OU Sooners Preview
9 months 1 week ago #386
by wvu4u2
OU Sooners Preview was created by wvu4u2
Editor’s note: This is the 10th installment of a 12-part series previewing West Virginia’s football opponents for the 2023 season.
The 2023 season will be the farewell tour for Oklahoma in the Big 12 Conference.
The Sooners, along with Texas, are preparing to enter their final season in the league before heading to the Southeastern Conference. Oklahoma’s final Big 12 schedule features a Nov. 11 game against West Virginia at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma.
“All of my opportunities in my life that I have here as a coach have all come from this conference, the Big Eight, the Big 12, the coaches, the great mentors that I’ve had and all the amazing players that have helped me have a career of success,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables, who played collegiately at Kansas State and began his coaching career there as a graduate assistant, said in July during Big 12 media days at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
“Incredibly thankful for this conference and what it’s meant. And as we all know, this is a conference that takes a backseat to nobody.”
Venables and the Sooners are aiming to leave the league better than they played in it last year.
Oklahoma went just 6-7 in 2022, including a 3-6 mark in Big 12 play. The Sooners ended the season with a 35-32 loss to Florida State in the Cheez-It Bowl — their fourth loss over the final five games.
“It goes without saying, we went 6-7 last year and fell well below our expectations and our standards at Oklahoma, but man, we learned and grew a lot as a football program,” Venables said. “In five of the seven losses, it goes down to the last minute, two minutes of the game in the fourth quarter with a chance to win.
“We’ve looked long and hard in the offseason, since January, of what we need to do to become a more efficient football team, and we’ve looked at every single part of our program, how we can improve and get better. Nothing ever stays the same.”
A large part of the failures came defensively under a first-year coach who had success throughout his career as a defensive coordinator. Venables’ resume features three national titles while working with the Sooners and at Clemson.
Oklahoma ranked 122nd of 131 FBS teams in total defense in 2022, allowing an average of 461 yards per game, and 99th in scoring defense with 30 points allowed per game.
“Well, again, everything matters,” Venables said. “I try to look at everything, evaluate everything. Obviously playing good defense is keeping people out of the end zone, and so improving in the areas where we can improve. You do that lots of different ways, whether it’s scheme, it’s players, it’s development, it’s teaching, it’s practicing.
“Again, it can’t ever happen fast enough. We haven’t been good on defense for a long time, but everywhere I’ve been it’s been a rebuilding process to some degree.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I’ve got a lot of faith in both our players, our staff, and certainly how we do what we do and our developmental processes. But there’s no area on defense — we led the Big 12 in interceptions. We led the Big 12 in tackles for loss. Those are building blocks, things you can build from.”
Venables said the Sooners have had “tremendous turnover” and that of the 123 players on the roster, 97 of them will be in their first or second season with the program.
One that’s not is Ethan Downs, a junior defensive lineman and the Sooners’ lone defensive representative on the preseason All-Big 12 team after posting 4.5 sacks and 13.5 tackles for loss last year.
Venables also named linebacker Danny Stutsman, defensive back Billy Bowman Jr., defensive back Key Lawrence, defensive back Woodi Washington and defensive lineman Jonah Laulu as players he expects to be better on that side of the ball.
Oklahoma averaged 32.9 points and 474 yards per game on offense last season — marks that ranked tied for 32nd and 13th nationally, respectively.
Returning is quarterback Dillon Gabriel for his second season with the Sooners. Last year, he threw for 3,163 yards and 25 touchdowns and rushed for 315 yards and six scores.
Leading rusher Eric Gray, who had 1,366 yards on the ground in 2022, is gone, but returning is second-leading rusher Jovantae Barnes, who rushed for more than 500 yards and five touchdowns last year.
The Sooners are also without their top two receivers from 2022, but will look to returners Jalil Farooq and Drake Stoops, as well as Michigan transfer Andrel Anthony, to help fill the production.
“Really love the competitive depth that we’ve both developed with our current players, our returning players, and what we’ve recruited both out of high school, with 40 new scholarship players, and 17 transfers,” Venables said.
“Really believe that because of the competitive depth, we’ll have a little bit stronger fourth quarter output on both sides of the ball, a quarter of football where we performed very poorly last year, which led to five one-score losses for us.”
Oklahoma was picked third by media covering the league in preseason polling, behind league favorite Texas and defending champion Kansas State. The Sooners picked up four first-place votes.
WVU knocked off Oklahoma 23-20 last season at Milan Puskar Stadium with a 25-yard field goal from Casey Legg as time expired. The result moved the Mountaineers to 3-11 all-time against the Sooners.
Game time and broadcast information for the final game between WVU and Oklahoma for the foreseeable future have not yet been announced.
