Oklahoma Football: Sooners On SI - Temple postgame

what's up everybody John Hoover Sooners on SI along with Ryan Chapman Randall s uh wow we just watched the Oklahoma take down Temple tonight 513 in the 2024 season opener historic night first night of football as a member of the Southeastern Conference uh Bren ven said we're not out here beating our chests after beating Temple 51 to3 you guys will remember last year's opener was 73 to nothing 79 and nothing 73 and uh you know things didn't kind of like when happens with openers kind of went downhill after that so uh there's here's what he said he said we got a lot of work to do um there were some really good things that happened tonight Ryan there were some things that this team's going to have to work on but first they've got to figure out a couple of injury situations yeah we we got to talk to Brent vils in postgame pretty transparent Jalil faroo I don't know if it was shown on the broadcast but he hobbled off the field limp to the locker room same exact foot that he injured in Spring practice Britman was confirm it was a break they're going to have to put a screw in it that will be a surgery 6 to 8 weeks for jul f the other one Branson Hickman owe you starting center tonight second possession of the game he goes down Brit vible said that's a sprain he didn't have a timeline for that but I guess the good news is he did outline a couple of guys who did not play or incredibly limited they were all precautionary among those Woody Washington Eli Bowen Jake Taylor along the offensive line all those guys were listed as hey Brent viell said those are all precautionary didn't need him against Temple didn't want to risk him against Temple then also Gentry Williams you saw a little bit of him Brent vble said fully cleared but he he didn't say these words Ginger was on a pitch count tonight didn't want to get him re-aggravated anything like that though Brett did say they have had some controlled tackling some controlled live good on good that kind of stuff but ging Williams fully cleared on a pitch count tonight but the big one will be faroo is obviously OK has already lost Jaden Gibson in that wide receiver room yeah and I asked Brent venol how you're going to replace Jalil faroo a three-year starter basically he's been starting since he since he was a freshman uh he had a great year last year um he's a I guess he didn't start as a freshman but he started he's been starting since the sophomore year um he's a guy who had a good year last year he's productive he was versatile offered a lot to the offense now they've got to find his replacement uh Randall let's talk about one more thing on Woody Washington uh I was sitting up in the Press Box up here going well geez I guess Woody Washington lost his job because he's on the sideline fully dressed fouryear starter Woody Washington nope just precaution slightly banged up nothing to worry about Hoover or anybody else out there that counts themselves as a woody Washington fan but I thought those two guys that played behind him in that in the other spot KY Walker and uh Dez Malone Dez Malone the transfer from San Diego State were I thought they both played good again it's Temple so we'll Tamp the expectations Randall let's talk about the Oklahoma defense holy cow man um there were a couple of what third quarter maybe I think there was a penalty that ended up resulting in a field goal drive but Brett venol a perfectionist even with Zack allly as his defensive coordinator he loved what he saw tonight yeah I mean I think that I mean of course you you mentioned it's Temple temp temper your expectations but this is one of the most impressive performances I've seen by an Oklahoma defense in a long time I mean the way that they were swarming to the ball not not only you know making tackles but getting you know multiple hats to the ball multiple guys there where the ball carrier was multiple hands in the ball carriers you know Bread Basket to rip the ball away that's how they were able to get the ball on the ground what three or four times obviously they took the ball away through the air interceptions as well you know we've heard for years from Oklahoma defensive coordinators that they want to force turnovers they want to force turnovers tonight Oklahoma did it I think last year another thing that really concerned Oklahoma fans heading out of the season opener was that they didn't get to the quarterback even in that huge win they weren't able to get into the backfield sack the quarterback tonight that wasn't a problem Grayson Halton had multiple sacks Marcus strong at the end of the game had multiple sacks even David Stone the few reps that he got in you saw him getting into the back field beating some blockers I think that the the defensive line rotation was really really impressive to me looking at how physical those guys were I mean they were pushing the pocket all night they were getting into the back field they were disrupting plays that Oklahoma defensive line is deep they've got a lot of guys that they can rotate in at least based on what we saw tonight and uh they all played pretty well I think that Dominic Williams uh you can tell that he he's here to play I think the one of the first few plays on Oklahoma's defense he made a huge stop right uh right there there in the middle I think that that defensive line really showed that they are living up to what we thought they could be six takeaways tonight uh I'm pretty sure at this juncture of the college football season U leads the nation in takeovers turnover margin probably turn margin for sure the most since 2003 by the way the U Texas game in 03 which is crazy to me 2003 21 years ago they haven't had six turnover takeaways in a game that's uh wow I'd like to go check my own math on that one a lot of bad defense been played on this field uh since then and this is something that maybe this is uh this defense is particular in particular is starting to turn that thing around turn that narrative around like I I wrote earlier in the week Sooners on SII Oklahoma Sooners on si.com check that out cuz I was fascinated by some of those defensive numbers we're talking 15 years of futility for a proud proud defensive program Brent venal comes back this third year is supposed to be the year that he takes that that his team and his defense take that next step um look good tonight again as Temple so not enough body of work I guess a small body of work to kind of figure out when you consider the SEC is coming guys the SEC is coming something else is coming is the Oklahoma offense started fast tonight ran into a couple of hitches guys I couldn't believe some of the numbers I was seeing tonight 1 for 12 on third down conversions they were they started the game 0 for 11 and the backups came in and picked up the first third down going that way got Taylor Tatum in the end zone 1 for 12 on third down conversion there were eight running plays of two yards or less they were B they were bad on