Coming Wednesday, comments will look different.

Hey everyone. I’m Beth, and I oversee all of our college communities for SB Nation.

This Thursday will be a big day for our community: we’re moving our comments to a new platform, developed especially for SB Nation. By then, all our college communities will be moving to the new platform, and I’m excited about the change.

Some of you may already be familiar with this new platform as we began rolling it out to our NFL sites in 2020, and brought it to some of our college communities last year. This latest launch will mean the entirety of the SB Nation network will be on the same comment platform, which we have worked hard to regularly update in order to provide new features for SB Nation communities specifically. We have also worked hard to implement changes to the user experience based on community member feedback.

Why this change? We’ve been using the same commenting platform for over a decade and it’s time for an upgrade. The old system is brittle, and prone to outages. It’s not built for the modern web, and even just maintaining it gets tougher every year.

Nobody likes change, but this is a necessary one, and it brings real improvements that’ll make our whole commenting experience better.

In the new system, you’ll see features that we’ve wanted to add for years, including:

• Easier embeds (just paste the Twitter/YouTube link)
• Easier rich text shortcuts (control-B for Bold, control-I for italics)
• Email notifications when someone replies to you
• See who’s Rec’d your comments
• Better flagging options and strong anti-abuse controls
• A GIF library for easy image posting
• Mute commenters you don’t want to see
• Easily find the most Rec’d comments

Plus a whole host of features that we’ve kept because they make our communities special, such as new comment highlighting, color changes with high Rec counts, Z key scrolling, external image embeds, sarcasm font, and much more.

This platform has been built specifically for SB Nation communities and, for the first time, we now have a team dedicated to constantly evolving and improving our commenting tools.

I know that new things take a bit of time to get used to — I ask only that you give it a chance, try it on a few articles, and then tell us honestly what you think. This is a permanent work in progress — we will continue to evolve the tools over the coming months and years, to give you the tools and platform you deserve. In fact, we have already added dozens of new features based on feedback from our audiences since our initial launch on NFL communities last year. You can help make it better by giving us your feedback in the comments or emailing coralsupport@voxmedia.com

Some important information about the change: your old comments are being saved and will be returned to the pages in the future, but for now, stories won’t contain comments posted prior to the changeover. So please be mindful that any discussions happening at the time the switch is flipped will be interrupted.

Your comment history will now be located under the My Profile tab at the top of the comments (not the top of the page), which is also where your comments archive will be restored when we bring them back.

The new platform will go live on Crimson And Cream Machine beginning Wednesday, April 27. You can use the same login as always.

Thanks as always for being here. Now let’s talk.

Dillon Gabriel and Jovantae Barnes impressed during Saturday’s Red-White Game.

More than 75,000 fans packed into Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon to watch the Oklahoma Sooners’ public debut under new coach Brent Venables in the annual Red-White Game. Venables seized on the opportunity with a pregame WWE-style monologue paying his respects to the program and the players who have passed through it. The celebration continued through halftime with a tribute to legendary quarterback Baker Mayfield.

On the field, the action looked surprisingly crisp for a spring game. (That’s not to say that the running clock in the second half wasn’t appreciated.) A few knee-jerk takeaways without the benefit of the rewatch.

*The tempo really stood out about the offensive side of the ball. OU helped bring the hurry-up offense into college football’s mainstream, but the Sooners had slowed to a crawl when they had possession under Lincoln Riley. Offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby wasn’t kidding when he said he wanted to play fast.

*Dillon Gabriel’s comfort level with that tempo helps explain why he’s playing quarterback for OU right now. The transfer from Central Florida looked at ease operating the offense on Saturday, and the ball came out quickly when he was behind center. Aside from what appeared to be a misread on an interception, Gabriel played steady ball at the helm of both split squads on Saturday.

Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Gabriel may not turn into a star, but he didn’t give any reason to believe Saturday that he can’t get the job done at QB for the Sooners this fall.

*The play at QB behind Gabriel, on the other hand… Let’s just say no one did anything during the spring game to suggest the offense can keep rolling if Gabriel were to go down when the bullets are live. Redshirt sophomore Micah Bowens arguably had the best day of the reserves, but we’re not talking about a high bar here.

Time to see if anything shakes loose in the transfer portal.

Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

*Freshman running back Jovantae Barnes also made a significant impression. Although he didn’t make many highlight-reel plays, he ran hard when given the opportunity. The absence of flash to Barnes’ game masks the likelihood that he runs with the type of authority that seems to guarantee a little extra distance on every attempt. By the end of the year, he may turn into OU’s most reliable back.

*Clearly, the receivers are still developing their timing with Gabriel. A gusting wind didn’t help the passing game, either.

All in all, the receiving corps played adequately. Among the more unproven players, Cody Jackson showed particular promise. Freshman Jayden Gibson was a popular target, although he wasn’t necessarily the most reliable. Gibson’s 95-yard touchdown catch from Bowens was arguably the play of the day for the offense.

*We’ll hold off on going too deep into the offensive line until the rewatch. Initial take: They were fine. Tough to make definitive judgments with the likely starters separated.

*On defense, OU played better in the trenches than expected. (Flip side: Maybe the OL stinks?) Notably, Jordan Kelley showed that he has made major strides under the new coaching staff and could find a routine home in the rotation on the interior.

Defensive end Ethan Downs also appears to be solidifying a spot in the starting lineup. He was the most active player on the entire defense on Saturday. Transfer Jonah Laulu gave reason to believe he will add solid depth on the edge.

*As expected, Key Lawrence flashed while playing deep safety, which looks like his full-time position at this point. He tattooed Drake Stoops on a play early in the game.

Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

*Players who lined up at nickel or SAM linebacker in the first half: Justin Broiles, Trey Morrison, Jaren Kanak. No sign of Shane Whitter there, so sounds like he is playing WILL LB.

*Junior cornerback Joshua Eaton made one of the best defensive plays of the game by breaking up a slant route in the end zone in the first half. With his length, Eaton should have the opportunity to grow into a contributor this year under the tutelage of CBs coach Jay Valai.