Oklahoma coach Brent Venables didn’t place blame on freshman quarterback Jackson Arnold after his three-interception outing during Thursday’s 38-24 loss to Arizona in the Alamo Bowl, but it was difficult to overlook the Sooners’ mistakes. Venables’ team led 24-13 midway through the third quarter before the Wildcats scored 25 consecutive points to close the game, benefiting from turnovers.
“I don’t want to speak the obvious, but obviously you’re not going to win when you lose the turnover margin 6-1. That’s the name of the game,” Venables said. “But again, doesn’t take away, again, the type of season and the type of men that we have and what our future looks like.”
Arnold tossed a pair of touchdown passes in his first extensive action of the season following Dillon Gabriel’s transfer portal entry this month. The loss ended Oklahoma’s second season under Venables at 10-3 overall. But it doesn’t dampen where the program is headed, he says.
“Just want to say, first of all, just congratulate Arizona and Coach Fisch and their team. They’ve had a fantastic season. They played their guts out today. Certainly deserved to win. Really proud of our football team, and I’m so thankful for all of you guys up here. Just, again, the guts, the fight, the belief, the commitment, your body of work, the young men that you are. Just amazing people, fantastic football players but amazing people.
“Got everything that we could out of this group of guys, and you guys have led the way. We squeezed all the juice out of it we could squeeze. I just want to say how thankful I am for all of our players and these guys as leaders of the team. I’m disappointed for them that we couldn’t do a few things a little better to have a chance to win, and we certainly had a heck of a game and came out on the wrong end of it, but doesn’t take away, again, how amazing these guys are, the type of team that I believe — the season that we had.
“Sure, there’s some disappointment, but there’s a lot more to be thankful for than not. Drake (Stoops) is the one senior that’s up here, man. This is a guy that he’s made every person in the Oklahoma program better. Man, you’ve enriched all of our lives, man. We’re thankful with the amazing example that you’ve been. You’ve been an amazing player, but how you do what you do, man, you’re that dude. I just want to say thank you, man. I love you, and all you guys, man. You guys are playing banged up and Jackson had many things tonight that was just fantastic. He’s going to have an amazing future. We’ve got to be a little better around him to help him.”
Leave a Reply