OU 2023 season review: Offensive line

Oklahoma's sustained dominance of the Big 12 over its 28-year tenure in the league is well-documented. The Sooners won 14 Big 12 titles in that stretch, with Texas' four being the second-most among all teams.

While OU has certainly had its fair share of star quarterbacks, running backs, and wide receivers come through the program, the Sooners' true strength has almost always been upfront.

That didn't seem to be the case through the first several games of the 2023 season, as Bill Bedenbaugh's group had issues creating space in the run game. Heading into the Red River Rivalry, Oklahoma's running game was a serious question mark. But, as seems to be the case so often, they figured it out against the Longhorns and went on to have a productive year.

In another installment of the OUInsider season review series, here's a look at how the offensive line fared in 2023:

(Note: All snap-count data and performances grades are provided by Pro Football Focus. PFF assigns both game and season-long grades for individual players on a 0-100 scale; 90-99 is considered elite, 80-89 good, 70-79 above average, 60-69 average, 50-59 below average, 0-49 poor).

Andrew Raym — 12 games, allowed three sacks, three hits, 10 hurries on 469 pass sets

Walter Rouse — 13 games, allowed 0 sacks, two hits, four hurries on 480 pass sets

McKade Mettauer — 12 games, allowed 0 sacks, three hits, 11 hurries on 464 pass sets

Tyler Guyton — 10 games, allowed 0 sacks, three hits, nine hurries on 355 pass sets

Cayden Green — 11 games, allowed 0 sacks, one hit, 11 hurries on 293 pass sets

Jacob Sexton — 7 games, allowed three sacks, 0 hits, nine hurries on 211 pass sets

Troy Everett — 10 games, allowed one sack, one hit, three hurries on 211 pass sets

Caleb Shaffer — 8 games, allowed 0 sacks, one hit, four hurries on 106 pass sets

Savion Byrd — 8 games, allowed one sack, 0 hits, two hurries on 87 pass sets

Jake Taylor — 4 games, allowed 0 sacks, 0 hits, one hurry on 17 pass sets

Nate Anderson — 2 games, allowed 0 sacks, 0 hits, 0 hurries on 12 pass sets

Aaryn Parks — 4 games, allowed 0 sacks, 0 hits, 0 hurries on 4 pass sets

Gunnar Allen — 1 game, allowed 0 sacks, 0 hits, 0 hurries on 1 pass set

Heath Ozaeta — 1 game, allowed 0 sacks, 0 hits, 0 hurries on 1 pass set

Logan Howland — 1 game, allowed 0 sacks, 0 hits, 0 hurries on 1 pass set

Joshua Bates — 1 game, allowed 0 sacks, 0 hits, 0 hurries on 1 pass set

(Note: This list does not include players who saw fewer than 30 snaps)

Andrew Raym — 874 snaps (63.4 OFF, 60.2 RBLK, 69.8 PBLK)

Walter Rouse — 858 snaps (72.0 OFF, 66.2 RBLK, 83.8 PBLK)

McKade Mettauer — 848 snaps (56.9 OFF, 52.2 RBLK, 69.8 PBLK)

Tyler Guyton — 663 snaps (63.7 OFF, 60.5 RBLK, 72.9 PBLK)

Cayden Green — 568 snaps (53.7 OFF, 49.8 RBLK, 71.4 PBLK)

Jacob Sexton — 410 snaps (58.9 OFF, 64.1 RBLK, 52.6 PBLK)

Troy Everett — 398 snaps (56.3 OFF, 49.1 RBLK, 75.2 PBLK)

Caleb Shaffer — 196 snaps (58.1 OFF, 56.6 RBLK, 56.4 PBLK)

Savion Byrd — 181 snaps (61.7 OFF, 66.0 RBLK, 56.2 PBLK)

Jake Taylor — 47 snaps (55.4 OFF, 52.6 RBLK, 69.0 PBLK)

Nate Anderson — 36 snaps (53.8 OFF, 51.2 RBLK, 78.0 PBLK)

Aaryn Parks — 30 snaps (60.8 OFF, 58.9 RBLK, 73.5 PBLK)

OFF- Offensive Grade (per PFF) | RBLK - Run blocking grade (Per PFF) | PBLK - Pass blocking grade (Per PFF)

Walter Rouse was a godsend for the Sooners in 2023, giving them a veteran presence to bookend the unit across from the ultra-talented Tyler Guyton. Rouse didn't miss a game on the year and his ability to stay healthy and available was huge for this unit.

Guyton missed three games on the year, one of which was opting out of the Alamo Bowl, but has flashes of something special when he did play. Guyton moves like a guy 25% smaller than he actually is, which is why he's a lock to go in the first round of the NFL Draft in April.

