There wasn’t much about Oklahoma’s 14-6 win over New Mexico that made you want to frame the box score and hang it on the wall.
The Sooners managed just 299 total yards. They averaged 1.9 yards per rushing attempt. They turned the ball over three times. And for the second consecutive week, the offense spent far too much time making a game harder than it needed to be.
But that’s not really what the weekly stock report is about.
This is about identifying the players, positions and trends that are moving in one direction or another.
And while Oklahoma’s performance against New Mexico left plenty of reasons for concern heading into Saturday’s trip to No. 2 Georgia, there were also some developments worth paying attention to.
One of them was impossible to miss.
Hayden Hansen didn’t just have a good night.
His stock took off.
THE WEEK 3 STOCK TICKER
📈 Hayden Hansen — STOCK: TO THE MOON
📈 Isaiah Sategna III — STOCK: SURGING
📈 David Stone — STOCK: EXPLODING
📈 Oklahoma’s Defensive Front — STOCK: RISING
➡️ Rocky Beers — STOCK: HOLDING
📉 Interior Run Blocking — STOCK: SLIPPING
📉 Offensive Consistency — STOCK: UNDER PRESSURE
That’s the quick version.
Now let’s get into why.
📈 STOCK SKYROCKETING: HAYDEN HANSEN
There are games where a player puts up impressive numbers.
Then there are games where you walk away thinking, OK, this might be something.
Hayden Hansen’s performance against New Mexico was the second kind.
The 269-pound tight end gave Oklahoma one of the few true offensive highlights of the night when he caught a 29-yard touchdown pass from John Mateer during an 80-yard second-quarter touchdown drive.
But the touchdown itself isn’t the entire reason his stock is climbing.
It’s what Hansen represented.
For an offense that has struggled to consistently create easy yards, Hansen gave Mateer another big-bodied target capable of winning in traffic and turning a relatively ordinary play into something explosive.
He finished with three receptions for 49 yards and the touchdown, trailing only Isaiah Sategna in receiving production.
And there was something else that stood out.
Hansen didn’t look like a player simply waiting for his opportunity.
He looked like a player Oklahoma can deliberately build portions of its offense around.
That’s an important distinction.
Oklahoma doesn’t need Hansen to suddenly become the team’s version of a traditional No. 1 receiver. The Sooners already have explosive perimeter talent.
What they need is a tight end who can create matchup problems while also giving the offense flexibility with its personnel.
Hansen can potentially become that player.
Put him on the line of scrimmage and he can force the defense to respect the run.
Move him into the formation and the defense has to account for him in the passing game.
Split him out and suddenly a 269-pound tight end is asking a defensive back or linebacker to cover him in space.
That’s how you manufacture offense.
And Oklahoma desperately needs more of it.
The touchdown against New Mexico was the highlight.
The bigger story is that Hansen is starting to look like a weapon.
Stock: TO THE MOON
📈 STOCK RISING: ISAIAH SATEGNA III
If you watched Oklahoma’s passing game against Michigan, there was one number attached to Isaiah Sategna that immediately jumped off the page.
Two.
That’s how many catches he had against the Wolverines.
He was targeted 10 times, but he finished with only two receptions for nine yards.
Against New Mexico, the distribution looked dramatically different.
Six catches.
101 yards.
A 53-yard touchdown.
That wasn’t simply better production.
It was a better utilization of one of Oklahoma’s most dangerous offensive players.
The Sooners needed to find ways to get Sategna into space, and the 53-yard touchdown was exactly what that looks like.
Mateer connected with Sategna on a deep shot in the third quarter, and suddenly a game that had been uncomfortably close had a little breathing room.
The important part heading into Georgia isn’t simply that Sategna caught six passes.
It’s that Oklahoma demonstrated it could make him the focal point of the passing game without completely abandoning everything else.
That’s the adjustment you wanted to see after Michigan.
Sategna doesn’t need 10 catches every Saturday.
But he cannot disappear from the offense, either.
Against Michigan, his targets didn’t translate into production.
Against New Mexico, Oklahoma found a way to turn those opportunities into explosive plays.
That needs to continue.
Because if you’re preparing to play Georgia, you want your fastest, most dangerous perimeter weapon involved as early and as often as possible.
Stock: 📈 SURGING
➡️ STOCK HOLDING: ROCKY BEERS
This is where the stock report gets a little more interesting.
Because Rocky Beers wasn’t bad against New Mexico.
He simply wasn’t the focal point he was against Michigan.
And that’s worth watching.
Beers exploded against the Wolverines with six receptions for 94 yards, accounting for nearly half of Oklahoma’s receiving yardage.
Against New Mexico, he caught two passes for 34 yards.
On the surface, that looks like a significant drop.
But this is where box-score evaluation can become misleading.
The role Beers played wasn’t necessarily designed to maximize his receiving numbers.
Oklahoma used plenty of two-tight-end looks, and Beers’ responsibilities included helping protect Mateer and handling some of the less glamorous work that doesn’t show up in the receiving column.
That’s important because the offense can’t have every tight end route out on every passing play.
Somebody has to help the offensive line.
Somebody has to chip an edge rusher.
Somebody has to make the quarterback’s pocket a little cleaner.
The question isn’t whether Beers should have caught more passes against New Mexico.
The question is whether Oklahoma can find the correct balance between using Beers as a blocker and unleashing him as a receiver.
Because we’ve already seen what happens when Beers gets opportunities.
Six catches.
Ninety-four yards.
A 43-yard reception against Michigan.
That’s not a player you want to accidentally turn into a glorified sixth offensive lineman.
