How Oklahoma QB Jackson Arnold Got 'Inspiration' From Talking at Players-Only Meeting

The Sooners' quarterback had 266 yards and three TDs, but it was his bounceback from a crucial interception and his sudden rushing success that propeled OU past Tulane.

Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Jackson Arnold (11) celebrates with teammates after scoring a touchdown. / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

NORMAN — Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold stood up and challenged his teammates.

On Friday night before the Sooners’ game against Tulane, the Sooners held a players-only meeting. Arnold sensed an opportunity to say something and hopefully inspire an OU team that won its first two games but also clearly still had plenty of work to do.

It worked well, as Arnold played his best game of the season so far and the Sooners laid down a mostly comfortable 34-19 victory over the Green Wave to improve to 3-0 on the season.

“I stood up and talked to the guys and I challenged them just to play for each other,” Arnold said. “Pick one person out and tell them you're playing for them.”

Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium wasn’t without its challenges. Arnold threw an ugly interception that Tulane’s Tyler Grubbs returned for a touchdown that cut OU’s lead to 24-19. The Sooner defense had just given up a 75-yard touchdown drive right before that, and Tulane had already found the scoreboard with a 75-yard TD drive right before halftime.

Oklahoma wasn’t exactly reeling, but a once-comfortable 21-0 lead had become alarmingly close. Arnold was particularly perturbed about the interception.

“Yeah, I was pissed off,” Arnold said. “It was heartbreaking, bad timing obviously. I love how our team battled through adversity after that, our defense going and getting stops for us and getting that turnover and us really responding after that turnover. My turnover and the defense getting that pick and then us going down and scoring down the field, just shows a lot about our team.”

Arnold’s pick was the low point, and he sensed an opportunity in that moment to lead his team and respond. OU punted on its next two possessions as Arnold began to endure more pressure behind a patchwork offensive line, but after yet another defensive stop, he started the next drive with a 20-yard completion to Deion Burks. Three plays later, Arnold was dancing in the end zone after a 24-yard touchdown run.

“It shows a sign of maturing,” head coach Brent Venables said. “Like I said, he’s hard on himself. To see him, just keep his head down and go through the week, it’s a step forward.” 

It was Arnold’s second TD run of the day and his third overall against the Green Wave. As OU’s lead grew to 31-19 with 6:05 to play, Arnold thought back to the night before, standing before the team and opening up about his confidence in them.

“I got inspiration from saying that,” Arnold said, “because I can count on that entire defense no matter what. It's crunch time, maybe we're down and we need a stop, I know we're going to get a stop, we're going to get a turnover, interception – whatever it is, I can trust in those guys to go out and make plays for us.”

Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Jackson Arnold (11) runs for a touchdown / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

The OU defense – with its third game this season allowing less than 300 yards and its third game yielding less than 20 points – knows it can count on Arnold now, too.

“Things like that happen. It is what it is,” said senior linebacker Danny Stutsman. “Jackson played a phenomenal game. The offense did an amazing job. But when something like that happens, the defense is just gonna respond. No emotion really changed. We just do what we do and the offense is gonna have another opportunity to put points on the board.” 

Arnold said he certainly felt more comfortable this time than he had, in particular because offensive coordinator Seth Littrell stamped him as a weapon in the OU run game. Arnold rushed 14 times for 97 yards, and was sitting at 100 before he took a late loss. He was also sacked three times, which gets subtracted from his 118-yard gross total. He also completed 18-of-29 passes for 169 yards and a touchown.

It was easily a career-high rushing total for Arnold, and he had run the football 11 times in each of his first two games this season, for a combined total of 62 yards. But Saturday against Tulane, he was decisive, confident and ran with authority. He carried it three times on the opening drive, including a 1-yard touchdown on which he stiff-armed a defender and then outran another one to the corner. He ran for 7 on his next carry, then pulled a read-option up the left sideline for 47 yards – tied for the Sooners’ longest offensive play this season. In the third quarter, Arnold busted out for a 17-yard pickup, and in the fourth, his 24-yard zig-zag TD run sealed it.

“Some of those (are) designed runs, some of them weren't,” Littrell said. “He made plays with his legs tonight when he had to. I think the third down in the red zone there at the end of the game, I think that was a huge play. That's something that we've been talking about and we continue to stress. When things break down, you're athletic and your teammates are going to have to be able to rely on you to make those big-time plays in those moments. I feel like at times tonight he did that.” 

“I think we’ve done that the first couple weeks, and I think that can always put people in a predicament from a numbers standpoint, the plus-one run game,” Venables said. “Every team we play on our schedule, every single one of them is going to do it, and it’ll put you in a bind if you also can throw it as well. He ran with good toughness and, really, he’ll get better and better with his feel of things.”

“I like to run the ball,” Arnold said. “It's just how I am. I used to play running back back in middle school. But I think for us, it's just taking what the defense gives you. QB run game, always you've got plus-one in the box unless they really load it, you've got plus-one in the box and it's a big advantage for the offense when your QB can run.

“It's not that it was necessarily bad last week but (shoot), things happen. I'm going to make mistakes, I'm human. But I think this week just locking into the details in practice.”