Oklahoma football: What can Sooners learn from college football Week 0?
By Chip Rouse
The 2022 college football season is officially underway, and two of the first three Oklahoma football opponents were in action in what they’re calling Week 0, or a soft start to the season, with the big kickoff coming over the Week 1 Labor Day weekend.
The Sooners will open up on Saturday at home at the Palace on the Prairie against the University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP). Two weekends after that, OU will go on the road for the first time, traveling to Lincoln, Nebraska for a battle with longtime conference rival Nebraska.
Both UTEP and the Cornhuskers were in action this past Saturday, giving Brent Venables and the Sooner coaching staff a preview of what OU might expect during the nonconference portion of the 2022 schedule. Both future opponents suffered an opening-day loss.
Oklahoma’s season-opening opponent, UTEP, opened the season with a 31-13 loss to North Texas. The Miners scored the opening touchdown in the game but trailed 14-13 going into halftime. The North Texas defense pitched a shutout in the second half and the Mean Green scored a pair of touchdowns in the third quarter to pull away for the win.
Despite losing, UTEP outgained North Texas 400-399. Miner quarterback Gavin Hardison accounted for 322 of UTEP’s 400 total yards, passing for 293 along with 29 yards on the ground. Notably, North Texas, held the Miners to just 107 rushing yards.
Saturday’s season opener with UTEP will reunite Miner head coach Dana Dimel and Brent Venables. Dimel was an assistant coach at Kansas State when Venables played there (1991-92).
Nebraska squandered an 11-point third-quarter advantage, aided by an ill-fated onside-kick call and ended up losing 31-28 to Northwestern in a game played in Dublin, Ireland. What was telling about that game was that after opening with consecutive touchdowns on their first two possessions of the second half (one of which was set up by a Northwestern fumble in Nebraska territory), the Cornhuskers went three-and-out on three of the final four possessions.
Coming off a disappointing 3-9 season a year ago in which 8 of the 9 losses were decided by a one-score margin, Scott Frost’s Nebraska team was hoping to turn some of those close games into wins in 2022.
Not a good start to the new season, especially as a 13-point favorite, and in three weeks Oklahoma will be the Huskers’ opponent. Nebraska has a 5-21 record in its last 26 games decided by eight or fewer points. One of those one-possession defeats was to the Sooners last season in Norman.
Nebraska has a new starting quarterback this season, Casey Thompson, a transfer from Texas, and someone Oklahoma is well familiar with having faced him in last years Red River rivalry game.
Thompson was 20 of 34 for 388 yards and five touchdowns for Texas in Oklahoma’s improbable come-from-behind 55-48 win last season. Against Northwestern on Saturday, Thompson completed 25 of 42 passes for 355 yards, one touchdown and, importantly, two interceptions. Nebraska committed three costly turnovers against Northwestern. The Huskers had just one against OU in the game last season in Norman.
Northwestern likes to run the football, which it did relatively effectively on Saturday against Nebraska. But the Wildcats also passed for 314 yards, which is something that will surely get the attention of Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby.
It all gets started for Oklahoma on Saturday with UTEP coming to town. Oklahoma is a 31-point favorite in the game, according to the WynnBET sportsbook.