Oklahoma football: One big thing from Sooners’ Week 1 win

From a fan’s perspective — and, I’m sure, from the Oklahoma football coaches and players, as well — it feels really good to get the first game of the new season under your belt.

The buildup to the opening game is always high in hype and hope for a successful season, and once zero hour is finally here, it puts all the talk-show chatter and preseason projections and preview punditry in the rear-view mirror.

The season is here, and it’s only what happens on the field of play that really matters. Not so much what someone back in front of a computer screen or studio microphone tells you what matters.

On Saturday afternoon, on a day when the temperature on the field at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium was pushing 120 degrees, we got a snapshot of what we might expect from the Sooners this season, and there was plenty to like on both offense and defense. And what’s more, there were pleasing differences from what we have seen under Lincoln Riley and defensive coordinator Alex Grinch the past three seasons.

There were lots of helmet stickers and game balls to go around. Dillon Gabriel accounted for three touchdowns, two by air and one on the ground, on the way to a 78-percent completion day and 233 passing yards. Eric Gray ran for 102 yards and average 6.4 yards per carry, his first 100-yard rushing day as a Sooner. Marvin Mims hauled in three of four targets for a game-high 81 yards, and Brayden Willis and Marcus Major each recorded a pair of touchdowns, Willis on a pair of TD catches and Major on a couple of rushing TDs.

Defensively, Reggie Grimes recorded 2.5 quarterback sacks and the Sooner defense applied constant pressure to the UTEP quarterback Gavin Hardison, collecting 10 quarterback hurries along with six sacks.

The one big thing that caught my eye, however, was a play by freshman walk-on wide receiver Gavin Freeman, who took the handoff from Gabriel coming off the left side of the Sooner line and took off on a reverse around right end, racing by and off of defenders on his way to a 46-yard touchdown scamper that put Oklahoma up 21-0 in the opening quarter.

Freeman, whose dad, Jason, played for the Sooners three decades ago, may have made Oklahoma football history with his sparkling touchdown run. OU football historian Mike Brooks told The Oklahoman he is not aware of anyone who has scored an Oklahoma touchdown the very first time he touched the ball in his college career. It can’t be a big total, if ever, he said.

The younger Freeman stands only 5-feet, 8 inches and weighs 175. Because of that he did not get many scholarship offers coming out of high school.

n the summer of 2021, however, Texas Tech offered the speedy, Wes Welker-type receiver a scholarship. When Matt Wells (now on the OU staff) was fired at Texas Tech, Gavin began having second thoughts about his commitment. When Riley left OU last fall, Venables and the OU staff became interested in Freeman, and he ultimately decommitted from the Red Raiders and elected to bet on himself as a preferred walk-on at Oklahoma.

Having grown up in nearby Oklahoma City, playing football at OU was a dream come true, for both dad and son. No one would have ever imagined, however, that Gavin would score a touchdown the very first time he touched the ball.

The Sooner legacy worked hard for his opportunity, and when it came on Saturday, in OU’s opening game of the 2022 season, he made the most of it.

Asked what was going through his mind when he received the pitch from Gabriel, Freeman told reporters in a postgame interview:

"“Just run,” he said. “Just run. It’s open field, I ran track in high school, so just open grass, run straight.”“He’s a special dude,” Venables said in his postgame press conference. “I’m really excited to see where he goes.”"

One of the first player to congratulate the young freshman receiver when he came off the field after the touchdown run was Drake Stoops, another Oklahoma high school star who was also a walk-on at one time.