By:Hunter Cornejo
This team is painful to watch. For the 1st time in program history, the Oklahoma Sooners lost back to back games by 30+ points. As I expected, Texas absolutely slaughtered the Sooners in the 118th meeting of the Red River Rivalry, with 49-0 shutout victory. However, I did not expect Oklahoma to not put a single point on the board. Quinn Ewers made the Sooners’ defense look like my local JV team, accounting for 306 yards and 4 touchdowns. Bijan Robinson proved why he is a top running back in the country tallying 130 yards with 2 touchdowns. Davis Beville was absolutely horrendous for the Sooners, going 6-12 with 38 yards. Oklahoma’s leading receiver in this massacre was Brayden Willis, with 2 receptions for 25 yards. Yes, 25 yards in a rivalry game, no wonder Oklahoma did not score a single point. Oklahoma’s most efficient passer was our punter/holder Michael Turk who went 1-1 for 3 yards, including a 4th down conversion. Our leading rusher was Jalil Farooq, a wide receiver. What was Jeff Lebby thinking, why are the team statistical leaders not our everyday starters at their respective positions? Oklahoma had the wildcat rolling, being led by tight end Brayden Willis, but for some reason, Lebby decided to turn away from it. Guess what, Davis Beville turned the ball over on that drive, by being unable to convert a 4th and 2. Oklahoma had 29 yards of total offense in the 2nd half, which is less than 1 yard per minute of football that was played.
Something has to change with this Oklahoma team, rebuild year or not, this is easily up there as one of the worst stretches in program history, with 3 straight embarrassing losses, including a loss to our rival. I have been very critical of Jeff Lebby over the past couple weeks, this has to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. This is not a game that would’ve been changed if Dillion Gabriel would’ve played, if anything we might have scored one touchdown with
Dillion Gabriel. All week long Brent Venables was talking about how we will be rolling with 3 quarterbacks if Dillion Gabriel is unable to play, unless he was referring to Brayden Willis, Michael Turk, and Eric Gray throwing the football, only Davis Beville took meaningful snaps. I’m not sure if Jeff Lebby was unaware of what Venables said in the press conference, but it is very obvious that the OC and Head Coach are not on the same page. There is absolutely no excuse for when Davis Beville is playing awful, to not turn to either General Booty, Nick
Evers, Micah Bowens. There are absolutely no more excuses for Jeff Lebby’s pathetic execution as an offensive coordinator. Lebby had some great play calls today, from the Brayden Willis wildcat to the fake field goal call. However, his inability to make personnel changes when needed is atrocious. I’m not saying that General Booty would’ve been our savior, but he could not possibly be any worse than Davis Beville, Booty was the starter at Texas 6A powerhouse Allen high school. Regardless of how awesome the name is, General Booty would not be starting at Allen if he didn’t have the skill set to back it up. Lebby finally decided to give Nick Evers a chance at quarterback, an opportunity to showcase his ability to hand off the football in meaningless 4th quarter play. To put in Evers at this point is a complete insult. Nick Evers looked extremely impressive in the Spring Game, and all season long there has been great hype around him in practice, as well as in the weekly Future Freaks scrimmage. Booty or Evers need to get the start next week for Oklahoma to even have the slightest chance of upsetting Kansas. All I can ask out of Oklahoma’s starting quarterback is to be able to consistently get the ball in Marvin Mims’ hands. Mims had 1 reception today for -2 yards. If that means Michael Turk is the quarterback to do it, give me QB1 Michael Turk. Oklahoma Athletic Director Joe Castiglione needs to hand Texas coach Gary Patterson a blank check to be Oklahoma’s next defensive coordinator. Ted Roof has played out to be an absolutely awful hire, and he needs to be fired sooner rather than later. It is no longer an over-exaggeration for me to say Brent Venables needs to go back to his highly intense coaching style that requires a get-back coach, it is the absolute truth.
Oklahoma looks to upset Kansas next week at home and avoid a 4 game losing streak. Kickoff is at 11:00 on ESPN 2.
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