FutureCast: The Sunday night spin on Saturday's game

Beating Texas solved a lot of Oklahoma’s problems. It always does.

But beating Texas the way the Sooners did on Saturday showed definitive signs of growth for a team that had been fatally stricken by youth.

Across the board, those younger playing good football in a pressure-cooker situation portends a bright future.

Start with the obvious. It’s too bad there wasn’t 92,000 fans in the Cotton Bowl, because quarterback Spencer Rattler grew up before everyone’e eyes. He started poorly, got benched and then came back better than ever and played great in overtime.

Rattler finished 23-of-35 for 209 yards with three touchdown passes. He also ran for a season-high 51 yards and sneaked for an overtime touchdown. That’s a lot of maturity for the redshirt freshman. He couldn’t deliver against Kansas State or Iowa State, but he was in control in crunch-time against the Longhorns.

There may be a migrational youth movement underway at defensive back, and it started in Dallas. Woodi Washington has played safety and nickel, but his venture to cornerback against Texas was a success. The redshirt freshman finished with five tackles, a PBU on a deep ball and an interception in the end zone.

Sophomore Jaden Davis played well at corner, possibly his best game. And redshirt freshman Jeremiah Criddell got time at safety/nickel and looked good.

But the really good news for this Oklahoma defense is that true freshman cornerbacks Joshua Eaton and D.J. Graham and true freshman safety Bryson Washington finally got to see some real action, albeit brief, and all three acquitted themselves well.

OU’s young receivers also stood out. Sophomore Theo Wease had a career-high eight catches (for 52 yards), including three incredible third-down grabs that kept alive scoring drives. He also snagged the final 2-point conversion pass. And true freshman Marvin Mims again was strong, with four catches for 52 yards and a 30-yard TD. And sophomore tight end Austin Stogner caught a career-high 6 passes (for 56 yards) and a touchdown.

True freshman tackle Anton Harrison recorded his season-high in snaps, Lincoln Riley said, and mostly owned the left edge of the OU offense.

And although he’s not a “young” player, this was the first OU-Texas game for junior college noseguard Perrion Winfrey, who constantly wrecked Sam Ehlinger’s plans by disrupting Texas’ backfield. He also chased down Keaontay Ingram and forced a fumble, and of course delivered a monumental blocked field goal in the third overtime.

And three of the Sooners’ most active players on defense — linebackers David Ugwoegbu, Brian Asamoah and Nik Bonitto — are sophomores. Asamoah was second on the team with nine tackles, Ugwoegbu had six tackles, two tackles for loss and a quarterback sack (and blocked a punt that produced an OU touchdown) and Bonitto had five tackles with two quarterback sacks.

There’s more ahead, of course. Expect to see more playing time from Bryson Washington, Eaton and Graham, and expect to see lots more of Woodi Washington, whether it’s at corner or safety.

The Sooners have just four seniors on their offensive two-deep (two of those are grad transfer receivers) and four on their defensive two-deep (one was a juco transfer last year).

And everywhere but offensive line and defensive back, OU is also light on juniors as well.

So the future is now. OU fans can’t wait to see the class of 2021, but what’s going to be most telling is how next year’s freshman class — currently ranked No. 10 in the nation by SI All-American — integrates with the true freshmen, redshirt freshmen and sophomores now making a splash in 2020.

To get the latest OU posts as they happen, join the SI Sooners Community by clicking “Follow” at the top right corner of the page (mobile users can click the notifications bell icon), and follow SI Sooners on Twitter @All_Sooners.