Oklahoma Sooners Offensive Players to Watch in Week 6 vs Texas

The Sooners have five returning starters in 2022 but they have plenty of competition to sort through at their skill positions.

The Texas Longhorns will face the Oklahoma Sooners in their renewal of the Red River Rivalry Game at Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas on Oct. 8.

The Sooners enter this season under a new head coach and a new offensive coordinator. Lincoln Riley left the Sooners in November to take over at USC, and the Sooners hired Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables to take over. Venables was a former defensive coordinator at OU under Bob Stoops.

Venables lured Jeff Lebby from Ole Miss to take over the offense. Lebby was the offensive coordinator at Central Florida before joining Ole Miss, and with the Knights he worked with the quarterback that most presume will start for the Sooners — Dillon Gabriel.

Meanwhile, the Sooners have just one returning starter at the skill positions, wide receiver Marvin Mims. OU is also counting on a former five-star recruit in wide receiver Theo Wease, who missed all of last season with an injury. The Sooners have three returning starters on the offensive line, and that will be their primary building block for early success.

With that in mind, here are a few offensive players to watch for the Sooners when they face the Longhorns in Week 6.

Be sure to stick with Longhornscountry.com as we preview every aspect of the matchup with the Sooners throughout the week

QB Dillon Gabriel

Gabriel is the would-be successor to Caleb Williams (transferred to USC) and Spencer Rattler (transferred to South Carolina), both of which started for OU last season. Gabriel is coming off a 2021 in which me missed most the season with an injury. But, for his career, he’s thrown for more than 8,000 yards and 70 touchdowns. Plus, he has experience with Lebby, as they worked together at UCF. Gabriel could continue the recent tradition at OU of transfer quarterbacks experiencing high levels of success (think Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts).

WR Marvin Mims

Mims is the one ‘known’ quantity returning from last season’s offense. He caught 32 passes for 705 yards and five touchdowns last season, which was third-best for the Sooners. With the transfers of Jadon Haselwood (Arkansas) and Mario Williams (USC), it’s up to Mims to become Gabriel’s favorite target. He has the talent. He’s just never quite had this wide open an opportunity to prove himself.

RB Eric Gray

The running back situation is kind of a mess with the loss of Kennedy Brooks, who rushed for 1,253 yards and 13 touchdowns last season. With Brooks out the door, Gray is OU’s leading returning rusher with 412 yards and four touchdowns. Gray was expected to play a bigger role last season, but Brooks’ play took care of that. Now, Gray gets a chance to play the kind of role he was hoping for last season. He won’t be alone. He’ll have to hold off a young, exciting back in Jovantae Barnes, who impressed the Sooners during spring workouts.

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