College Football season is getting closer and closer. One surefire way to tell that the season is almost upon us is the release of the Associated Press Top 25. Even though in the [autotag]College Football Playoff[/autotag] era, the AP Top 25 isn’t as useful as it used to be, it’s still something for fans to get excited or upset about in the long days before the season kicks off.
The Oklahoma Sooners ranked 16th in the AP Top 25, the exact same place they landed in the US LBM Coaches Poll. OU has a daunting schedule in 2024, as they enter the SEC, but ESPN believes a crucial early-season, non-conference game could be telling for their chances to make the [autotag]CFP[/autotag] this year.
ESPN went team-by-team through the AP Top 25, giving best-case and worst-case scenarios for each team. Then, they highlighted one game early in the season that will be crucial for that team.
OU’s ceiling was placed at an excellent 11-1 this season, which would pleasantly surprise even the staunchest of Oklahoma defenders. However, the Sooners’ floor was placed at 6-6, which would be very disappointing after a 10-3 season last year. The ESPN Matchup Predictor put the Sooners at 9-3, which would have them on the verge of the playoff.
Head coach [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag] improved from 2022 to 2023 and, even entering the [autotag]SEC[/autotag], the expectation is to take another step forward in 2024.
With the brutal SEC schedule on many people’s minds this offseason, a nonconference matchup that isn’t getting a lot of buzz was picked as OU’s key early-season game. On September 14, the [autotag]Tulane Green Wave[/autotag] will come to town and ESPN believes the Sooners will need to be at their best that day to win.
Oklahoma’s stiffest pre-SEC tune-up may well come when Tulane visits Norman for the third time since 2017. Oregon quarterback transfer Ty Thompson and running back Makhi Hughes, the reigning [autotag]AAC[/autotag] Rookie of the Year, should test the Sooners’ experienced defense, and a Green Wave defense that held opponents to 20.5 points per game will challenge first-year starter [autotag]Jackson Arnold[/autotag]. A week before Tennessee visits to open SEC play, Oklahoma can’t overlook Tulane — it was only three years ago that the Green Wave nearly upset the Sooners in Norman. – Eli Lederman, ESPN.
The Tulane contest could be seen as a classic “trap game” before the Volunteers arrive for a highly-anticipated matchup on September 21. The Sooners and Green Wave have met twice in their history, both in Norman.
The first meeting came in 2017, when the Sooners won in decisive fashion, 56-14. Oklahoma was on their way to a third-straight [autotag]Big 12[/autotag] title that year during their run of six in a row. The Sooners also made the playoff for the second time in three years (and the first of three in a row, and four out of five in total) that year, going 12-1.
The second meeting was far more interesting.
In 2021, the season-opener was supposed to be played in New Orleans, but was moved to Norman due to Hurricane Ida. In the first sign of trouble in [autotag]Lincoln Riley[/autotag]’s final season at OU, the highly-ranked Sooners couldn’t put the Green Wave away, barely hanging on to get to 1-0 with a 40-35 victory. Oklahoma blew a big lead and nearly suffered a catastrophic loss. The Sooners failed to live up to expectations in 2021, missing the conference title game. Riley departed for USC hours after the regular season ended, leading to the hire of Venables a week later.
The Sooners would do well to take Tulane seriously. They’ve been one of the best programs at the Group of Five level over the past couple of seasons. With all the changes and realignment in college football, the Green Wave are looking to make the playoff in the 12-team expansion era. The G5 level has been significantly thinned out by programs like UCF, Cincinnati, Houston, BYU, and SMU joining Power Four leagues. After head coach Willie Fritz left to coach the Houston Cougars, who OU will see a week before they play Tulane, the Green Wave hired former Troy head coach Jon Sumrall. It’s a move that was regarded as an excellent hire in New Orleans.
Additionally, this game likely means more to Tulane than it will Oklahoma. With a win, they could make a huge early statement that they should be the non-Power Four team that gets a shot in the postseason.
In short, the Sooners have to be ready to go when Tulane marches in on September 14. With their incredibly difficult conference schedule, OU can’t afford a loss in the nonconference if they want to live up to the standard this season. As much fun as the following week’s game against Tennessee will be, the Sooners need to be 3-0 when the Volunteers get to Norman.
That means taking care of business against what could be a very pesky opponent in the Tulane Green Wave.
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