Oklahoma’s offense is already at a fork in the road, and the Michigan loss made that clear.
Two games into the 2026 season, the Sooners are still searching for something they can trust on that side of the ball after a 17-10 defeat on the road in Week 2. Brent Venables has spent his time in Norman reshaping the defense, but the offense has been a problem for going on three seasons now.
Right now, OU doesn’t just need improvement. It needs an identity.
The offseason made it sound like Oklahoma had one in mind. Venables and offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle talked all spring and summer about repairing a running game that had become a liability.
That plan fit the bigger picture, too: lean on defense, win field position, win the turnover battle, play clean special teams and shorten games. If that was going to work, the Sooners had to be able to run the ball.
That’s why Venables and general manager Jim Nagy put their chips on quarterback John Mateer. They believed last September showed who he could be, and that his late-season struggles were tied to a broken thumb.
Around him, Oklahoma added transfer talent, brought back most of the offensive line and rebuilt the tight end room with blockers. The idea was simple enough: take pressure off Mateer by making the run game real.
For one week, it looked like the plan might stick. In the opener against UTEP, Oklahoma lined up with multiple tight ends and committed to pounding the rock. The offense looked different from last season, and for a moment it seemed the Sooners had finally turned a corner.
Then came Michigan, and with the game tightening up, Arbuckle went back toward the version of the offense OU had lived with last year. The ground game lost its edge, the multiple-tight-end looks faded, and the burden landed right back on Mateer. He couldn’t carry it.
That leaves Oklahoma staring at two very different directions, and neither comes without problems. Arbuckle comes from an air raid background.
That’s his comfort zone, and it’s what made his reputation. Going back to that would make life easier for him and Mateer.
But it doesn’t really match the way OU seems built to win, especially if the defense is supposed to set the tone. If the Sooners want to control games, they have to run the ball better, not retreat from it.
There’s also the matter of whether Mateer fits that kind of approach. He’s a tough, competitive athlete who can make some impressive throws, but he doesn’t look like the kind of quarterback who can pick apart a defense from the pocket. Saturday also raised a different concern: Oklahoma may not have the receivers to survive in that sort of system, especially after Michigan used man coverage and held them in check.
The other route is to lean harder into something more pro-style, with the run game as the centerpiece and more multiple formations and personnel groupings. That would line up better with the team’s overall philosophy. But it also asks Arbuckle to operate outside the offense he knows best, and with a tough stretch ahead, that’s no small ask.
And even that version only works if the pieces up front and in the backfield can make it go. A run-first offense is only useful when the run game actually functions.
If it doesn’t, defenses can crowd things once Oklahoma gets forced back into spread looks. That’s exactly what happened in Ann Arbor.
The answer probably sits somewhere between the extremes. Oklahoma has to stick with the run until it proves it can’t work. Arbuckle didn’t really give that approach enough time against Michigan, even with some encouraging carries from Lloyd Avant.
Mateer, meanwhile, is a fifth-year player and probably is what he is at this point. So the job now is to build around what he does well.
If that means using him on the ground more, so be it, as long as the running backs still get their touches. In the passing game, Oklahoma needs easier completions and a simpler path for a quarterback who has plenty of ability but is not a pocket passer.
The whole offense cannot sit on his shoulders.
The goal doesn’t have to be fireworks. It has to be something functional.
Oklahoma needs to find one thing it can do well, then build off that. The run game has to matter, and Mateer has to be put in better position to succeed.
That urgency matters because the defense, while not at its best Saturday, should be in better hands as the season goes on. Venables knows that side of the ball as well as almost anyone in college football, and there’s reason to think it will improve. But none of that matters much if the offense stays stuck.
At the end of the day, that’s the part that decides everything anyway.
In Other News...
Michael Hawkins Jr. Is Making Oklahomas QB Problem Even Harder To Ignore
Michael Hawkins Jr. has made an immediate impression since leaving Oklahoma for West Virginia, piling up productive rushing games against Coastal Carolina and UT Martin and showing the kind of dual-threat burst that once made him an intriguing option in Norman. For Oklahoma fans still watching from afar, it is a familiar sort of frustration: the former Sooner is finding his footing somewhere else, while the quarterback situation back home remains under a microscope.
John Mateer is still holding the starting job, but that has not quieted the debate around Oklahomas offense. The criticism has grown around his play, and with little proven depth behind him, the Sooners do not have many easy answers if they want a different look under center. Hawkins early success only sharpens the contrast between two quarterbacks with different styles, and it leaves Oklahoma trying to balance patience with a problem it cannot really ignore. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma's Run Game Debate Just Got A Telling Player Response
After Oklahomas loss to Michigan, the conversation around the Sooners run game quickly shifted from production to philosophy, with plenty of heat aimed at the game plan and play calling. One of the transfers in the backfield, Avant, offered a more measured read on how it all unfolded, saying he felt in rhythm during the game and believed the coach put him in the best position possible even if the workload did not look like many around the program expected.
Avants response matters because it cuts against the growing criticism and gives a glimpse at how the backfield is processing a performance that left plenty of questions behind. For Oklahoma, the issue is not just whether the offense can run the ball better, but how much of the frustration comes from execution and how much comes from the way the staff is choosing to use its backs, a debate that is only going to get louder if the ground game keeps looking this way. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma May Have Found Its Answer In The Backfield
Oklahomas early-season rushing issues have left Brent Venables searching for a steadier answer in the backfield, and Tory Blaylock is starting to re-enter that conversation. After missing the opener with a hamstring injury, the running back made his season debut recently, and Venables said Blaylock is now fully healthy and back in the mix for playing time.
For a Sooners offense that has needed more push on the ground, Blaylocks return gives the staff another option to lean on as the schedule tightens. His availability matters not just because of what he can add individually, but because Oklahoma has been looking for someone to help settle the run game into something more dependable. [Read more 🡒]