The Oklahoma Sooners need a bounce-back season in 2025. OU went 6-7 overall in head coach Brent Venables’ third season last year, which included a 2-6 league record in their first season in the Southeastern Conference. They’ve retooled the offensive side of the ball to go with what was a strong defense in 2024. Although they were picked to finish 10th in the SEC, there are a number of analysts, like Josh Pate, who believe they are a top-10 caliber team.
Now, the Sooners enter Venables’ fourth year and their second year in the SEC, needing to prove the naysayers wrong after the disappointment of 2024. They’ll face a challenging schedule that includes home games against Illinois State, Michigan, Auburn, Kent State, Ole Miss, Missouri, and LSU, as well as road games against Temple, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama. Of course, Oklahoma’s schedule also includes the annual Red River Rivalry matchup against Texas and the neutral-site Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
OU has to deal with one of the toughest schedules in the country this year, but the Sooners have made plenty of moves this offseason to improve on the product they put on the field last season.
J.D. PicKell, who covers college football for On3 Sports, has been vocal in his opinion this offseason that Oklahoma will be much improved in 2025. However, he said this week on “The Hard Count with J.D. PicKell” that he believes OU needs a few things to go right this year to have the kind of success Sooner Nation is used to.
PicKell’s biggest need for the Sooners this year is for new starting quarterback John Mateer to have an excellent season. PicKell has reason to believe that will happen, given Mateer’s relationship with new offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Ben Arbuckle.
It’s night and day different when it comes to how stable they are and and what you can actually…
Source link : https://soonerswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/sooners/football/2025/07/22/oklahoma-sooners-football-sec-brent-venables-john-mateer/85330821007/
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Publish date : 2025-07-23 02:38:00
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