The Oklahoma Sooners kicked off the season versus the Arkansas State Red Wolves in Norman on Saturday.
The Sooners started the first quarter strong as they took the ball first, and after a deep ball from [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] to [autotag]Andrel Anthony[/autotag], Drake Stoops took a short pass for the score.
The defense answered with a three and out.
After the three-and-out, it was special teams that joined the party. Gavin Freeman took the punt return 82 yards to the house to put the Oklahoma Sooners up 14-0 just a few minutes into the game.
The Sooners were dominant in every phase of the game in the first quarter.
The Red Wolves connected on a 28-yard pass on a slant to Corey Rucker that came after a face mask on [autotag]Billy Bowman[/autotag]. That drive ended in a missed field goal after the Sooners stymied the Red Wolves offense.
[autotag]Marcus Major[/autotag] added to the Sooners’ lead with a two-yard run after a 10-play 80-yard drive. Oklahoma went up 21-0 midway through the first quarter. Closing off the scoring in the first quarter was [autotag]Gavin Freeman[/autotag], who scored his second touchdown of the day on a pass from [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] to make it 28-0.
The only negatives of the quarter were the injuries suffered by key Sooners.
[autotag]Drake Stoops[/autotag] went off holding his shoulder and came back out with a sling and ice on it. [autotag]Dasan McCullough[/autotag] limped off and eventually went to the locker room with a bad limp as well.
The second quarter went much like the first. On defense, the Sooners gave up a chunk of play when quarterback J.T. Shrout threw a nice touch pass over Jaren Kanak to Courtney Jackson for a long gain. The Sooners’ defense bowed up and held Arkansas State to another missed field goal.
Arkansas State had opportunities to make plays in the passing game, but several drops stalled drives and bailed the Sooners out.
The offense was great again in the second quarter, completing the half with a score on every drive.
Gabriel threw for 308 yards and two touchdowns and carried the ball twice for 15 yards and another score. Gabriel completed 81% of his passes. He was decisive and accurate, getting the ball out quickly to his wide receivers and connecting with Sooners at every level of the passing attack. [autotag]Tawee Walker[/autotag], [autotag]Marcus Major[/autotag], and Jovantae Barnes played well, running physical and picking up big runs throughout the half.
After 30 minutes of play, Oklahoma was up 45-0 with zero signs of slowing down.
The second half continued to favor the Oklahoma Sooners. The first-team defense came out and forced a three-and-out, paving the way for the debut of [autotag]Jackson Arnold[/autotag].
On Arnold’s debut drive, he helped lead the Sooners on an eight-play 65-yard scoring effort that was capped off by a Tawee Walker one-yard run.
Arnold’s next drive saw the Sooners open up the passing game a bit. The former five-star quarterback was 4-for-4, leading Oklahoma on a four-play scoring drive that was capped off by Arnold’s first touchdown pass of his OU career on a beautiful play from Jayden Gibson. That score made it 59-0. Arnold helped the Sooners cash in just a few players later, taking advantage of an Arkansas State fumble.
Arnold showed off his legs, carrying the ball for a seven-yard touchdown to put the Sooners up 66-0.
The Sooners capped off their scoring on Arnold’s final drive of the game. Oklahoma went 11 plays and 67 yards spanning 7:22 of game time. The drive culminated in a seven-yard touchdown run by Kalib Hicks.
Offensively, Oklahoma spread the ball around. 10 Sooners had a reception. The Sooners slot trio of [autotag]Drake Stoop[/autotag]s, [autotag]Gavin Freeman[/autotag], and [autotag]Jaquaize Pettaway[/autotag] combined for 17 receptions for 131 yards and two touchdowns. [autotag]Andrel Anthony[/autotag] showed off his downfield ability in his debut for the Sooners. Anthony caught three passes for 66 yards and drew a pass interference call.
[autotag]Jayden Gibson[/autotag] and [autotag]Nic Anderson[/autotag], Oklahoma’s 2022 signees, also came up big in the win. Gibson had two receptions for 56 yards and a touchdowns and Anderson secured two catches for 66 yards.
Though there’s room for improvement, the running game was really good on Saturday. They ran for 220 yards and averaged 4.5 yards per carry. They were picking up chunk yards, but there were times that they were dropped for losses, putting them behind the chains. Walker was the most efficient on the day, averaging 5.5 yards per carry in the game and finishing with 44 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries. [autotag]Jovantae Barnes[/autotag] carried it 13 times for 49 yards.
It was a fantastic performance by the defense despite a lack of pass rush. Arkansas State couldn’t sustain any offense, and the Sooners held them to 208 total yards and just 4.2 yards per play.
After struggling on third and fourth down in 2022, Oklahoma was able to get off the field consistently, holding the Red Wolves to just 2-of-12 on third down and 0-1 on fourth down.
The Sooners were dominant from start to finish in this game, setting a tone early and keeping that edge for a full 60 minutes.
The shutout win provides some confidence for the Oklahoma Sooners as they get ready to face better offenses in the coming weeks starting with SMU in week two.
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