Tennessee football derailed Oklahoma’s first SEC game on Saturday night as the Vols knocked off the Sooners 25-15 in Norman on Saturday night.
Oklahoma’s defense played well but it mattered little due to another dominant performance from Tennessee’s defense and a poor performance from the Sooners’ offense.
Following the game, Venables talked benching quarterback Jackson Arnold, what he liked about his defense and much more. Here’s everything Venables said.
More From RTI: Josh Heupel Gets Emotional Talking To Tennessee Team In Locker Room Postgame
Opening Statement
“All right, well, disappointed obviously in not getting a ‘W’ and how we played, particularly on the offensive side of the ball, not taking care of the football. And really a poor half of football. So obviously we made a (quarterback) change there. Just felt like we needed to. Gave up 12 points off of turnovers there in the first half and hope that we can bring Mike (Hawkins) in and give us a spark. And obviously he did on a few drives there in the second half, having a couple touchdown drives there.
“Thought our defense played really well for the most part tonight. Would love to have caused another turnover or two. But our guys played with tremendous effort. Thought they had a great plan defensively. Our coaches and, and the players just played very inspired football, proud of those guys and leadership, the toughness that they showed.
“And again, a team like Tennessee, as we know, you can’t give them easy opportunities. They forced some of those as well, but I felt like our first interception, we just threw it up there. We just can’t make that mistake. And then again, we throw one behind the last scrimmage. We don’t have that option on that play. That’s based on what the defense gave us. It’s a give all the way. Just in that, that’s one of those mistakes that just can’t do and can’t make.
And then coming off own end zone there, off our own goal line. Really, really poor execution … really, really poor and just got to get better. We put our heads down and go right back to work.
“We have obviously a quarterback, you evaluate that and find out, figure out who the best guy is to help us get to number four, find our fourth win. And put everything we got in getting ready, dust ourselves off and go right back at it. We got a good enough team to still have a really good year. You got a lot of football in front of us, but we got a lot of improvement to make as well. And that kind of goes without saying.”
On what he’s going to be looking for in the Oklahoma quarterback competition moving forward
“Who is the most consistent, can execute the basics of our offense consistently. And that’s not real complicated. And then you got to get in the game and then you got to perform too. That’s part of it too.”
On how he thinks the Oklahoma quarterbacks will handle the competition mentally and physically
“Yeah, I would be surprised if that doesn’t bring out the best in them. Will there be some disappointment on Jackson’s part? Absolutely. But again, he’s a tough young man and he knows he needs to be better. And again, this is the game of performance and he’ll have the opportunity to go right back at it again here this week. And he’s a great teammate. He’s a selfless guy. Again, nobody’s harder on him than him. And he’s got incredibly high standards.
Standards have always driven every decision he makes and who he is as a young man. And he’ll, he’ll respond the right way.”
On what Oklahoma backup quarterback Michael Hawkins gave them in the game
“Well, again, I think what you saw, and again, listen … I watched it the first time and he’s a tremendous athlete. And so there were several times there where we had edge pressure that we didn’t block and he got outside of, and so he has some playmaking ability and he can hurt you with his legs, but also hat can’t be your game. But we did have a few drives where we got into a nice rhythm and he showed that he can make some plays.
“And then there’s some plays out there too that we have opportunities there that we didn’t execute, we didn’t make the throws, we didn’t. But that’s the game of football. But in his first, real action, there’s some things that you liked about it and certainly things that you didn’t.”
On Oklahoma’s offensive struggles as a whole, lack of execution
“Yeah, it is very frustrating. It’s just some bad football. Guys getting whooped and beat and not winning their matchups and I don’t like that at all. And so I’m going to go back and watch it and the number one thing that I look at is what are we doing from a scheme standpoint. Coaching standpoint to put our guys in position to be successful. Are we enhancing the strengths and protecting their weaknesses?
“So there’s a lot that goes into that, but we got to get better. I mean that, again, Tennessee’s really good and so is a lot of teams that we’re going to play and we got to get better. And so part of that, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel in regards to going right back and going to work. And we had a few guys back this week, lost some guys early in the game. I think Nick (Anderson) restrained his quad and lost Dion and Taylor Tatum went out. Kendall Dolby, again, I think it’s just an ankle fracture. And so he’ll have surgery pretty quickly and, but it, I’m trying to think. And the other guys will be day to day. We will figure out what those issues are.”
On Deion Burks injury
“I don’t know. I mean it, I don’t know the extent— it’s a soft tissue.”
On if he felt like Jackson Arnold never got comfortable
“No, I think you saw that early. We were just a little off, so, and no, I mean, no, I mean obviously again, everything happens a little faster and again, the windows are tighter and gaps are smaller and all those things. I’ll wait till I watch the tape and figure that out.”
On the process of deciding to make the change, if they considered making it earlier
“Maybe a drive (earlier). Yeah, maybe a drive. So again, like I just said, the first turnover was just like, ‘whoa,’ you got to throw that one away. Not there, don’t force that. Jackson’s been really good about not forcing things and that was a little bit not like him. And then, we throw the one behind us, we fumble the ball right after we force the fumble and we fumble the ball right there in the red zone. And you don’t like, that sometimes that’s football. They got big guys and we got to do a better job at protecting the ball and we come right back and have a lateral behind the line on a RPO that the read is run it all day. And again, we had the safety as well. So that’s whatever, 12 points that in a game like that every point matters and just didn’t feel good. There was not enough other evidence that we will be just fine.”
