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Oklahoma football: Seven things Sooner fans should know about Kent State game

By Chip Rouse

Oklahoma's Eric Gray (0) runs the ball behind Andrew Raym (73) during a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the UTEP Miners at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022.Ou Vs Utep
Oklahoma's Eric Gray (0) runs the ball behind Andrew Raym (73) during a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the UTEP Miners at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022.Ou Vs Utep /
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Game two in the Brent Venables era of Oklahoma football takes place Saturday evening at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

There’s a better than good chance that the Sooners will go to 2-0 after this game, but it will also serve as an opportunity to clean up some things and get better — Venables won’t hesitate to remind his troops that if you aren’t getting better week to week, you’re getting worse — before going to Nebraska next weekend, where a much tougher challenge awaits.

Nebraska may be the first major milestone and evaluator in the 2022 Oklahoma season, but first OU needs to take care of business at home against a Kent State team that played in the MAC Championship game nine months ago and is eager to pull off an upset over the 7th-ranked Sooners.

Oklahoma is a 30- to 32-point favorite against Kent State in the first-ever meeting in football between the two schools. But the Sooners still have to go out and prove on the football field that they are that much better.

I don’t see this team suffering a letdown now that Week 1 is behind them, nor do I believe they will get caught looking ahead to Nebraska or Kansas State to follow. The Sooners should win comfortably, but don’t expect to see the full playbook on offense or some of the defensive deception that Venables and the Sooner coaches are holding back for when the competition on the schedule really begins to ramp up.

With that as a backdrop, here are seven things Sooner fans should know about Saturday’s contest against Kent State under the lights at the Palace on the Prairie.

  • The Sooners and Golden Flashes have never met on the football field, but there is a football connection between the two schools. Bob Stoops was an assistant coach at Kent State in 1988, very early in his coaching career. Stoops told The Oklahoman this week that he loved it there and had Bill Snyder at Kansas State not called for the following season, Stoops said he might have been there a lot longer than one season.
  • Oklahoma has never played Kent State, but the Sooners have played three games against opponents from the Mid-American Conference. All three were when Bob Stoops was head coach at OU: A 40-24 win over Bowling Green in 2004 when the Sooners were No. 2 in the AP poll; a 62-6 win over Ball State in 2011; and a 41-3 victory over Akron in 2015 to start the season.
  • The Sooners have won 28 of their last 29 home games.
  • Oklahoma’s 21:27 time of possession in last weekend’s win over UTEP was the second lowest among FBS teams after one game. OU put up 45 points, scoring on 7 of 10 total possessions and averaging a point every 30 seconds it had the ball.
  • OU’s four defensive QB sacks in game one was fourth best in the nation.
  • Over the last seven seasons, the Sooners lead the country averaging 5.6 yards per rush. OU averaged 6.8 yards per rush against UTEP and 8.1 yards per play.
  • Forty-seven of Oklahoma’s 115 players on the roster (41 percent) are new to OU this season.
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