Missouri Tigers quarterback Brady Cook (12) warms up before the game against the Alabama Crimson Tide at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: William McLelland-Imagn Images

QB remains question mark for No. 24 Missouri as Oklahoma comes calling

When it comes to key ingredients, Missouri can’t be certain lately when a vital piece in its recipe for winning is available.

Tigers quarterback Brady Cook left each of the last two games due to different injuries.

Coming off a bye week, though, head coach Eli Drinkwitz is hopeful Cook can return when No. 24 Missouri plays Oklahoma on Saturday in Columbia, Mo.

Cook figures to be listed as either “probable” or “doubtful” for the matchup with the Sooners, as he was ahead of the 34-0 loss to Alabama on Oct. 26.

He played in that game, though suffered an apparent hand injury after completing 7 of 12 passes.

With Cook, the Tigers offense has been dynamic.

“He’s got great juice and just, he’s fearless,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said of Cook. “I don’t know his entire background, but he’s a winner. I think he brings out the best in the players around him. … You can see the guts and the toughness.”

If Cook can’t go, Drinkwitz said Drew Pyne would start for Missouri (6-2, 2-2 SEC).

Pyne came on in relief of Cook against both Auburn and Alabama, throwing three interceptions in the loss to the Crimson Tide.

“We put him in some bad situations,”Drinkwitz said of Pyne. “We’ve got to protect better. We’ve got to establish the run better and can’t turn the ball over.”

Saturday’s meeting will be the first between the Tigers and Sooners in the SEC.

The teams were longtime rivals in the Big 12 and Big Eight, meeting 96 times during their history, with Oklahoma leading 67-24-5.

The teams met in back-to-back Big 12 Championship Games in 2007 and 2008 before the Tigers moved to the SEC in 2012.

Venables was the Sooners’ defensive coordinator for those games.

A pair of former Oklahoma players are on Missouri’s roster, including wide receiver Theo Wease, who has 37 catches for 482 yards and a touchdown. Wease and Luther Burden, who has 40 catches for 450 yards and four touchdowns, make for a dangerous tandem.

“He’s one of the best players in all of college football,” Venables said of Burden. “They find a lot of different creative ways to get him the ball in space.”

Oklahoma’s offense has shown improvement over the last two games since Jackson Arnold was reinserted as the starting quarterback and Joe Jon Finley took over the offensive coordinator duties following the firing of Seth Littrell.

Over the last two games, Arnold has completed more than 71 percent of his passes and thrown for four touchdowns with no interceptions.

Arnold threw three interceptions over the first four games before losing his starting job to freshman Michael Hawkins Jr.

The Sooners are hoping to get some weapons back in the receiver group after being without five key options for much of the season.

Jalil Farooq, who suffered a foot injury in the season opener, is nearing a return, as is Deion Burks, who hasn’t played since the Sept. 21 loss to Tennessee.

“It obviously adds an explosive aspect to our offense, and that leadership role too,” Arnold said of the duo.

The Sooners (5-4, 1-4) have dropped three consecutive conference games, and are coming off a 59-14 win over Maine last week.

–Field Level Media

Oklahoma Sooners running back Jovantae Barnes (2) leaps for the end zone but comes up short during a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Maine Black Bears at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024.

Jovantae Barnes runs for 203 yards as Oklahoma cruises past Maine

Jovantae Barnes ran for a career-high 203 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries to help lift Oklahoma to a 59-14 win over Maine on Saturday in Norman, Okla.

The win snapped a three-game losing streak for the Sooners (5-4).

Jackson Arnold threw for 224 yards and two touchdowns, exiting late in the third quarter as the Sooners had the game well in hand.

Oklahoma had 665 yards of total offense, nearly 300 more than they’d had in any game this season, including 381 rushing. It was the Sooners’ biggest offensive output since late in the 2022 season.

Maine (4-5), an FCS program, had just 251 yards, 107 on the ground.

By halftime, the Sooners had gained 402 yards, their highest output in any full game this season.

Much of that was thanks to Barnes, who had carries of 74 and 29 yards in the first half.

Maine struck first, eating up nearly five minutes with a nine-play, 68-yard drive after forcing a punt on the first drive.

Black Bears quarterback Carter Peevy broke off a 40-yard gain, setting up a 3-yard touchdown pass to Cooper Heisey on the next play.

It didn’t take long for Barnes and the Sooners to answer.

