The Oklahoma Sooners opened up the Brent Venables era at the program in convincing fashion, as they took care of business with a 45-13 home win over UTEP.
Multiple players on offense for Oklahoma made the most out of their snaps played in the contest, including both running back Eric Gray and wideout Marvin Mims Jr. Gray led the Sooners’ attack on the ground with a game-high 102 rushing yards, while Mims hauled in three receptions from first-year Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel.
The Sooners were well projected to secure a dominating win over UTEP, but not many are picking them to make a run to this season’s College Football Playoff national title game. From Venables’ standpoint, he sees that for his team to be a national title contender this season, it will come down to its production at the line of scrimmage.
“If we're going to be a championship caliber football program, we've got to win at the line of scrimmage consistently,” Venables said after the game.
The Sooners offense won the line of scrimmage battle against UTEP, as Gabriel regularly operated with plenty of time while in the pocket, and the team also notched a 6.8 rushing yards per attempt average. On the other side of the ball, the Sooners defense held UTEP to a mere 0.9 rushing yards per attempt mark, and overall, the Big 12 powerhouse tallied 6.0 total sacks.
Next up for the Sooners will be another non-conference home matchup, as they will meet Kent State next week.
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