`IT'S THE SAME'
Houston coach salutes this season's rebuilt Sooner offensive line
Dana Holgorsen walked through the hallways of OU's visitor's locker room Sunday night, having waved palm branches at all things Sooner offense, then he stopped and had one last word for a familiar face.
“The O-line's better than I thought,” Holgorsen said. “They're going to be pretty good.”
Even losing a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, the Sooner offense appeared vulnerable only
on the offensive line. With Jalen Hurts, the new Sooner magic — exquisite quarterbacking — seemed alive and well. And indeed it was in a 49-31 victory over Houston at Owen Field.
But no such optimism abounded over an offensive line that underwent an extreme makeover, with four players off to the NFL.
Time to rev up the optimism.
“It's the same product,” said Holgorsen, now the Houston coach after eight seasons coaching West Virginia, which included annual games against the Sooners. “It's the same. Didn't look any different to me.”
There is no higher praise for a college offense. The Lincoln Riley units of the
last three years have been some of the best in college football history. And the Sooners showed no slowdown Sunday night; 622 total yards on 51 plays through three quarters.
“We thought they had a few question marks up front, but Coach (Bill) Bedenbaugh does a great job with those guys,” said Holgorsen, who coached with Riley at Texas Tech and was a college teammate of Bedenbaugh at Iowa Wesleyan. “He's one of the best O-line coaches in the country. I've been up close and personal with him for a lot of years. Known him forever. He's going to get those guys right. They look pretty big and mean and physical. Continuity-wise, that group's going to keep getting better and better.”
Center Creed Humphrey, we knew about. But the rest of the line — Adrian Ealy at right tackle, Tyrese Robinson at right guard, Marquis Hayes at left guard and R.J. Proctor and Erik Swenson both playing left tackle — was untested. And it remains a little green. Holgorsen's Houstons aren't exactly the Doomsday Defense.
But the OU line is big and
does look mean and did play physical.
“It was a good start,” said Ealy, a sophomore from Gonzales, Louisiana. “We got a whole lot of things we can fix and work on, but it was a great start for us. We just wanted to show the world how we was approaching this season, and I feel like we did that this season.”
The Sooners appeared to protect Hurts well, though it's hard to tell because he can so easily zip out of trouble. And the running game included holes wider than the tunnels the teams used to enter the field.
“There are obviously some things we need to fix, but it was a great starting point overall,” Humphrey said. “The mentality we played with was what we need to play with.”
This is a scary prospect for OU opponents. What if the same is true of the offensive line that is true of the quarterbacks. That Bedenbaugh always will have a good line, same way that Riley always has an elite quarterback? What if it's even more true, since only Proctor transferred in to fortify the front wall?
“We didn't play very good on defense,” Holgorsen said. “I've seen that happen a lot against this group. This is however many years in a row. Four years ago (2016), they were good. A year later, they were the best offense in college football. A year later, with a new quarterback, they were the best offense in college football. A year later, with a new quarterback, look the same to me.
“Jalen's obviously played a lot of ball. They've had the same playcaller for five years. They've had the same
O-line coach for five years. They've had the same running back coach for five years. They've had the same receiver coach for five years. They've recruited at a pretty high level. They don't start over, they just plug people in
and keep going. That's continuity and that's where OU is right now offensively.”
Some people had questions about Hurts, on how well he could transition from Nick Saban to Riley, from Alabama to Oklahoma. Those questions seem over already. But what if the offensive line questions already have been answered?
What if all those guys who played behind the future NFL linemen were really good themselves?
“Doesn't look a whole lot different now than it has to me the last three or four years; I'm sure they're going to win a few ballgames,” said Holgorsen, who knows the Sooners better than any outsider and left Norman with a pleasant feeling.
Oklahoma finally is not on any future Holgorsen schedule.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok.com/berrytramel.