Brent Venables announces Michael Hawkins Oklahoma Sooners' starting QB against Auburn, benching Jackson Arnold
In the Sooners' loss to the Tennessee Volunteers, quarterback Jackson Arnold was benched after committing three turnovers. With the game being winnable throughout most of it, Arnold has shouldered virtually all of the blame for the Sooners' loss. Arnold went 7-of-16 for just 54 yards on the day, throwing one interception and two fumbles. The […]
In the Sooners' loss to the Tennessee Volunteers, quarterback Jackson Arnold was benched after committing three turnovers. With the game being winnable throughout most of it, Arnold has shouldered virtually all of the blame for the Sooners' loss.
Arnold went 7-of-16 for just 54 yards on the day, throwing one interception and two fumbles. The offense looked out of sync and totally disorganized throughout the beginning of the game, tallying -19 yards in the second quarter.
Freshman quarterback Michael Hawkins took over as the starter late, leading two scoring drives in the fourth quarter thanks to some gutsy rushing ability.
Now, Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables has announced Hawkins will start in their Week 5 matchup against the Auburn Tigers.
In his relief duty, Hawkins went 11-of-18 for 132 yards and one passing touchdown. Hawkins also tacked on 22 yards rushing.
This move felt necessary for the Sooners' after Jackson Arnold's struggles throughout the start of the season. This could prove to be a gut check moment for Arnold to try and get right mentally after making some brutal mistakes against Tennessee.
Oklahoma Sooners hoping converted defensive back gives them spark at WR heading into Week 5 game against Auburn
It's no secret that injuries have decimated the Oklahoma Sooners' wide receiver room in 2024. Jayden Gibson was hurt before the season started and will miss the entire season, Jalil Farooq broke his foot after the first drive, and Nic Anderson missed the first three games of the year. Even depth players like Jaquaize Pettaway […]
Oklahoma is desperate for answers offensively, and the hope is Hawkins provides a spark to try and ignite some sort of turnaround on offense to match the Sooners' elite defensive production. However, he is just a freshman and will make freshman mistakes.
Starting Hawkins was also the right move, in my opinion, for the team. There was just no way to justify starting Arnold after his performance against the Volunteers, and it's not fair to the other players on the team to have that at quarterback.
Maybe Hawkins will be good and fix the offense, maybe Hawkins will be just as bad and the Sooners will have to fix their systemic problems sooner than they thought. Either way, it's good for Oklahoma to get those answers as soon as possible.
The Sooners will have a bye week after the Auburn game. We'll see if Hawkins does enough to hang onto the starting job going into Oklahoma's matchup against Texas in Week 7 or if this quarterback competition continues well into the bye week with no clear answer.
