, offered, but Powers was bent on playing D-I and elected to go the JUCO route at Butler Community College. He wrote a diary of havoc in one semester – “I bet on myself,” he said – before accepting a full ride from Oklahoma.

    He was not expected to play much in his first season with the Sooners. Then in the third game of the season, he landed in the starting lineup because of an injury and was told to not “(bleep) it up,” by a line coach with a wicked sense of humor.

    Powers became one of the team’s most reliable pieces. The writers covering the team referred to Powers as “The Accountant” because he reminded them of Ben Affleck’s movie character — a quietly trained, unassuming snatcher of souls.

    Powers morphed into an All-Big 12 performer, blocked for two Heisman Trophy winners (Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray) and began to realize that Father’s Day message was not just bravado, but possible.

    As a fourth-round draft choice of the Ravens in 2019, Powers was slowly developed, playing sparingly his first two seasons before emerging as a standout. Coach Sean Payton targeted him as his first free-agent addition in Denver as he began an HGTV makeover of the offensive line.

    “He’s smart and he’s tough,” Payton said. “He’s one of our leaders and is very consistent. You know what you are getting day-to-day from him. And he’s a great teammate.”

    Powers plays football like he’s in an old Western, throwing down sawdust in a bare-knuckle brawl. He understands and embraces the responsibility placed on the offensive line. Just follow the money. Right tackle Mike McGlinchey, right guard Quinn Meinerz and Powers have $126 million in guaranteed money. Those paid well must play well, and give the Broncos an edge.

    “You can tell where a team cares and where they want to be great based on where they invest. And clearly with our unit, they did that,” Powers said. “With that being said, we have to do every bit of our job to carry this team where it wants to go and we take a lot of pride in that.”

    Powers knows he must improve at pass blocking, which is expected in his second year in Payton’s scheme and with a quarterback not coloring outside the lines. He is a force in the run game. Powers relishes in the physicality offered on a weekly basis, traced to his days sparring as a boxer in his father’s gym.

    “I love football, and at this level, it’s as competitive as it gets. We are fighting for our livelihoods out there. And to be able to win a football game on Sunday is the greatest feeling in sports I have ever had,” Powers said. “I love being in the trenches, in the mud. Why? Well, I am good at it. And getting dirty, man, there’s nothing like it. I take pride in doing my job for my teammates.”

    As Powers talks, the juxtaposition remains jarring. He is nice, polite, and soft-spoken. When reporters are in the locker room, McGlinchey is the Mayor and Powers is the margins, moving quietly in the shadows. Affable before practice with teammates, he goes through a transformation that would make The Incredible Hulk blush.

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    Troy Renck

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  • Archaea Diversity Drops in Warming Climate

    Archaea Diversity Drops in Warming Climate

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    Newswise — Led by Jizhong Zhou, Ph.D., the director of the Institute for Environmental Genomics at the University of Oklahoma, an international research team conducted a long term experiment that found that climate warming reduced the diversity of and significantly altered the community structure of soil archaea. Their findings are published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

    At the microbiological level, life can be described as belonging to one of three kingdoms – how species are described in relation to one another. Eukarya contains complex organisms like animals and plants and microorganisms such as fungi. The other two categories, bacteria and archaea, are comprised only of microorganisms. Archaea are prevalent in a range of environments, from some of the most hostile like volcanoes and permafrost. However, archaea are also common in the human microbiome and as an important part of soil ecology.

    “As temperature is a major driver of biological processes, climate warming will impact various ecological communities,” Zhou said. “Based on long-term time-series data, our previous studies revealed that experimental warming leads to the divergent succession of soil bacterial and fungal communities, accelerates microbial temporal scaling, reduces the biodiversity of soil bacteria, fungi and protists, but increases bacterial network complexity and stability. However, how climate warming affects the temporal succession of the archaeal community remains elusive. Archaea are ubiquitously present in soil and are vital to soil functions, e.g., nitrification and methanogenesis.”

    Using a long-term multifactor experimental field site at OU’s Kessler Atmospheric and Ecological Field Station, the researchers showed that experimental warming of a tallgrass prairie ecosystem significantly altered the community structure of soil archaea and reduced their taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity. In contrast to the researchers’ previous observations in bacteria and fungi, their finds show that climate warming leads to convergent succession of the soil archaeal community, suggesting archaeal community structures would become more predictable in a warmer world.

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    About the Project

    The article, “Experimental Warming Leads to Convergent Succession of Grassland Archaeal Community” published May 3, 2023 in Nature Climate Change. DOI no. 10.1038/s41558-023-01664-x. Zhou, who is also a George Lynn Cross Research Professor of Microbiology in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences, is the corresponding author. The first author is Ya Zhang, Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology at OU. 

    About the University of Oklahoma Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships 

    The University of Oklahoma is a leading research university classified by the Carnegie Foundation in the highest tier of research universities in the nation. Faculty, staff and students at OU are tackling global challenges and accelerating the delivery of practical solutions that impact society in direct and tangible ways through research and creative activities. OU researchers expand foundational knowledge while moving beyond traditional academic boundaries, collaborating across disciplines and globally with other research institutions as well as decision makers and practitioners from industry, government and civil society to create and apply solutions for a better world. Find out more at ou.edu/research.

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    University of Oklahoma

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  • Decades-old crustaceans coaxed from lake mud give up genetic secrets revealing evolution in action

    Decades-old crustaceans coaxed from lake mud give up genetic secrets revealing evolution in action

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    Newswise — Human actions are changing the environment at an unprecedented rate. Plant and animal populations must try to keep up with these human-accelerated changes, often by trying to rapidly evolve tolerance to changing conditions.

