How worrisome is OU's offensive line? What's the strength of the defense? Plus, Houston predictions!
How worrisome is OU's offensive line? What's the strength of the defense? Plus, Houston predictions!
Tulsa World columnist Berry Tramel gives some college kicker love, too.
OU dominated Temple in its opener, but the Sooners weren't really all that dominant.
At least not on offense.
Not a bunch of big passes. Not a ton of chunk plays.
So what are we to make of the Sooners, and will we actually know any more after this week's game against Houston? We'll talk about all that and much more with Tulsa World columnist Berry Tramel on The Jenni Carlson Show.
Episode highlights
1:07: The Sooners dominated the Owls but weren’t dominant, so where did OU need to dominate more?
2:20: Doesn’t the offensive line need to start, you know, actually start playing some game reps together?
4:13: Can OU get big plays out of the passing game, or are the Sooners going to be limited like they were against Temple?
6:22: What did we actually learn for sure about the Sooners in the opener?
7:57: Biggest strength of the OU defense, which is clearly the strength of the team?
10:24: What the heck is wrong with Houston?
12:29: Predictions for OU-Houston!
Producer: Jacquelyn Musgrove
Creative Director: Michael Lane
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Transcript
Jenni: All right, BT, as I said in my intro, OU dominated Temple without dominating. Now, full disclosure, I stole that from your inaugural SEC power rankings in the Tulsa World where you had the Sooners No. 7. So where would you have liked to see the Sooners dominate a little bit more against the Owls?
Berry: I would like to have seen OU run the ball much better. They hit a couple of home runs in the second half with reserves. Sam Franklin.
Jenni: Taylor Tatum.
Berry: Taylor Tatum from Longview, Texas had a couple of big runs in the fourth quarter. But for the most part, big chunk of that game, OU really couldn't do much with Temple’s run defense. And that's alarming to me. I know OU's retooling the line. Branson Hickman gets hurt. Bill Bedenbaugh has to shuffle everybody on the offensive line. But still, Temple is not a good team. One of the weaker teams we've seen come into Owen Field in this century. I think OU should have pushed them around a little bit more.
Jenni: No matter who's out there, if you're Oklahoma, you want to see domination on the run game, the offensive line. They sat Jake Taylor, the offensive lineman who will be a starter. Brent Venables saying that he had some guys that could have played but didn't play just to continue their rehab. So what is this line really going to look like? Who's really going to play? At some point, don't they need to put that bunch out there? I mean, these non-conference games are not exactly big challenges for Oklahoma, but to get some cohesion, don't you think at some point an offensive line that they expect to play needs to actually be on the field together?
Berry: Well, probably, but you know what's interesting? I guess I ought to ask somebody about this. It seems to me that more than ever, and certainly a lot more than 10 years ago, 15 years ago, we see offensive lines that just sort of are flexible and guys change a lot and more substitution. You know, I can remember some great Bob Stoops and Barry Switzer lines that literally never substituted, unless it was a 49-0 in the second half or an injury. And we see now guys coming in, you know, different schools do it. So I don't know if there's some advantage there, but I do think that this is a crew that, as you said, doesn't have much cohesion. Bunch of new guys. Four guys from the portal are involved in this. Some of the veterans haven't played that much. Couple of guys are injured, have recent injuries. So I do think some stability, some continuity would probably help. I just don't know if Bill Bedenbaugh feels the freedom to actually go for it, or if he just is in a constant state of, ‘We’ve got to do this right now because of this, this and this.’
Jenni: You know, as we talk about the offensive line, I've heard some consternation from people about the offense taking limited shots down the field with Jackson Arnold's arm. Saw his first pass completion of the game was a big downfield throw to Jalil Farooq, and then really nothing else like that throughout that game against Temple. Do you feel like that was game plan? Was that the offensive line just not being able to block for Jackson Arnold? Is it a combination? And whatever the answer is, is it concerning moving forward?
Berry: Well, I mean, I don't know that it's concerning. It is interesting. I asked Seth Littrell after the game, ‘Hey, you didn't throw down field all that much. Was that game plan? Was that what the defense was giving you? What's going on there?’ And he gave an answer that was a little cryptic. I've heard that some people listened to that answer and thought, maybe Jackson Arnold was not completely involved in that. Maybe Arnold should have thrown down. He had the freedom to throw more downfield and didn't take it. So I don't know.
I do think that you're going to need to see that element come because that's his strength. He's got the great arm. Sooners have a bunch of downfield threats with Nic Anderson, Andrel Anthony, Deion Burks, that kind of crowd. So I want to see more of that.
Now Houston, Brent Venables told us Tuesday, Houston is an aggressive defense. You generally don't answer an aggressive defense with a bunch of deep throws but rather quick hitting slants. You might break a 60-yarder that way or screen passes, all kinds of things to counter aggression. But we'll see. I do think that needs to happen though, because that's the one sort of positive over Jackson Arnold replacing Dillon Gabriel is somebody who can really deliver the ball accurately downfield. About the only thing Dillon Gabriel can't do. I'd like to see more of that on Saturday against Houston.
Jenni: We talked before the game against Temple — what might we actually learn? Because of how poor we thought Temple was, and they weren't a test for Oklahoma really. So what did you come away feeling like you actually learned and know pretty well about this Oklahoma team through one game?
Berry: One is that the Sooners have a kicker.
Jenni: Everybody up.
Berry: I like it when a guy pops one through from 50 yards or longer. So Tyler Keltner, good on you. Late in the game, I think they could have tried one from way deep and they decided not to.
Jenni: Would have been like 55 or 57 yards maybe.
