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Jackson Arnold

Sooners turn the Tide, dominate in 24-3 win

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Relying on the legs of QB Jackson Arnold and true freshman RB Xavier Robinson — and a dominating defense spearheaded by veteran LB Danny Stutsman — Oklahoma soundly defeated No. 7 ranked Alabama 24-3, delivering a most improbable outcome of the Sooners’ final home game of its difficult inaugural SEC season, likely spoiling the Crimson Tide’s playoff hopes and securing OU’s 25-year bowl appearance streak, the second longest in college football.

Before Saturday night’s 6:30 pm kickoff, who would have thought this would happen?

Not many. Except the guys wearing the helmets with interlocking O and U thought so.

They played like it, anyway, throughout 60 minutes of football. It might be hindsight to say this, but Alabama never threatened the Sooners after Oklahoma scored on a 18 yard Robinson run with 36 seconds left in the second quarter.

Arnold completed 9 of 11 passes, but it was his 131 yards on 25 carries that carried the day. The Alabama defense appeared to have no answer for Arnold’s keepers.

“It’s huge,” Arnold said of the win. “I’ll say this would be a signature win in my playing career. You don’t have many like this. I don’t know if I’ll ever have the field rushed again when I play. But it’s s

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Sooners make a game of it in Oxford

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This game will go down as an “L” in the win-loss column. But there was something different about it.

The 26-14 loss to Mississippi felt more like the loss on the road at Oxford that we expected pre-season instead of the humiliation we had recently expected (and Vegas predicted, making the Sooners a three-score underdog) after pitiful Sooner performances in October.

For the first time this year, we saw beginner QB Jackson Arnold look like a young quarterback — making some plays to show his talent and failing at some plays to show his inexperience — but, progressing in his development, rather than the young QB regressing into shell shock (which had been the case earlier in the year, resulting in his benching).

“I thought Jackson did a lot of really good things at times,” Coach Brent Venables said of Arnold.

So did the rest of the team. Given recent developments that has had fans in meltdown mode, it was possible this team could have tanked by now. But, their performance against Mississippi showed they have not.

“These guys aren’t going to flinch — I promise you… I think everyone on the outside might assume guys will give up or check out… Not these guys,” Coach Brent Venables said.

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Sooners lose game, but may have gained a QB

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After QB Jackson Arnold committed two turnovers midway through the second quarter, the story of No. 15 Oklahoma’s 25-15 loss to No.7 Tennessee might have been about when the pitch fork carrying fans would storm Brent Venables’ office demanding a change in quarterback.

But before that could happen, the Sooner coaches replaced the five-star QB with backup freshman Michael Hawkins, who added a second-half spark to an Oklahoma offense that had withered in the blistering heat brought by the Vols’ defense.

Hawkins came in and played with heart. His emergence in this game may be the silver lining for the loss.

He finished 11 of 18 for 132 yards and one touchdown passing, and ran for 22 yards — having played a little more than one half of football.

This should be an interesting week of practice. The coaches will discover what Hawkins can do when spending more practice time with the first team offense.

Venables said he would “evaluate” the situation between Arnold and Hawkins.

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