So Beers isn’t moving down.
But he’s not going up, either.
He’s holding.
And against Georgia, that role could become extremely important.
Stock: ➡️ HOLDING
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📉 STOCK SLIPPING: THE INTERIOR RUN GAME
This is the part of the report nobody wants to read.
But somebody has to write it.
Oklahoma’s interior run blocking remains a major concern.
The Sooners finished with 61 rushing yards against New Mexico on 32 attempts.
That’s 1.9 yards per carry.
Against a team Oklahoma should have been able to move off the ball more consistently, the Sooners simply couldn’t establish the kind of downhill rushing identity they need.
And that creates a problem that goes far beyond the running backs.
When the run game isn’t working, defenses don’t have to respect it.
When defenses don’t have to respect it, they can put more pressure on Mateer.
When they can put more pressure on Mateer, Oklahoma has to rely increasingly on the quarterback making something happen.
That’s not a sustainable formula against Georgia.
Especially not against a defense capable of creating problems without needing to sell out.
The New Mexico defense deserves credit. The Lobos used pressure, movement and physicality up front to make life difficult for Oklahoma.
But the Sooners have to be better.
The offensive line doesn’t need to pave the way for 250 rushing yards.
It doesn’t even need to dominate every snap.
But Oklahoma has to be capable of creating four- and five-yard runs without needing Mateer to perform a magic trick.
That is still missing.
And until it changes, the stock stays pointed down.
Stock: 📉 VULNERABLE
📈 STOCK RISING: DAVID STONE AND THE DEFENSIVE FRONT
If the offense created anxiety, the defense created something very different.
Confidence.
New Mexico entered Norman having scored 70 points in its previous game.
Oklahoma held the Lobos to six.
Six.
New Mexico finished with just 185 total yards, including 69 rushing yards. Oklahoma also recorded six sacks and 10 tackles for loss.
And then, when the game actually needed a defining play, David Stone made it.
With New Mexico threatening late in the fourth quarter, Stone helped shut down Scottre Humphrey on fourth down.
That was the kind of play this defense has become increasingly comfortable making.
Stone finished with a career-high eight tackles, two tackles for loss and a half-sack.
That’s not simply good production from a defensive tackle.
That’s impact.
And it’s part of the reason Oklahoma’s defensive front deserves to be one of the biggest winners of this week’s stock report.
The Sooners aren’t perfect defensively.
But through three games, the defense has repeatedly given this team a chance to win.
Against Georgia, that’s going to be tested at an entirely different level.
But the stock is clearly moving in the right direction.
Stock: 📈 RISING FAST
📉 STOCK SLIPPING: OFFENSIVE CONSISTENCY
This isn’t one player.
It’s the bigger offensive picture.
Oklahoma scored 14 points.
The Sooners had three turnovers.
They went 7-for-15 on third down, which was actually one of the more encouraging offensive numbers from the night.
But they also produced just 61 rushing yards and had stretches where the offense looked completely stuck.
Mateer finished 19-of-25 for 238 yards and two touchdowns, but he also threw two interceptions.
That’s the strange thing about this offense right now.
There are flashes.
There are explosive plays.
There are individual players who are beginning to emerge.
But the whole thing still doesn’t consistently fit together.
Against UTEP, Oklahoma scored 51.
Against Michigan, the offense struggled.
Against New Mexico, the Sooners scored 14.
That’s a wide range.
And eventually, Oklahoma is going to have to find something resembling a weekly offensive identity.
Because Georgia won’t care which version shows up.
📈 THE DEFENSE IS BUYING THE OFFENSE TIME
Maybe that’s the biggest takeaway from this week’s stock report.
Oklahoma’s defense is giving this offense time to figure itself out.
That’s a luxury.
The Sooners have allowed just six points against New Mexico and have shown an ability to create negative plays, get off the field and make critical stops.
But that cushion won’t last forever.
Eventually, the offense has to meet the defense somewhere in the middle.
And that’s why the developments involving Hansen and Sategna are so important.
They provide evidence that there are answers available.
Hansen can become a matchup problem.
Sategna can become the explosive element.
Beers can remain a versatile piece.
Mateer’s legs can add another dimension.
Now Oklahoma has to put all of those pieces together.
Because the schedule isn’t getting any easier.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The New Mexico game wasn’t a referendum on whether Oklahoma is good or bad.
It was another piece of evidence.
And the stock report coming out of it is a mixed bag.
Hayden Hansen? Rising rapidly.
Isaiah Sategna? Rising.
David Stone and the defensive front? Rising.
Rocky Beers? Holding, but still potentially a major weapon.
Interior run blocking? Still a problem.
Overall offensive consistency? Still under pressure.
That’s where Oklahoma sits heading into Georgia.
The encouraging part is that the Sooners are discovering individual answers.
The concerning part is that they haven’t yet figured out how to consistently connect those answers into an offense that can carry the team.
And that makes Saturday in Athens fascinating.
Because if Hansen really is becoming the weapon he looked like against New Mexico, and if Sategna is truly becoming the explosive centerpiece of this passing game, Oklahoma suddenly has a few more answers than it did a week ago.
Now we’ll find out whether those answers are enough.
SOONER NATION’S STOCK MARKET
Here’s the question for you:
Which Oklahoma player has seen his stock rise the most through the first three games — Hayden Hansen, Isaiah Sategna III, David Stone or someone else?
And there’s a second question worth arguing about:
Is Rocky Beers being underutilized as a receiver, or is his blocking work becoming just as important to getting this offense where it needs to go?
Let us know where you stand.
