Oklahoma is a Contender

The Red River Shootout always is one of the best games to watch every year, well except for last year, but this year got right back on track. What an exhilarating game. The 1st quarter was filled with Special Teams miracles and back and forth play and continued through the final play.

While I can go on about how fun the game was to watch, I wanted to dive deeper on the Oklahoma Sooners and Brent Venables. Coming into this game, we hadn’t seen the Sooners against a formidable opponent so the world was a bit unsure on what to expect from them. On the other sideline, we saw a team go into Tuscaloosa and slay a giant. Turns out the Sooners are the real deal.

After going 6-7 last year and being embarrassed in the Red River Shootout 49-0, the Sooners have stomped back in year two of Brent Venables and had a statement win over Texas that slingshot them right into the CFP conversation overnight. Dillon Gabriel was the MVP of the game with his dual threat ability in the air and on the ground. The defense was much improved from last year and really controlled the game up front on both sides against a strong line from Texas on both offense and defense.

With a fresh top 5 AP ranking, the Sooners are set up nicely after this massive win. They go straight into their bye week and host a struggling UCF team at home next followed the last 5 games potentially not featuring a ranked opponent. A Big 12 Title Game appearance is right in front of them which will most likely be a rematch of the Red River Shootout.

Venables has his team poised for a season with all their goals still very much in reach. Oklahoma fans are feeling like they are able to catch their breath a bit now after they were unsure of the Venables hire after last year. They got their guy!

The Big 12 is a conference with ups and downs and eternal chaos throughout the season, so the Sooners still have to hold up their end of the bargain, however they have now regained the respect that Brand has historically earned after this win over the Longhorns.

Both the Longhorns and Sooners seem to be ready for the jump to compete in the SEC next year but not without leaving us a storybook ending of their final chapter in the Big 12.

-Kevin Joy