How Oklahoma’s Offensive Line Survived Ugly Win vs. Auburn

NORMAN — More than anything, Oklahoma’s offensive line needed to simply survive Saturday’s game against Auburn.

The Sooners came into the game depleted.

Offensive linemen Jake Maikkula, Michael Fasusi and Febechi Nwaiwu were all listed as questionable on the initial availability report, released Wednesday, though all three of them played through their injuries. Troy Everett, Jake Taylor and Jacob Sexton, however, all missed the game, with Everett being ruled out for the remainder of the season.

It wasn’t a pretty game for the offensive line. But the group played well enough for OU to win 24-17 over the No. 22 Tigers and improve to 4-0.

“It’s exciting when you can get a win and still have a lot to work on,” Maikkula said. “High ceiling for us, so I’m excited to attack this week.”

Despite coming into the game with minor injuries, Nwaiwu and Maikkula played all 66 offensive snaps for OU. Fasusi played on the Sooners’ first nine offensive plays before being replaced by Logan Howland and missing the rest of the contest. Tackle Derek Simmons and guard Heath Ozaeta also played all 66 snaps.

When it came to protecting quarterback John Mateer, the line thrived.

As a whole, the offensive line logged a Pro Football Focus (PFF) grade of 80.3. That was their second-best pass-blocking grade of the 2025 season, behind only the 89.2 grade the Sooners received in the season opener against Illinois State.

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Mateer finished the game with 271 passing yards and a touchdown on 24-of-36 passing, and he was sacked only once.

The linemen, though, didn’t perform as well when they tried to open running lanes.

Mateer and OU’s running backs totaled only 35 yards on 24 carries. The Sooners finished with a season-worst 48.2 run-blocking grade — their worst grade before Saturday was 52.2 against Michigan.

“I would say pretty good in pass protection, definitely need to grow in run blocking,” Maikkula said.

It isn’t particularly surprising that the line struggled in some areas on Saturday, due to the three linemen missing the game and the three of them that attempted to play through their injuries.

It wasn’t perfect. It was sometimes ugly. But the line still held strong enough to help the Sooners earn a win in their SEC opener.

“They want to be there for their teammates, and they were,” OU offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle said. “They played their butt off all night. Huge shoutout to those guys up front. I’m so proud of them, just what the process took this week to get them ready to play and then them going out there and playing their butt off all night.”

Making it through Saturday with a win is all that was required of the Sooners’ line — they now have a bye week.

OU has the week off before it hosts Kent State on Oct. 4. After that, the Sooners will play seven conference games in a row to end the regular season.

In the 14 days between the Auburn and Kent State games, Maikkula said that he and his fellow offensive linemen will recharge and study from the mistakes they made against the Tigers.

“Excited for the opportunity to show everyone how good we can really be,” Maikkula said. “There’s a lot of room for us to grow.”