Oklahoma-UTEP Observations: AllSooners LIVE In-Game Blog

John Hoover and Ryan Chapman offer their real-time observations from the Sooners' season-opener against UTEP.

This live blog will be updated throughout Saturday's contest between Oklahoma and UTEP. Newest posts appear at the top. Simply refresh your browser to see the latest posts.

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5:45

Final score: Sooners win

5:26 p.m.

That's it for Dillon Gabriel. OU takes over with 10:43 to play and Davis Beville is the quarterback.

Gabriel's debut ends at 15-of-23 for 233 yards with two TD passes and 20 yards rushing and a TD rushing.

— JH

5:22 p.m.

Clayton Smith, Damond Harmon, C.J. Coldon and Shane Whitter are in the game now among others defensively.

— RC

5:09 p.m.

Third quarter stats:

5:07 p.m.

Sooners lead 42-10 heading into the fourth quarter.

5:04 p.m.

We have a Jaren Kanak sighting at linebacker. The true freshman replaced David Ugwoegbu for this drive, and immediately covered a ton of grass to help out for a tackle that left Justin Broiles a little hobbled.

— RC 

5:00 p.m.

Yep, I’ve seen enough. Marcus Major needs to be the guy for the Sooners in the red zone this year. Really nice run to hit the hole hard and then keep his legs churning for the score. Maybe with all the depth in the running back room Jeff Lebby is just going to give Gray the first half and Major the second half.

— RC

4:43 p.m.

From OU’s halftime notes:

Seven players made their first career start at OU: Ethan Downs, Dillon Gabriel, Tyler Guyton, Jeffery Johnson, Jordan Kelley, McKade Mettauer and Danny Stutsman.

Deep snapper Casey Kelleher is playing in his 53rd game today, breaking Wesley Horky’s record for a snapper.

— JH

4:40 p.m.

Marcus Major looked really decisive on that goal line carry. He’ll obviously have a large role in this offense, but think that he’ll excel in the red zone especially for Lebby and Co.

— RC 

4:38 p.m.

During the timeout, OU’s scoreboard media squad just played “The Corn Song.” (Google it if you don’t know.) I almost spit out my soda.

I mean, it has the juice.

After which, Marcus Major comes in and powers for a 1-yard touchdown, pushing the Sooners to a 35-10 lead early in the third quarter.

Marcus Major has the juice.

— JH

4:30 p.m.

The third quarter has begun and the upper rows of student section are basically empty. The east side upper deck is almost empty as well.

I know it’s hot and it’s humid, but I thought fans were invested in the debut game of the Brent Venables era.

— JH

4:30 p.m.

Can extend this to the entire stadium, really. Not a great look.

OU student section is in rough shape as we start the second half #Sooners pic.twitter.com/M9TvEUIWFT

— Josh Callaway (@JoshMCallaway) September 3, 2022

— RC

4:08 p.m.

The Sooners exploded out of the locker room, but it was a pretty lackluster second quarter considering the level of competition. The quick punts by the offense after the three touchdowns left the defense on an island a little bit. OU’s final drive took some time, but the Miners doubled up Oklahoma in time of possession.

— RC

4:07 p.m.

Halftime stats:

4:06 p.m.

Oklahoma leads UTEP 28-10 at halftime.

— JH

Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

4:01 p.m.

Odd little drive there. Tyler Guyton had to come out after his shoe popped off, and Aaryn Parks struggled a bit. Guyton came back in, had a tough first play back. Then OU strung a couple of runs together leading to the pass to Brayden Willis over the middle.

Offensive line still working through some things.

— RC 

4:00 p.m.

Simple play-action pass and Brayden Willis is open across the middle. He makes a man miss and it’s an easy 28-yard touchdown pass for Dillon Gabriel.

Sooners lead it 28-10, 55 seconds til halftime.

— JH

3:59 p.m.

Maybe they’re just tired from running wide open the first quarter, but OU receivers aren’t getting a ton of separation. Drake Stoops was open on that last sack, but Dillon Gabriel is having trouble finding them.

— JH

3:57 p.m.

Aaryn Parks replaces Tyler Guyton for a few snaps at left tackle. Guyton is having an equipment problem.

— JH

3:53 p.m.

Great rebound by David Ugwoegbu that drive. Lost his footing on that first down play and still got up in time to get the sack. Followed up by an Ethan Downs sack and it basically ended the drive.

Now to see if the offense can get back on track and give the defense a little bit of a breather.

— RC

3:52 p.m.

Oklahoma’s defense got exactly what it needed on that drive: sacks by David Ugwoegbu and Ethan Downs and a short completion and the offense gets the ball back up 21-10 with 5:17 til halftime.

— JH

3:48 p.m.

