Oklahoma

Handing out grades for the Oklahoma Sooners against the LSU Tigers

Published

1 year ago

December 2, 2024

Handing out grades for the Oklahoma Sooners against the LSU Tigers

The Oklahoma Sooners will finish the 2024 regular season at 6-6 overall and 2-6 in the Southeastern Conference. OU lost their finale on the road against the LSU Tigers, falling by a final score of 37-17.

Brent Venables’ team hung in there for the first half, but once again folded in the second half, failing to score after tying the game at 17 apiece. It’s an all too familiar site for OU in SEC play this year, as the offensive woes were once again magnified in prime time, and mistakes plagued the Sooners.

In addition, this was probably the worst performance of the season from Oklahoma’s defense, a stark contrast from the way things looked a week ago. The Sooners clearly didn’t handle the success of the Alabama win well, turning in a lethargic, uninspired performance in Baton Rouge.

Here are our grades for each position group from OU vs. LSU.

Quarterback: C

Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

It’s both difficult and easy to critique Jackson Arnold for Saturday’s performance. On the one hand, he was essentially the focal point of OU’s offense, with not much else positive going on. On the other hand, he hasn’t proven capable of throwing the football effectively more than ten yards beyond the line of scrimmage in the SEC.

110 passing yards won’t cut it. If you take out the throw to J.J. Hester, Arnold went 13-for-20 for a paltry 60 yards passing. Regardless of what he adds running the football, you can’t win football games with a quarterback that doesn’t feel comfortable putting the ball in the air.

Arnold deserves credit for the way he handled everything that happened this season. It’s unclear if that was his final game in a Sooner uniform or not. It’ll depend on who OU’s next offensive coordinator is and if Oklahoma brings in a quarterback via the transfer portal this offseason. A career that had so much promise was very tough to watch in 2024.

Running Back: C-

SCOTT CLAUSE/USA TODAY Network / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

After the Sooners ran the ball all over Alabama, LSU stacked the box and forced Oklahoma to do other things to try and beat them. Obviously, it worked. Xavier Robinson was held in check, Gavin Sawchuk was nonexistent once again, Taylor Tatum is apparently still benched, and Jovantae Barnes has been out for a month with an injury.

The only successful plays the Sooners had were when they ran Arnold, and once LSU started spying him, the OU offense had nothing. The running backs were unable to get going. There’s a lot of potential in that room for the future, and hopefully, a new playcaller will be able to unlock it better than Seth Littrell, Joe Jon Finley, and Kevin Johns were.

Wide Receiver: D

Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

Oklahoma really didn’t have receivers on the field in this game. They had outside blockers who occasionally ran routes. Short of a big catch by Hester and a sliding grab by Jacob Jordan, there isn’t much to tell from this position group.

With the top six players out once again, there’s just nothing good about the wide receiver room to look back on from this season. It’s crazy that all of the best wideouts got hurt and missed almost the entire season. We’ll see who leaves and who comes back for 2025.

Tight End: D+

SCOTT CLAUSE/USA TODAY Network / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Sooners were down by 14 points, driving to try and cut into the LSU lead. That was until OU called a trick play for Bauer Sharp, but the throwback to Arnold wasn’t there. Instead of taking the loss or throwing the ball away, Sharp decided to heave the ball up in the air for no discernible reason. It was intercepted, killing Oklahoma’s most productive drive of the second half and essentially ending the game. He probably shouldn’t have been put in that position, but he has to execute better.

It’s been a bad year for the tight ends, a position group in deep need of a reset. The portal acquisitions didn’t work out, and it showed again versus the Tigers. The run game couldn’t get going despite two tight ends on the field for a lot of snaps. It’s another problem that the new OC will be asked to fix once he arrives in Norman.

Offensive Line: D

William Purnell-Imagn Images

The same goes for Oklahoma’s embattled offensive line, which followed up a great performance against Alabama by putting up arguably their worse performance of the second half of the season. They’ve shown some good things in the run game, but they struggled in pass protection once again.

There might be something there with some of the young guys up front, but there are plenty of holes to be filled when the portal opens. It’ll depend on who the offensive coordinator is as to what kind of linemen the Sooners will be looking for. The key is that they need to be looking.

Defensive Line: B

SCOTT CLAUSE/USA TODAY Network / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Oklahoma’s defensive line has been a strength all season. They weren’t at the best this week, but they were far from the weakest point of the defense. R Mason Thomas played a whale of a game, as did Gracen Halton. That’s a couple of players the Sooners would love to have back in 2025.

If Oklahoma can avoid big portal losses at this spot this offseason, the defensive line could be a major strength again next year. Losing Da’Jon Terry will hurt, but if some other players can come back, there’s a chance to be nasty up front again.

Credit to Ethan Downs, who may have played his last game at OU. The Sooners could use about ten more players like him going forward.

Linebacker: B-

Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

LSU ran the ball better than expected in this one, as Oklahoma didn’t play well enough defensively to win this game. You could tell that they laid it all on the line to beat Alabama and there wasn’t anything left. That boils down to coaching.

