Stock Report: Oklahoma’s offensive line play offers hope for 2025
To say the energy in Norman is high would probably be an understatement. It is hard to truly quantify what Oklahoma’s upset of Alabama meant to the school, the football program, and Brent Venables. A messy slop of a season now has this incredible accomplishment that could be used to vindicate Oklahoma’s ability to compete in the SEC and ultimately give OU a starting point to prepare for 2025.
There will be more time to analyze how 2025 may look in Norman, but for now, Oklahoma will look to end the season with yet another upset, this time on the road in one of the most challenging venues in the country.
Oklahoma is set to head to Baton Rouge to take on the LSU Tigers to end the regular season. The Sooners have already beaten an SEC team on the road and are coming off with one of the biggest regular season wins in recent program history.
They should feel good about their chances to compete.
As OU prepares for LSU, we look at what is trending up in the program and what is trending down ahead of this final regular season game in 2024.
Stock Up: Offensive line play
Oklahoma is getting positive play from its offensive line for the first time all season. If you blink, you’ll miss a few names that struggled early on with injuries or performance but have quietly put together a string of solid games.
Logan Howland and Heath Ozaeta immediately come to mind, and they are stacking together strong performances that may give them both the inside track to the starting left tackle and left guard positions next year.
When you manhandle a defensive line of Alabama’s caliber for 60 minutes, it becomes clear there’s some talent along that front. Oklahoma’s next step as a unit is improving its pass protection.
Stock down: Taylor Tatum
Taylor Tatum is a tremendously gifted running back. That much can not be debated. However, Oklahoma can not afford mistakes, and the Sooners are begging for playmakers to step up and emerge due to injury. Not being able to count on the former No. 1 running back in the nation to deliver is a gut punch of the highest order.
His ball security has left much to be desired, as he has five fumbles on the season after another fumble Saturday night. He was promptly benched for Xavier Robinson, who went on his way to post over a hundred yards rushing and score two touchdowns. He and Robinson should be forming an electric duo instead; Tatum is on the bench because his position coach can’t depend on him to secure the football.
Things are rough right now for Tatum, but he seems too talented to keep this opportunity from ruining his ability to showcase himself.
Stock Up: Zion Kearney
We highlighted a wide receiver in a game where Oklahoma only threw for 68 yards. True freshman wideout Zion Kearney undoubtedly left his mark on the game with his incredible efforts blocking downhill for teammates in the run game.
Who knows what the passing game will look like this week against LSU, but Kearney has certainly earned more snaps.
Stock Down: Health of Receiver room
At this point, someone needs to reverse the curse on the Oklahoma wide receivers. The Sooners suffered another injury to a receiver on Saturday as Brenen Thompson was unable to walk off the field on his own power and was later seen with crutches.
The Sooners continue to search for mainstays who can contribute something positive in the passing game. Not only has Oklahoma lost its explosive passing game, but they no longer can attack the middle and intermediate simply because the guys out there aren’t winning at the line of scrimmage. Simply put, the passing offense can’t be relied upon because the Sooners don’t have any one healthy at wide receiver.
Stock Up: Brent Venables
It may just be one win, but outside of Texas in 2023, Saturday was the biggest win for the Brent Venables era. And the way they did it, with a defense fans could only dream of before Venables’ hiring, was the cherry on top.
There have been a lot of rumblings about Venables’ seat getting warm. A win over Alabama, with half of an offense and a salty defense, should be able to showcase that Venables can rally troops and build a program.
Get the offensive coordinator hire right and get healthier in 2025 and the Sooners may have a team that can compete in the SEC next year.
