With Oklahoma’s wide receiver room dealt another significant injury after Jalil Farooq broke his foot against Temple, the Sooners could turn to first- or second-year options to step up at receiver.
Tom Green
Farooq was Oklahoma’s third-leading receiver last season, when he caught 45 passes for 694 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He’s also the Sooners’ most experienced wide receiver, with 1,599 career snaps and 24 starts across 35 games.
Now the Sooners must navigate the next couple of months without him in the lineup, and while Purdue transfer Deion Burks — and Anderson, once he makes his inevitable return, which could be as soon as Saturday night against Houston (6:45 p.m. on SEC Network) — will shoulder the load as OU’s top wide receivers, the offense is going to need to turn to some of its younger options at the position to complement the passing game in Farooq’s absence.
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“It will be a handful of guys,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said Friday. “We have some really good wide receivers…. Nobody’s been perfect, but all our guys have a real chance.”
Outside of Burks, who scored three touchdowns in his Oklahoma debut and led the team with six receptions, the Sooners also started Brenen Thompson at wide receiver alongside Farooq in the season opener. Thompson had four catches for 15 yards in Week 1, but he also had a notable drop over the middle on a night in which Oklahoma intentionally kept things rather vanilla offensively.
It may be a by-committee approach for the Sooners in terms of replacing Farooq, with Venables rattling off a number of less-experienced players who could see more opportunities, including freshmen Zion Ragins (one 7-yard reception against Temple), Ivan Carreon (one 2-yard catch), KJ Daniels and Zion Kearney, as well as sophomore Jaquaize Pettaway.
“It’s a group of guys that really showed maturity,” Venables said of the young receivers. “Saw them get better (against Temple). Saw them at times play a little inconsistent, like a lot of young players. Sometimes it’s mindset. Sometimes it’s fundamentals. Sometimes it’s a sense of urgency. But I love the group of guys. Coachable. Really talented. You got size, you got speed, you got length, you got a lot of things that you want, and the toughness, too.”
During his radio show after practice Monday night, Venables highlighted “the most beautiful” one-handed, over-the-shoulder catch that Ragins made that day, adding that they hope to get the 5-foot-8, 150-pounder “more involved” offensively. Of that group of younger receivers, though, it could be Pettaway who’s next man up in the rotation.
The former four-star prospect played just 11 snaps in the opener and saw only one target in the passing game, but Venables said the sophomore has been slowed by a hamstring issue the last few weeks — so much so that his availability for the Temple game was up in the air last week. Pettaway is “ready to go” this week, according to Venables, and has the ability to play in the slot or at outside wide receiver.
The 5-foot-10, 194-pounder, in his limited snaps last season, displayed a natural rapport with Arnold, a fellow 2023 signee. In the Sooners’ season opener last year, Pettaway had nine receptions for 56 yards on 10 targets from Arnold, though he finished with just two more catches the remainder of the season.
“He’s fast,” Venables said. “He’s got a good catch radius. He’s a really explosive player…. He’s got a chance to have a really good career when it’s all said and done.”
Regardless of which younger receivers Oklahoma turns to in Farooq’s stead, those first- and second-year players “are going to have to grow up quick,” as Venables said, because SEC play is on the horizon, and the Sooners plan to open up the offense more as competition ramps up.
“They’ll take on the disposition of their coach, and Emmett (Jones) does a great job in bringing out the best in guys. He’s tough and demanding on them, and we try to recruit guys that want to be challenged and are looking to be coached and held accountable. And Emmett does a great job of that.”
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