Oklahoma has some serious questions to answer on offense.
The No. 15 Sooners were embarrassed 25-15 at home by No. 6 Tennessee in OU’s first SEC game. The Volunteers controlled the game from the start, as Oklahoma’s offense was so poor that quarterback Jackson Arnold was benched for true freshman Michael Hawkins.
Tennessee took a 10-3 lead with seconds left in the first quarter after Nico Iamaleava threw a 66-yard touchdown pass to Dont’e Thornton, and from there the game was a formality in a contest that was more one-sided than the final score suggested.
Oklahoma just couldn’t move the ball. The Sooners had less than 100 yards of offense with less than 12 minutes to play as Tennessee’s defensive front dominated Oklahoma’s offensive line. There was no bright spot on offense for Oklahoma, which entered the SEC with high hopes of being a contender in 2024.
Saturday night showed that the Sooners still have a long way to go. Arnold took over the starting lineup in the Alamo Bowl last season when current Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel entered the transfer portal. After a rocky first start, Arnold entered the season as the clear starter and didn’t show much in the first three games of the season.
Arnold averaged just 5.6 yards per pass in the first three weeks against Temple, Houston and Tulane. He also suffered nine sacks in those three games.
On Saturday night, he was benched after three turnovers. Arnold threw an interception, fumbled and also had an ugly return pass that was recovered by the Volunteers. Before leaving the game, he had completed 7 of 16 passes for just 54 yards and had been sacked multiple times.
Hawkins has shown enough in his time on the field to make it plausible that he will face a Tigers team with quarterback issues of his own in Week 5 at Auburn. Hawkins, a former four-star recruit, set up two of Oklahoma’s second-half touchdowns with runs to the goal line.
The schedule doesn’t get much easier after the Tigers game, either. After Auburn, five of Oklahoma’s remaining six SEC games are against teams ranked in the top 16 of the AP Top 25. Oklahoma doesn’t have much time to figure out what’s going wrong.
Tennessee is an SEC contender
Oklahoma struggled so much that it’s hard to say Saturday night was a win for Tennessee. But the Vols are very, very good. They were far from perfect, either.
Iamaleava fumbled twice on strip sacks and otherwise had a quiet night considering the high standards coach Josh Heupel’s offense held him to. But he didn’t have to have a big night, either. Tennessee’s defense was so good – and Oklahoma’s offense so bad – that it really didn’t matter what the UT offense did.
But this may be the most balanced team of Heupel’s time in Tennessee. And it comes at a great time.
The Volunteers have only two ranked teams left on their schedule, Alabama and Georgia. Even if they lose both games – the Crimson Tide visit Knoxville on the third Saturday in October – Tennessee has a clear path to 10-2. That’s a record that should be good enough for the College Football Playoffs even if the Vols don’t make the SEC title game.
