OU offensive line evolving ‘with maturity’
NORMAN — Things are falling into place for OU’s offensive line.
Reeling from the departures of Creed Humphrey and Adrian Ealy to the NFL, the Sooners’ linemen faced plenty of criticism for poor play at the start of the season. It struggled to create holes for the run game, and it couldn’t buy enough time for Spencer Rattler to look downfield.
The Sooners’ offense put up some lackluster performances as a result, but that has changed
OU’s front five is playing some of its best football, continuously clearing paths for backs such as Kennedy Brooks — and quarterback Caleb Williams is being given enough time to pick apart opposing defenses downfield.
After failing to score at least 50 points in a game against its first four FBS opponents this season, the Sooners have done so in three of their last four contests.
“I would say a big thing this year is that we have evolved with maturity, which is trust between each other,” senior offensive lineman Chris Murray said. “I would say that we’re jelling... We’ve been together for nine games now and we’re just learning each other and how each other plays.”
OU’s offensive line enters the bye week with plenty of momentum, but it also has room for improvement.
Atop the group’s to-do list is cleaning up mental errors. In the past two weeks, the Sooners’ offensive line has been called for an average of 2.5 penalties per game.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt in my mind that we’re improved there,” OU head coach Lincoln Riley said of the offensive line. “We need to go from being good, you know, solid, all that to being elite. Part of taking that last step is eliminating those mental errors and eliminating those penalties.”
Sooners aren’t worried about rankings
Oklahoma didn’t get much love on Tuesday.
The Sooners own a 9-0 record, a nation-leading win streak of 17 games and the fourth spot in the latest AP Top 25 poll. But none of that held much weight in the eyes of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee.
OU debuted at No. 8 on the committee’s first rankings of the season, falling behind four one-loss teams.
The low ranking came as a surprise to many, but sophomore cornerback D.J. Graham didn’t think much of it when he heard the news.
“Being on social media, you’re gonna come across it sooner or later,” Graham said. “We’re motivated anyways. They can’t deny us if we’re undefeated, and that’s our whole thing. The rest is outside noise. We’re just focused on us.”
It’ll be quite the feat if OU can emerge from its regular season with an undefeated record.
The Sooners’ first nine wins of the season came against teams with a current combined record of 23-43, but their last three opponents are another story. Baylor, Iowa State and Oklahoma State boast a combined record of 19-5.
OU is known for closing out its seasons strong, though. Throughout Riley’s five seasons at the helm, the Sooners are 14-0 in the month of November.
If OU can continue its undefeated streak this month, it’ll be hard for the committee to not show the team some love.
“We have an understanding that in order to get in those games that everyone loves to play in at the end of the season, that you have to win in November,” senior safety Delarrin Turner-Yell said. “That is when those decisions are made, so we make it a big deal to play our best ball in the month of November.”
Off-the-field goal
The third time could be the charm for
Gabe Brkic.
The news came out on Thursday that the OU kicker was named one of 20 semifinalists for the 2020 Lou Groza Award, which is given to college football’s top placekicker each season.
This marks the third straight year Brkic has been named a semifinalist for the award, and he has his best case yet
to win it for the first time in his career. The redshirt junior kicker is 17-for-20 on field goals this season, and he has connected on all 42 of his PAT attempts.
Brkic is also showing an unprecedented level of long-range accuracy.
The veteran kicker is 5-for-6 this season on field-goal attempts from at least 50 yards out. Two of those makes came
from 56 yards out, which is a nationleading distance for this season.
Three finalists will be selected by a panel of more than 100 FBS head coaches, SIDs, media members, former Groza finalists and current NFL kickers. Said finalists will then be announced on Nov. 23, and the winner will be announced on Dec. 9.