No. 15 Oklahoma’s offense struggles mightily in SEC-opening loss to No. 6 Tennessee

Oklahoma has some serious questions to figure out on offense.

The No. 15 Sooners were embarrassed 25-15 at home by No. 6 Tennessee in OU’s first SEC game. The Volunteers controlled the game from the start as Oklahoma’s offense was so bad that quarterback Jackson Arnold got benched for true freshman Michael Hawkins.

Tennessee took a 10-3 lead with seconds to go in the first quarter on a 66-yard TD pass from Nico Iamaleava to Dont’e Thornton. From there, the game was a formality in a contest that was more lopsided than the final score indicated.

Oklahoma simply couldn’t move the ball. The Sooners had fewer than 100 yards of total offense with less than 12 minutes to go in the game as Tennessee’s defensive front dominated Oklahoma’s offensive line. There was no bright spot on offense for Oklahoma, which entered the SEC in 2024 with high hopes of being a contender.

Saturday night showed the Sooners have a long way to go. Arnold took over as the starter for last season’s Alamo Bowl when current Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel entered the transfer portal. After a rocky first start, Arnold entered the season as the clear-cut starter and didn’t show much through the first three games of the season.

Arnold averaged just 5.6 yards a pass over the first three weeks against Temple, Houston and Tulane. He had also taken nine sacks over those three games.

Saturday night, he was benched after three turnovers. Arnold threw an interception, fumbled and also had an ugly backward pass that was recovered by the Volunteers. Before leaving the game, he was 7-of-16 passing for just 54 yards and had been sacked multiple times.

Hawkins showed enough in his time on the field to make it plausible that he starts in Week 5 at Auburn against a Tigers team that has quarterback issues of its own. Hawkins, a former four-star recruit, set up two of Oklahoma’s second-half touchdowns with runs to the goal line.

The schedule doesn’t get much easier after facing the Tigers, either. After Auburn, five of Oklahoma’s remaining six SEC games are against teams ranked in the top 16 of the AP Top 25. Oklahoma doesn’t have much time to figure out what’s going wrong.

Tennessee is an SEC contender

Oklahoma struggled so much that it’s hard to say that Saturday night was a statement win for Tennessee. But the Vols are very, very good. They were also far from perfect.

Iamaleava fumbled twice on strip sacks and had an otherwise quiet night given the high standards foisted upon him by coach Josh Heupel’s offense. However, he didn’t have to have a big night either. Tennessee’s defense was so good — and Oklahoma’s offense so bad — that it really didn’t matter what the UT offense did.

But this is perhaps the most well-rounded team of Heupel’s time at Tennessee. And it comes at a great time.

The Volunteers have just two ranked teams left on their schedule in Alabama and Georgia. Even if both of those games are losses — the Crimson Tide visit Knoxville on the third Saturday of October — Tennessee has a very clear path to 10-2. That’s a record that should be good enough for the College Football Playoff even if the Vols don’t go to the SEC title game.