OU Leaned on Kennedy Brooks Late to Avoid Another Early Season Upset

NORMAN — The Oklahoma Sooners survived their season opener.

Entering the contest as the No. 2-ranked team in the country, the Sooners were expected to roll the Tulane Green Wave, but instead OU held on for a 40-35 victory on Saturday afternoon at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

The manner in which events unfolded harkened back to a game on Owen Field just one year ago — OU’s second half collapse against Kansas State.

A year ago, the Sooners built a 35-14 lead over the Wildcats before packing things in for the afternoon, allowing Kansas State to score 24 unanswered points and pull the upset.

Today, OU forced three first-half turnovers and headed to the locker room up 37-14. Oklahoma wouldn’t find the end zone again after the intermission.

Sophomore wide receiver Marvin Mims said he did feel the team didn’t come out with tons of intensity in the second half, leading to the slow third quarter.

“We did come in the locker room kinda comfortable,” Mims said during his post-game Zoom press conference. “A little too comfortable when there's a second half ready to be played. Not to the point where we didn't go out there and play football or didn't give our best effort or anything like that. There was definitely that feeling.”

But there was one major difference from the loss against the Wildcats that helped close out the victory on Saturday — Kennedy Brooks.

When the Sooners needed to grind out a result, Brooks reentered the game. The Mansfield, TX, native got six of his 14 carries on the final two drives, carrying the ball for 33 yards and two first downs as OU tried to kill off the game.

“Toward the end of the game and we had to run the ball, we kind of clicked into something,” quarterback Spencer Rattler said after the game. “You have trust in him even though he wasn't here last year. He knows how this thing goes.

“He's been in a lot of games like this. He carried the ball well at the end, made a lot of stuff where he should have been tackled and got out of it and got positive yards out of it. We have to be better around him. We have to trust in him, and he did a good job in converting those first downs. He played well today.”

In an early season contest where the offensive line play was shaky, the Sooners had a veteran running back to lean on, a luxury which Lincoln Riley’s offense didn’t have while Rhamondre Stevenson was serving his suspension at the start of 2020.

Despite the similarities between the second half against Tulane and last year’s loss to the Wildcats, Mims said stayed focused on the task at hand as opposed to flashing back to last season.

“In the moment, no one was really saying anything about Kansas State and all that stuff that's happened in the past,” Mims said. “We've talked about it all year how we've had pretty good teams, Baker, Kyler, and at some point, they all dropped a game. We talked about it all fall camp, all summer. We don't wanna be at a point where we have to drop a game to learn how to play -- not how to play football, but to take it to that next level.

“At that time, there's different people who spoke up and got vocal, like, hey we need to pick it up. We can't drop one, especially not the first one.”

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