Oklahoma’s offense is drawing the kind of questions that usually come only when a season starts slipping away: why are so many players getting worse instead of better?
That frustration is aimed first at the offensive line, where Bill Bedenbaugh has been coaching since 2013. He has brought in elite talent over the years and sent multiple players to the NFL, but the results on the field have been far short of what Oklahoma expects.
E’Marion Harris looked sharp in the spring, then fell into what the source described as one of the worst right tackles in the entire conference. Eddie Pierre-Louis, meanwhile, still has not shown progress after a year in the program.
The broader concern is that the line’s struggles no longer seem tied to a lack of talent. The complaint is that no matter who arrives, improvement is not following.
John Mateer has become another example of that same problem. He has clearly shown athletic ability, and there are flashes of the quarterback Oklahoma thought it was getting.
But the consistency has not been there. His decision-making has slowed, his reads are not being made, and the decisions have been described as dreadful.
Some have said he has the yips; others say he never had any talent to begin with.
Either way, the source points out that the issues are coachable. That puts the spotlight on Ben Arbuckle and quarterback coach John Kuceyeski, who are expected not only to develop their players, but to make that development part of the job.
That’s where the frustration really hardens. Coaches at a program like Oklahoma do not get there by accident.
They are hired because someone believes they know how to coach football at a high level. Arbuckle has worked with quarterbacks who are now on NFL rosters, and Bedenbaugh has done the same.
The experience is there. The knowledge is there.
The talent is there, too.
What is missing, according to the source, is progress.
For Sooner fans, that is the hardest part to swallow. The players are not just underperforming - they are regressing.
And when that happens, the blame inevitably moves back to the staff. The source closes with the warning that if this program cannot tap back into what got it to the top of college football, jobs will be lost.
All eyes, it says, are on the Cotton Bowl.
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What makes Jacksons start even more valuable is the timing. Oklahoma has been good on that side of the ball, but the missed tackles have been hard to ignore, with 49 of them over the first four games, and that leaves plenty of room for the Sooners to tighten things up. Senior captain Kip Lewis has pointed to Jacksons consistency and leadership as part of that process, and for a defense still chasing cleaner execution, having a player in the interior who keeps showing up the same way every week matters. [Read more 🡒]