Can the Oklahoma Sooners Fix Their Offensive Line Before SEC Play Begins?
Entering their 2024 season, the main worry on the minds of Sooners fans was the state of the offensive line. Fresh off of losing all five starters (four to the NFL, one as a transfer) and still recovering from the shambles of years of Lincoln Riley's recruiting, the offensive line brought in several transfers at […]
Entering their 2024 season, the main worry on the minds of Sooners fans was the state of the offensive line. Fresh off of losing all five starters (four to the NFL, one as a transfer) and still recovering from the shambles of years of Lincoln Riley's recruiting, the offensive line brought in several transfers at each position to help ease the transition into the SEC.
Unfortunately, Oklahoma's game against Temple didn't exactly put any of those fears to rest. Most of the criticism about the game came from the play of the offensive line.
On the bright side, most of their issues are fixable. As an additional note, seemingly every offensive line struggled in Week 1.
Even traditionally stout offensive line programs struggled. Oregon gave up 10 pressures and three sacks to Idaho, LSU couldn't get any movement going on USC's defensive line all night, Michigan got blown off the ball all game by Fresno State, even Alabama's offensive line had some struggles in pass pro and all of these teams return more production than the Sooners.
This isn't to excuse anything but to maybe get Sooners fans to take a step back and relax.
The Negatives
Let's get into the negatives first, because those will take a bit longer to break down.
Oklahoma was hurt coming into the game at multiple positions. Center Branson Hickman was battling injuries but toughed it out to start the game. Unfortunately, he was hurt (ankle sprain) on the first series, so an already banged-up offensive line had to reshuffle. Transfer Geirean Hatchett entered the lineup at center-a position he had a grand total of 30 snaps at in his career.
Right tackle Jake Taylor was nursing injuries as well, so was held out. Michigan State transfer Spencer Brown entered the lineup at right tackle. Unfortunately, Brown might be their third-best option at tackle.
Latest Oklahoma depth chart offers clarity about Sooners’ offensive line ahead of their 2024 kickoff
The Oklahoma Sooners lost all five starters from last year's offensive line room, throwing that room into chaos. The Sooners pursued numerous transfers in the offseason to rebuild that room. It has seemingly worked, as transfers are set to start at three positions along their offensive line. USC transfer Michael Tarquin is set to start […]
Predictably, it was the play of these two that dragged down the perception of the unit.
Hatchett struggled at a new position, which is understandable. Center is arguably the hardest position on the offensive line, so trying to pick it up and learn on the fly is an incredibly steep curve. Keeping that in mind, Hatchett's play was honestly not that bad.
Digging into the PFF numbers reinforced the context that the film brought. Hatchett allowed the most pressures on the night with three and "one" of the "three" sacks given up. However, his one sack I would argue was actually on Spencer Brown instead.
Brown at right tackle is too far over and gets beaten inside. The right guard, Febechi Nwaiwu, is still helping on the exchange Hatchett at center and isn't in position to get that far outside to pick up the inside rusher. Arnold has to step up to avoid the rusher coming from his right and runs right into the defender, who reacts faster than Hatchett does (as, you know, Hatchett can't see Arnold scrambling). It's either the weirdest protection call I've ever seen or Brown just oversetting.
Is that fair to Hatchett? His blocking assignment did technically get the sack, but would it have even been a sack if Arnold didn't have to step up into the rush? The exchange between Hatchett and Sexton is pretty clean for a duo making their first start at each position, and a nice sign to see.
Interestingly enough, this is the only sack accredited to Hatchett and Brown. The numbers can be a little misleading here, as it has both Brown and Hatchett with one sack allowed. You could be forgiven for thinking that means they gave up two sacks combined with how it reads. Instead, it means they both got that sack attributed to them, even though I personally believe it's more on Brown than Hatchett.
Where Hatchett struggled the most is in the run game. There were a few clunky plays of his that were mental mistakes. Additionally, I'm not sure he really has the power to really open up the inside of holes. Oklahoma's run game picked up when they ran inside zone, where he could work with his guards on double-teaming defenders. It doesn't help that Hatchett was also battling a bicep injury.
However, Hatchett won't be the starting center for long. Both Troy Everett and Branson Hickman are gearing up to return from battling injuries and should likely return around Oklahoma's bye week in Week 6. It could be sooner for either, but that feels like pushing it. Additionally, Joshua Bates, the team's freshman center, is also battling an elbow injury.
Head coach Brent Venables stated Branson Hickman looked good at practice on Monday, saying he "actually looked remarkably good today". Him returning to the lineup healthy would be a huge win.
For Hatchett to be fighting through an injury like a bicep tendon as well as serving as the in-game "break glass in case of emergency" center, his performance, in my opinion, holds up better with that sort of context.