This is another position where the future is bright. Kip Lewis looks ready to take over the mantle of leadership, and Kobie McKinzie will see the field a lot more next year. Cheetah has a lot of interesting possibilities as well.

If this is it for Danny Stutsman, it was an honor to watch the best linebacker in the country. He won’t soon be forgotten for what he did in a Sooners jersey.

Secondary: F

Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

A bad, bad day for the OU secondary. Garrett Nussmeier and the LSU wideouts torched the Sooner DBs all night long. Eli Bowen was exposed in a single coverage against Chris Hilton Jr., and the true freshman still has a way to go in the SEC.

There just aren’t enough difference-makers back there for the Sooners if the pass rush doesn’t get home. This is the area on Zac Alley’s defense that has to improve the most by August.

Billy Bowman and Woodi Washington may or may not play in the bowl game, but they should be recognized for what they did to help turn this defense around. The vets on this team set a good example for the players to come.

Special Teams: D-

BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

LSU’s 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown was a huge moment in this game, an unacceptable play from Oklahoma. That can’t happen, especially not in the place that it did in the contest. The Sooners had just taken a 14-10 lead after Arnold’s 50-yard completion to Hester set up their go-ahead score.

It was a disappointing moment in what had been a solid year in kickoff coverage for the Sooners.

The Sooners were never able to truly change the game with their special teams. There were fewer mistakes than a year ago, but Peyton Bowen and the other returners were never able to turn the tide like we saw LSU do on Saturday.

That’s the next step in the evolution of this unit.

Conclusion

Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

6-6 for the second time in three years isn’t good enough at Oklahoma. Brent Venables has one year from this point to fix it. Four years would be enough time to see if he’s good enough to be a head coach at a program of OU’s ilk. He’s got to win at a high level next year or he will be gone.

Venables has turned in two iconic wins over Texas and Alabama, and a lot of losses around those two games over his three years. This should have been a winnable game, but the lack of halftime adjustments once again doomed the Sooners in Death Valley. It’s an alarming trend, one of many that Oklahoma has developed under Venables. OU was simply not good enough to compete in the SEC this year. They didn’t looked as prepared to play against LSU as they did the week before against Alabama. The Sooners have to figure out a way to come off a big win and not let that effect their preparation the next week.

The offensive coordinator hire is the first of many make-or-break moments the Sooners are facing over the next 12 months. Who Venables chooses to turn the offense around will directly impact whether or not he continues as OU’s head ball coach.

The Sooners now await their bowl destination and await the NFL draft and portal decisions. There’s plenty of work to be done if Oklahoma wants to get back to winning at the level that they should be.

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Oklahoma

Pistons likely to sit several starters, including Jalen Duren, against Oklahoma City

Published

5 hours ago

March 29, 2026

Press Room

Omari Sankofa II: Pistons injury report vs Thunder DOUBTFUL: Jalen Duren (right knee injury management), Tobias Harris (left hip IM), Duncan Robinson (right hip IM) QUESTIONABLE: Ausar Thompson (right ankle IM) OUT: Cade Cunningham, Isaiah Stewart

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Oklahoma

Oklahoma City retail boom creates sharp divide between centers

Published

17 hours ago

March 29, 2026

Press Room

Oklahoma City retail boom creates sharp divide between centers

A growing divide exists between new, successful shopping centers and older, stagnating properties from the 1970s.
Newer centers with national tenants are commanding record-high rents, while older centers struggle with vacancies.
Experts suggest that older retail centers must be torn down or significantly reimagined to remain competitive.

Contrary to popular belief, the internet did not kill retail and Oklahoma City is seeing an influx of new construction.

But a new retail survey shows a growing divide emerging between the success of newer shopping destinations and fading fortunes of those built in the age of disco balls and leisure suits.

Jim Parrack, who leads the retail division at Price Edwards, said the Oklahoma City metro at first glance is doing well compared to the national market in which rental rates are going up and new development is slowing amidst higher construction costs and rising economic uncertainty.

Large new retail properties in Oklahoma City include OAK, the mixed-use upscale development at Northwest Expressway and Pennsylvania Avenue, Grove Marketplace at NW 178 and Portland Avenue, and Rose Creek Plaza at NW 164 and May Avenue.

And a next-generation prototype Walmart Supercenter, meanwhile, is being built as part of Deercrest Marketplace at the corner of John Kilpatrick Turnpike and Rockwell Avenue. More announced retailers are moving forward in northwest Oklahoma City, including a Scheels store and a Crest Foods.

Legacy at Covell in Edmond is set to include some of the biggest names in retail and dining, including Whole Foods and a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. And multiple new developments continue in Norman, including construction of a large development anchored by a Target store.

“Retail in general is doing better than people tend to think,” Parrack told The Oklahoman. “There is a lot of negative news nationally. But even nationally, retail is doing better than people often give credit for mainly because people are still spending money.”

Nationally, he said, not a lot of retail construction is being seen, which has helped occupancy rates and landlords are able to raise rents and are “doing pretty well.”

“There has developed, over the past couple of years, what I would call good centers and then there are centers that have fallen off pace. The good centers are those that are newer and have mostly national tenants.”