Will be interesting to see if Venables has Lebby pull back the throttle a little bit. After that punt, the OU offense has only had the ball for 5:23 of this contest despite putting 21 points on the board. UTEP has held the ball for 17:23 in the first half.

— RC 

3:47 p.m.

The Oklahoma offense has gone flat. Dillon Gabriel is sacked on first down, overthrows Jalil Farooq on a deep post on second down and throws too high for Theo Wease on a quick out on third down. Michael Turk punts it away.

— JH

3:45 p.m.

Billy Bowman is going to pop one of these runbacks. He’s fielded kickoffs 4-5 yards deep in the end zone and run them out. That’s new.

The last one covered 25 yards, plus the 5 from the end zone.

— JH

3:43 p.m.

David Ugwoegbu will want that play back on the touchdown run. Pushed back initially and then couldn’t get his feet back under him to drive forward and meet running back Ronald Awatt. Couple of mistakes from the Oklahoma defense on that series between the Stutsman dropped pick, Trey Morrison’s pass interference and the eventual touchdown run.

— RC 

3:41 p.m.

Ronald Awatt’s 2-yard TD run makes it 21-10.

I get the feeling things started out too easy for Oklahoma, and this second quarter has had a bit of the same feel as last year’s Tulane fourth quarter.

— JH

3:38 p.m.

After banging through an unorthodox field goal on its last possession to get on the scoreboard, UTEP has put together a nice, patient drive — against a handful of backups in the secondary, but mostly against the starters and top rotation guys.

Trey Morrison pass interference in the end zone puts the ball at the 2-yard line, and the Miners are threatening again.

— JH

3:33 p.m.

Changes in the secondary — Lawrence back in for Broiles. Trey Morrison in for Billy Bowman, and Kendal Dennis and DJ Graham are now in at corner. Still no Justin Harrington at the Cheetah.

— RC 

3:29 p.m.

Robert Congel was back out at left guard to start this series. Mettauer is on the field with the offense, helmet on, so it appears he’s still available. Will be something to monitor to see if those two continue to rotate throughout the game.

— RC 

3:26 p.m.

OU leads UTEP 21-0 after the first quarter.

3:23 p.m.

Sooners lead it 21-0 after one. First-quarter stats:

3:22 p.m.

The UTEP Miners close the first quarter with two rushing yards up on the scoreboard. I think Sooner fans will take that.

— RC 

3:21 p.m.

Really good front-side coverage by Woodi Washington forced Hardison to keep the football, and Reggie Grimes gets the first sack of the day — and that’s followed up immediately by another Grimes sack. Fumble, but Hardison recovers. UTEP is out of field goal range and facing a third-and-27 when the second quarter resumes.

— JH

3:15 p.m.

The Sooners are rotating a ton on the defensive line, but not anywhere else. Justin Broiles for Key Lawrence the only non-defensive line substitution so far in the first quarter.

— RC 

3:13 p.m.

It would appear that corners Jaden Davis and Woodi Washington are flipping “field” and “boundary” after all. I asked Brent Venables Tuesday if they would do that.

“We haven’t looked at it that way,” he said. “I think first and foremost you've got to look for left and right. Guys that can play either side and both the field and the boundary. So that would be ideal so that you don't, no pun intended, so you don't corner a guy into doing certain things. If they can do what both the field and the boundary do, that's what you would ideally like. So we've cross trained all of them to do that.”

— JH

3:11 p.m.

After three possessions, Oklahoma has 229 yards offense on 13 plays — an average of 17.6 yards per play.

Five of OU’s 13 plays have covered 46, 35, 42, 31 and 24 yards.

— JH

3:08 p.m.

Freshman wideout Gavin Freeman knew what he was doing when he accepted Brent Venables’ offer as a preferred walk on. So did Venables with the offer.

Freeman just zipped 46 yards for a touchdown on his first career college touch — with a little flare, cutting through defenders, bouncing and spinning off tackles and outrunning the defense.

Wow.

Sooners lead it 21-0, 6:43 first quarter.

— JH

3:09 p.m.

Lost in the Gavin Freeman excitement — Robert Congel was in for McKade Mettauer at left guard for that drive. 

— RC 

3:05 p.m.

If you missed it, UTEP QB Gavin Hardison is wearing “Laufenberg” on his nameplate to honor former Miner Luke Laufenberg, who died of cancer in 2019 at the age of 21.

Such a great tribute.

— JH

3:04 p.m.

Really nice plays by Jaden Davis and Reggie Grimes to get the Miners behind the chains, and we got to see true freshman R Mason Thomas tossed into the game on third down.

He just dropped into coverage, but both Grimes and Ethan Downs raved about his pass rushing ability this past Tuesday. Have seen all five defensive ends listed on the depth chart already through two drives.

— RC 

2:57 p.m.

There was a lot of talk this offseason about how together this team is.

