Arnold’s decision-making seemed improved over the Alamo Bowl; none of his throws came close to an interception.

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Jackson Arnold to Deion Burks. An offensive line vs. defensive line battle that ended in a virtual draw. Fairly clean football.

That was the gist of the 102-play OU spring game Saturday on Owen Field. Here’s the report card from a scrimmage that will launch the Sooners into the Southeastern Conference:

Jackson Arnold: B. Arnold completed 10 of 20 passes for 233 yards and two touchdowns. His deep balls were solid — two home runs to Burks, a couple of close calls to Jayden Gibson and Burks — but Arnold missed on a few shorter passes. Arnold’s decision-making seemed improved over the Alamo Bowl; none of his throws came close to an interception.

Midfield logo: A. As usual, the state of Oklahoma outline — bordered with white, filled with crimson, with an interlocking white “OU” in the middle — adorned midfield for the spring game. It’s a tradition like no other. And again, it was really cool. With the SEC era arriving July 1, why not make the state of Oklahoma the permanent midfield art? And kudos to the OU art team, which correctly makes the southern border jagged, courtesy of the Red River, and the northern half of the eastern border angled southeast to northwest.

Pass protection: D. OU’s revamped offensive line seemed to have trouble keeping the pass rush at bay. The defense produced eight sacks and at least that many flushes from the pocket. That bodes well for OU’s pass rush, which didn’t rely much on blitzes. If you want a more positive grade, let’s call it a B for the pass rush. P.J. Adebawore and Davon Sears each had two sacks, and Ethan Downs, Gracen Halton, R. Mason Thomas and David Stone had one each. All are linemen.

Run blocking: B. The OU line opened some nice holes. Brent Venables praised center Joshua Bates in particular, for his entire spring. The Sooners gained at least seven yards on 13 of 55 true running plays on Saturday. Freshman tailback Kalib Hicks had a 30-yard touchdown run through an opening, followed by a solid cut. Hicks also had a 16-yard run; Tennessee-Martin transfer Sam Franklin produced gains of 12, nine, nine and seven yards; incumbent starter Gavin Sawchuk carried just five times but had gains of eight and 11 yards; tailback Chapman McKown scored on a 16-yard run; receiver Jacob Jordan rambled 21 yards on a reverse; and quarterbacks Jackson Arnold, Michael Hawkins and General Booty each had a run of from seven to nine yards. If you want a more negative grade, let’s call it a C for the run defense.

Cleanliness: A. The OU offense committed no turnovers, and while it’s not ideal for the defense to go home with no takeaways, it’s not like the offense played fast and loose with the ball. Even better, penalties were not abundant. An offensive pass interference (pick play) against Jaquaize Pettaway. A personal foul penalty against Boganowski, who hit Hicks late and hard, which Venables declined. A holding penalty against guard Isaiah Autry-Dent. A couple of defensive offsides. No offensive procedure penalties. Not bad for the spring.

Pass coverage: B. Burks got open for those deep balls, and the backups allowed Trey Brown to break open a slant pattern for a 47-yard gain that set up a late touchdown. But for the most part, OU’s pass defense played solid. The secondary broke on the ball, knocked down more than its share of passes and, in the case of freshman safety Michael Boganowski, laid out some hard hits. The secondary has the potential to be the unit on the 2024 Sooners, and nothing we saw changed that Saturday.

Crowd: B. The Sooners drew an announced crowd of 45,861. Historically, of course, that is excellent, for OU or anywhere else. But in these crazy marketing days, that’s a little light by OU’s standards. In Brent Venables’ first season as head coach, 2022, the Sooners drew 75,360. In the SEC this spring, announced crowds have been Alabama 72,000 (new coach), Georgia 55,000 and Florida 48,000. OU, of course, was hurt by the threat of stormy weather, which caused the university to move kickoff from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.