NORMAN – Back to business.

It wasn’t exactly a bye week for Oklahoma football — that’s coming next week — but the Sooners won’t have an easier time than last week against Maine.

OU returns to SEC action on Saturday when they visit Missouri – ranked No. 22 in the coaches poll, No. 26 in the AP Top 25 – followed by the opener and then back-to-back finishing blows against No. 11 Alabama and No. 14 LSU.

The Sooners need a win to qualify for a bowl game for the 25th straight year — and get those all-important playoff drives under their belt so the team can continue marching toward a successful 2025.

Did beating the Black Bears 59-14 help OU prepare in any way for this final gauntlet?

I asked Brent Venables to put it in context and see where Maine’s play stands in this most difficult of seasons.

“It’s just the next game,” he shrugged, “and the next opportunity to get better.” This is what we wanted to see.

“Today was kind of a byproduct of – again, over the last three weeks we’ve talked about seeing their improvement where we hadn’t had any – in the first game of the season where we weren’t as good, either on offense, or anywhere on offense. Over the last three weeks, the guys have improved in training and today was the opportunity. to do it against someone else and practice the basics at a high level.

There are the words Sooner Nation has been patiently waiting to hear: “Guys are getting better in practice.”

Training is closed, so we can only take Venables at his word. But if that actually happened, then that’s what OU will draw from when it steps onto Faurot Field Saturday night, no dragging poor Maine last weekend.

“Certainly far from perfect,” Venables said after the Maine affair, “but I thought our guys I did the basics well.”

Where Oklahoma could really benefit from such a comprehensive victory – OU had 665 total yards of offense, while Maine only managed 251 – was by gaining confidence from something, to everything good that happens. Especially for an offensive line that has struggled all year to get things right.

“It hasn’t always been the best,” the center said Troy Everett“but today was great. A good confidence builder.

“A boost of confidence for the future,” said the quarterback Jackson Arnold. “We had a bunch of young guys today on the o-line and for them to be able to go out there and dominate today and build that confidence is huge for us.”

Arnold is another player who needed a bit of confidence after some rather poor performances all season. He was benched because of turnovers, then saw his replacement get pulled for the same reason. Arnold knows he just needed to see good things happen before getting back into SEC play.

“I think it’s a sign of progress for us,” Arnold said after completing 15 of 21 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for 45 yards and another score — with no turnovers or sacks. “The way we prepare, the way we approached the game mentally, I think it says a lot about the coaches and how they prepared us for the week and the game plan that they have elaborated.”

Offensive coordinator Joe Jon Finley knows the Sooners outperformed the Black Bears. Although OU’s offense opened with a punt and the defense gave up a 68-yard touchdown, the final score was still inevitable. What Finley wanted to see last Saturday was something that went much deeper than the scoreboard.

“I think our guys just continued to take a step forward and learn how to compete,” Finley said. “THE first big race we had today (Jovantae Barnes’74 yards near the TD) was a big effort play from our outside receiver, Brenen Thompsonon the left side. He goes all the way to put the safety on the field, and Barnes did a great job making the corner miss. This is how you wrote it and our guys executed it. Bauer Sharp finished on the blocks. I just think our offense is getting a little better every day, every week. This is exactly what we asked for.

Meanwhile, defensive coordinator Allée Zac wasn’t too happy about allowing a touchdown on the Bears’ first drive after Maine “showed us some new things that maybe we haven’t seen or worked on,” but He was pleased with how his defense maintained their focus and fall back on what they had been working on in practice all week.

“We’re in Oklahoma. We’re always going to get someone’s best shot,” Alley said. “Just being able to react to something like that is not something new, but the reality is when you face adversity again with the games we have left in the season, we are going to react in the right way to that.”

Wide receiver JJ Hesternative of Tulsa who began his college career at Missouri, will also be motivated this week to play against his former team. His 90-yard touchdown run against Maine “catapulted everyone,” he said, and it was just the confidence shot he needed to finish this season strong.

“This can help us a lot,” Hester said. “Sometimes you just have to see it happen and it happened today. So we’re just going to let that motivate us to keep going.”

Venables relayed a brief conversation he had with a real freshman Daniel Akinkunmithe English offensive lineman who comes to Norman from the NFL Academy. Like most Londoners, he grew up on the football field, but Akinkunmi’s tall stature – 6ft 6in and 323lbs (or 19.5 hands and 23.07 stone, according to the king’s measurements) – l attracted to American football.

Akinkunmi played his first match Saturday, and although he and two other true freshmen players were nervous, as one might expect, his head wasn’t exactly spinning. Akinkunmi played eight snaps, did his job, scored well and could be ready for additional work in November.

“His first words were, ‘It was much easier than I ever imagined.’ I thought about it too much,” Venables said.

“It’s just details,” Alley said. “Prepare yourself so that when you come out, you will have an opportunity. … You have to execute with the details of the things that we have seen and that we have done. Sometimes the environment and the “Oh man, we’re playing a game” — you get an adrenaline rush. And we just need to calm down and do what we’re supposed to do.

And for a team that’s 5-4 and striving for just one more win (although Venables said last week he’d rather go on a winning streak), the result of beating a FCS opponent might actually result in a few more wins. success in the SEC.

“Get a little better at everything you do,” Finley said. “We ran the ball really well today, and you have to be able to do that in this conference. Everything else is better. We have young O-linemen who have battled, rotated, but have to continue to find ways to move the ball. When you do that, you have a chance to win.

“There are some things we still need to work on,” Barnes said, “but I feel like we’ve taken a step forward, that’s for sure.”