Oklahoma-Houston Preview: Three Keys to the Game

The Sooners will dominate the Cougars with just three things: Keep Pushing Up Front, Taylor Tatum's Tales and a Double Scoop of Vanilla

Oklahoma running back Taylor Tatum / NATHAN J. FISH/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK

NORMAN — Houston represents a better opponent this week than Temple did in Oklahoma’s season opener.

And yet, the Cougars had to choke down a 27-7 home loss last week to UNLV. In just their second year as a member of the Big 12, first-year coach Willie Fritz was no doubt hoping for better.

Without knowing yet how good Tulane is when the Green Wave comes to town next week, it’s safe to say that 2024 — including a Nov. 2 matchup with the mighty Black Bears of Maine from the FCS level — might be the most unattractive non-conference schedule Oklahoma has played in years. Decades, maybe.

Of course, Sooner Nation has happily agreed to the tradeoff: OU’s first year in the Southeastern Conference brings teams like Tennessee, South Carolina and Alabama to Norman. Next year, Auburn, Ole Miss, Missouri and LSU will come to town.

SEC play, however, is still a few weeks away. First up, the Sooners have some things to take care of this week. 

Here are three keys to the Houston game:

Keep Pushing Up Front

One position that will ultimately prove whether Oklahoma is SEC-ready or not is defensive tackle.

One game in, OU’s big men on defense looked the part.

Noseguards Da’Jon Terry and Damonic Williams and tackles Jayden Jackson and Gracen Halton were forceful and disruptive against the Owls, as the position combined for four tackles for loss. The front foursome also produced one fumble forced and another fumble recovered.

Halton was particularly good as Jackson’s backup, with 1 1/2 quarterback sacks. Backup Markus Strong produced two sacks on the game’s final two plays. Backup Ashton Sanders also got in on a TFL. Freshman David Stone had two tackles in a reserve role.

Halton’s grade on 22 snaps, according to Pro Football Focus, was 81.5, which ranked second among all defenders behind safety Robert Spears-Jennings’ 90.1. 

Williams played 19 snaps and posted a 73.6 PFF grade. Jackson got 18 snaps and graded out at 71.7. And Terry played 16 snaps with a 75.6 grade.

Davon Sears got 17 snaps as a backup, and graded out at 74.7. Stone got 16 snaps and posted a 75.2 grade. Sanders (69.6) got nine snaps and Strong (80.3) got three.

“We’re deep when it comes to the defensive line,” defensive coordinator Zac Alley said. “We got a lot of guys that are really good players, and we want to be able to roll them, because, man, those 300-pounders are better when they’re fresh. Just the ability to play a lot of guys and to get them out there, man, we want to do that as much as we can just to help them get off, create sacks, opportunities, because fresh guys are usually better than tired guys.”

The great qualifier here is that it was all against Temple. To have that kind of productivity week in and week out, and especially in SEC play, is the goal. 

But last week was a good start.

Taylor Tatum’s Tales

Running back Gavin Sawchuk has the ability to have an All-SEC type of season. So does Jovantae Barnes. 

But anyone who watched the Sooners dominate Temple probably wouldn’t hesitate to say the same thing about freshman Taylor Tatum.

Tatum led the Sooners with 66 yards rushing on just four attempts, and the consensus among coaches and players is that he is ready for more.

Tatum had runs of 4, 19, 35 and 8 yards, the last one a touchdown. The 5-foot-10, 206-pound Tatum has good speed and power and appears to have elite vision. The cuts he makes are sudden and decisive. He runs with a confidence and authority that belies his youth.

The No. 1 running back recruit in the country last year, Tatum will only get more comfortable and more confident the more he gets the football. 

He said he’s still picking up the nuances of the passing game — he didn’t get to Norman until June, as he played high school baseball last spring — but that will come with reps.

“Taylor is incredibly talented,” Brent Venables said. “He has a light inside of him that you spend five minutes around you’re like, ‘Man, I like this guy.’ He’s an easy guy to pull for. He likes to play. He likes the locker room. He likes to compete.”

If Sawchuk and Barnes stay healthy this year, they’ll both have a good season. But don’t be surprised if Tatum gets more and more carries, starting with Saturday’s game against Houston. 

Double Scoop of Vanilla

As mentioned above, this year’s non-conference slate is extremely bland to the palate.

So the respective game plans of offensive coordinator Seth Littrell and defensive coordinator Zac Alley need to continue to be just as bland.

Vanilla, Brent Venables calls it.

Littrell actually opened the game with a reverse to Deion Burks, who eventually ran with the football three times. The Sooners’ second offensive play was a nifty corner route to Jalil Farooq for 47 yards.

After that, however, Littrell got really simple, really fast.

Jackson Arnold executed a handful of play-action passes, including two for touchdowns to Burks (although some of those might have been the RPO — run-pass options; it’s hard to tell them apart sometimes).

Just about everything else on the offense looked extremely plain.

“A really plain vanilla game plan from a strategy standpoint,” Venables said, “and again, there's some things that we'll be able to get better in some of our RPO world that can help us as well.” 

“We didn’t push the ball down the field as much as we would have liked to, maybe,” Littrell said. “When you’re up like that and trying to play a lot of different guys and personnel groupings to see what you have, that’s part of it.” 

The same can be said for Alley’s defensive play-calling. Aside from a handful of simple zone blitzes and an occasional pressure from Danny Stutsman or Kendel Dolby, Alley went pretty much by the book.

Temple is no place to get exotic with the play calling. Neither is Houston. 

The OU coaching staff will have some stored away next week against Tulane — if they need it. 

If they don’t, expect to see the full playbook on Sept. 21, when Josh Heupel brings the Tennessee Volunteers to Norman.