With the Red River Rivalry looming, the Sooners must overhaul a broken offense, reconsider play-calling duties, and urgently prepare backup quarterbacks to salvage a fading season
Oklahoma did not enter the bye week looking like a team that needed a light reset. It entered looking like a team that needed real answers.
1. Take the play sheet out of Ben Arbuckle’s hands
Maybe Ben Arbuckle is not the only reason Oklahoma’s offense looks broken. That does not mean he should keep calling it. Whatever the Sooners are doing right now is not creating consistent drives, not creating a run game, and not putting John Mateer in good enough positions to play clean football. At some point, results have to matter more than continuity. Oklahoma already has a different kind of option on staff in Kevin Wilson, one of the best offensive minds in program history, and it would be malpractice not to at least put that card on the table. This is the perfect week to change the voice, change the structure, and try to rebuild an identity before the season slides from disappointing into gone. If the same offense that showed up against Michigan, New Mexico, and Georgia is the one Oklahoma trots out for Red River, the staff will have wasted the only soft week left on the schedule.
2. Get Whitt Newbauer and Bowe Bentley ready for real
Nobody with sense is dying to throw an inexperienced quarterback into a first start against No. 1 Texas in Dallas. That part is understandable. What is no longer understandable is acting like the depth chart behind John Mateer is some distant developmental project. Mateer has been turnover-prone, inaccurate under pressure, and short on rhythm. He is one more bad tape away from forcing the issue. Venables already made clear that Newbauer and Bentley are getting meaningful work, and that needs to continue with urgency. If either one is going to be asked to play important snaps this season, the preparation has to happen now, not in the panic of a second-half blowout. Oklahoma does not have to name a new starter this week. It does have to make sure the next man up is not guessing when his number is called.
3. Use the week to get healthy wherever possible
This roster was never deep enough to absorb bad injury luck, and that has already shown up. Oklahoma had talent entering the year. It did not have interchangeable depth, especially once the defensive front and linebacker room started taking hits. David Stone’s dislocated knee was the biggest blow, but he has not been the only absence. Kip Lewis, Owen Heinecke, and Cole Sullivan have all been sidelined or limited at different points. Taylor Heim, Michael Boganowski, and Jer’Michael Carter have been banged up as well. On offense, Michael Fasusi’s shoulder has kept the line in shuffle mode, and Trell Harris has been out too. The Sooners cannot invent depth out of thin air during a bye. What they can do is get as many of those bodies back as possible and stop asking the same short rotation to survive every physical SEC snap. Health will not fix the play-calling or the turnovers by itself. Without it, though, everything else gets harder.
4. Solve the run-game mystery before it becomes permanent
Oklahoma’s rushing attack is not struggling. It is a problem. The Sooners are averaging 2.9 yards per carry and have totaled just 396 rushing yards through four games. Lloyd Avant has done the bulk of the work with 42 carries for 164 yards and a touchdown, which tells you both who is getting the football and how little the supporting structure is creating. Last year’s 3.5-yard average was already bad enough. This year’s version is worse. That is not only on the running backs. The offensive line has not created consistent movement, and the scheme has not found a way to live on early downs. What makes it more frustrating is the usage pattern. Xavier Robinson and Tory Blaylock have barely been featured despite having shown they can handle SEC snaps in the past. Oklahoma has to figure out whether this is a personnel issue, a blocking issue, a design issue, or all three. Until the Sooners can threaten teams on the ground, every passer they put back there is going to live in obvious passing situations.
5. Stop acting like the season will fix itself
A 2-2 team coming off a road dismantling by Georgia should not need a motivational seminar, but Oklahoma still has to prove the urgency is real. Talent has not been the issue on paper. The issue is a roster and staff that have not played up to the standard the program claims to have. The bye week is the natural place for hard conversations, altered roles, and an honest look at why this team has been so much less than the sum of its parts. Technically, the season is not dead. The Sooners are not mathematically eliminated from bigger goals yet. That is the danger. Teams in this spot can talk themselves into waiting for momentum instead of forcing it. Oklahoma does not have that luxury. If the response to Athens is comfort instead of anger, the rest of the year will get away quickly.
The bye could still matter. It could produce a different offensive voice, a sharper quarterback plan, healthier bodies, and a run game that is no longer optional. It could also become another quiet week before the same problems show up in Dallas under even brighter lights. That is the choice in front of Oklahoma right now. The schedule will not wait for the Sooners to find themselves. This week has to be about changing what is broken.
