Brent Venables, Lincoln Riley shine in OU, USC coaching debuts

Brent Venables and Lincoln Riley are every excellent in their new head-coaching positions.

Oklahoma — which noticed Riley depart after final season and Venables take over — acquired out to a thundering 21-0 first-quarter lead towards UTEP on Saturday, serving to them cruise to a 45-13 win. 

Venables, who was an assistant with Oklahoma from 1999-2011 earlier than serving as Clemson‘s defensive coordinator from 2012-21, feels that Oklahoma performed a “clear” and complementary recreation.

“I assumed our coaches and gamers actually confirmed that they had been ready and thought we complemented one another very well, significantly in the primary quarter,” Venables stated. “We actually acquired off to an awesome begin collectively, and that is what you bought to do.”

A balanced speeding assault led the way in which for Oklahoma, because the Sooners completed with 259 yards on the bottom. Eric Gray logged 102 speeding yards on 16 speeding makes an attempt, whereas three Sooners reached the top zone on the bottom, together with UCF switch quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who ran in a 12-yard rating.

Running again Marcus Major had two speeding touchdowns whereas broad receiver Gavin Freeman broke by UTEP’s protection on a reverse for a 46-yard rating. Venables referred to Freeman as “fearless.”

Gabriel had an efficient debut in the air, ending the sport with 233 passing yards and two passing touchdowns whereas finishing 15 of 23 throws. 

On the opposite aspect of the ball, Oklahoma held UTEP to simply 28 speeding yards, whereas quarterbacks Gavin Hardison and Calvin Brownholtz accomplished simply 60% of their mixed passes.

Oklahoma will host Kent State on Sept. 10 in the second full week of the college football season.

Meanwhile, Riley and USC had some enjoyable of their very own on Saturday, defeating Rice 66-14.

After a back-and-forth begin, the Trojans acquired in a groove, scoring 24 factors in the second quarter. After halftime, they assumed management, placing up three touchdowns in the primary six minutes of the third quarter.

Riley was only one of some new faces that debuted for the Trojans. Oklahoma switch quarterback Caleb Williams and Pittsburgh switch receiver Jordan Addison had been among the many others, and each faculty stars discovered the highlight quick. 

Williams completed with 249 passing yards and two passing touchdowns whereas finishing 19 of twenty-two throws. The quarterback additionally logged 68 speeding yards on six speeding makes an attempt.

Riley stated that “the protection was the story” for the Trojans and felt their offense performed a well-rounded recreation.

“We had been respectable,” Riley stated of his offense. “We performed fairly mistake-free for probably the most half. I believe we stayed in entrance of the chains. The guys did a very good job defending Caleb. He had a whole lot of time. We made some performs. We left just a few issues on the market on either side. It’s a typical first recreation. There’s gonna be an overreaction it doesn’t matter what occurs, particularly at USC. There’s a whole lot of good, actually.”

Addison completed with 54 yards and two touchdowns on 5 receptions. USC put up 28 factors in the third quarter and compelled 4 interceptions, three of them returned for touchdowns by Calen Bullock, Shane Lee and Ralen Goforth.

USC will journey to Stanford on Sept. 10.