Older locations seeing rent stagnating

Parrack identified Oklahoma City’s two power retail corridors where much of the growth is happening as those at Northwest Expressway and Pennsylvania Avenue, and along the Memorial Road corridor between Portland and Western avenues, which Parrack said has the highest concentration of retail in the city.

“The other locations are those that are older, maybe aren’t configured right and have more mom-and-pop tenants,” Parrack said. “The surprising part to me is the gap between the two has widened significantly. We’re seeing certain centers, like Classen Curve, get $50 to $60 a foot in rent. There are some small strip shopping centers in that same range. And we haven’t seen those kinds of rents here ever.”

Older centers, meanwhile, are seeing rents stagnating between $12 and $14 a foot.

“The discrepancy is very noticeable,” Parrack said. “A lot of the older centers in the ‘70s are in that older tier. Sometimes the markets have grown away from them. But sometimes the centers just get old; the ceilings are low and maybe their spaces are too deep. Something is wrong with them.”

The tenant mix also weighs in, Parrack said, with centers with mostly local retailers unable to compete with the newer, national-tenant anchored properties.

“The rents haven’t moved, so the landlords have a hard time paying for tenant improvements and the local tenants don’t have as much quality credit. It’s a cumulation of events that are holding those centers down.”

One example of a struggling retail center is French Market Mall, which the report shows was over 50% vacant at the end of 2025 even though it is on a high-traffic intersection of NW 63 and May Avenue.

The property started out in the 1970s as an enclosed mall adjoining a Woolco, Furr’s Cafeteria, Trust House Jewelers, an IGA grocery, a Hallmark shop and a drugstore.

The mall portion was later shut down and replaced with a Burlington store.

“At some point, a number of these older centers just need to be repurposed, whether that means torn down for a new center, or re-imagined, an example being Mayfair,” Parrack said. “Half of that center has been torn down and part was remodeled.”

Mayfair Village, built in 1948, was one of the city’s earliest suburban shopping centers. The retail hub was built along both sides of May Avenue between NW 47 and NW 48. Some pieces of the shopping center were torn down and replaced with new buildings, notably Mayfair Market, which made way for a CVS, and a nearby shopping strip that was torn down to make way for an Aldi grocery store.

An extensive rebuilding of the shopping center followed its 2020 purchase by Caleb Hill, Nick Preftakes and Mark Ruffin. They renovated some of the buildings and then cleared other sections that were then redeveloped as fast food restaurants and a gas station.

“More centers are going to have to be redone like that,” Parrack said.

Jason Little and Charles Lewis with SHOP Companies recently brokered a $17 million sale of four buildings that make up the heart of the reimagined Mayfair to a real estate investment arm of Humphreys Companies. He said the shopping center has just one vacancy — a Starbucks that closed as part of a national shutdown of some of its locations — and that lease continues.

When that lease transitions to a new tenant, Little said he expects the former Starbucks will lease for close to $50 a foot. He credits that price expectation to the efforts undertaken by Hill and Preftakes.

“You’re talking about an asset that when they acquired it had single digit rents,” Little said. “By bringing new construction and historic architecture together, they’ve been able to create something marketable.”

In other areas of town, Parrack said west Oklahoma City, more recently, has had the lowest vacancy rate, which he sees as a reflection of new housing in the area especially near Yukon and Mustang. He said Moore and Norman continue to thrive with little old retail and ongoing construction of new retail.

Parrack said the metro’s three malls are performing at different levels.

“Penn Square continues to do the best sales of any of the local malls. Simon owns it and Simons knows what they’re doing. But even at Penn Square there are some temporary tenants that Simon controls. And I think they realize that in competition with OAK they are needing to invest some money in the mall.”

Quail Springs Mall, meanwhile, is a step down in sales, Parrack said.

Sooner Fashion Mall in Norman is the smallest of the three, and like other smaller malls, is struggling.

“It shows with them in that they have more vacancy than the other two,” Parrack said. “It doesn’t help that they have a Sears that has been closed for all these years.”

Parrack does not expect the city to see another dying mall like Crossroads or Heritage Park anytime soon.

“The thing with malls is even when they die, they take forever to die,” Parrack said. “It’s kind of a gradual thing. Their business slacks off. They lose a couple of tenants. But all bigger retail centers have these tenants with co-tenancy clauses that if certain tenants leave or the occupancy goes below a certain level, then tenants can pay half rent or a percentage rent.”

Newer mixed-use developments like OAK, Chisholm Creek and The Half are being well received by the market, though Parrack notes The Half, leaning more toward entertainment than retail with a mix of offices and apartments, is less cohesive than the other two destinations.

“It’s hard to walk from one deal to another at The Half,” Parrack said. “It’s more of a destination with each of the tenants there. But it is in a great location. The people that are there do well. OAK is something we’ve never had before, and it’s the closest thing we have to Utica Square in Tulsa.”

The demise of brick-and-mortar retail prompted by Amazon is greatly exaggerated, Parrack said.

“The last holiday sales period saw 75% of sales being at brick-and-mortar stores,” Parrack said. “That percentage for holiday sales has held steady for a while and I think most of these retailers have figured out the optimal way for them to continue.”

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