Oklahoma Demolishes Maine: All You Need to Know

The Sooners took a break from SEC play and took care of business against the Black Bears in front of a small crowd that witnessed an offensive outburst.

Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold / BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

NORMAN — Oklahoma fans voiced their opinion about the Sooners on Saturday — by not showing up.

Officially listed as another sellout, OU’s home game with Maine was the least-attended game at Memorial Stadium that anyone could recall since the late 1990s.

It was still a 59-14 victory and importantly ended OU’s three-game losing streak. Running back Jovantae Barnes was outstanding with 203 yards and three touchdowns on just 18 carries.

But the announced crowd of 82,831 was much closer to 50,000, with swaths of unfilled seats throughout the stadium.

Saturday’s out-of-conference game was threatened by heavy precipitation and played under dark gray skies and powerful gusting winds. It was moved up from its original 1:30 p.m. start time to 11 a.m. And playing a middling team from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), Sooner Nation stayed away in droves.

But instead of avoiding sketchy weather and sketchier start times and an even sketchier opponent, their absence was likely more due to their team’s tepid performance this season that led to a 1-4 start in SEC play.

That finally changed against the Black Bears.

OU actually started slow but got going and improved to 5-4 overall this year thanks to a 74-yard run by Jovantae Barnes and a 90-yard Jackson Arnold touchdown throw to J.J. Hester — the Sooners’ two longest plays of the season.

Arnold — again without his five best receivers — finished 15-of-21 for 224 yards and two touchdowns.

OU was a 34 1/2-point favorite but trailed 7-0 after opening with a punt on offense and then unable get a stop on defense.

That’s when the Sooners cleaned things up, put their foot on the gas, broke some big plays and put the game away.

The OU offense reached the end zone more than twice for the first time since the previous non-conference game against Tulane way back on Sept. 14. OU finished with 665 yards total offense, its highest output since 672 at Texas Tech in the 2022 season finale.

It all comes with a caveat: nobody is jumping up and down after beating a 4-5 FCS team. OU's previous seven games against teams from the FCS level produced an average score of 62-4.

And now the hard part begins: OU heads to No. 25-ranked Missouri next week, beginning a finishing run of three straight games of ranked opponents. After an open date, the Sooners return home to take on Alabama, then wrap up their first regular season in the SEC with a road trip to LSU.

Today’s Star

Jovantae Barnes has been coming. On Saturday, he arrived.

The Sooners’ junior running back carried 11 times for 158 yards and two touchdowns in the first half alone — both career highs — as the Sooners built a 35-7 lead at halftime. It was Oklahoma’s first 100-yard rushing game this season. He scored his third touchdown after a Maine fumble early in the third quarter, sprinting 19 yards for a new career-high of 186 yards on 13 carries.

Barnes looked like a vintage OU running back — something that has been missing from the Oklahoma running attack. And he did his best work behind another patchwork offensive line, this time with Spencer Brown starting at right tackle and Logan Howland starting at left tackle.

After the OU offense opened with a punt and the OU defense gave up a touchdown to fall behind 7-0 — the program’s first time ever trailing an FCS opponent in seven meetings — Barnes took over on the next play by breaking OU’s longest offensive play of the season. He took a handoff from Arnold, immediately juked left, burst through a hole and cut left again, this time sprinting past the secondary support and outrunning everyone to the goal line.

Actually, Barnes was caught at the Maine 1-yard line, and he punched it in two plays later to tie it up at 7-7.

Barnes’ 74-yard run was OU’s longest run from scrimmage since Caleb Williams went for 74 yards on Nov. 20, 2021, against Iowa State.

Play of the Game

From the Oklahoma 10-yard line, J.J. Hester ran a simple 7-yard dig route on the right sideline, but everyone was covered as Jackson Arnold scrambled out of the end zone. 

Seeing Arnold take off, Hester spun out of his dig and sprinted downfield on a scramble drill. Arnold continued rolling right and saw Hester behind his defender, and floated a perfect ball in stride, and Hester outran his pursuer to the end zone for a 90-yard touchdown. 

