With new quarterback Jalen Hurts setting records, Oklahoma’s offense dominated Houston Sunday night as the Sooners won 49-31.

And the OU defense showed signs of improvement.

Don’t expect No. 4 Oklahoma to be challenged Saturday night when they host South Dakota, who fell to Montana 17-31 Saturday in South Dakota.

Hurts, a graduate transfer from Alabama, hit 20 of 23 passes for 332 yards and three touchdowns, and rushed 16 times for a career-high 176 yards and three scores. Hurts ended with a dazzling 251.3 passer efficiency rating.

“I have definitely tried to maximize the most out of this opportunity that I have here every day,” Hurts said. “Enjoy every moment with these guys I have around me and soak it all in. You only live once and God has put me in some crazy, unprecedented situations but is not anything that I can’t handle.”

Hurts set an OU record for a player’s debut with 508 yards of total offense (176 rushing, 332 passing). Baker Mayfield previously held the record with 396 yards (388 passing, 8 rushing).

“He’s really picked up our stuff fast, and we’re excited about how that’s going to continue to grow,” said OU coach Lincoln Riley. “I wouldn’t speak to know much about him at Alabama, just kind of what everybody else saw. Here, he’s worked his tail off. He’s learned our stuff. But more importantly, he’s gotten more and more committed to our stuff. It’s one thing learning it and being able to write it on a grease board, and another being able to go execute it and trust it in front of a lot of people.”

Hurts is the first player in OU history to pass for at least 300 yards and rush for at least 150 yards.

Only former wishbone quarterback Thomas Lott has ever rushed for more yards (195) as a quarter back in a single game than Hurts did Sunday night.

“They’re a top-five team, deservingly so,” said first-year Houston coach Dana Holgorsen. “They’re well coached, they got really good players. They had a great atmosphere out there, as good as anywhere in college football. We would have had to play a really good game in order to win this thing…

“Jalen Hurts has obviously played a lot of ball and they’ve had the same play caller for five years, they had the same O-line coach for five years, they’ve had the same running back coach for five years, they’ve had the same wide receiver coach for five years. They’ve recruited at a pretty high level. They don’t just start over, they put people in and keep going. That’s continuity, that’s where OU is right now offensively.”

OU put up 686 yards of offense (354 rushing, 332 passing), the most in program history in a season opener. Wide receiver Charleston Rambo paced OU with a career-high 105 yards and one touchdown.

Running back Trey Sermon had 91 yards on 11 carries.

The revamped Sooner defense held Houston to 408 total yards. The Cougars ranked seventh nationally last year by averaging more than 500 yards (512.5) of offense.

“(Houston) is going to score a lot of points on a lot of people,” Riley said. “I said it all week. There aren’t five quarterbacks in the country better than [D’Eriq King], and that may be too many. He’s fantastic.

“I thought we played extremely well early. I mean, we were outright dominant really the majority of the first half until that last drive. We did some really, really good things. I thought we came out strong early in the second half, and then we had a little lull period there as a team. Obviously, that’s something  you’ve got to do better. There were certainly more positives than negatives, and that’s an exciting thing to build off of.”

“Obviously, number one, you want to have a fast start,” said new OU defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. “Along with that, you want to be elite finishers. We certainly couldn’t make that claim tonight.

 “For the most part, I felt like the effort was pretty good, just some lulls in execution. On one particular drive, we got three penalties that negated what could otherwise have been a good night for certain guys on defense.”

OU linebacker Kenneth Murray led with 13 tackles.

“We were sometimes living in the backfield and sometimes we weren’t,” Murray said. “The biggest takeaway that I had from tonight is that we have to be more consistent. We did a lot of great things but, there’s definitely a lot of improvement that we need to do. I am excited to get back to work so that we can get all those things reworked and put on a great show.”

One minus is that the Sooner defense didn’t create any turnovers.

“It’s inexcusable,” Murray said. “As the game started winding down, that was the message of being preached on the sideline. Getting takeaways and being consistent

in finishing are definitely things that we need to pride ourselves on and something that we need to get better on this week. I plan to get after it this week and trying to get everyone on the same page and create more takeaways. At the end of the day, having one takeaway and not getting the fumble recovery is unacceptable for us.”

Four Tulsans – defensive tackle LaRon Stokes (NOAH); outside linebacker Jon-Michael Terry (Victory Christian); free safety Pat Fields (Union); and cornerback Tre Brown (Union) – started for OU.

“I mean Oklahoma is a really good team,” said Houston quarterback D’Eriq King. “Tough team to beat on the road at their place. I think they rarely lose here.”

Austin Siebert graduated from OU and is the kicker for the Cleveland Browns. Calum Sutherland, Siebert replacement, hit 7 of 7 point after attempts but he missed both field goal tries.

Oklahoma’s new punter, Reeve Mundschau, didn’t get much work because OU’s offense was so proficient. Mundschau had one punt for 41 yards.