first down they were bad on second down I think they had 387 378 total yards um the fewest passing yards 161 since the Davis bevel game at Texas a couple of years ago the offense was uh they struggled and we talked about the offensive line that's a big part of it yeah let's start with that bad there Brent Venable said that um that they were behind schedule Jack arold echoed that that put them in really really bad spots on third Downs Brent m talked about some of the rpos that Jackson actually end up pulling and try to make passing plays yeah Brett vial basically said if he had just handed it off that the times that they did have it blocked up front the ball didn't kind of get there there were a couple of drops two from one from uh brenon Thompson one from JJ Hester that were dead on drops one great deep ball from Jack on the sideline JJ Hester as well that was a drop it hit him in the hands now there was a guy all over him but uh something that he needs to catch that ball especially when you're talking about missing Jal Fuko and Jaden Gibson the offensive line really feel like they had a ton of confidence there were a couple of times they opened up big holes that 30 yard run by Sam Franklin in the third quarter was really the only time I felt that was a just a great well blocked you could have driven a truck through that thing so that's something they're going to have to fix a little bit of that Brit was late at timing and and Jack snar being a Young quarterback little that's going to be if you can get Branson Hickman healthy Jake Taylor coming into the game so we'll see there there was good though to be had Deon Burks three touchdowns that's the most for any Oklahoma player in an opener ever not just guy making a debut any Oklahoma player and that was a Dion Burks that wasn't really taking the top off the defense tonight cuz Brent vbl was the first to say it was Vanilla they're hiding stuff for Tennessee maybe two lane Houston the insinuation was Tennessee bow sharp goes out there gets a touchdown in his first drive and as much as we talk about the passing yards it's a weird dichotomy of passing yards bad I thought jackar was really good though you saw the 47 yard connection on the first drive with Farooq then a really just excellent mature ball that he feathered over the linebacker for that Bowers sharp touchdown the fade that he threw to a couple of them frankly to Dion bur you saw he's got everything it wasn't like an awful performance by Jack snar I think a lot of that offensive line the numbers would lock looked a lot better without the drops but uh Brett viell said it all three phases of the game a ton that Oklahoma can improve on which is a good sign considering they dominated a bad Temple team and still have uh it could have been a lot lot lot worse for the owls yeah Jackson was uh 17 of 25 141 yards uh four touchdowns that was good obviously but he said Brent also said that he had four drops so should have been 21 out of 25 that's really good 21 out of 25 for any quarterback in any era uh you mentioned all three phases you mentioned special teams something that I need to get to that I'm going to pitch to you is the uh special teams tonight um the Doug Deacon new special teams I'm going to call him a coordinator maybe coach is a better word Doug Deacon um may have changed some things around here with special teams especially in the kicking game you know it was it was really interesting it felt like Temple didn't punt for the whole first half of the game because U was just turning him over but uh you mentioned you know in the kicking game specifically Tyler Kelner banged a 51 y I think it was in the first half it's a little hard to tell exactly how far it was when we're down here on thei 50 and 42 50 and 42 okay it looked like I was going to say 5150 y but a long field goal that we we didn't see Zack Schmidt making those last year in games of course we hear he make some in practice but this is the first time we've seen an know you kicker in a long time make a 50 Y in a game so that's a sight for sore eyes it's refreshing to see kicker just go out there and handle business be confident and do what he's supposed to do two obviously not mile long field goals but but not chip shots either and then I think you know in the return game or I guess the coverage game more more it was when they're kicking and punting uh kick and punt coverage Oklahoma looked great uh Temple could never really get anything going the times that Zack Schmidt didn't kick the ball out of the end zone the time he left it short let Temple return it and then of course on the punt return there's uh U misses a few tackles but they were able to Rally get enough bodies to the ball still knock the ball loose kx's able to scoop put up and end up in the end zone yeah a it was a defensive play on special teams um by a defensive guy Jared knck um so that was impressive I think they've really uh made strides in the Special Teams Department that's going to Brent talks about it all the time this this SEC it's a onep possession League they're going to win some onep possession games this year that they've been um losing some in in the past couple they've lost gosh what's their record in one possession games like three and seven it's bad and this is not the sexiest thing in the world but that 11 yard punt return by Payton Bowen Tom Green did the research on this so credit to Tom Green that would have been the third longest punt return a year ago Freeman had obviously the 82 y of the opener he had a 20 something yard against UCF he was awful after that pton Bowen it doesn't sound sexy but 11 y would have is already a huge improvement over what the average was uh pretty much once you got into real football games a year ago and you're seeing Zack allly and the new new defensive coordinator get picked up carried around the locker room they called it crowd surfing or swag surfing I I don't think BR knows what the actual swag surf is I'm not sure that is that's okay yeah that's a that's a that's a guy that's that's something Zack allly probably knows Brent venal probably doesn't it's it's an age barrier thing uh but they had fun with it they they gave him a game ball and he was uh he said he was a little scared he thought he was going to get dropped on his head uh I'm telling you uh it was Kendall Dolby who said moments like that are fun in the locker room this team loves each other this team gets along great this team's one and0 after the night everything's great lots to work on Plenty of film to watch we're not going to watch the film we'll watch the game copy tomorrow at Oklahoma Sooners on si.com check out all of our game day coverage I think we had something like 15 stories posted 15 total pieces of content and we're going upstairs right now in the Press Box to probably post about 15 more so uh Oklahoma Sooners on si.com check it out also catch those videos on my YouTube channel John Hoover media for Ryan for Randall I'm John Hoover see you guys