The Oklahoma Sooners open the season with the UTEP Miners coming to town for Week 1. It should be a raucous environment to kick off the Brent Venables era.
If the Sooners’ spring game attendance record of 75,000 is any indication, fans of the program are itching to get things underway in the first year for Venables.
Each week on Sooners Wire, we’ll give you our predictions for the Oklahoma Sooners’ matchup.
You can also check out our thoughts on how the 2022 season will play out for the Sooners.
Sooners Wire staff predictions for OU vs. UTEP
Take a deep breath, Sooner fans. We made it.
After an offseason none of us saw coming this time last year, Oklahoma football is back. This time last year, as the Sooners prepared for Tulane, we talked about Spencer Rattler as a Heisman hopeful, and OU fighting for the College Football Playoff.
Neither materialized, and Lincoln Riley left for USC, which allowed Brent Venables to come back as head coach.
His first game is against UTEP, and the energy in Norman should be electric. Venables brings his incredible national championship-winning caliber defensive approach with him, and Jeff Lebby is bringing the tempo back on offense. The Sooners should cruise, but how this team comes together on Saturday will be something to watch.
New starting quarterback Dillon Gabriel lights up the scoreboard before departing sometime early in the third quarter. Two touchdown passes for him combined with rushing touchdowns by Eric Gray and Marcus Major. Defensively, I see three OU takeaways. One by Billy Bowman, my breakout player of 2022 for OU.
Oklahoma 48, UTEP 13
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