Brent Venables and Miguel Chavis were right at the 20-yard-line to dap up the offense as they came off the field after another scoring drive. Both sides of the ball involved early on.

— RC 

2:57 p.m.

Dillon Gabriel is 5 of 6 for 119 yards with a TD pass and a TD run.

Make of that what you will.

— JH

2:55 p.m.

Wow. After Marvin Mims’ punt return attempt inside the 10, the Sooners have two false start penalties (Anton Harrison and Mims) and then Eric Gray pops a 37-yard run off left tackle. Quick throw to Mims covers 31 yards, Gray grabs one over the middle for 24 yards, and it’s first and goal.

Brayden Willis catches the easy pitch from Gabriel and it's 14-0.

The tempo is impressive — warp speed.

— JH

2:48 p.m.

Jordan Kelley had a lot of buzz for his camp and he had some nice penetration for his portion of the opening defensive drive.

Brent Venables also got a chuckle out of the press box when he jumped onto the field to relay some information to Woodi Washington after the latest second down.

OU forces a punt after the roughing the passer call on Reggie Grimes.

— RC

2:45 p.m.

Reggie Grimes gets tagged with a late hit/roughing the passer penalty on UTEP QB Gavin Hardison. Hard to rein in the past nine months, but you can’t hit the QB like that.

— JH

2:44 p.m.

Defensive starters for the Sooners:

Downs - Johnson - Kelley - Grimes

Stutsman - Ugwoegbu - White

Washington - Lawrence - Bowman - Davis

— RC

2:41 p.m.

You wanted aggressive? Jeff Lebby delivered. Called two ultra-aggressive deep shots down the field for Mims (hit one), Gabriel jukes a UTEP defender out of his shoes for the touchdown, and Oklahoma has struck gold with 1:17 off the clock.

Mims was fired up in the end zone after the score, too. He talked about how the entire team has a major chip on their shoulder on Tuesday, and they’re soaking in the crowd early on.

— RC

2:40 p.m.

After under throwing Marvin Mims with a deep post on the opening play, Dillon Gabriel throws a strike to Drake Stoops on a quick slant. Gain of 16. Two plays later, Gabriel finds Mims in coverage for 43 yards. All in tempo.

Gabriel then scoots around the right edge for a 13-yard TD run. Even threw a wicked juke in there. It’s 7-0 Sooners after Zach Schmit’s PAT.

Advantage Jeff Lebby.

The crowd approves.

— JH

2:38 p.m.

Offensive starters for the Sooners:

Guyton - Mettauer - Raym - Murray - Harrison

Wease - Stoops - Willis - Mims

Gabriel - Gray

— RC 

2:35 p.m.

OU won the coin toss and has elected to receive. I expect that's part of Brent Venables' standard: be aggressive.

— JH

2:29 p.m.

For those who aren’t here, the hype video was “hype” — and it was all about the coaches. Barry Switzer, Bob Stoops and Brent Venables all made an appearance.

Venables set the crowd off with this:

“They set the standard. We will defend it.”

This place is about to come apart.

— JH

2:27 p.m.

As expected, TCU transfer Tyler Guyton is announced as the starting left tackle today.

Dillon Gabriel and Marvin Mims got the loudest ovation — at least until Brent Venables was introduced.

— JH

2:09 p.m.

The newest Sooner, Emeka Megwa, isn’t eligible to play for Oklahoma this season because he transferred from Washington after the transfer portal deadline. But he’s here for, watched pregame warmups, and is wearing jersey No. 23.

First look at new #Sooners RB Emeka Megwa, who enrolled in mid-August as a walk-on after transferring from Washington. He was a four-star recruit in the class of 2021.

In uniform, but ineligible to play for Oklahoma in 2022. pic.twitter.com/W21FMzEzoG

— Parker Thune (@ParkerThune) September 3, 2022

2:07 p.m.

It seems exceptionally humid today in Norman. I checked, and the National Weather Service says it's at 36 percent, making 93 degrees feel like 96.

For what it's worth, humidity in El Paso is currently 40 percent.

1:45 p.m.

RB Gavin Sawchuk is suited up. CB Jayden Rowe is in street clothes. So is RB Jaden Knowles, DL Cedric Roberts and PK Gavin Marshall.

RT Wanya Morris is not on the field for pregame. TE Daniel Parker and DB Kani Walker also haven't been spotted on the field yet.

OU’s starting OL:
LT- Tyler Guyton
LG- McKade Mettauer
C- Andrew Raym
RG- Chris Murray
RT- Anton Harrison

— Gabe Ikard (@GabeIkard) September 3, 2022

— JH

1:30 p.m.

The suits looked good on the Sooners in the Walk of Champions during the pregame, but now the players are locked in as they’ve started to trickle out of the locker room for warm ups.

— RC