A shakeup may be coming to Oklahoma after another rough offensive showing left the Sooners buried in a 42-25 loss to South Carolina on Saturday.
The Sooners were booed throughout a gloomy Halloween afternoon in Norman as the offense stalled again, failing to get to 100 yards until late in the third quarter and not finding the end zone on offense until the fourth. By then, South Carolina had already built a 35-10 lead and had taken control of the game.
Oklahoma entered the day as the favorite at home and was coming off a win at Mississippi State, so there was still some belief that a 4-3 season could be salvaged. Instead, the loss looked like another hard stop for an offense that has too often left the Sooners’ defense carrying the load. With Oklahoma’s slim playoff hopes now gone, there is less reason to keep underperforming coaches in place.
That puts offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh in the spotlight. Asked afterward about possible staff changes, coach Brent Venables said, "Yeah, I’m not talking about anything like that."
The timing only sharpened the comparison to what happened last season, when Venables made a midseason change on offense after a blowout home loss to South Carolina and replaced Seth Littrell. Two years later, the same opponent has again exposed Oklahoma’s problems.
South Carolina, meanwhile, kept rolling under Shane Beamer, the former Oklahoma assistant under Lincoln Riley. The Gamecocks came in with momentum after Top 25 wins over Florida and Tennessee, and they left Norman with another statement victory.
LaNorris Sellers was the biggest reason why. He passed for 301 yards and three touchdowns while adding 96 rushing yards and two scores on 13 carries. After this performance, South Carolina now has an outside shot at a playoff berth, while Oklahoma is left playing for pride.
The Sooners’ defense, which had been one of the team’s anchors all season and helped deliver a win over Texas, was finally overwhelmed. South Carolina piled up 521 yards against a unit that entered the game ranked 11th nationally in total defense.
Oklahoma did briefly make things interesting early. Linebacker Kip Lewis returned an interception 30 yards for a touchdown to tie the game at 7 in the first quarter.
But South Carolina answered quickly and kept pulling away. Christian Clark scored on a 1-yard direct snap run to make it 14-7 in the second quarter, then Sellers hit DJ Black on an 85-yard touchdown pass to stretch the lead to 21-7.
Just before halftime, Sellers connected with Nyck Harbor with 16 seconds left to send the Gamecocks into the break up 28-10. South Carolina had 307 first-half yards against an Oklahoma defense that had been allowing 273.7 per game.
Oklahoma finally scored twice in the fourth quarter, but by then the damage was done. The bigger question now is whether the changes start with Arbuckle and Bedenbaugh.
In Other News...
South Carolina Suddenly Has A Huge Backfield Problem After Oklahoma
South Carolinas backfield took a major hit against Oklahoma when Matt Fuller went down in the first quarter with an ankle injury, a sequence that ended with a broken bone in his foot and a likely season-ending surgery. Fuller had been one of the Gamecocks most productive runners, piling up 513 rushing yards and five touchdowns before the injury, and his absence immediately changed the feel of the offense.
Jabree Coleman, Christian Clark and Isaiah Augustave were the backs asked to absorb the workload after Fuller exited, and the staff now has to sort out how to replace both production and reliability moving forward. For a team trying to keep its ground game steady, losing a back who had become such a central piece of the rotation creates a problem that is hard to patch quickly. [Read more 🡒]
Shane Beamer Was Still Angry During South Carolinas Rout Of Oklahoma
South Carolina had already put together one of its sharpest offensive halves of the season against Oklahoma, piling up 322 yards and taking a 28-10 lead into the break, but Shane Beamer still found plenty to correct. Even with the Gamecocks controlling the game midway through the third quarter, the head coach was dissatisfied at halftime, pointing to the 10 points his team had handed away through mistakes while still acknowledging how well the offense handled Oklahomas defense.
Beamers reaction fit the tone of a coach who wants more than a comfortable margin, especially in a game that had already tilted so heavily in South Carolinas favor. The scoring cushion was there, the production was there, and the matchup was unfolding the way the Gamecocks wanted, but the frustration served as a reminder that Beamer was looking at the bigger picture rather than just the scoreboard. [Read more 🡒]
South Carolinas Late-Season Surge Just Got Hard To Ignore
South Carolinas late-season push picked up another jolt in Norman, where the Gamecocks handled Oklahoma 42-25 behind a big day from LaNorris Sellers. The quarterback threw for 301 yards and three touchdowns while adding two more scores on the ground, giving South Carolina the kind of balanced punch that can travel well this time of year even after a pair of interceptions and the early loss of top running back Matt Fuller.
What made the result stand out was how the Gamecocks absorbed the mistakes and still kept control. Oklahoma won the turnover battle, but South Carolinas defense made the Sooners work for everything and the offense kept finding answers, leaving the home team unable to climb back into the game. For a program trying to build momentum down the stretch, this was the sort of road win that gets noticed. [Read more 🡒]