Both Rouse and Guyton are gone to the NFL, but Jacob Sexton got plenty of experience this season and will be back in the mix to start once again in 2023. As with all positions, PFF's grade will differ drastically from how the coaching staff sees things, and I'm confident in saying that Sexton graded out better than 58.9 on the year.

Overall, the tackles played good stretches of football in 2023 but gave up more sacks than they would've liked (20, according to OU). The trio of Rouse, Guyton, and Sexton also accounted for 19 of the Sooners' 88 penalties on the season.

There's room for this group to grow in the future, but with Sexton taking a starting job from a future first-rounder and some other potential stars coming in, there are certainly pieces to be excited about going forward.

SEASON GRADE: C+

The most disappointing piece of the offensive line in 2023 was undoubtedly the inconsistency of Savion Byrd. After being touted as a "mauler" in fall camp and someone to watch out for as a breakout player in '23, Byrd couldn't keep his composure well enough to stay on the field and continually had mental errors that got him in hot water with Coach Bedenbaugh.

McKade Mettauer was once again a steady and consistent part of the Sooners' front this season, and while his ceiling as a player at the next level might be capped to an extent, he played his tail off when it comes to effort and being where he needed to be. Mettauer deserves a ton of credit for playing through injuries this season, and his willingness to play in the Alamo Bowl should not go unnoticed.

The elephant in the room for this group is Cayden Green, who is now a Missouri Tiger. After coming into the Texas game and dominating Outland Trophy winner T'Vondre Sweat, Green had offensive linemen gurus wringing their hands about the next road grader to come out of Norman. While he still made freshman mistakes, Green was more physical than almost anyone else on the field when he was out there, and it showed when he got ahold of someone. Unfortunately for Oklahoma, he'll be doing that in Columbia next season.

As a group, the guards weren't quite up to the standards that we've seen at Oklahoma over the years, and that showed with the unit struggling to create space in the running game early on. It certainly improved as the season progressed, but I believe that had more to do with the emergence of Gavin Sawchuk than it did anything else.

SEASON GRADE: C

Andrew Raym and Troy Everett are the only two players to take significant snaps at center for the Sooners in 2023, and Raym earned the vast majority of the snaps there. A three-year starter for the Sooners, Raym seemed to put together the best season of his career in Norman, helping keep the group steady in the middle.

There were a couple of times in the year when snaps became an issue, one of which might've cost Oklahoma a win in Bedlam, but for the most part he was consistent as ever.

Raym led the entire offense with 874 snaps on the year and will take a ton of experience with him to the NFL.

Losing a player like that won't be easy for Oklahoma to overcome heading into the SEC, but Troy Everett showed some things that make him a suitable candidate to take over there. While a touch undersized (6-foot-3, 294 pounds), Everett showed good technique that helped neutralize that against bigger interior defenders and seems to be a more natural fit at center than he is at guard.

For 2023, Raym earned the center spot with a better grade than the guards or tackles, but it still left a bit to be desired after he followed up guys like Creed Humphery and Gabe Ikard.

SEASON GRADE: B-

After starting off the season as a unit that struggled to run the ball against Tulsa and Cincinnati, the offensive line seemed to get things together in that Texas game, which has become a trend under Coach Bedenbaugh.

The Sooners finished the 2023 season with the No. 34 rushing offense in the country, averaging 182.2 yards per game. Interestingly, that only landed them seventh-best in the Big 12 in yards per game, showing the depth of running back talent in the league this year.

Oklahoma did co-lead the conference in rushing touchdowns though, ending the year with 32 scores and 4.5 yards per carry.

As far as pass protection goes, the Sooners' offensive line was good, allowing 20 sacks total, or 1.54 per game (34th nationally). Dillon Gabriel had the time needed to make plays most of the time, and that led to the Sooners having the No. 4 scoring offenses in the country (41.7 ppg).

It wasn't a standout year for the offensive line group, as they struggled with inconsistent play and penalties throughout the year. But, while all of that is true, they did seem to end on a high note, at least when comes to running the ball.

OU topped the 200-yard mark in five of its final eight games, averaging 197.5 yards per game and 4.91 yards per carry. They also allowed multiple sacks in five of those eight games, so there was good and bad at times.

The standard for offensive line play at Oklahoma is incredibly high, and because of that, it's hard not to see the issues that they faced this season. Still, there are 100+ programs out there that would take the same level of play that OU exhibited in 2023, and that's got to count for something.

In the end, this group gets a C+, as I believe they played a role in some of Oklahoma's struggles this season but were still plenty good enough for OU to win 10+ games.

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