TULSA, OKLA. ? It took Oklahoma much longer than expected to begin looking like a possible No. 1 team.

The Sooners, who moved into a tie with Miami this week atop the Associated Press Top 25 poll, led just 3-0 at halftime before beating Tulsa, 37-0, Friday night.

Oklahoma running back Quentin Griffin (22) gets tackled by Tulsa defensive back Reginald Reese. The Sooners won Friday's game in Tulsa, Okla., 37-0.

Senior tailback Quentin Griffin needed just 17 carries to gain a career-high 237 yards, and freshman Kejuan Jones had 70 yards and two short touchdown runs. But dropped passes, three turnovers deep in Tulsa territory and other mistakes made for a sloppy opener.

“There were a lot of good parts of this game and we’re going to focus on those,” coach Bob Stoops said.

“We had four third-down drops inside the 25-yard line, and we have three turnovers inside the 20. If we don’t have those, we’re in great shape.”

The Sooners, who were 11-2 last year, only managed a field goal in the first half against a team that gave up 35 points and 447 yards per game while going 1-10 a year ago. Oklahoma ended up hammering Tulsa up the middle and finished with 378 yards rushing, the most in Stoops’ three-plus seasons as coach.

“We understand we’re going to see a lot more physical people than Tulsa,” Stoops said. “But we’ve played some other teams that we’ve outmatched and that hasn’t happened before.”

After a first half that kept the mostly pro-Oklahoma crowd quiet, the Sooners scored twice early in the third quarter to take control, then added three fourth-quarter TDs to make it a blowout.

Griffin had runs of 44, 7 and 3 yards to set up an 8-yard touchdown run by Jones two minutes into the second half. Four minutes later, Antonio Perkins returned a punt 91 yards for a touchdown that made it 17-0.

In the fourth quarter, Jones scored on a 1-yard run after gaining 39 yards on a carry earlier in the drive. Oklahoma scored twice in the final five minutes, each on short drives set up by turnovers. Renaldo Works scored on a 13-yard run and Jerad Estus scored from 11 yards out.

Jason White, making his first start at quarterback since a season-ending knee injury last October against Nebraska, was 15-of-26 for 126 yards. But he threw an interception in the end zone in the first half and another inside the 15-yard line on the first play of the fourth quarter.