Jared MacDonald covers WVU athletics. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow @JMacDonaldSport on Twitter.
The 2023 season will be the farewell tour for Oklahoma in the Big 12 Conference.
The Sooners, along with Texas, are preparing to enter their final season in the league before heading to the Southeastern Conference. Oklahoma’s final Big 12 schedule features a Nov. 11 game against West Virginia at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma.
“All of my opportunities in my life that I have here as a coach have all come from this conference, the Big Eight, the Big 12, the coaches, the great mentors that I’ve had and all the amazing players that have helped me have a career of success,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables, who played collegiately at Kansas State and began his coaching career there as a graduate assistant, said in July during Big 12 media days at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
“Incredibly thankful for this conference and what it’s meant. And as we all know, this is a conference that takes a backseat to nobody.”
Venables and the Sooners are aiming to leave the league better than they played in it last year.
Oklahoma went just 6-7 in 2022, including a 3-6 mark in Big 12 play. The Sooners ended the season with a 35-32 loss to Florida State in the Cheez-It Bowl — their fourth loss over the final five games.
“It goes without saying, we went 6-7 last year and fell well below our expectations and our standards at Oklahoma, but man, we learned and grew a lot as a football program,” Venables said. “In five of the seven losses, it goes down to the last minute, two minutes of the game in the fourth quarter with a chance to win.
“We’ve looked long and hard in the offseason, since January, of what we need to do to become a more efficient football team, and we’ve looked at every single part of our program, how we can improve and get better. Nothing ever stays the same.”
A large part of the failures came defensively under a first-year coach who had success throughout his career as a defensive coordinator. Venables’ resume features three national titles while working with the Sooners and at Clemson.
Oklahoma ranked 122nd of 131 FBS teams in total defense in 2022, allowing an average of 461 yards per game, and 99th in scoring defense with 30 points allowed per game.
“Well, again, everything matters,” Venables said. “I try to look at everything, evaluate everything. Obviously playing good defense is keeping people out of the end zone, and so improving in the areas where we can improve. You do that lots of different ways, whether it’s scheme, it’s players, it’s development, it’s teaching, it’s practicing.
“Again, it can’t ever happen fast enough. We haven’t been good on defense for a long time, but everywhere I’ve been it’s been a rebuilding process to some degree.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I’ve got a lot of faith in both our players, our staff, and certainly how we do what we do and our developmental processes. But there’s no area on defense — we led the Big 12 in interceptions. We led the Big 12 in tackles for loss. Those are building blocks, things you can build from.”
Venables said the Sooners have had “tremendous turnover” and that of the 123 players on the roster, 97 of them will be in their first or second season with the program.
One that’s not is Ethan Downs, a junior defensive lineman and the Sooners’ lone defensive representative on the preseason All-Big 12 team after posting 4.5 sacks and 13.5 tackles for loss last year.
Venables also named linebacker Danny Stutsman, defensive back Billy Bowman Jr., defensive back Key Lawrence, defensive back Woodi Washington and defensive lineman Jonah Laulu as players he expects to be better on that side of the ball.
Oklahoma averaged 32.9 points and 474 yards per game on offense last season — marks that ranked tied for 32nd and 13th nationally, respectively.
Returning is quarterback Dillon Gabriel for his second season with the Sooners. Last year, he threw for 3,163 yards and 25 touchdowns and rushed for 315 yards and six scores.
Leading rusher Eric Gray, who had 1,366 yards on the ground in 2022, is gone, but returning is second-leading rusher Jovantae Barnes, who rushed for more than 500 yards and five touchdowns last year.
The Sooners are also without their top two receivers from 2022, but will look to returners Jalil Farooq and Drake Stoops, as well as Michigan transfer Andrel Anthony, to help fill the production.
“Really love the competitive depth that we’ve both developed with our current players, our returning players, and what we’ve recruited both out of high school, with 40 new scholarship players, and 17 transfers,” Venables said.
“Really believe that because of the competitive depth, we’ll have a little bit stronger fourth quarter output on both sides of the ball, a quarter of football where we performed very poorly last year, which led to five one-score losses for us.”
Oklahoma was picked third by media covering the league in preseason polling, behind league favorite Texas and defending champion Kansas State. The Sooners picked up four first-place votes.
WVU knocked off Oklahoma 23-20 last season at Milan Puskar Stadium with a 25-yard field goal from Casey Legg as time expired. The result moved the Mountaineers to 3-11 all-time against the Sooners.
Game time and broadcast information for the final game between WVU and Oklahoma for the foreseeable future have not yet been announced.
Jared MacDonald covers WVU athletics. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow @JMacDonaldSport on Twitter.
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