Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables' defense had just mounted a shutout to help the Sooners absolutely dominate, but he immediately gave a reality check for what felt like a dream season opener.
Just moments after the No. 10 Sooners completed their 51-0 Week 1 rout of UTEP on Friday night at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, Venables stood in front of the camera for his postgame interview with SEC Network+ and made it clear that the convincing performance still wasn't good enough with No. 16 Michigan next on the schedule.
"It's just the first game," Venables said. "We got plenty we got to get cleaned up. Proud of the effort, we showed good toughness, ran the ball effecient, the second half was a little cleaner than the first half, but there's plenty mistakes. ....
"We gotta get ready. We gotta be a hell of a lot better here when we go on the road to Ann Arbor."
Brent Venables unsatisfied with UTEP blowout while moving on to Michigan
It's obvious the Sooners have bigger fish to fry than the Mountain West's UTEP Miners, who are by far the weakest opponent on OU's loaded schedule. With a defense again expected to be one of the best in the country and a much-improved offense led by returning starting quarterback John Mateer, the Sooners have national title aspirations after getting to the College Football Playoff with a lot less just a year ago.
UTEP was just a tune-up for what's ahead. Although it's all good things, the Sooners still needed to break in a few new receiving weapons for Mateer, a revamped tight end group, a new style of offense that featured lots of 12-personnel and guys stepping up all over the place, just like every roster in college football in 2026.
OU fans should be thrilled about what they saw in the debut of Team 132, but the Sooners were far from flawless. The Miners threw the kitchen sink at the Sooners' elite defense, and at halftime, Venables called his unit "sloppy" after several notable missed tackles. Mateer's footwork was still off at times and influenced missed passes. There were also plenty more mistakes that Venables & Co. will uncover once they dive into film that probably went unnoticed by the fact the Sooners are just that much more talented than UTEP.
"I felt like this was like a 41-40 game, just because, again, I know what we're capable of doing," Venables said during his postgame press conference.
Still, from the eye test, before even seeing the Wolverines take the field on Saturday, the Sooners looked good enough to win next Saturday. It was certainly better than last year's season opener against Illinois State before the Sooners beat Michigan a week later in Norman. It's also reassuring to know the biggest jump of the season happens between Week 1 and Week 2.
But when former NFL coach Jon Gruden spoke to the team just a few weeks ago, he told them nothing can ever be "good enough" to be the best. Thankfully for the Sooners, Venables has that same mindset, and his team has also adopted it.
Venables again during his postgame press conference emphasized that this wasn't an outing his team would puff their chests out about. And it shouldn't. The Sooners don't want to beat UTEP, they want to prove that they're good enough to beat anybody, and that starts with Michigan next week.
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