r/oklahomafootball

What do y’all think of the new tailgate location? I am a little worried it will be too crowded. It seems to be half the size of the old location.

Oklahoma's defense handed the offense one of the best field position advantages in the country last year. The offense did almost nothing with it — 111th out of 136 at turning field position into points, after being top-12 in seven of the eight years before that. It's the second-biggest two-year collapse in that stat out of 639 team-seasons since 2016. Almost all of it happens in one place on the field, and it traces back to a run game that finished 127th in open-field yards.

Only 60% of drives that got to the opponent's 40 went on to reach the redzone, down from 85% in 2023.

OU's first down success rate from the opponent's 40 to 20 was just 28%, down from 44-64% going back to 2016. Meaning, 3/4 of first down snaps in scoring territory result in no gain.

On standard downs, OU finished 98th in the country after finishing 6th in 2023 and their 2nd average yards to go was the longest average (7.98) in a decade.

Am I concerning you yet?

I'm an OU alum living in Florida and wanted to take my kids to see their first game. What is the best way to secure tickets for when OU visits the swamp later this year? Is there a Sooner ticket exchange or is it better to just hit the secondary market (I think seatgeek was listed as the designated option)?

Also of note: Oklahoma’s schedule this season consists of the preseason #3, #5, #8, #9, #16, and #25 team

Patio Bar cleaned up for some Sooner Football!!

https://preview.redd.it/ybciw26ne1kh1.jpg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9e697de7ecc1874668d7aad8a8dd2893802799b6

During the scrimmage today, Jake Maikkula went down with a lower body injury (implied to be his knee) and was emotional on the sidelines as he was taken off.

Obviously nothing official has been announced, but all signs would indicate that this is very bad for the team and for their offensive line moving forward. Jake was projected to be the starting center and the leader of the offensive line.

I am not sure how OU will replace him, as the center is supposed to be the one calling gap assignments and blocks for the tackles and ends.

Very snake-bitten and disappointing as a fan, because all off-season the coaches had been preaching how important offensive-line cohesion was for the team overall, and the offense in particular.

2025 Metric ranks:

Front-seven havoc: 1st

Stuff rate: 2nd

Line yards allowed: 2nd

Rushing success rate allowed: 2nd

DB havoc: 49th

Explosiveness allowed: 109th

The best disruption front in America — and a bottom-quartile unit at preventing the big play once you got past it. Nobody says this out loud because the scoring numbers were gorgeous.

Now the churn. Returning 2025 defensive production by group (player_season_stats.csv defensive_tot/tfl/sacks/pd + interceptions_int, weighted, matched to rosters.csv 2026 by player_id):

DL: 53.4% returns (Thomas, Halton, D. Williams, Jones gone)

LB: 55.4%

DB: 66.0% returns

So the group that was 1st in the country returns the least. The group that was 49th returns the most. The public story is inverted.

One of my friends briefly mentioned that our top 3 RBs are out. Is this true? 😭

For the Oklahoma @ Michigan game on Sept. 12, I’m trying to buy 2 resale tickets and want to be 100% sure I’m in the actual OU visitor section/allotment, not just a section that happens to have some OU fans.
I’ve seen conflicting info online about Sections 8–11 vs. 15–16. If you bought your tickets through the OU allotment for this game, what section(s) are your tickets in? Even better if you can share a screenshot of your ticket (with any personal info covered).
Trying to figure this out before I buy resale tickets. Thanks!

Looking at college football data's new weighted efficiency rating (CORE), I compared OU's offensive and defensive average ratings from 2016-19 vs 2024-25 and OU has the biggest shift in performance between units more than any other team.

It raises the question: Is Venables able to stabilize the offense or are we destined to be stuck on this rollercoaster indefinitely?

Methodology:

Step 1: Pick two windows. The "before" is 2016–2019 (peak Air Raid Oklahoma). The "after" is 2024–2025 (Venables's SEC era). I used four years on the early side and two on the late side, then averaged the ranks within each window to smooth out single-season noise.

Step 2: Rank every team within its own season. CORE offense, rank 1 = best. CORE defense, rank 1 = best (lowest allowed). This matters because there were 128 teams in 2016 and 136 in 2025 — ranking within season makes the numbers comparable.

Step 3: Compute the offense swing. OU's early-window offense ranks: 1st, 1st, 1st, 4th → mean 1.8. Late-window: 117th, 99th → mean 108.0. The swing is 108.0 − 1.8 = 106.2 rank positions worse.

Step 4: Compute the defense swing. Early-window defense ranks: 75th, 62nd, 110th, 69th → mean 79.0. Late-window: 9th, 3rd → mean 6.0. The swing is 79.0 − 6.0 = 73.0 rank positions better.

Step 5: Add them. 106.2 + 73.0 = 179.2. That's the combined identity swap — how many total rank positions moved across both sides of the ball, in opposite directions.

Step 6: Run it for everyone. Same calculation for all 130 FBS teams present in both windows. Second place is Toledo at 122.2. Third is FIU at 86.8. Oklahoma is 47% ahead of second place.

2027 recruit out of southeast Oklahoma is making noise with some division 1s in Texas and the Midwest as of late. 8-man school but is 6’3 195 with a 4.55 40 yard dash. Is allegedly pushing for more in state eyes.

These past two years have been nothing short electric with the big games OU has played. Last year we played at least 4 games that would have been the biggest game on OU’s schedule since Baker went to the shoe.

But when I look at how I feel about that and how the rest of the country has seemed to want to get big games off the schedule by any means necessary to make the playoff, and I can’t help but be confused.

Everybody is saying that you should schedule easy game and take your chances with the committee. I just feel like we’ve gotten so far away from what sports are supposed to be.

Sometimes in sports, you play a good team and you lose and it ends up costing you your season. Sometimes in sports, you lose a game you weren’t supposed to, and that costs you your season.

But you know what else? Sometimes in sports, you schedule those tough games and end up getting a marquee win that is the sole reason for your inclusion in the postseason.

It just makes me sad that the sentiment is “Texas shouldn’t have played Ohio state” and not “thank god Miami beat Notre dame”

My question for the group is: how do you feel about OU’s schedule and how would you like to see them handle OOC scheduling moving forward?