Oklahoma earned what was perhaps the biggest win of the Brent Venables era on Saturday night, beating Tennessee 33-27 in Knoxville.
The Sooners amassed just 99 yards offense in the first half, but still carried at 16-10 lead into the break thanks to a trio of turnover by Joey Aguilar. From there, OU was able to control the game in the second half.
Oklahoma‘s rushing attack had arguably its best game of the season. Two different Sooners — Xavier Robinson and John Mateer — rushed for over 100 yards. It was Robinson’s score late in the fourth quarter that proved to be the difference in OU’s victory.
Joey Aguilar threw for 393 yards in the loss, but threw 2 interceptions and lost a fumble that became a 71-yard scoop-and-score in the first quarter. Tennessee got almost nothing from its running game — excluding Aguilar, Tennessee players rushed for just 69 yards on 24 carries.
OU’s defensive line was dominant, sacking Aguilar 4 times and creating 8 tackles for loss.
This result means Oklahoma will take a 7-2 record into its game against Alabama in a couple of weeks on Nov. 15. The Sooners are still alive in the race for a College Football Playoff berth, while Tennessee drops to 6-3 and will likely be awaiting a bowl assignment on selection day.
No. 18 Oklahoma 33, No. 14 Tennesse 26
Here’s the Tennessee-Oklahoma box score (use the dropdown menu to select team or player stats), followed by the complete play-by-play:
Joey Aguilar vs John Mateer
A statistical breakdown of how Tennessee QB Joey Aguilar performed against OU counterpart John Mateer:
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
