Oklahoma Opens Venables Era With 45-13 Rout of UTEP

Using high tempo on offense and a focused defensive attack, the Sooners had an easy time in their season opener.

NORMAN — The Brent Venables era got off to an electrifying start on Saturday.

A rapid-fire offense paired with a hungry defense and the No. 9-ranked Sooners routed UTEP 45-13 at Memorial Stadium.

"It went really fast," Venables said. "It was a special day for a lot of reasons." 

A 31-point favorite, OU raced out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter, then coasted to an easy season-opening win that appropriately put just a little more distance between the present and Lincoln Riley’s departure last November.

"It seemed like dog years many times," Venables said. "In some ways, it went by really fast throughout the last nine months. And in many ways it felt like dog years, like, 'When are we going to get to play a game?' But everything has its time." 

New quarterback Dillon Gabriel, operating Jeff Lebby’s offense at a mach speed tempo, missed his first throw, then threw strike after strike, including two touchdowns to tight end Brayden Willis. Gabriel finished the day 15-of-23 for 233 yards and also ran for a first-quarter TD.

Eric Gray led the Sooners with 102 yards rushing on 16 carries, but Marcus Major came off the bench with two touchdowns, a 27-yard run and a 6-yard bulldozer TD in the third quarter, and walk-on wide receiver Gavin Freeman took a reverse 46 yards for a first-quarter touchdown.

Mims caught three passes for 81 yards and Willis caught three for 40.

Overall, the Sooners busted loose on pass plays of 42, 33, 31, 28 and 24 yards, and runs of 46, 36 and 27 yards.

"I thought, for most part, that we really played a clean game on both sides of the ball," Venables said. "We had too many penalties pre-snap, but I'm really proud of the players and coaches." 

On defense, Reggie Grimes had 2 1/2 quarterback sacks to lead a unit that had six sacks and limited the Miners to 28 yard on the ground and 316 total.

The Oklahoma defense took a step back last year under Alex Grinch, but the new coaching staff’s decision to utilize more physical practices with more live tackling seems to have paid early dividends.

Billy Bowman had a team-high nine tackles and broke up two passes from his new safety position. First-time starter Danny Stutsman had nine tackles, and middle linebacker David Ugwoegbu had seven tackles and a sack.

Miners quarterback Gavin Hardison was equal parts efficient and tough with 244 yards on 26-of-43 passing but also was dropped for 34 yards in sacks.

After 29 years as an assistant coach, Saturday was Venables' first game as a head coach. He said he wasn't caught off guard by anything significant, but he did have a Saturday morning phone call with Clemson coach Dabo Swinney just to make sure all the boxes were checked.

"I wouldn't say anything necessarily caught me by surprise," Venables said. "I've got a good staff around me that's nonstop trying to educate me. I've got some questions that I'm not afraid to ask. I've just always been this guy (raises hand), the guy where they'll say 'We're trying to get over this,' and I'm asking questions. I want to know why or what. 

"I spoke with Coach Swinney this morning. We were joking around like like, 'Hey, anything you think I need to know as a head coach on game day?' We're going into the last two hours until kickoff or whatever. And Coach (Bob) Stoops stopped in during the week, but he's just coming bye to fist bump. So I'm always trying to find out by people that have done it at the highest level. Certainly, we have Matt Wells on staff. I utilized all three of those guys this week, and I have for several months."

The Sooners are back in action again next week with a 6 p.m. kickoff against Kent State. That game will be carried on SoonerVision on ESPN+.