Sooners make a game of it in Oxford
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.