Berry: Yeah, and I was hoping he'd try that and we’d, you know, I have a hero in our midst, but I'd like that a lot. Thought the special teams in general, you asked Venables about special teams on Tuesday, but I thought the special teams, the kicking game in general was really good. And that's not always been the case for the recent Sooner teams.
I thought the defense was mostly in place. I I got bored watching Temple. I don't know why I'd expect, you know, any different out of Billy Bowman and Danny Stutsman. So, you know, you can't learn a lot, but some of the things you can learn, I thought were very positive. Again, going back, I don't know that they blocked them well enough on the offensive line to make Brent Venables sleep well at night, but that'd be about the only thing.
Jenni: Because of the questions on offense, I'm going to ask you this specific to the defense. What do you feel like the biggest strength of this defense is moving forward? We kind of suspected that the defense was going to be superior to the offense, and we saw it. But what do you feel like as you watch them again, granted not against the best opponent they'll see all year, what do you feel like the strength of that defense is? Is it the same as it was before you saw them play again?
Berry: I think probably so. Nothing about the defense really alarmed me. I think that strength is numbers. They've got a lot more depth than they've had in the past. They played without a lot of guys, especially in that secondary on Saturday night.
Jenni: No Woodi Washington.
Berry: No Woodi. Gentry Williams played just a little bit. And I think they got a lot of guys that can play. I think they're deep linebacker. The interior line, you can never have enough of those guys. But I thought in general, they really showed that they've got a lot of players and they've got star power. Billy Bowman, Danny Stutsman, Ethan Downs is a veteran. I think Peyton Bowen is an up and comer, Gentry Williams is an up and comer. So they got playmakers on defense and they got a lot of good players. Just more players way deeper than what we saw in what I would call the sort of the sparse desert years between really 2009 and maybe now.
Jenni: Yeah, well, with Alex Grinch, can we call it Whoville? Who do they have?
Berry: Alex Grinch, nothing about his reputation improved after USC played pretty good defense against LSU in Vegas.
Jenni: Very true, very true. Yeah, I do think that OU depth is impressive. And that interior line and defensive line in general, we talked about them a week ago. And obviously, you set out the disclaimer — it is Temple, it’s not Tennessee that they're doing this against — but all those tackles for loss. Think they had nine in the game, all but two were by defensive linemen. So it's not like those tackles for losses are linebackers shooting the gap, safety's coming on a blitz. You've actually got defensive linemen getting pressure, which if they can replicate that as they get into SEC play, that's going to be really big.
OK, as we think about this week, still not an SEC caliber opponent, and frankly, not really that high in the Big 12 either. What the heck is wrong with Houston, Berry? They not only lose to UNLV in the opening week, they get drilled. Woof! What's wrong with the Cougars?
Berry: Yeah, they got a talent void. The cupboard was pretty bare for Willie Fritz coming in from Tulane. He's a wonderful coach. He's won everywhere. He's been at Central Missouri, Georgia Southern, Sam Houston State, Tulane, now at Houston.
Jenni: He’s a native Kansan by the way, thank you very much.
Berry: Kansas City, Kansas guy. That's exactly right. So a heck of a coach, Willie Fritz. Now, in fact, he was on my show this week, and I asked him, ‘You sort of remind me of Lance Leopold in that you come over and, you know, just win wherever you go. A lot of anonymous places and now Leopold's winning at Kansas.’ So I think he took over a pretty bare cupboard. The portal, got some guys in the portal, but not near enough. So it's going to take a while, you know.
He’s replacing a coach that we know and like, Dana Holgorsen, but they're so different in the way they run their programs. Guy like Willie Fritz is so detail oriented and just tightening every screw, and that's not really the way Dana coaches. So I think that's gonna take a little bit of a transition, a couple of years before Willie Fritz gets it going at Houston. By then it'll be somebody else's problem; tt won't be the the Sooners’, although they make a return trip to Houston here in two or three years.
Jenni: Definitely will be interesting to see how this transition time goes for Houston. Coming into the Big 12 a year ago, having a struggle, now changing the coach. Will it be 2026 before we see them kind of start to percolate up? Or will it take longer? We'll have to wait and see.
All right, let's talk predictions, Berry. Who you got in this game on Saturday evening?
Berry: Well, I got OU big. I think we might see better offense. It wouldn't surprise me at all if we saw better offense. You know, UNLV really dominated the clock, ball possession. I think Sooners will run better. So I'm going to go, heck, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go the same score we saw Friday night, 51-3, three more field goals by my man Keltner. Maybe one of them will be another 50 yarder.
Jenni: I’ll go 48-10. I think it is going to be a big spread. I think Oklahoma will dominate. Again, I think there's still going to be a lot of unknowns as they point towards that SEC opener in a couple weeks. Tulane is the last of the non-conference games in Week 3. The things that they can control, they have to control. And boy, I'd like to more offense, more big plays, but I don't know. I feel like they're holding back the playbook a little bit, too, which who knows what we may see when Tennessee comes to town? But I do like another comfortable non-conference win.
Berry, what else you got coming up in the Tulsa World? Give people an idea what they can go find at tulsaworld.com.
Berry: Well, when it comes to the Sooners, I got a nice piece on Houston patriarch Bill Yeoman, who really built the Cougars into a viable Southwest Conference program and got them on the road that they're on. His interesting tie to OU football history.
And then I've got a piece for game day on Saturday asking OU fans, are you ready to do it? Are you ready to start chanting S-E-C? S-E-C? They say no, but I'm skeptical.
Jenni: We'll look forward to reading that again at tulsaworld.com.