Barnes broke off a 74-yard run — the Sooners’ longest rushing play since 2021 — on the next play from scrimmage, setting up his 2-yard touchdown run two plays later.

Oklahoma’s defense clamped down after the Black Bears had success in their opening drive. Maine didn’t have another drive of more than 24 yards until the fourth quarter and punted on seven of its next eight full drives.

The Sooners took the lead early in the second quarter, on Taylor Tatum’s 1-yard score.

OU scored 28 points in the second quarter to blow the game open, including on J.J. Hester’s 90-yard reception from Arnold. Hester finished with four receptions for 112 yards.

Barnes then added an 8-yard touchdown run just before halftime and scored on a 19-yard run early in the third.

The last Oklahoma rusher to gain 200 yards was Eric Gray in 2022.

Peevy finished 13 of 24 for 123 yards and a touchdown for the Black Bears, more than half of that yardage output to Joe Gillette, who finished with three catches for 64 yards.

–Field Level Media

Oct 12, 2024; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA;  Mississippi Rebels quarterback Jaxson Dart (2) looks on against the LSU Tigers during the first half at Tiger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

No. 18 Ole Miss looks to bounce back from close losses vs. Oklahoma

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin isn’t too worried about Oklahoma’s offensive changes coming into the 18th-ranked Rebels’ meeting with the Sooners on Saturday afternoon in Oxford, Miss.

“We’ve got a lot of stuff to work on ourselves, that we worked on during the bye,” Kiffin said.

The Rebels have dropped two of their last three heading into the game, rushing for just 137.3 yards per contest.

“I feel like we have been out of rhythm for a little bit here,” Kiffin said of his offense.

But while Ole Miss (5-2, 1-2 Southeastern Conference) has dipped on offense in three-point losses Kentucky and LSU, the Sooners have been struggling on that side of the ball all season.

After last week’s 35-9 home loss to South Carolina, a team Ole Miss beat by 24 on the road in early October, Oklahoma coach Brent Venables fired offensive coordinator Seth Littrell. Tight ends coach Joe Jon Finley will take over playcalling duties and offensive analyst Kevin Johns will be co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

“It was an incredibly hard decision on many levels,” Venables said Tuesday. “With a 10,000-foot lens, it was not so difficult. We were not playing winning football on that side of the ball and thought a change would be appropriate — a change in leadership, a new voice, a new perspective a new lens, strategy, game-planning, sequencing, all of those things that go along with that position.”

The Sooners enter this week ranked 128th nationally in total offense (out of 134 programs), 116th in passing offense and 114th in rushing offense.

“We’ve been an abomination on offense this year,” Venables said.

Oklahoma (4-3, 1-3) also will turn to a new quarterback.

Quarterback Jackson Arnold will start against the Rebels, Venables announced earlier in the week, after taking over for Michael Hawkins Jr. early in last week’s loss. He completed 18 of 36 passes for 225 yards and a touchdown.

Arnold started the first four games of the season before being benched in favor of Hawkins.

“Jackson stepped in and played pretty well,” Venables said of Arnold’s performance against the Gamecocks. “Made a lot of really good decisions in the game, took command right from the get-go, and again, several drops that would have made the day even better for him individually.”

It certainly won’t be easy for the Sooners to show improvement offensively. Ole Miss leads the country in fewest rushing yards allowed per game (66.6) and ranks second in points allowed (10.6).

Finley spent the 2020 season on Kiffin’s staff as the tight ends coach and passing game coordinator before joining then-head coach Lincoln Riley’s staff at Oklahoma.

“He didn’t call plays here, and he’s got a different situation there,” Kiffin said. “I don’t think that him having worked here before would help us at all in figuring out what he’s going to do.

“With only a week to call plays, usually people just kind of add a play here or there but stay with the same system. You can’t reinvent the system in six days.”

The Rebels and Sooners have met just once before in the 1999 Independence Bowl, a game Ole Miss won 27-25.

–Field Level Media

Oklahoma offensive coordinator Seth Littrell walks on the field before a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Houston Cougars at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024.

Reports: Oklahoma fires OC Seth Littrell following 4-3 start

Oklahoma fired offensive coordinator Seth Littrell after the Sooners dropped three of their first four games in Southeastern Conference play, multiple media outlets reported Sunday.

Littrell also served as quarterbacks coach, a position that will now be held by Kevin Johns, according to ESPN. Multiple outlets reported that co-offensive coordinator Joe Jon Finley will be calling plays from now on.

