The long-awaited debut of the Brent Venables era at the University of Oklahoma came off without a hitch. Well, mostly.
It wasn’t a perfect day, but the Oklahoma Sooners came away with a 45-13 win over UTEP in a game that was close briefly in the second quarter until Oklahoma turned on the juice again.
Venables’ Sooners came out hungry and played with passion and energy from the get go. Offensively that had several big plays in the first quarter; a deep ball to Marvin Mims, a big run from Eric Gray, a big catch and run from Mims, and then the Gavin Freeman touchdown.
Defensively, they were flying to the football. They weren’t satisfied with one Oklahoma defender getting to the ball. It was as if they all wanted to be in on the tackle. Something that was noticeable in the spring game carried over to the 2022 season opener. Team tackling.
Again, not perfect as the Sooners missed 11 tackles against a tough quarterback and an elusive set of skill players. Still, it was better than the 15 missed tackles allowed against Tulane in week one of 2021.
And as our Ben Dackiw wrote, there was a noticeable difference in what played out on the field in the 2022 season opener compared to a year ago.
Unlike a year ago, the Sooners dominated their opponent on the scoreboard to a 32-point win, came away with 6 sacks, nine tackles for loss, and allowed less than one yard per carry against UTEP’s rushing attack.
Offensively, they were balanced, and Dillon Gabriel looked poised as the Sooners racked up 492 yards of total offense at 8.1 yards per play.
And as important as the scoreboard was how this team looked, winning by 32. They looked like their head coach. A fiery, energetic, passionate, and aggressive team.
After months of preparation, Brent Venables led his team onto the field for the first time and described it as “special.”
“Well, that was really fast. That went really fast. A special day for a lot of reasons,” Brent Venables said. “Most of all, we did a lot of things for the first time today. A lot of players experienced things for the first time. I’m super thankful for the fans today. They were outstanding. Our Walk of Champions and the energy in the stadium when we kicked off was really special. No surprise.”
From the pregame to the game, even as temperatures forced fans to leave their seats, the environment spoke to a new beginning. An excitement that had been building for months to witness what the next era of Oklahoma football would look like.
And when it was all said and done, the Sooners handed a game ball to each player and coach in the locker room. President Joseph Harroz and athletic director Joe Castiglione also received game balls from Brent Venables.
It was an act of appreciation from the Sooners’ new head coach to his staff, administration, and the players for buying into what Venables was preaching and putting in the work.
And in turn, Venables received a game ball from the administration that put their faith in the returning son.
Speechless… @CoachVenables #OUDNA pic.twitter.com/oFHl1xVbI7
— Oklahoma Football (@OU_Football) September 4, 2022
“Yeah, I actually did. Everybody in there got one. We gave them to Joe [Castiglione] and Joe [Harroz]. I gave him to Joe and Joe for believing in me. And this is Oklahoma. They didn’t have to hire me. And I don’t take that for granted at all. So, we gave them a game ball after we gave one to every player and coach in there. So again, we’ve talked about, again, this being Team 128, and we want to celebrate success no matter how it looks. But it’s a special day, certainly, for our players in 2022 and where we want to go as a program. For me, this is gonna be a date that we all remember for a long, long time. So, everybody got one.”
It was an emotional moment that came from 36 years biding his time and waiting on the right place and the right time to take the leap into the head coaching ranks. It was a great debut for Brent Venables and the new-look Sooners. You can take a look back at some of the best photos of Oklahoma’s new head coach from the UTEP game.