Four Games in, Oklahoma's Offensive Line Isn't Any Closer to Finding Answers

The Sooners were dominated by Tennessee's defensive line, putting OU in an early hole in SEC play.

Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Jackson Arnold (11) is brought down during a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Tennessee Volunteers at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. / BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

NORMAN — Oklahoma’s offensive line keeps going backward, both literally on the field and in terms of showing any improvement. 

The No. 15-ranked Sooners were beaten soundly 25-15 by No. 6 Tennessee on Saturday in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated. 

Josh Heupel’s Vols lived in OU’s backfield. 

When the clock mercifully struck zero on Owen Field, Tennessee (4-0, 1-0 SEC) had racked up three sacks, 11 tackles for loss (one of which resulted in a safety where running back Jovantae Barnes had no prayer of getting out of the end zone) and four quarterback hurries while holding Oklahoma’s ground game to a pathetic 1.1 yards per carry. 

“It’s very frustrating. Just some bad football,” OU coach Brent Venables said after the loss. “Some guys getting whooped and beat and not winning their matchups. Don’t like that at all.”

Neither quarterback Oklahoma threw onto the field was set up for success, though true freshman Michael Hawkins Jr. had more success salvaging plays with his legs than Jackson Arnold. Hawkins also took care of the football as opposed to Arnold, whose three turnovers undid all the good work OU’s defense did to contain Tennessee’s explosive offense. 

For the fourth straight week, the offensive line failed to communicate and get on the same page. 

Even the return of veteran center Branson Hickman didn’t yield better results, as the Volunteers had free rushed baring down on Arnold, Hawkins and Oklahoma’s running backs all night. 

“I'm tired of watching the same thing,” Venables said. “… I'd rather everybody be wrong and be on the same page than just one guy doing this and one guy doing that. You can't play good football when you are doing that.”

Right guard Febechi Nwaiwu, who along with Jacob Sexton has started every game this year for the Sooners, said the blame is at the feet of the guys up front and not the quarterbacks failing to relay protections.

“It's offensive line to offensive line,” Nwaiwu said. “Especially when we have some new guys, not that that's an excuse, but we have to make sure that we're all on the same page and it all is taking the right steps with the right foot together as one.”

Oklahoma has started four different lineups along the offensive line through the first four games, but there’s no reason the unit should be as bad as its shown thus far.

“It's difficult but I honestly think that we're blessed with talent at every position,” Nwaiwu said. “We have people that can come in whenever people go down. A lot of teams have depth problems whenever it comes to that and I think that this team has a lot of really good athletes, especially at offensive line, that are able to get the job done.”

Oklahoma averaged 1.1 yards per carry against Tennessee and finished the game with just 36 total rushing yards. / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

OU offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh can’t waive a wand and fix his unit overnight. 

The improvement will have to come week-over-week, but the growth hasn’t been fast enough. 

Oklahoma is 3-1 on the year and 0-1 in the SEC because the offense can’t string drives together, and the communication will only be more difficult next week when the Sooners hit the road for the first time to take on Auburn. 

“You can't get frustrated with the guy next to you or you can't get frustrated with yourself because you've still got the rest of the game,” Nwaiwu said. “You can be frustrated after the game but even then it's, we've got to wash it and move on because we've got another game next week. 

“It's, okay what did I do wrong? What did we do wrong? What can we do to improve? How we're gonna do it? Let's go attack it.”

Venables said after the game there’s officially a quarterback competition in Norman. 

Neither Hawkins nor Arnold will be able to do it alone, and Oklahoma’s issues up front aren’t going away any time soon. 

“My job is to put it all together and give us an opportunity to win so that's what we'll do,” Venables said. “We'll evaluate a few things. … We got a lot of work to do as a staff, certainly we've got a lot of improvement to do as a team and we'll put everything we’ve got into the next week just like we do every week. 

“We've got a great challenge going on our first road game at a place like Auburn. Got a lot of work to do.”