Seth Littrell, Jackson Arnold Could Unlock Neglected Part of Oklahoma Sooners' Offense In 2024

Oklahoma's offense last year was one of the best units in college football last season, finishing sixth in passing offense, fourth in scoring, seventh in third-down, and third in total offense.

However, if there was one part of the offense that was missing, it was Oklahoma's involvement of the tight end and running back rooms in the passing game. The Sooners' offense ran on their wide receiver room outside. While this was warranted, given the talent in that room, Oklahoma cannot rely on feeding Drake Stoops 100+ targets again this season.

Related: State of the Sooners: Strengths and Weaknesses of Oklahoma's roster heading into first SEC season

Drake Stoops led the team with 107 targets in 2023. Following him was Jalil Farooq with 75, then Nic Anderson with 60. No other player got more than 34.

Of non-wide receivers, tight end Austin Stogner led the way with *23* targets. Of the RBs, Gavin Sawchuck received 18 targets. Oklahoma threw the ball plenty, but 2023 was a far cry from even their 2022 results, where tight end Brayden Willis finished with 59 targets and RB Eric Gray tallied 40.

However, there does seem to be an emphasis on getting the tight ends more involved in the passing game.

At a press conference last week , Sooners' head coach Brent Venables had an interesting quote about their offense in the wake of losing wide receiver Jayden Gibson to a season-ending injury.

"I like our ability to run the ball and attack the field with our tight ends middle of the field..So between Bauer Sharp, Jake Roberts, Kade McIntyre, Kaden Helms, Davon Mitchell, that group of guys, it helps everybody. They all compliment each other.”

The Sooners targeted the middle of the field more than one might have thought, given Dillon Gabriel's iffy processing and 5'11 height, but the majority of Oklahoma's passing game was lateral, focusing on outside, shallow targets. Many of Gabriel's MOF targets came off of RPOs, crossers, slants, and some deep over routes.

Just three of their targets to the middle of the field over five yards were to a tight end or running back last season. Three . For a program that has boasted talented tight end play for decades now, that is a staggering figure.

It seems like Oklahoma is ready to fix that in 2024. Diversifying their passing attack and being able to truly attack every area of the field would make an already potent Sooners' offense that much deadlier.