In its first season in the SEC, Oklahoma is 4-3 overall, most recently falling 35-9 to visiting South Carolina on Saturday.

Next up on the schedule for the Sooners is No. 18 Ole Miss.

Littrell, 46, was in his second season on Oklahoma’s staff after serving as an offensive analyst in 2023. He was supposed to make $1.1 million this year as part of a deal that ran though the 2026 campaign.

–Field Level Media

Oct 19, 2024; Norman, Oklahoma, USA;  South Carolina Gamecocks defensive tackle Tonka Hemingway (91) tackles Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Jackson Arnold (11) during the first half at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

South Carolina’s defense scores 2 TDs in rout of Oklahoma

Nick Emmanwori had two first-quarter interceptions, returning one for a touchdown, as South Carolina used an early defensive barrage to Oklahoma 35-9 on Saturday in Southeastern Conference action at Norman, Okla.

LaNorris Sellers threw for 175 yards and a touchdown as the Gamecocks (4-3, 2-3 SEC) snapped a two-game losing streak.

Just 5:20 into the game, South Carolina led 21-0 with two defensive touchdowns in the first meeting between the teams.

Emmanwori picked off Michael Hawkins Jr.’s pass on the first play of the game, giving the Gamecocks the ball in Oklahoma territory, leading to Raheim Sanders’ 3-yard touchdown run.

Moments later, Demetrius Knight Hr. sacked Hawkins, knocking the ball free into the hands of Tonka Hemingway, who returned it 36 yards for a touchdown.

Then on third down on the next drive, Emmanwori picked off Hawkins once again, this time returning it 65 yards for a touchdown to put the Gamecocks up by three touchdowns.

That’s when the Sooners changed quarterbacks, going back to Jackson Arnold.

Arnold started the season’s first four games before being replaced by Hawkins just before halftime of Oklahoma’s Sept. 21 loss to Tennessee.

By playing on Saturday in his fifth game, Arnold can’t take a redshirt this season and is left with two years of eligibility after the 2024 season, according to NCAA rules.

The offense didn’t fare much better initially under Arnold, though at least the Sooners avoided further turnovers until the fourth quarter.

Arnold, a former five-star prospect, finished 18 of 36 for 225 yards and a touchdown for Oklahoma (4-3, 1-3). He threw a 54-yard scoring pass to Brenen Thompson in the third quarter.

The Sooners outgained the Gamecocks 291-254.

Nine South Carolina players each had one sack. The teams combined for 15 sacks.

After the initial outburst, South Carolins added a pair of field goals by Alex Herrera (39 and 33 yards) and a 33-yard touchdown pass from Sellers to Joshua Simon.

The Gamecocks led 32-3 at halftime after a successful two-point conversion following Simon’s touchdown with less than two minutes left in the first half.

The 29-point halftime deficit was the Sooners’ biggest at home since 1997.

It was the first time this season Oklahoma’s defense failed to force a turnover.

The game was a return to Norman for fourth-year South Carolina coach Shane Beamer, who spent three seasons as an offensive assistant for the Sooners under coach Lincoln Riley before being hired by the Gamecocks.

–Field Level Media

Oct 12, 2024; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA;  South Carolina Gamecocks defensive back Jalon Kilgore (24) during the second half at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Butch Dill-Imagn Images

Turnover battle could settle Oklahoma-South Carolina matchup

Oklahoma is coming off a blowout loss to its biggest rival.

South Carolina is coming off a narrow loss to Alabama.

The Sooners and Gamecocks will try to bounce back from their disappointments when they meet Saturday in Norman, Okla.

Turnovers figure to play a significant role in the game.

The Sooners lead the Southeastern Conference and are tied for seventh nationally with 14 turnovers forced, while the Gamecocks are tied for second in the conference with 12 takeaways.

The South Carolina secondary is piling up interceptions, as Jalon Kilgore has three and Nick Emmanwori and O’Donnell Fortune have two apiece. Billy Bowman Jr. paced Oklahoma with two picks.

The teams are also among the nation’s best in getting pressure on quarterbacks, as both are tied for 10th nationally in sacks per game with 3.17.

While the Saturday game is the first-ever meeting between the programs, South Carolina got a bit of a peek at what Oklahoma’s defense might look like last season when it faced Jacksonville State.