The far bigger problem on Friday night was Spencer Brown's performance. Like I stated above with that play, Brown's technical lapses caused plenty of issues. His run blocking, something you'd expect to play well with his size, didn't make up for his lapses in pass pro. While his one sack allowed was the aforementioned play above, there were far too many moments where he ended up on the ground, stumbling, or out of position. I don't like his balance at all, a factor made significantly worse when he oversets frequently.
To make up for Brown's deficiencies, he was split well wide from the rest of the line in order to mitigate some of his athletic limitations vs speedier rushers. You can see it on the play above, but for a better visual, notice the difference in the splits from when Michael Tarquin was at right tackle to start the game vs Brown at right tackle.
This can help linemen get to their landmarks faster in an effort to slow down a rusher, but the problem hits when you have a rusher who is either faster, savvier, or both. These faster rushers can still beat a tackle to the outside, while the craftier ones will simply fake outside before crashing inside into a wide-open split between the right guard and right tackle. Unfortunately for the Sooners, they play in the SEC, where every team will be both faster and savvier than Temple.
When you don't really practice these wide splits, it's not easy to adjust on the fly like that. We saw on the sack above how Nwaiwu was just simply not in a position to help Brown being so far outside that the rusher virtually had a free rusher at the quarterback.
However, Jake Taylor is likely returning to right tackle next week against Houston. Taylor was held out of the Temple game due to injury, but it sounds like he's about ready to go. If Taylor is even marginally better than Brown, it would do a lot to get the offensive line in a better place than it is now.
To wrap up, there is one last issue to focus on: Jacob Sexton played FAR too aggressively. He would overset a target and get beat across his face a bit too often for me to be comfortable. While the rest of his performance was good and his production was solid, this could be an issue if it doesn't get reigned in.
Fortunately, it's a technical issue that can get fixed and I didn't notice it as frequently as the game went on. We'll see if it continues going up against more dynamic fronts moving forwards. I would also much rather have to teach a lineman to reign in his aggression than have to drag it out of him.
The Positives
Let's wrap up with the positives here. The good news for Oklahoma is that two of their transfers really stepped up and delivered a good performance against Temple.
Michael Tarquin played almost the whole game at left tackle (a position he's not familiar with) and had a really good game overall. I marked him down with one real loss in pass protection and zero in the run game. He was their best run blocker on the night, and his technical foundation showed up well throughout the game. For Tarquin, who has been a career right tackle, to be able to hold up so well after being flipped to the left side after one drive is a testament to his level of refinement.
Febechi Nwaiwu is a literal dam in pass protection. When he drops his anchor, Temple went nowhere against him. I don't think he's the best mover in space and so his run blocking isn't superb on the move, but the comparison that kept popping into my head is Los Angeles Ram Kevin Dotson.
Funnily enough, Nwaiwu was also credited for allowing the same sack that both Hatchett and Brwn got marked for. So all three of Hatchett, Brown, and Nwaiwu had that one play count for their sack tally. Again, the numbers can be deceiving if you aren't careful.
It won’t take long for the Oklahoma Sooners offense to get to where it needs to be in 2024
The Sooners will be ready.
Between those two, the Sooners have a foundation they can build the rest of the unit off of. Personally, I'd like to see them both play on the right side together and turn that side of the line into a true strength of the offense.
There were also a lot of question marks about their run game not being able to march effectively. Because of the injuries at wide receiver and the fact that Oklahoma called the vast majority of the game with quick and short passes, Temple frequently loaded up the box, making it difficult to fully build out a run game.
Final Thoughts
After going through the film a couple times and looking at the numbers provided by PFF, I felt a lot more comfortable with the way the offensive line played.
When you look at the context of the unit battling multiple injuries and having to shuffle guys around, especially while playing (at least) one starter out of position, the fact that they had their struggles makes sense. Adding in the additional context of almost every offensive line struggling in Week 1, the apocalyptic feeling about the room dies down significantly.
The biggest thing I can emphasize here is to R-E-L-A-X. Let the offensive line get healthy. Let the receivers get healthy. Give the unit time to figure out its identity after its first game in a new offense.
I'd like to see how Taylor looks when he returns. If he can hold down the fort at right tackle (or even maybe left), that would be a significant boost to their ability. If he can't, it might mean Oklahoma has to move Tarquin to right tackle, Jacob Sexton to left tackle, and insert one of their freshmen in Heath Ozeata or Eddy Pierre-Louis at left guard.
If you want to doom post about it, be my guest. If you want to call for Bill Bedenbaugh to be fired, you do not know ball, but I won't stop you from stepping on a rake. I would simply caution making any grand statements until we see the line healthy. They had to totally reshuffle the lineup in after just one drive and make personnel adjustments mid-game that are difficult enough to do when you practice them routinely.