    University of Oklahoma researchers Lawrence Weider, professor of biology, and Matthew Wersebe, a biology doctoral candidate, demonstrated rapid evolution in action by sequencing the genomes of a population of Daphnia pulicaria, an aquatic crustacean, from a polluted lake.  

    The research, which was conducted as part of Wersebe’s doctoral dissertation, was recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  Wersebe and Weider revived decades-old Daphnia resting eggs from lake sediments, a method known as resurrection ecology, which has been refined in Weider’s lab over the past several decades. They then sequenced the entire genomes of 54 different Daphnia individuals from different points-in-time, allowing them to study the genetics and evolution of the population.

    The Daphnia were collected from Tanners Lake, located in Oakdale, Minnesota. Tanners Lake has suffered significant salt pollution, stemming from the widespread use of road deicing salts in its watershed.  

    Daphnia, also known as water fleas, play critical roles in environmental monitoring. For example, they have served as important test organisms in laboratories around the world for over a century because of their sensitivity to many environmental stressors such as chemicals. In nature, Daphnia act as a keystone species in freshwater food webs globally, where they feed on algae to help keep lake and reservoir water clean and serve as a food item for recreational and commercially important fish species.

    Wersebe’s and Weider’s results indicate that rapid adaptation to salt pollution may allow lake Daphnia to persist in the face of anthropogenic salinization, maintaining the food webs and ecosystem services that Daphnia support. However, the ability of these populations to adapt will depend on the speed at which these changes are occurring and the underlying genetic makeup of the impacted populations. 

    Over the past several years, many researchers have published results defining the scope and scale of lake salinization and recent research has highlighted the ecological impacts. However, to date, the evolutionary implications are not well known. Through their study, Wersebe and Weider reported signatures of natural selection throughout the genome near genes related to osmoregulation and ion regulation, key processes for dealing with high salt. Characterizing clones for salinity tolerance revealed evidence that genetic changes may underlie rapid evolution.  

    “Work like this is the first step in designing future studies incorporating recent technological advances, such as CRISPR gene editing, allowing the creation of comprehensive genotype-to-phenotype maps and predicting the role that genetic variation plays in creating diverse forms and functions,” Wersebe said. “In fact, we found a promising gene that appears not to work properly in the older Daphnia, but a functional copy of the gene is increasing in frequency – true evolution in action.”

    Future research using these advanced technologies for cutting and pasting the non-functional gene into Daphnia would be one way to better probe the effects that mutations have on complex phenotypic traits like salinity tolerance.  

    The work was funded by the OU Department of Biology Adams Summer Scholarship, Robberson OU Graduate College Grant, Hill Fund for Research in Biology, OU Graduate Student Senate Research Grant, American Museum of Natural History Theodore Roosevelt Grant and the National Science Foundation Biogeography of Behavior student seed grant awarded to Wersebe in support of graduate research. The study was facilitated by material and technical assistance from the University of Oklahoma Biological Station in Kingston, Oklahoma, and the St. Croix Watershed Research Station in Marine-on-St. Croix, Minnesota.  

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    University of Oklahoma

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  • Staffing shortages cause for concern among law enforcement agencies nationwide

    Staffing shortages cause for concern among law enforcement agencies nationwide

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    Norman, Oklahoma — Stunning bodycam video captured the moment officers with the New York City Police Department on Thursday helped rescue a man who had fallen onto the subway tracks.

    The officers — who were on the opposite platform — had to race across a busy city street to reach the man. A Good Samaritan was already trying to help, and together, they lifted him out of harm’s way, seconds before a train rolled into the station.

    That is just one of the many life-threatening tasks police officers perform every day. However, law enforcement agencies nationwide are facing staffing shortages, with retirement rates up and new recruits in short supply.

    The number of new officer hirings was down 3.9% in 2021 compared to 2019, according to a national survey earlier this year from the Police Executive Research Forum.

    The survey found that there were 23.6% more retirements among law enforcement in 2021 compared to 2019. There were also 42.7% more resignations among law enforcement in 2021 compared to 2019 as well. The uptick in retirements and resignations were driven in party by low pay, the survey determined.

    At Oklahoma’s Tulsa Police Department, new recruit Cheyenne Walden won’t be part of a full graduating class of recruits.

    “You know, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” Walden told CBS News. “So it’s not a job, more of a career.”

    Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said he is struggling to fill about 150 positions.

    “There is, there was, a lot of scrutiny placed upon law enforcement,” Franklin said. “And I think that soured a lot of interested people that wanted to go into the profession. They have made a detour, and they’ve gone and done something else.”

    Smaller law enforcement agencies are sounding the alarm as well. Sgt. Shane Roddy with the University of Oklahoma Police Department (OUPD) told CBS News there are roughly 17 uniformed officers on staff. He said he has not physically trained in an active shooter drill in years.

    “The University of Oklahoma is just going to have to start funding OUPD so that we can build our staffing levels to the point that we can actually start training again,” Roddy said.

    In a statement to CBS News, the university said it recently raised its police department salaries “on average nearly 8%.” The school noted, however, that the pay raise is coming from open positions which have not been filled. The university, though, also said it has hired three new officers, and that it “will continue to hire more officers in the coming months.”

    Furthermore, Saturdays brings college football to Norman — and even with other departments helping with game day security — with more than 100,000 fans on the University of Oklahoma campus, officers worry about the nightmare scenario.

    “There’s always going to be the threat of an active shooter or armed subjects coming on campus and causing death or great bodily harm,” Roddy said.

    When asked if his department is “adequately staffed,” Roddy responded, “absolutely not.”

    Omar Villafranca


    Omar Villafranca

    Omar Villafranca is a CBS News correspondent based in Dallas.

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