Sooners co-defensive coordinator Zac Alley was Jacksonville State’s defensive coordinator last season.

While the defenses have forced turnovers in bunches, their offenses have struggled to hold on to the ball.

Oklahoma (4-2, 1-2 SEC) has committed seven turnovers — five of those coming over its two losses, 25-15 to Tennessee and 34-3 to Texas.

South Carolina (3-3, 1-3) has given the ball away 12 times, four coming last week in a 27-25 loss to the Crimson Tide. It was the Gamecocks’ second defeat by three points or fewer this season.

“We’ve got to finish,” South Carolina coach Shane Beamer said. “How do we finish? We’ve got to play cleaner football.”

It figures to be an important game for Oklahoma’s hopes of extending its bowl streak — the second-longest in the country — to 26 seasons.

“There ain’t no gimmes in this conference and certainly on the schedule,” Sooners coach Brent Venables said. “This is a team that, you know, they’re very similar to us in a lot of spaces if you look at it on paper.”

It could be equally as important for the Gamecocks in trying to get back to a bowl after missing out last season.

Beamer spent 2018-20 as an assistant on Lincoln Riley’s staff at Oklahoma before being hired by South Carolina.

“There will be a lot of memories,” Beamer said.

–Field Level Media

Oklahoma Sooners running back Taylor Tatum (8) fumbles the ball during the Red River Rivalry college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Texas Longhorns at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024.

No. 1 Texas rolls to convincing win over No. 18 Oklahoma

Quintrevion Wisner ran for 118 yards and a touchdown and Texas’ defense held No. 18 Oklahoma to just 237 yards as the top-ranked Longhorns blew out the Sooners 34-3 on Saturday in Southeastern Conference play at Dallas.

The win was just the Longhorns’ second in the last seven meetings with the Sooners.

Texas (6-0, 2-0 SEC) took control in the final 2:30 before half, breaking open what had been a tight game.

The Sooners looked like they’d caught a break, when Robert Spears-Jennings chased down Wisner just before the goal line, sending the ball bounding toward the back of the end zone on what looked to be a long touchdown run.

But Longhorns wide receiver Silas Bolden raced in and recovered the fumble just before it went out of play for the touchdown to put Texas up 14-3.

After Michael Hawkins Jr. fumbled on the second play of the next drive, the Longhorns struck quickly.

This time, Wisner held onto the ball, breaking free for a 43-yard touchdown for Texas on the first play after the turnover with 1:40 remaining.

Oklahoma (4-2, 1-2) turned the ball over again on their next play, but this time the Longhorns couldn’t take advantage, going into halftime ahead 21-3.

Texas then ate up more than nine minutes of clock on two third-quarter possessions to all but put the game away.

Quinn Ewers, returning from an oblique injury suffered Sept. 14, finished 20 of 29 for 199 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

He also ran for a touchdown late in the contest.

Ewers’ day started off with a dud, as Oklahoma’s Billy Bowman came up with an interception on the third play of the game.

Texas managed just 13 offensive yards in the first quarter, not picking up a first down until the second quarter as the Sooners took an early 3-0 lead.

But then Ewers and Texas’ offense came alive, with a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive early in the second quarter.

Hawkins was 19 of 30 for 148 yards and was sacked five times.

Texas gained 406 yards. It was Oklahoma’s lowest scoring output since its 49-0 loss to the Longhorns in 2022.

Gunnar Helm had five catches for 91 yards and a touchdown for Texas.

–Field Level Media

Oklahoma Sooners wide receiver Deion Burks (6) runs past Tulane Green Wave linebacker Tyler Grubbs (13) during a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Tulane Green Wave at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024.

Report: Oklahoma WR Deion Burks likely out vs. Texas

Deion Burks, a key piece of No. 18 Oklahoma’s offense as its leading receiver, is expected to miss Saturday’s Red River Rivalry game against No. 1 Texas with a soft tissue injury, ESPN reported on Thursday.

Burks, a Purdue transfer who leads the Sooners with 26 catches for 201 yards and three touchdowns in four games, is listed as questionable after missing the team’s win over Auburn on Sept. 28. He suffered the injury in Oklahoma’s loss to Tennessee on Sept. 21.

The Sooners will be short-handed at wide receiver as Jayden Gibson, Nic Anderson, Andrel Anthony and Jalil Farooq have been ruled out of Saturday’s game at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

J.J. Hester, who had three catches for 86 yards against Auburn, will help pick up the slack, along with Jaquaize Pettaway, Brenen Thompson and Zion Ragins, while cornerback Jacobe Johnson has switched positions to receiver.

