Showing against Rebels a case of good news, bad news for Sooners, Castiglione
Finley passes test as offensive coordinator, Venables not so much as head coach
Sooner athletic director Joe Castiglione probably believes Saturday to have been a fairly good day for him.
Yes, the team that most defines his job performance fell 26-14 at Ole Miss, but the move he either signed off upon or outright insisted upon, jettisoning previous offensive coordinator Seth Littrell and elevating co-offensive coordinator Joe Jon Finley into Littrell’s spot, worked out quite well.
For even on a day the offensive line gave up another nine sacks, tying the Oklahoma opponent record set last week against South Carolina, the Sooners still netted two touchdowns after netting none their previous two games; gained 300 yards of total offense for the first time since beating Tulane four games ago; received a relatively sparkling day from quarterback Jackson Arnold, who completed 22 of 31 passes for 182 yards, along with two TDs without a pick; and somehow ran the ball for 147 yards despite suffering all those sacks and other tackles for loss that wound up costing 79 yards in reverse, the vast majority of them on the ground.
Finley passed the test.
No question about it.
He even play-called the Sooners into two offensive drives that all-but produced points, which might be a failure later but sure felt like progress Saturday.
In the first quarter, OU drove 74 yards but was stuffed getting greedy facing fourth-and-2 at 3.
In the fourth quarter, absolutely needing a touchdown, OU drove from its own 2 to the Ole Miss 13, only for back-to-back sacks to hand the ball back to the Rebels.
Good show.
Flying colors.
Given the depths from which the Sooners had buried themselves, all in all, the OU athletics boss had to be pleased.
On the other hand, should he take a still longer look at the day’s festivities, or should, say, future contests against Missouri, Alabama or LSU mirror what happened against Ole Miss, he may instead realize his fix has hardly eased, a fix that in all likelihood will leave Sooner Nation with no terrific teams to root for, save coach Jennie Baranczyk’s women’s basketball squad, until gymnastics season rolls around in January.
Ouch.
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