Seth Littrell is responsible for the OU football team’s lackluster performance against Houston
NORMAN – Seth Littrell would be the first to tell you that OU’s offense didn’t play well Saturday night.
The Sooners’ offensive coordinator, freshly energized by his team’s frustrating performance, took the podium after the game and answered all questions, acknowledging the team’s worst offensive performance since the crushing loss in the 2022 Red River Rivalry.
While he largely avoided pointing out specific corrections that need to be made, he said it would be a long night in the film room if he tried to identify them himself.
“It always starts with me,” Littrell said after the Sooners’ narrow 16-12 win over Houston. “I will never let our guys down because I’m the one who puts them in the right situations week in and week out to be successful.”
“I’ll take that.”
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OU’s offense wasn’t good enough for a win, posting its lowest point total against a non-league-ranked opponent since a 17-10 loss to TCU in 2005. Head coach Brent Venables expressed this to SEC Network after the game when he said his team “deserved” the loss.
Even after the Sooners thrashed Temple 51-3 in Week 1, there were still questions about the offense’s “normal” play and lack of big plays.
One thing Littrell noted afterward was OU’s inability to move the chains on third down. The Sooners made just 1 of 12 on third down against the Owls and weren’t much better against the Cougars, converting 4 of their 14 attempts.
Littrell’s offense also failed to score on the first and second attempts. The Sooners’ average distance on the third attempt against Houston was 8.7 yards.
“You have to be explosive, and I don’t think we’ve been anywhere close to explosive,” Littrell said.
The result of the Sooners’ offensive moves during the last 40 minutes of regular time:
- Punt.
- Punt.
- Punt.
- Intercept.
- Punt.
- Missed field goal.
- Punt.
- Punt.
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Littrell’s offense was outscored by OU’s defense 2-0 in the second half. The offensive line is still banged up, the Sooners are short on receivers and they clearly haven’t found their identity after two regular season games under Littrell’s tenure.
“It’s a little bit of everything,” Venables said of the offensive’s lack of momentum. “So we’ll have to go back and reevaluate a lot of things, but there were some opportunities in the game that would have allowed us to get into a rhythm and we missed some of those opportunities, so we’ll have to go back and look at that.”
Arnold completed 19 of 32 passes for 174 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Arnold’s longest aerial plays were 33, 28 and 15 yards and he averaged 9.15 yards per pass.
“(It was) just a bad night overall,” said Arnold. “A lot of mistakes. A lot of sloppiness. A lot of missed shots from me. We have to do better and improve that next week.”
Venables acknowledged that Saturday night probably went exactly as Houston coach Willie Fritz planned, except for the final score. Littrell didn’t immediately notice the Cougars trying to control the ball, but he wondered why that would even be necessary since the Sooners couldn’t move the ball anyway.
Another glaring flaw in the game was OU’s difficulty getting their best playmakers into the game. Littrell tried a variety of ways to get wide receiver Deion Burks into open space, including jet sweeps, but the unusual athlete ended up with just 53 receiving yards.
Littrell, a former running back, vowed to shove the ball down teams’ throats when he was promoted to caller. The Sooners’ longest run on Saturday night was 13 yards.
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When Venables finished his on-field interviews, he took a deep breath and embraced OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. with a handshake and a hug. Despite the lackluster offensive performance, a win is a win.
The man who only improved to 18-10 as head coach will get them any way he can, and that was evident in some of his first words after the game.
Grateful for the win.
Especially during a wild second week in which Notre Dame and Auburn can’t say the same and Tulane – which travels to Norman next Saturday at 2:30 p.m. – held on to the finish against No. 16 Kansas State.
“We have to get a lot better,” said Venbales. “And quickly.”
That starts on offense. Littrell has been in that position for a long time, including six seasons as coordinator and seven as head coach.
He has confidence in the players he coaches and is willing to correct their mistakes.
“Look, I get it,” Littrell said. “I’m from Oklahoma. I was born and raised here. I played here. I get it. There are high standards here, and if there weren’t, I wouldn’t want to be here.”
“I have high expectations of this university and this program, so I know exactly what it looks like.”
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