Oklahoma will be without defensive backs Gentry Williams and Kendel Dolby but running back Taylor Tatum is expected to return after missing the Auburn game.

–Field Level Media

Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers (3) warms up ahead of the Longhorns' game against the UTSA Roadrunners at Darrell K RoyalÐTexas Memorial Stadium, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024.

Official: No. 1 Texas to start Quinn Ewers in Oklahoma showdown

No. 1 Texas will have starting quarterback Quinn Ewers back on the field when it meets No. 18 Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry showdown on Saturday in Dallas.

Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian announced Thursday that Ewers has recovered from an oblique injury and will lead Texas against its longtime rival in the first-ever meeting for the teams as members of the Southeastern Conference.

Ewers exited Texas’ victory against UTSA on Sept. 14 and was replaced by freshman Arch Manning, who then guided the Longhorns (5-0, 1-0 SEC) to wins over UL Monroe and Mississippi State.

This season, Ewers has completed 73.4 percent of his passes for 691 yards, eight touchdowns and two interceptions, while Manning has completed 70.5 percent of his passes for 901 yards with nine TDs and two interceptions.

Oklahoma (4-1, 1-1) defeated Texas 34-30 in last season’s clash.

–Field Level Media

Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. (9) throws the ball as Auburn Tigers take on Oklahoma Sooners at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala., on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024.

QB intrigue in play as No. 18 Oklahoma, No. 1 Texas renew rivalry

The annual showdown between Oklahoma and Texas doesn’t need much in the way of extra juice.

“I think it’s just in the dirt,” Oklahoma linebacker Kobie McKinzie said of why point spreads don’t matter in the Red River Rivalry. “Whatever happened there over these hundreds of years is just there. Like, you just hit the field, it feels like it’s hard to breathe. There’s nowhere to go.”

There will be plenty on the line Saturday when the top-ranked Longhorns take on the No. 18 Sooners in Dallas in one of the most unique rivalry games in the sport.

The game is played in the middle of the State Fair of Texas with the crowd split 50-50 down the 50-yard line.

It hasn’t quite been played for “hundreds” of years, like McKinzie said, but it has been held for nearly a century at its current home.

The Longhorns (5-0, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) come into the game as heavy favorites, though even wide point spreads haven’t kept the contest from being competitive.

In the past 10 regular-season meetings, only one — Texas’ 49-0 win in 2022 — was decided by more than eight points.

“It’s a rivalry game,” Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian said. “We’re favored or we’re not, it doesn’t matter. Records and things don’t matter in games like this.”

The Longhorns expect to have starting quarterback Quinn Ewers back for the first time since he sustained an abdominal injury against UTSA on Sept. 14.

Arch Manning started the past two games for Texas.

“We’re going to monitor (Ewers) daily just to kind of see how he continues to progress, but I feel good about how he was (Monday),” Sarkisian said. “I feel good about him going into Saturday, but that remains to be seen.”

Ewers is 1-1 against the Sooners, throwing for 289 yards and four touchdowns with one interception in the Longhorns’ 2022 rout, and then passing for 346 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions in Oklahoma’s 34-30 win last season.

The Sooners (4-1, 1-1) come into the game as one of the top teams in the nation in forcing turnovers with 13 — eight fumble recoveries and five interceptions. Texas turned the ball over seven times (three lost fumbles, four interceptions).

While the Longhorns are looking to get their quarterback back against the Sooners, Oklahoma is hoping their freshman starter can get more settled in after taking over in the SEC opener for a struggling Jackson Arnold.

Michael Hawkins Jr. is in line to become the first true freshman quarterback to start for the Sooners against the Longhorns.

Hawkins was 10 of 15 for 161 yards and no interceptions and he rushed for 69 yards and a score in his first career start, Sept. 28 at Auburn in Oklahoma’s 27-21 win.

McKinzie was impressed with how Hawkins has handled the challenge, adding that the quarterback’s demeanor figures to serve him well in the showdown with Texas.

“If you see any other quarterback on Sundays and Saturdays, if they make a mistake, it literally looks like their world just ended,” McKinzie said. “And like, he just, ‘OK, next play. OK, I messed up, next play.’ That’s serious. He literally looks the same every series.”

–Field Level Media