Both No. 21 Oklahoma and Auburn enter Saturday’s matchup in Auburn, Ala., with questions at quarterback.
The Sooners are set to go with a first-time starter for their first-ever Southeastern Conference road game.
Oklahoma coach Brent Venables made the announcement Monday that true freshman Michael Hawkins Jr. would start at Auburn after replacing a struggling Jackson Arnold in the first half of last week’s 25-15 loss to Tennessee.
“We got to get better,” Venables said. “I know, again, that everybody knows that we’re not playing very well right now on offense, and we’ve got to do a good job of putting our players in position. It’s us. It’s we. It’s ours. And it’s no finger pointing. We got to do a better job.”
After some early struggles, Hawkins gave the Sooners a spark and finished 11-for-18 passing for 132 yards and a touchdown and ran for 22 yards.
The Sooners (3-1, 0-1 SEC) have struggled to find offensive continuity across the board, with a revolving door on the offensive line, where nine different players have started, and a receiving corps that has been battered by injuries.
Jayden Gibson is out for the season; Nic Anderson and Jalil Farooq have appeared in just one game each, and Deion Burks, who leads the Sooners in both receptions and receiving yards, was hurt late against Tennessee. Anderson and Farooq will be out against Auburn, and Burks’ status is unclear.
On the other side, Auburn’s offensive woes have centered on turnovers. The Tigers (2-2, 0-1) have 14, tied for the most in FBS. Eight are interceptions, with five by Payton Thorne and three by Hank Brown.
“It’s hard for me to explain them, truthfully,” Auburn coach Hugh Freeze said of the interceptions.
All of Brown’s picks came in last week’s 24-14 loss to Arkansas. After two in the final minute before halftime, Thorne took back over at quarterback.
“I know there’s people open and I know that we’re running the football,” Freeze said. “And we’ve got to find a guy that won’t throw it to the other team. And we’ve got to find running backs that hold onto it.”
Freeze said the competition between the two was open.
“It’s going to be a battle this week — try to figure out who can master the plan against all these fronts we’re going to face at Oklahoma,” Freeze said.
Even with Oklahoma’s offensive issues, the Sooners are tied for third nationally with a plus-seven turnover margin. Auburn is at minus-10.
The Sooners have eight fumble recoveries and four interceptions, tied for the nation’s lead in turnovers forced.
“Nothing impacts a game like turnovers,” Venables said. “Everybody wants someone else to blame. We have to take care of the ball, make better decisions. Things we can and can’t do.”
The Tigers have run the ball effectively, with Jarquez Hunter entering the game with 340 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
The Sooners have never played at Auburn before. Oklahoma has won both previous meetings with the Tigers, the most recent in the 2017 Sugar Bowl.
–Field Level Media
