Oklahoma's Offensive Staff Coming Together Through Early Struggles

NORMAN — There’s finally a glimmer of hope with Oklahoma’s offense.

After posting a season-high 467 yards of total offense in last week’s win at Mississippi State (283 through the air and 184 on the ground, both season highs as well), the Sooners are looking to build momentum on that side of the ball going into Saturday’s matchup with South Carolina.

There are a few reasons to point to for the success last week — John Mateer’s efficiency and avoiding turnovers and the return of Michael Fasusi at left tackle chief among them — it also was an indication that Oklahoma’s offensive coaching staff is making progress at developing cohesion.

The Sooners brought back offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle this season but a couple of the key faces around him changed with the additions of Deland McCullough as running backs coach and Jason Witten as tight ends coach.

Oklahoma coach Brent Venables believes the group has grown collectively and that growth is helping the Sooners begin to develop a semblance of offensive identity.

“They’ve just kind of kept their head down and figuring things out, and managing some of the obstacles that they’ve been through, both in personnel and in some tough moments,” Venables said. “And then just making some incremental improvement, like they have here the last three weeks. So when you’re in those rooms together for 10-12 hours a day, you really develop a chemistry and some trust, and that’s what I’ve seen.”

Arbuckle said he can sense that growth internally, but wants more.

“I love the guys that I get to work with,” Arbuckle said. “They’re really good football coaches, they’re really smart dudes, they’re really good dudes, and that makes coaching a lot more fun. Then you get into the season and you do start doing better at certain things, a little bit of rhythm, a little bit of cadence starts to show up and we have to continue to build on that and understand that, yeah, even though it’s better, it ain’t good enough.”

Venables pointed to the defense of the 2000 national championship team in his second season in Norman as co-defensive coordinator as a group that developed an identity over the course of a season.

Venables certainly isn’t suggesting this offense can win a title, but that significant growth is possible.

“What we were doing at the beginning of the year, the first half of the year defensively looked night and day to what we were doing in the national championship game and the last several weeks of the season,” Venables said. “You figure out lots of different kinds of ways to win what’s working for you and what isn’t.”

Arbuckle has enjoyed the process of the group coming together, even if the results of that process haven’t always been pretty.

“I think that’s a challenge whenever you have some new faces to get on the same page,” Arbuckle said. “I think that’s one of the biggest things from a leadership standpoint that I have to tackle headfirst is getting everybody on the same page. But as far as having the guys that I get to work with in that room and the depth of knowledge and experience that’s in there, I mean, it’s huge, and it makes getting on the same page really that much easier because there’s so much good information that’s being said, that’s being brought up, that’s being talked about.”

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