Joel Klatt surprised by Oklahoma’s offensive struggles this season

Optimism surrounded the Oklahoma program this offseason, even after Jeff Lebby and Dillon Gabriel left. Former five-star quarterback Jackson Arnold was stepping into the starting role and hoping to keep the Sooners offense playing at a high level. Brent Venables even hired within for a new offensive coordinator, elevating Seth Littrell from an analyst role.

Things have not gone to plan and through five games, Oklahoma has not been a good offense. FOX’s Joel Klatt is surprised by such, considering what the expectations for Arnold and a solid (but now injured) wide receiver corp were.

“Oklahoma is 121st in the country in total offense this year,” Klatt said. “They’re averaging under 300 yards a game. This is an offense, by the way, that was supposed to take off with Jackson Arnold, a bunch of really talented wide receivers… I thought Jackson Arnold was going to be a better fit, schematically, for the players that they had on the outside and it just hasn’t materialized. Just hasn’t materialized at all.”

The Oklahoma struggles really hit the national spotlight during the SEC opener against Tennessee, one where Arnold was benched in favor of Michael Hawkins. After going back and rewatching the game, the reviews were not glowing from Klatt.

“Oklahoma, schematically, was just horrific in that game,” Klatt said of the Tennessee matchup. “There’s no other way to put it, by the way. Legitimately no other way to put it. Their protection plan was all over the map, their run game plan was all over the map. They could not target defenders in the run front. It was bad, it was bad for OU.”

When Hawkins did play against Tennessee, some offensive rhythm was found in the fourth quarter, only making it a 10-point loss. Folks in Norman were hopeful that would translate a week later against Auburn, with Venables naming Hawkins the starter.

Oklahoma wound up winning the game but Klatt, still, was not impressed. Hawkins did produce two good long touchdowns but overall, the Sooners had just 291 total offensive yards. Klatt believes the SEC’s newest member should have two losses on their record right now and credits a pick-six from Kip Lewis for saving another bad offensive display.

“They should have not beaten Auburn,” Klatt said. “Auburn gave them that game. The offense wasn’t much better against Auburn… Oklahoma should be sitting here with two losses and their struggles on that side of the ball have been a huge surprise.”

Challenges are only going to continue to stack for Oklahoma. No game scheduled this upcoming Saturday with a bye week but a trip to Dallas looms for the Red River Shootout vs. Texas. From there, they are set to play four other teams currently ranked in the top 15.