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Oklahoma Overcomes Mistakes to Hold Off SMU

The Sooners got four touchdown passes from Dillon Gabriel and scored twice in the fourth quarter to escape the plucky Mustangs.
John E. Hoover|
Oklahoma Overcomes Mistakes to Hold Off SMU
Oklahoma Overcomes Mistakes to Hold Off SMU

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Oklahoma Sooners

NORMAN — Probably a good thing it wasn't Georgia.

No. 18-ranked Oklahoma had to hold off an upstart SMU team on Saturday night at Owen Field in a 28-11 victory.

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OU (2-0) came in as a 15.5-point favorite, but SMU (1-1) opened the fourth quarter with a shot at what would have been a stunning upset.

The first matchup between the Sooners and Mustangs since 1995 was necessitated as a last-minute replacement on the schedule when OU announced it was joining the Southeastern Conference.

The Sooners were long scheduled to host the Georgia Bulldogs in Week 2 of the 2023 season, but OU joining the SEC took that one off the docket.

Things might have looked much different had the Bulldogs come to town instead of the Mustangs.

Since that fateful summer of 2021, when the latest round of college realignment began with OU and Texas revealing their plans to join the SEC, the Sooners went 17-9 in 2021 and 2022 while Georgia became just the second team this century to win back-to-back national championships.

Last week’s 73-0 victory over Arkansas State might not have revealed all that much about this Oklahoma team, but maybe Saturday’s game with the Mustangs did.

“We overcame some basic mistakes,” head coach Brent Venables said. “But we also made some good plays.”

OU led just 7-3 midway through the second quarter before Dillon Gabriel’s second touchdown pass found tight end Blake Smith from 2 yards out for a 14-3 lead at halftime.

Gabriel’s first TD pass — on the Sooners’ second offensive possession — went for 29 yards as he connected with Andrel Anthony wide open across the middle.

That score came after freshman Peyton Bowen blocked a punt, setting up the Sooners with a short field.

Gabriel finished with 176 yards passing and four touchdowns, while walk-on running back Tawee Walker had his first 100-yard rushing game with 117 yards on the ground and another 25 receiving.

After a scoreless third quarter, SMU finally reached the end zone and cut it to 14-11 after a controversial third-down conversion.

SMU quarterback Preston Stone’s throw into the end zone was batted down in coverage by Bowen, but Bowen was whistled for pass interference even though multiple replays didn’t show any clear violation.

That elicited a storm of boos from the 84,186 in attendance, but SMU added to their misery when Stone threw to Stone Eby for a 2-yard touchdown, and then converted a 2-point pass to make it 14-11 with 12:09 to play.

OU answered immediately with a massive touchdown, and had to overcome another egregious mistake to do it.

Right tackle Tyler Guyton found himself 6 yards downfield — illegally so — as Marcus Major was racing 24 yards downfield with another touchdown pass from Gabriel. Guyton’s penalty negated the TD, but after a 10-yard pass to Drake Stoops and a false start infraction against left tackle Walter Rouse, Gabriel connected with Jalil Farooq for a 21-yard touchdown that put the Sooners ahead 21-11 with 9:01 to play.

At that moment in the game, both teams had 327 yards total offense. 

But the Sooner defense quickly responded with a fourth-down stop, and Major  put it away on a 27-yard touchdown pass from Gabriel, setting off fireworks and flashing LED lights and rolling the scoreboard to 28-11 as the sky darkened deep blue.

Major finished with 39 yards rushing and 27 receiving.

While Danny Stutsman led the way with 17 tackles, Oklahoma’s defense was mostly solid against an explosive Mustangs offense. SMU managed a first-half field goal (and also missed one) but did break off pass plays of 30, 29, 20 and 19 yards before halftime.

A handful of SMU coach Rhett Lashlee’s players came into Saturday’s game with an OU background. Two players were OU verbal commits in high school, another was leaning heavily toward the Sooners before committing to Alabama, and defensive tackle Kori Roberson actually spent four years in Norman wearing the Crimson and Cream.

Oklahoma hits the road next week — sort of — when the Sooners travel to Tulsa to face the Golden Hurricane (1-1). TU lost 43-10 at No. 8-ranked Washington on Saturday.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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