The second half of Bedlam and the 24 hours that followed provided a surreal feeling surrounding the Oklahoma Sooners football program.
After they were gifted nine points on a safety and a special teams touchdown, the Oklahoma Sooners’ offense fell flat and was held scoreless in the second half of the most important game of the year. Less than 24 hours after the game went final, Lincoln Riley was introduced as the head coach at USC.
Though Riley would never admit to being distracted, this L.A. Times reported his representation had been in contact with USC for months prior to taking the job. How could that not weigh heavily on his mind?
It was a disappointing loss and a disappointing end to a season in which Oklahoma was contending for a College Football Playoff berth.
A new season approaches and armed with a new head coach and offensive coordinator, the Oklahoma Sooners have an opportunity to enact revenge on their in-state rivals Oklahoma State.
Chip Patterson of CBS Sports took a look at the best revenge games on the 2022 schedule, and this year’s Bedlam matchup was ranked No. 3. Oklahoma at Nebraska was an honorable mention, but here’s what Patterson had to say about Oklahoma’s matchup with the Cowboys.
This is the first of two selections that take on the same storyline, with 2021 throwing us curveballs in a couple of the sport’s biggest rivalry games. We get excited for Bedlam every year, and while the games have provided some thrilling action the results have mostly been one-sided for the Sooners. Oklahoma entered last year’s game having won six straight and 16 of the last 18 meetings dating back to 2003. Oklahoma State’s thrilling 37-33 win was sealed not with a game-winning touchdown but a game-winning sack, fitting for a defense that had been stellar all season for the Cowboys. If Oklahoma had made almost any other hire to replace Lincoln Riley the revenge angle might not have been as strong, but Brent Venables connection to the Sooners program gives him full understanding of how much that loss hurt Oklahoma fans and how important it is for him to get revenge during his first Bedlam game as head coach. – Patterson, CBS Sports
The cast the Sooners will take into Bedlam might be different, but unlike Riley’s just another game approach to both Red River and Bedlam, Brent Venables hasn’t shied away from acknowledging the importance and magnitude of Red River. That’ll likely be the case with Bedlam as well.
“In all my games I’ve ever been in, and I’ve been in some big stages, eight national championships, 19 conference championships, nobody’s counting, but there ain’t nothing like walking down that dang ramp in the Cotton Bowl,” Venables told the crowd at the Dallas stop on the OU Coaches Caravan according to Josh Callaway of AllSooners on SI.
You seldom hear coaches magnify a game, and it’s refreshing. That honest approach and a deep understanding of the importance of Bedlam from his time on Bob Stoops’ staff, will create an intensity that will help the Sooners play a full 60 minutes against their Bedlam counterparts.
Oklahoma enters the 2022 season as arguably the better team on paper. But after everything that’s gone down, they have the feel of a team with something to prove. And Bedlam will provide an important proving ground for the new-look Oklahoma Sooners in Venables’ first year in Norman.
The game that changed everything in 2021, could argue for the better, will be a game that has significant Big 12 title and College Football Playoff ramifications at the end of the 2022 season.
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