Column: What Does Beating Maine Do for Oklahoma? Improvement, Progress, Confidence

Sooners head coach Brent Venables said "it's just the next game," but the team "took one step up" as they return to SEC play this week at Missouri.

Oklahoma Sooners linebacker Kobie McKinzie (11) chases after Maine Black Bears quarterback Carter Peevy. / BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

NORMAN — Back to business.

It wasn’t exactly a bye week for Oklahoma football — that comes next week — but the Sooners won’t have an easier time of it than they did last week against Maine.

OU returns to SEC action on Saturday when they visit Missouri — ranked No. 22 in the Coaches Poll, No. 26 in the AP Top 25 — followed by the open date and then back-to-back finishing strokes against No. 11 Alabama and No. 14 LSU.

The Sooners need one win to qualify for a bowl game for the 25th year in a row — and get those all-important postseason practices under their belt so the team can continue to march toward a successful 2025.

Did drubbing the Black Bears 59-14 help OU prepare in any way for this closing gauntlet? 

I asked Brent Venables to put it in context for where the Maine game fits in this most difficult of seasons.

“It’s just the next game,” he shrugged, “and next opportunity to improve. That's what we wanted to see. 

“Today was kind of a byproduct of — again, the last three weeks, we’ve been talking about seeing their improvement at the spots where we haven't had — at the first part of the season where we weren't as good, whether it’s on offense, just everywhere on offense. The last three weeks or so, seen guys getting better in practice and today was an opportunity to do that against someone else and do the basics at a high level.” 

There’s the words that Sooner Nation has been waiting patiently to hear: “guys getting better at practice.”

Practices are closed, so we can only take Venables at his word. But if that indeed has transpired, then that’s where OU will draw from when they step onto Faurot Field on Saturday night, not from dragging poor Maine around last weekend.

“Certainly far from perfect,” Venables said after the Maine thing, “but I thought our guys did the basics well.” 

Where Oklahoma really stands to benefit from such a thorough victory — OU had 665 yards total offense, while Maine managed just 251 — was in gaining confidence from something, anything good happening. Especially for an offensive line that has struggled all year just to do anything right.

“It hasn’t always been the best,” said center Troy Everett, “but today was great. A good confidence builder.” 

“Boost of confidence going forward,” said quarterback Jackson Arnold. “We had a bunch of young guys in today on the o-line and for them being able to go out there and dominate today and build that confidence up is huge for us.” 

Arnold is another one who needed a shot of confidence after mostly rocky performances all season. He got benched because of turnovers, then watched his replacement get taken out for the same reason. Arnold knows he needed to just see some good things happen before he stepped back into SEC play. 

“I think it’s a sign of progress for us,” Arnold said after hitting 15-of-21 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for 45 yards and another score — with no turnovers and no sacks. “The way we prepare, the way we went into the game mentally, I think it speaks volumes about the coaches and how they prepared us for the week and the game plan they put together.” 

Offensive coordinator Joe Jon Finley knows the Sooners overmatched the Black Bears. Although the OU offense opened with a punt and the defense gave up a 68-yard touchdown drive, the final score was always inevitable. What Finley wanted to see from last Saturday was something that goes much deeper than the scoreboard.

“I think it was just our guys continuing to take a step and learning how to compete,” Finley said. “The first big run we had today (Jovantae Barnes’ 74-yard near-TD) was a big-time effort play by our outside receiver, Brenen Thompson, on the left side. He goes all the way to get the into the field safety, and Barnes did a great job of making the corner miss. That’s how you draw it up and our guys executed it. Bauer Sharp finished on the blocks. I just think you see our offense get a little bit better every single day, every single week That’s exactly what we asked for.” 

Meanwhile, defensive coordinator Zac Alley wasn’t too pleased to give up a touchdown on the Bears’ opening drive after Maine “showed us some new things that maybe we haven’t seen or haven’t worked on,” but he was happy with the way his defense maintained their focus and fell back on what they worked on in practice all week.

“We’re Oklahoma. We’re going to get somebody’s best shot all the time,” Alley said. “Just the ability to respond to something like this is something that’s not new, but the reality is when you face adversity again with the games we have remaining on the season and we’re going to respond the right way to that.”

Wide receiver J.J. Hester, a Tulsa native who began his college career at Missouri, will be additionally motivated this week to play his old squad. His 90-yard touchdown against Maine “catapults everyone,” he said, and was just the shot of confidence he needed to finish this season strong.

"It can help us a lot,” Hester said. “Sometimes you just need to see it happen and it happened today. So we’re just going to let that motivate us to keep going."

Venables relayed a brief conversation he had with true freshman Daniel Akinkunmi, the offensive lineman from England who comes to Norman from the NFL Academy. Like most Londoners, he was raised on the soccer pitch, but Akinkunmi’s great stature — 6-foot-6 and 323 pounds (that’s 19.5 hands and 23.07 stone, using the King’s measurements) — drew him to American football. 

Akinkunmi got into his first game on Saturday, and although he and two other true freshmen o-linemen were predictably nervous, his head wasn’t exactly swimming. Akinkunmi played eight snaps, did his job, graded out OK, and could be ready for additional duty in November.

“His first words were, ‘It was way easier than I ever thought it would be. I've been overthinking it,' “ Venables said.

“It’s just the details,” Alley said. “Prepare so when you get out there you have an opportunity. … You’ve got to execute with the details of the things that we’ve seen and we’ve done. Sometimes the environment and the, ‘Oh man we’re playing a game’ — you get an adrenaline rush. And we’ve just got to calm down and do what we’re supposed to do.”

And for a team that’s 5-4 and striving to get just one more win (although Venables said last week he’d prefer to start a winning streak), the result of beating down an FCS opponent could actually translate to having just a bit more success in the SEC.

“Just get a little bit better at everything that you do,” Finley said. “We ran the ball very well today, and you have to be able to do that in this conference. Everything else, better. We’ve got some young O-linemen that fought their tails off, rotated, but gotta continue to find ways to run the ball. When do that, you got a chance to win.”

“Some stuff we still have to work on,” said Barnes, “but I feel like we took one step up, for sure.”