The Oklahoma Sooners got off to a fast start in week one of the 2022 college football season. Literally.
Taking the ball to open the game, the Sooners took just five plays and 1:17 to score the first touchdown of the Brent Venables era. After an incomplete pass to Marvin Mims on a deep shot down the field, the Gabriel came back with a 16-yard completion to Drake Stoops on an RPO.
Eric Gray followed that up with five yards on the ground for his first carry of the season before Gabriel hit Mims for a 42-yard bomb to get Oklahoma in the red zone.
Gabriel then kept the ball on a read-option and went 12 yards for the touchdown.
It was a great opening drive, encapsulating everything Oklahoma wants to be offensively; fast-paced, run game involved, and the ability to hit big plays down the field.
Defensively, the Sooners were relentless. They regularly had multiple players to the ball carrier. Though there were 11 missed tackles per Pro Football Focus, that’s an improvement to what happened a year ago vs. Tulane when they had 15 missed tackles in the season opener. Oklahoma also had more sacks and tackles for loss this year against the Miners than they did a year ago against the Green Wave.
Aside from a lull early in the second quarter, the Oklahoma Sooners had their way with the UTEP Miners on Saturday. Though UTEP started to make something interesting with 10 straight points in the second frame, Oklahoma found a second gear on a hot day and were able to limit the damage.
Overall, it was a great start to the season for the Oklahoma Sooners and Sooner Nation enjoyed every bit of it. Here are some of the best reactions from Twitter.