It was OU’s longest pass play since Oct. 7, 1995, when Eric Moore threw a 90-yard pass to P.J. Mills.

Stock Report

QB Jackson Arnold — UP: Arnold still missed a handful of open receivers deep downfield, but with just a little bit of protection, he showed the trust and grit to hang in the pocket and at least try some. He also evacuated the pocket and threw a picture-perfect ball to Hester for a 90-yard touchdown. By halftime, he was 9-of-15 for 166 yards and had run the football six times for 30 yards.

RB Jovantae Barnes — UP: Barnes has been heading in this direction. In his last four games, he’s rushed for 61 yards, 38 yards, 70 yards and 67 yards. This is the one the junior from Las Vegas has been waiting for. Now it’s time to hit the big time against the SEC. 

WR J.J. Hester — UP: OU hadn’t had a 100-yard receiver all year, but Hester finished the first half with 98 yards on three catches, including his 90-yard ad-lib touchdown, and ended up with four catches for 112 yards. 

OL Eddy Pierre-Louis — UP: The true freshman guard got his first action since playing 9 snaps against Temple when he came in at right guard to open the third quarter and helped block it up for Barnes' third touchdown of the game. On the second drive, he created a hole with another good block, but then finished a little too strong and was flagged for unnecessary roughness. That's not exactly something that's going to upset anyone in the Switzer Center.

OL Isaiah Autry-Dent — UP: Another freshman offensive lineman got his first action of the year and was effective at right tackle protecting Arnold on another touchdown drive. He blocked sack ace Xavier Holmes one-on-one as Arnold escaped for a short completion, and he locked down his end on Arnold's short touchdown throw to Kaden Helms that gave OU a 49-7 lead.

TE Kaden Helms — UP: Helms caught his second career pass and scored his first career touchdown in the third quarter when he snagged a deflected throw from Arnold for a 9-yard TD that pushed OU's lead to 49-7. The only other reception for the sophomore from Nebraska was a 4-yard catch in 2022 at Nebraska. With occasionally shaky tight end play this season, Helms' emergence could be a big factor for Oklahoma moving forward.

DB/PR Peyton Bowen — UP: There may not have been many fans there, but they were certainly loud after Bowen's 37-yard punt return was wiped out by a holding penalty on Owen Heinecke. It would have been the Sooners' longest punt return of the season, but still showed good instincts and burst by Bowen in the return game.

DB Robert Spears-Jennings — UP: The junior continues to make a big impact on the OU defense, this time with a spectacular fumble strip and recovery the fourth quarter.

DT Davon Sears — UP: In mop-up duty, the senior took over things on the defensive line with three tackles, two tackles for loss and a quarterback sack.

DB Reggie Powers — UP: The true freshman safety had a brilliant interception in the end zone to end the game — only, it was wiped out by a personal four penalty against one of his teammates.

DE Danny Okoye — DOWN: One play after getting slightly pushed by a Maine offensive lineman and executing a flop that would look good in European soccer, it was Okoye who conked Anthony Harris in the head on the throw that Powers picked off.

CB Jacobe Johnson — UP: With Kani Walker continuing to struggle in coverage, Johnson got his first career start at cornerback and finished with two tackles, and also got a handful of offensive snaps at wide receiver.

Injury Report

DE Ethan Downs had back spasms and didn't play.

WR Deion Burks again didn’t play.

RT Jake Taylor didn’t suit up.

LT Jacob Sexton didn’t suit up.

RT/LT Michael Tarquin didn’t suit up.

RB Gavin Sawchuk didn't play.

Receivers Andrel Anthony, Jalil Farooq, Jayden Gibson and Nic Anderson all remained out, as are defensive backs Gentry Williams and Kendel Dolby and offensive lineman Geirean Hatchett. 

Crazy Stat

OU’s previous season high for total yards was 378 against Temple. The Sooners had 402 against Maine — by halftime.