After its win over Michigan last week, No. 13 Oklahoma is putting an emphasis on not having a letdown when it faces Temple on Saturday in Philadelphia.
“I think they’ve scored 50 in back-to-back games, so we’re looking at this (as) our national championship,” Sooners safety Peyton Bowen said of the Owls.
While that might seem like hyperbole coming from a player in a program like Oklahoma, Sooners coach Brent Venables spoke about the way his team struggled to handle success in 2023 when it started 7-0 before dropping three of the last six games.
“We got to take these guys seriously or we’re going to their house and we’re going to (mess) around and find out,” Bowen said. “We can’t take them lightly for sure.”
The Sooners beat Temple 51-3 to open last season and the Owls went on to finish 3-9.
But Temple has opened its first season under K.C. Keeler with a bang, outscoring opponents 97-17 through two games.
The Owls (2-0) beat Howard 55-7 last week after opening with a 42-10 win over UMass.
Keeler has emphasized the need for improvement this week if his team is going to be successful against the Sooners.
“When we looked at the tape, it was definitely like, ‘OK, we did some really good things, but these things aren’t going to fly against Oklahoma — the little details,” Keeler said. “We have to do all the little things. Because they have full grown … men. They do.
“Those little things, where we might have been able to get a completion, now we’re going to get a sack. Because that extra tick isn’t going to happen against Oklahoma.”
The quarterbacks figure to be front and center in this one.
The Sooners’ John Mateer has thrown for 662 yards and four touchdowns with two interceptions and has run for 98 yards and three scores.
In last week’s 24-13 win over Michigan, the Washington State transfer threw for 270 yards and a touchdown and ran for 74 yards on 19 carries with two touchdowns.
Venables said the Sooners (2-0) wouldn’t lean as heavily on Mateer in the run game every week as they did against the Wolverines, but that Mateer’s running ability would continue to be a valuable asset for the offense.
“He’s got to do a good job of not taking too many shots,” Venables said. “He’s built strong and is really compact so he can absorb some big hits. It’s a real weapon.”
Keeler said the Owls must put pressure on Mateer often if they want to pull off the upset.
“When they want to get a yard or they need to make a play, they put the ball in his hands,” Keeler said. “I think that’s a combination of his talent but also the comfortableness that the O-coordinator has with him. That’s his guy.”
Sooners offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle, like Mateer, joined Oklahoma this offseason from Washington State.
For Temple, Evan Simon has emerged as the starter after sharing time with Oregon State transfer Gevani McCoy to begin the season.
Simon has completed 77.1 percent of his passes with nine touchdowns and no interceptions, which helps to equate to a national-best 263.28 passing efficiency rating.
Saturday’s meeting will be the fourth all-time between the programs. Oklahoma leads the series 2-1. Temple’s win against the Sooners came in 1942.
