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Sooners do the expected — blow Temple away 51-3

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If there is any takeaway from Oklahoma’s 51-3 win over Temple on Saturday night it was that the defense — which grabbed six Owls turnovers — was everything as billed. But the offense has a ways to go.

“I loved how aggressive and confident our guys were moving around, flying to the ball and being aggressive and knocking the ball loose,” Coach Brent Venables said. “Fantastic job by the defense.”

The Sooners had fumbles recovered by Terry, senior safety Billy Bowman Jr. and junior safety Robert Spears-Jennings. 

Concern about the offense, which scored many points, but failed to convert on only one of 12 third downs and saw starting center Branson Hickman get injured (sprained ankle), was not relieved, despite the offense scoring 44 points. In addition Jalil Farooq’s season likely ended when he sustained a broken foot.

Farooq’s injury compounded a depth problem at wide receiver. Top returning receiver Nic Anderson was out for this game and Jayden Gibson suffered a season-ending knee injury in practice.

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Mike: My 2024 game-by-game expectation for Sooners

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It is not an overstatement that the 2024 college football season is a pivotal year for the sport and certainly for the Oklahoma program.

Entering into the lion’s den that is labeled the SEC, the Sooners have their hands full, especially considering they bring a new quarterback and inexperience at the offensive line. 

And, the shape of the football landscape has changed in addition to this development. The Big 10 now has a more national appearance, grabbing Oregon and usually significant USC to their ranks, and the Big 12 has gobbled up the mountain time zone schools of Utah, Arizona and Colorado.

But for Oklahoma, it will be a one-week-at-a-time fight, with few easy weekends between the beginning game against Temple on Friday night, August 30 (6 pm ESPN), until the playoff committee in December announces the 12 teams (yes, that’s new too) to make the post season.

So, what should we expect from our Sooners this year?  Here is my game by game prognostication:

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Dave: SEC gets us a lot of attention

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We are again on the precipice of another glorious season of Oklahoma Football.

Only this time it’s different. A new conference. The big bad SEC. The toughest and greatest conference in all the land. Or so we’ve been told the last 20 years by ESpin.

“It just means more”…or something like that.

I get that they are promoting their brand, and ESPN is as well due to the large amounts of money they have spent on the TV rights for the conference.

But didn’t you all get sick of the constant line they were pushing? That the SEC was so much better than all the other conferences? I agreed with Bob Stoops when he said that the SEC was a top-heavy conference just like several other conferences.

They just so happened to receive a lot of attention because Alabama went on an historic streak of National Titles during that time. It’s not like Mississippi State won those titles too.

They would have said the same thing about the Big 12 if OU had won 3 or 4 titles in that span or the Big 10 had Michigan went on a hot streak.

And remember, Bob Stoops was 7-4 versus SEC teams, including 3-0 against vaunted Alabama.

This schedule is a lot to handle
I’m not saying the SEC doesn’t have access to very talented players in the southeastern part of the United States, which has very fertile recruiting grounds. But it’s not like other conferences are throwing out converted rugby players they had to find at the local YMCA. They recruit just has hard, and these days recruiting is a nationwide endeavor.

I will say that as of the past few years, the SEC has grown at the top with Georgia knocking off Alabama to become the leader of the pack, and Tennessee is coming on strong. Ole Miss and Missouri are also making waves.

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