On his assessment of his defense
“Well again, coming out of halftime again, we look at all the statistical information and where are we at in the game. And again, we obviously we’re down one in the turnover margin, but everything else, for the most part, again, it was a push under the circumstances. And so hey defense go out and get a stop and get the offense the ball back, and we’re down two scores and we got a great chance here. We got to play well. You got to play well together and got to take care of the ball. And, again, I know I listen again, I understand how Tennessee, everything changed a little bit for them and what they’re gonna do, but I also saw us play when everything was wide open. They had a wide open playbook and watched our guys compete and perform and play at a really, really high level. Things were gonna be difficult all night long based on what I saw.”
On the second Jackson Arnold fumble, if he was supposed to throw it down the field
“Yeah. We don’t have any backward RPOs.”
On Oklahoma’s bad injury luck early this season, if he figure out why
“I mean, I don’t know. Like Kendel Dolby gets a dislocation in his ankle. I don’t know. I mean that’s, I don’t even really, again, know how to answer that other than if the injuries were in all three phases or on both sides of the ball and maybe so, but just one of those years.”
On if that’s frustrating for him as a coach
“I don’t really have an opinion, you know?”
On if Tennessee’s long passes were busts or not
“Yeah, no (it wasn’t a bust). They did a good job of hitting the guy in the seem a couple times.”
On cornerback Eli Bowen’s performance
“He got in. Did well. Probably should have played him a little more. The other guys played good, but he’s done well with whatever opportunity he’s got and he’s done a nice job. Plays big, plays with fantastic technique and fundamentals. Highly skilled guy.”
On if the offensive line issues are just physically or fundamentally
“It’s a little bit of both. It’s both. Yeah, it’s both. It’s both that. We had a couple tackles for loss (where) we got wrong communication. And again, to me, that goes back to us as coaches. Every unit on the team’s gotta communicate. That’s part of the game of football. And so I’m tired of watching the same thing, so we just go back and I’d rather everybody be wrong and be on the same page then just one guy’s doing this, one guy’s doing that. You can’t play good football when you’re doing that.”
On how to balance a quarterback being young and needing him to produce
“You give some grace and there’s a body of work that you evaluate. You certainly maintain a perspective and know that there’s a pace at which everybody grows and matures at a different pace to some degree. But also, again, when I talk about having some grace, young guys are gonna make some mistakes. But tonight was one of those nights where, we felt we had to, to have a chance to give ourselves any chance to win based on a body of work early, in the first couple of quarters of the game.”
On if they can take confidence into the next game from how they moved the ball in the fourth quarter
“I just use it for, what’s appropriate just in context, ‘Hey man, there was some.’ You asked and I’m just responding. I’m not sitting here promoting everything was great, but there was a couple of drives where we executed and got into a nice rhythm, guys were making some plays. I have a great appreciation for the leaders on this team. I went into the locker room, it’s never gonna be fun, never gonna be good. But there’s a lot of guys that are heavily invested. We got a lot of football in front of us right now and we had some really sloppy, ugly football at times tonight. And man, there were some fantastic football, too. And so I don’t want to ever, you know, not recognize that, too. And my job is to put it all together and, you know, give us an opportunity to win. And so that’s what we’ll do. Again, we will evaluate a few things. Hopefully we can get some guys healthy. We got a lot of work to do as a staff. Certainly we got a lot of improvement to do as a team and we’ll put everything we got into the next week, just like we do every week. And we got a great challenge going on in our first road game at a place like Auburn. Got a lot of work to do.”
On freshman quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. handling being thrown into the game
“Yeah, good. I love Mike. Mike, he’s confident, he’s loose in the right ways. He’s not gonna — the moment’s not gonna overwhelm him, even though he’s a young guy and things happen fast. Mike gets pretty excited. You saw him, he’s three or four steps ahead of the play a few times and that’s gonna happen, too. And you certainly, we gotta slow things down and let things develop. There’s that piece of it. But he’s a great competitor. He’s got a tremendous amount of talent and he cares, so there’s a lot that you really have an appreciation for Mike about.”
On the conversation with Jackson Arnold that he was being benched
“No… I didn’t (talked to him). Coach Littrell did, but I didn’t at the time. Just relayed to him, ‘Hey, Mike’s going in.”
On how to keep Arnold from losing his confidence
“Again, appeal to his voice of reason and he’s a competitor. He knows what comes with the territory. And he’ll be the first to tell you that body of work deserved exactly what happened. He’ll have an opportunity to respond and come back and get after it. I think he will.”
On if Arnold was missing open receivers
“There’s some opportunities. We had some quick game there early and some of our reads that we gotta get it out and get it on time and there’s some times that Jackson, we were just a little inconsistent. That inconsistency, it led to us not being in any kind of rhythm. And so you gotta take the ones that are there. (Gotta) go back and look at it and see where the ownership lies, but felt confident that was the right move under the circumstances.”
On his thoughts on Josh Heupel as a coach
“Josh is a great coach. We know that. He’s been successful wherever he’s been. I don’t think that’s ever been in question and proud of all the success that he’s had. Disappointed in our team tonight. It’s not one of those moments where you’re happy for him, because you’re not, but that just kind of comes with the territory. But they got a really good team and they’ve got (an) excellent defense and (an) excellent offense and really good in the kicking game. So they’re gonna win a lot of games.”
