OU-Temple: Things to watch
It’s an interesting schedule quirk that has Oklahoma heading to Philadelphia in Week 3.
The Sooners travel to take on Temple on Saturday, marking the first true road non-conference game for the team since 2023 (at Tulsa). After Temple, the Sooners return home to open SEC play against Auburn before entering a bye week, then finish non-conference play with a game against Kent State.
But obviously, the Sooners aren’t looking past Temple. They might’ve beaten the Owls 51-3 last season, but the Owls boast a 2-0 record along with one of the more explosive offenses in football through two weeks. Plus, this marks the Sooners’ first road game of the season, and it comes after a huge win over Michigan.
“Get to go on the road for the first time with this team, looking forward to the challenge,” OU coach Brent Venables said Tuesday. “Playing a much different-looking Temple team this week coached by coach (K.C.) Keeler. As I talked about after the (Michigan) game, (Keeler is) one of the more successful coaches in the history of FCS. The only coach to win two national championships in two different places. They do a fantastic job, just really looking at their success the last several years and certainly that’s carried over into their first couple of games and their ability to execute at a really high level offensively and defensively, just giving up under 10 points a game on defense and averaging close to 50 points a game on offense.
“They’ve done a remarkable job in a very short window of the last several months since they got to campus.”
Here’s a few things to watch this weekend:
The RB rotation
If there’s one nitpick through two games, it’s been the Sooners’ running backs. True freshman Tory Blaylock (17 carries, 66 yards) has been a bright spot, but the backfield rotation as a whole has been confusing and ineffective, at times.
No one in the backfield is averaging better than 3.9 yards per carry. Jovantae Barnes has 17 carries for 33 yards. Jaydn Ott has six yards on five carries. Barnes has played 46 snaps, Tatum has played 45 and Ott has played 24 snaps. Xavier Robinson didn’t play against Michigan, and Taylor Tatum has yet to play.
But in addition to the lack of efficiency or clarity, it’s clear the Sooners are still trying to figure out what they have. And Arbuckle made it clear that he’s not afraid to use a committee backfield, and that running efficiency isn’t the only factor.
“If you have a guy who’s like Reggie Bush or Adrian Peterson or something, yeah, it’s awesome,” Arbuckle said. “You have to have a bunch of guys that I think you trust, a bunch of guys who will run behind their pads and not be timid, and run behind their pads and get extra hard yards whenever they need to. Also, in the same token, you have to have guys that are willing to pass attack and able to get out on relief throws and make something happen with the ball in their hands.
“There’s a lot of different aspects that go into that position than just primarily carrying the football. And so, you have to take that stuff into account also.”
The Sooners shouldn’t have issue running against Temple. By the end of the game, there should be a lot more clarity on how the rotation will shake out when SEC play begins.
OU’s secondary vs. Evan Simons
Through two weeks, the Sooners’ secondary has been a pleasant surprise. Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood finished with just 142 passing yards and completed just 38% of his throws a week ago. Nearly a third of his yards came on one play in the second half.
A big reason for that has been the earlier-than-expected emergence of Courtland Guillory. The true freshman has the third-best defensive grade on the team, per Pro Football Focus, and the best coverage grade.
The Sooners do, however, face a Temple offense that has been explosive through the air. Quarterback Evan Simon has 422 passing yards and nine touchdowns through two games, averaging nearly 16 yards per completion.
This should be another opportunity for the secondary to flex its muscle, but they can’t assume anything.
“They’re a whole different group,” OU defensive back Peyton Bowen said. “They got a new head coach, new DC, all that stuff. And I think they’ve scored 50 in back-to-back games, so we’re looking at it as this is our national championship. We got to take these guys seriously or we’re going to their house and we’re going to f*** around and find out…So, I mean, we can’t take them lightly, for sure.”
Any hangover for the Sooners?
This is a brand new team and a brand new season. But the Sooners haven’t handled success well the last two seasons.
After beating Texas in 2023 to improve to 6-0, it took overtime to beat UCF at home the following week. The Sooners then lost a pair of one-score games at Kansas and at Oklahoma State that kept them out of the Big 12 title game and possibly the College Football Playoff. Last year, the Sooners beat Alabama at home and then was beat down at LSU to end the year.
The Sooners are a three-touchdown favorite and beat Owl handedly a year ago. But this is a road game and it comes after OU snagged one of the biggest wins of Venables’ tenure in primetime. They can’t afford to allow that to hangover the game in Philly.
“I’ve always felt it’s harder to manage a team that’s doing really well as opposed to a team that doesnt think much of themselves,” Venables said. “So it’s just right on cue, with what we try to prepare the team for. Come out here and have a Michigan game, everybody’s going to want to interview you, they’re going talk Heisman, they’re going to talk best defense ever, all these things that come with that.
“You gotta be able to block out the noise. Gotta block it out now. Not an easy thing to do, because I think human nature is, people enjoy somebody saying nice things about ‘em. Doesn’t help us win. Doesn’t help us in our process in learning DNA and doing the things that winning requires and success requires, and that’s go right back to work and focus on what’s in front of us. Feel like it resonated? Time will tell.”