Latest news with #BrentVenables'
USA Today
2 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Oklahoma Sooners among wildcard teams for 2025 College Football Playoff
The Oklahoma Sooners have quite a variety of possible outcomes for the 2025 college football season. According to some of the college football experts out there, the Sooners are nothing more than the 6-7 team they were a year ago, but other see Brent Venables' squad as a potential playoff team. When you consider the number of injuries the Sooners had to endure in 2024, it's not hard to imagine Oklahoma returning to conference title contention. CBS Sports' Carter Bahns believes the Sooners could be among college football's wild card teams in 2025. The last time Oklahoma avoided the injury bug, it won 10 games and climbed as high as No. 5 in the CFP rankings. In many ways, the Sooners' SEC debut can be tossed aside as an outlier. Any team stretched that thin at wide receiver and offensive line would be bound to perish in such a loaded conference. Positive regression is in store. The question is, how much. Brent Venables needs it to manifest in the form of at least a few extra wins in order to silence his critics. The defense should remain stout under Venables' guidance, so if John Mateer clicks at quarterback and new offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle is a hit, Oklahoma should bounce back quite nicely. All the way to playoff contention? We'll see. - Bahns, CBS Sports Brent Venables took an aggressive approach to rebuild an offense that ranked No. 98 in the nation in points per game in 2024. You take away the defensive scores and Oklahoma's offense averaged just 13 points per game in SEC play. Certainly not good enough for a program that's had some of the most prolific offenses over the last 25 years. So Venables went out and brought in Arbuckle and Mateer, added five transfer portal wide receivers, a trio of portal offensive linemen, three portal tight ends, and a former 1,300-yard running back in Jaydn Ott from Cal to help revitalize the Oklahoma offense from what it was in the Sooners first year in the SEC. The Sooners are banking on all of the additions, along with some good luck on the injury front, to lead to a resurgent season for the offense. And if that happens, Oklahoma may find themselves in conference title contention in 2025. Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow John on X @john9williams.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Alabama makes Oklahoma homecoming game in 2025
After a dominating 24-3 win over the Alabama Crimson Tide back in November, the Oklahoma Sooners will be in for quite the scene next November when they face 'Bama once again. The 2024 matchup between two of the five greatest programs in the history of college football proved consequential for both teams, as OU managed to get bowl eligible for a 26th straight season with the upset victory on senior night. The Tide likely would have made the College Football Playoff if not for the shocking loss in Norman. Brent Venables' team will meet Kalen DeBoer's squad once again next season, but this time the matchup will come in Tuscaloosa. But the Crimson Tide have upped the ante even more for what could be a very big contest. Alabama has decided to make their matchup with Oklahoma their homecoming game on Saturday, November 15, per Bryant-Denny Stadium is already a very tough place to play, but a raucous homecoming crowd will make OU's task even more difficult. The two blue blood programs have met five times in the 21st century, with Oklahoma winning all but one of the matchups. Alabama sets its 2025 Homecoming football game for Saturday, Nov. 15 against Oklahoma. — (@FBSchedules) February 7, 2025 This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Oklahoma-sooners-football-alabama-crimson-tide-2025-sec-homecoming
USA Today
07-02-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Alabama makes Oklahoma homecoming game in 2025
Alabama makes Oklahoma homecoming game in 2025 After a dominating 24-3 win over the Alabama Crimson Tide back in November, the Oklahoma Sooners will be in for quite the scene next November when they face 'Bama once again. The 2024 matchup between two of the five greatest programs in the history of college football proved consequential for both teams, as OU managed to get bowl eligible for a 26th straight season with the upset victory on senior night. The Tide likely would have made the College Football Playoff if not for the shocking loss in Norman. Brent Venables' team will meet Kalen DeBoer's squad once again next season, but this time the matchup will come in Tuscaloosa. But the Crimson Tide have upped the ante even more for what could be a very big contest. Alabama has decided to make their matchup with Oklahoma their homecoming game on Saturday, November 15, per Bryant-Denny Stadium is already a very tough place to play, but a raucous homecoming crowd will make OU's task even more difficult. The two blue blood programs have met five times in the 21st century, with Oklahoma winning all but one of the matchups.
USA Today
28-01-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Oklahoma Sooners have the toughest schedule in college football, per 247Sports
The Oklahoma Sooners had one of the hardest schedules in the country in 2024, their first season in the Southeastern Conference. OU went 6-7 in Brent Venables' third season at the helm. Oklahoma's 4-1 nonconference record wasn't enough to overcome a 2-6 mark in SEC play. The league's schedule-makers didn't do the Sooners any favors last year, with a gauntlet of a slate, especially compared to conference foes like Texas, who played just two league opponents with a winning conference record. OU, by comparison, played six, not including the Longhorns themselves. With the eight conference opponents in 2025 merely flipping from 2024, Oklahoma again will have to navigate a brutally tough schedule in a pivotal season in Norman. And once again, their archrivals will get the easy end of things for the second straight year, playing only Georgia and Texas A&M. Brad Crawford, who writes for 247Sports, ranked the ten toughest schedules in college football for 2025. He ranked OU's gauntlet as the hardest in the entire country. He projected that the Sooners will play a ridiculous eight ranked opponents in one season. No one's taking up a plate and offering relief for Brent Venables' program in 2025, which is coming off a disappointing finish and landed quarterback John Mateer in the portal in hopes of reversing fortunes. The Sooners have a prime opportunity in Week 2 for a statement win against Michigan, the first of eight ranked opponents over the final 10 games. – Crawford, 247Sports Five other SEC teams made the list, all within the top seven. Mississippi State, Florida, Arkansas, LSU, and Vanderbilt will also be facing quite a brutal road in 2025. Oklahoma adds a big nonconference bout with Michigan to their league slate. Fortunately, their other three nonconference games are against Illinois State, Temple, and Kent State. However, that's where the easy things end. OU's conference schedule features home games against Auburn, Ole Miss, Missouri, and LSU. Those games are interspersed with road tilts against South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama. Throw in the yearly neutral-site game against Texas, and you've got a schedule that looks even tougher than last year's. Entering a crucial season for the program, Venables and his team will have to pull it together and be better than just about everyone is expecting. Otherwise, there will be big changes coming to one of college football's premiere programs. Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Aaron on X @Aaron_Gelvin.
