Despite More Changes, Oklahoma’s Offensive Line Must ‘Fix What We Need to Fix’

How many offensive linemen started at the same position in both of Oklahoma’s games so far this season?

As the slogan goes, there’s only one.

Right guard Febechi Nwaiwu is the Sooners’ only o-lineman who started at the same position against Houston that he did against Temple. Each of the other four positions have had a different starter.

Expect more changes when No. 15-ranked OU takes the field on Saturday afternoon against Tulane. 

Bill Bedenbaugh has shifted his personnel here and there almost entirely out of necessity so far. 

Jacob Sexton started at left tackle in the opener, but quickly moved to left guard and then started there in the second game. Michael Tarquin started at right tackle against the Owls, but shifted to left tackle and then started there against the Cougars. Branson Hickman started at center in Week 1, but got hurt and was replaced that game by Geirean Hatchett, then in the next game by Joshua Bates. After Spencer Brown replaced Tarquin at right tackle early in the opener, Jake Taylor stepped in last week.

Meanwhile, the Sooner offense has been among the worst teams in the nation at converting third downs (131st, per this week’s NCAA statistics). OU rushed for 220 yards against Temple but only managed 75 against Houston, its lowest output in three years. Quarterback Jackson Arnold was sacked three times in each game, which ranks 109th in the nation. The Sooners are also 100th or worse in total offense, passing offense, time of possession and first downs.

The wide receivers are enduring an injury epidemic. The running backs have not been explosive. Arnold has been inconsistent at best.

But the offensive line has been in the crosshairs since all five of Bedenbaugh’s starters last season departed. With five experienced newcomers via the transfer portal, four young returnees trying to break out and five true freshmen hoping to make an early impact, the group has been striving for consistency and chemistry since spring practice opened.

“I think it’s a group thing,” Bates said. “We showed flashes here and there but we need to be as a group together through everything this season. Game to game, we need to have a 1-0 mentality. Every single week we need to come out with that same mindset. How you play offensive line at the University of Oklahoma, it’s a group thing. It’s never an individual at this position. You have to fire on all cylinders as a group, as a team and as a unit especially.”

Bates, a redshirt freshman, has played 78 snaps this season, according to Pro Football Focus. Most of those came last week as he replaced Hatchett, the Washington transfer who has been lost for the season after surgery to repair a torn biceps muscle. Bates posted an overall PFF grade of 55.9, which included 57.2 run blocking and 65.3 pass blocking.

It figures to be Bates again this week, unless Hickman, the SMU transfer, has recovered from his week one ankle injury. Hickman played just 10 snaps against Temple before going down.

Sexton and Nwaiwu lead the OU offense with 120 snaps each, per PFF, and Sexton, a junior, has posted grades of 62.7 overall, 57.9 on run blocks and 76.7 on pass blocks. Nwaiwu, a transfer from North Texas, has an overall grade of 57.7, with a 53.9 on runs and 64.8 on passes.

Tarquin, a USC transfer via Florida, has played 113 total snaps, fourth on the team, and has been terrific across the board: 78.2 overall, 74.0 on runs, 79.6 on passes.

Brown, a Michigan State transfer, got 57 snaps in the opener but didn’t play last week. His PFF numbers are 62.2 overall, 60.5 run and 61.9 pass.

Last week it was redshirt freshman Logan Howland who came in to play left tackle after Taylor went down and Tarquin went to right tackle, and after getting 16 snaps in the opener he got 39 last week. So far this season, Howland has graded out at 67.7 overall, 62.4 in the run game and 76.8 in the pass game.

Taylor, a third-year sophomore, returned from a preseason injury last week and played 23 snaps at right tackle — and, according to PFF, posted a 62.3 overall grade, 54.9 run blocking grade and team-high 79.9 pass blocking grade. But Taylor left the Houston game late in the first half with yet another injury, and his status for this week remains unclear.

And that’s what Bedenbaugh has had to work with through the first two weeks of the season.

“Injuries happen in sports,” Howland said. “We got to be a next-man-up kind of thing.”

Oklahoma currently has more offensive tackles (seven) playing in the NFL than any other college team. That’s the standard that Bedenbaugh has set, and this group is fighting a variety of adversities to try to live up to it.

“The offensive line here is a standard,” Howland said. “We have to live up to that standard every day. You see guys in the NFL doing well right now and we have to replicate them and try to get where they’re at.”

Chemistry doesn’t just happen because the o-line coach wants it to. It has to be organic — but it has to happen if an offense wants to reach its potential.

“We’re tight,” Bates said. “We’re a group that, we all hang out together. We love each other. We’ve gone through these summer workouts with Schmitty. We’ve done all the winter stuff. We feel like we’ve bled, we’ve sweat, we bleed together. And that’s something that, over the last couple of years, we’ve struggled with. And I think this year, this group is tight. But, you know, I think it comes to getting on the field and being able to execute at a high level.

“We’re just gonna keep working. You can’t sit here and say, ‘This happened, this happened.’ This sport, it’s week-by-week, man. You’ve got to take every week the same way. Come together, fix what we need to fix and get after it.”