Saturday was a more significant win than it should have been for the Oklahoma Sooners, not because of the opponent or because the game had some stakes tied to it. However, internally, the Sooners had to answer a few questions.
The Sooners won 34-19 at home to wrap up this portion of their nonconference schedule. Now OU begins SEC play when they host the No. 7 Tennessee Volunteers next week.
Several players stood out from the Sooners win and here are this week’s three stars of the game.
1. R Mason Thomas, EDGE
On Saturday, the best player on the field was R Mason Thomas.
Thomas has spent his first two years in Norman, adding mass to his frame while fighting injuries. His development has impressed coaches, but we’d yet to see it come to fruition.
Coming into the season, it felt like now or never for him, and in this third game of the 2024 season, Thomas stepped up and provided good pressure throughout the game, coming up with three pivotal sacks and a forced fumble and fumble recovery in the most critical time of the game.
His calling card is winning with speed and he did just that on Saturday afternoon. He showed good awareness, being able to change his rush approach after the snap to go from working outside to working inside. He has added a few other tricks to his bag to win more regularly.
Thomas was Pro Football Focus highest-graded Power Four edge rusher among players with at least 15 snaps for week three.
OU has been desperate for a star-caliber pass rusher, and Thomas has the ability to fill that void.
2. Jackson Arnold, QB
When you think about Jackson Arnold, it’s important to know his performances week in and week out will be compared (fairly or unfairly) to his predecessors.
OU’s last decade of QB play is an unreal group of players to live up to. If a guy playing that position struggles in the slightest, it feels underwhelming to the fan base. In a nutshell, that’s where parts of the OU fanbase are at with Arnold. But on Saturday, he played his best game as the Sooners’ QB to this point.
No gaudy numbers were amassed as he had under 200 yards passing, but he also carried the ball 14 times for 97. He was efficient, on target, and largely made good decisions. The one big strike against him was the pick-six he threw.
He looked comfortable out there, and even when the game got tight late in the third and into the fourth, he helped calmly orchestrate a couple of drives to ice it. His biggest test of the season and his career comes next week against OU’s first SEC foe, Tennessee.
3. Heath Ozaeta, OL
Oklahoma’s much-maligned offensive line needed to put together a solid performance as starters Branson Hickman and Jake Taylor continued to nurse injuries.
Heath Ozaeta had a good offseason dating back to the spring. With the aforementioned injuries, an opportunity for him to showcase his skills opened up, and alongside Jacob Sexton, he owned it.
There were some really encouraging moments and also some snaps where he missed a linebacker blitzing that he and offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh will have to clean up, but the run game was more productive than it was a week ago.
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