Post-Game Podcast: Sooners win 45-13 over UTEP in Brent Venables' first game as head coach| The good/bad from the game on offense/defense| Standouts| Reggie Grimes huge day| Gavin Freeman play| Youngsters making their mark| MORE!

OUinsider.com/247Sports: Under the Visor Sooners Podcast

Post-Game Podcast: Sooners win 45-13 over UTEP in Brent Venables' first game as head coach| The good/bad from the game on offense/defense| Standouts| Reggie Grimes huge day| Gavin Freeman play| Youngsters making their mark| MORE!

Oklahoma comes out guns blazing to jump on top of UTEP 21-0 early on in the Sooners initial game of the 2022 season. Oklahoma ended up winning 45-13 in their home opener, with Dillon Gabriel, Eric Gray, Marcus Major, Brayden Willis and Gavin Freeman all had big plays on offense on Saturday to help the Sooners roll.

The side everyone wanted to see was Brent Venables' defense and they came to play. Sure tackling in open space, six sacks from the Sooners' front seven. UTEP had 51 pass attempts and completed 31 of them, but only averaged 5.8 a completion. Brandon Drumm and Parker Thune discuss the secondary and why how they covered was by design, along with the huge day from DE Reggie Grimes. He was joined by safety Billy Bowman, LB Danny Stutsman, DE Ethan Downs and freshman EDGE rusher R Mason Thomas as standouts on defense. They discuss what made them standouts, along with other young players on both sides of the ball that made their mark and more!

TimeStamps

00:00 - Podcast intro

02:30 - Atmosphere/ intro and "They set the standard, we defend it," mantra by Brent Venables in the intro video before the Sooners ran out. Drumm poses the question "will they ever ask Muleshoe" to be in the video 10-20 years from now? His history is a part of OU football good or bad with Big 12 Titles. Both he and Parker concede that won't happen anytime soon and both admit they still dislike how Muleshoe handled things. Drumm admits it was a troll question, but will have people talking one way or another.

14:30 - Atmosphere was great! It was scorching hot, but the older crowd stayed and student section left with 9 min left in second quarter in a two possession game. The history has been the same for several years with that section. Drumm says they are VITAL to atmosphere in stadium and help make it LOUD. Both say they will let the next few games play out before going all-in and fully understand some fell out yesterday due to heat and hope all is okay today. Also, hope there is more passion from student section in the future.

31:00 - Offensive standouts. The good/bad. What was the first thing most noticeable according to Drumm with the offense. Something that has been an issue for the offense over the last few years and why this was a good change if it continues over the season. Parker concurs and adds his two cents on offense.

35:00 - Defense standouts. Young players making their mark. Vanilla base defense and why secondary was still good when you deep dive into stats. Reggie Grimes was a star. Billy Bowman was what we were told he was.

38:00 - The secondary was a topic of conversation on OUinsider VIP. Brandon and Parker say how things were done was scheme and if you deep dive into the stats, you'll see the Sooners secondary was pretty good yesterday. A few were coverage sacks.

47:00- Brandon and Parker name their offense/defense players of the game.

51:00 - Gavin Freeman and the cool story he has a walk-on legacy that had P5 offers elsewhere and chose to walk-on at OU.

55:30 - Youngsters that stood out and made their mark in game one of 2022 season.

1:03:00 - Recruiting talk/unofficial visitors at the Sooners game vs UTEP.

1:11:00 - Brent Venables game ball and getting emotional. Players yelling "I'd run through a wall for you coach!"

1:16:08 - Podcast over

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