Oklahoma vs. South Carolina kickoff window announced for Week 8 along with Georgia at Texas.
As the Oklahoma Sooners gear up for their Week 7 matchup with the Texas Longhorns, the SEC released the kickoff times for the Week 8 slate of games.
The Sooners and Gamecocks have been given the flexible timeslot as of right now and will either kickoff at 11:00 a.m. or 11:45 a.m. CT at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. The broadcast channel is still up in the air, and either ESPN or SEC Network is slated for the game.
A lot will depend on how the Oklahoma Sooners perform against the Texas Longhorns this Saturday in the Cotton Bowl.
Beyond Oklahoma vs. South Carolina, the Week 8 schedule has a chance to be as good as Week 7. Alabama will play at Tennessee, and LSU will play at Arkansas in a pair of underrated rivalries. The day will be capped off by Georgia at Texas in a primetime matchup that could feature a pair of top-five teams.
It’d be a shame if Oklahoma were to spoil what could be a top five affair.
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Where did the Oklahoma Sooners land in Locked On SEC’s conference power rankings for week 2?
The Oklahoma Sooners are coming off of a 48-point week one win over an overmatched Temple Owls team. Led by a dominant defensive effort, the Sooners earned a bump in both the US LBM Coaches Poll and AP Top 25.
But that isn’t the only place the Sooners saw a bump. Locked On SEC’s Chris Gordy has been covering the SEC for a long time and has a good feel for the conference as a whole. He has the Sooners ranked No. 7 in the conference.
The Sooners moved up one spot after LSU’s loss to the USC Trojans on Sunday night.
They’re right behind the Tennessee Volunteers, who the Sooners will see in the SEC debut on September 21. The following week, Oklahoma will go on the road to take on the Auburn Tigers for their much anticipated first-ever SEC road trip. Aside from Auburn, the only team the Sooners play this year that is ranked behind them is South Carolina.
The Gamecocks struggled with Old Dominion in week one. Even though they got the win, it was so unimpressive that they came in at No. 16 in Gordy’s power rankings.
No surprise who sits at the top of the SEC power rankings, with Georgia coming in at No. 1 in both of the major national polls. Texas is No. 2 in the conference. SEC and national analysts are very high on the Longhorns heading into the season. But given the turnover on offense, they still have a ton to prove, in my opinion.
We’re higher on the Sooners in the SEC early in the season. Oklahoma is my No. 4 team in the conference behind Georgia, Alabama, and Ole Miss. Though there are a lot of OU doubters out there, this is a team with a defense to make a ton of noise in the SEC despite it being their first year in the league.
But the Sooners will get their opportunity to prove it in the coming weeks.
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The SP+ Rankings like Oklahoma more than the AP Top 25 or US LBM Coaches Poll, but how do they compare to the SEC?
The Oklahoma Sooners are just over two weeks away from beginning the 2024 college football season. The US LBM Coaches Poll has been out for a week, and the AP Top 25 was released on Monday. In both, the Sooners were voted the No. 16 team in the nation and eighth among SEC teams.
By comparison, the Oklahoma Sooners’ defense rates more favorably than the offense. OU’s defense comes in as the fourth-best unit in the SEC, according to the SP+ ratings. Offensively, however, the Sooners are considered the ninth-best offense in the conference.
It’s reasonable to expect more out of the defense. There’s a lot more experience and proven production on that unit led by Danny Stutsman, Billy Bowman, Ethan Downs, Woodi Washington and incoming defensive tackle transfer Damonic Williams.
The offense has talent, but aside from Gavin Sawchuk, Nic Anderson, Jalil Farooq, Andrel Anthony and their offensive line transfers, there’s not a lot of experience or production.
With former five-star quarterback Jackson Arnold taking the reins, there is a great deal of potential for the offense. He has a big arm and fantastic athleticism. He’s got a lot to prove but has the talent to be among the best in college football.
Beyond Arnold, the Sooners have much to prove on special teams. The SP+ ratings consider the Sooners to be the worst team in the SEC on special teams entering the season. The only spot that feels solidified is the punting duties with Luke Elzinga. Elzinga was the best part of Oklahoma’s special teams unit in 2023. OU’s kicking situation is unsettled and they have to get more out of the return game this season if they want to be a contender.
Oklahoma made the move to bring in Doug Deakin, who led some of the best special teams units in the nation during his time at San Diego State. If he can work that same magic in Norman, it’ll go a long way to helping the Sooners become a contender in 2024.
OU will have to be good in all three phases of the game to navigate their schedule and make a run for a College Football Playoff berth this season. Given the strength of the SEC and that OU will play five teams ranked higher than it in SP+ ratings, there’s no room to be average or bad in any phase of the game.
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Four-star in-state safety recruit moves up commitment date after visiting South Carolina
Four-star safety recruit Lagonza Hayward has moved up his commitment date. The talented class of 2025 safety prospect plans to announce his commitment on July 27. He was scheduled to commit in August.
Hayward’s top four schools are Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee. Hayward, who is ranked as the No. 6 safety in the country, is no longer considering Alabama, Florida State and USC.
The four-star safety plays high school football for Toombs County High School in Lyons, Georgia. The 6-foot-1, 200-pound safety is the No. 82 recruit in the nation and the No. 11 player in Georgia. Hayward is a key recruiting target for head coach Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs.
Hayward visited Georgia on May 31. The Toombs County standout also checked out South Carolina. He has official visits with Florida and Tennessee over the next couple of weeks.
Georgia football has been hot in recruiting recently. The Bulldogs have the No. 2 class of 2025 in the SEC. Georgia has four commitments in recent weeks and is building a strong foundation in the 2025 cycle.
With game times announced, here’s a look at the Oklahoma Sooners full 2024 football schedule.
The Oklahoma Sooners’ full 2024 schedule has been released by the [autotag]SEC[/autotag], which means its time to make those travel arrangements for a full slate of destination games in OU’s first season in the SEC.
In a welcome change from what had been a glaring issue in their final years in the Big 12, the Oklahoma Sooners have only two games scheduled for the early television window. Their home game against South Carolina on Oct. 19 and their road trip to The Grove to face Ole Miss both fall in the early television window with kickoff times slated for 11 a.m. CT or noon. The other 10 games will be late afternoon or prime-time starts for the Sooners.
The SEC and their broadcast partners will utilize flex scheduling for games against Tennessee, Missouri, Alabama and LSU. When the Volunteers return to Norman, it’ll mark the return of national championship-winning quarterback and former offensive coordinator [autotag]Josh Heupel[/autotag]. It will also be Oklahoma’s first SEC conference tilt.
Late-season games against Missouri, Alabama and LSU could have implications for the SEC title game and the College Football Playoff. Each has the potential to be a top-15 matchup.
There’s a potential for Oklahoma to play as many as six night games. Their first two weeks against Temple and Houston are already slated to kick off in the evening.
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SEC win projections for the 2024 College Football Season.
2024 will mark a new era of the ever-evolving landscape of college football. The Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns make the move to the SEC and face new challenges.
After a 2023 season that didn’t see an SEC team in the national championship game, there might be something to it. Georgia didn’t make the playoff and lost to an Alabama team that wasn’t necessarily the best of the Nick Saban era.
At the same time, the Georgia Bulldogs have earned the right to be the favorites in 2024. However, if you look at ESPN data analyst Jake Wimberly’s latest win projections for the inaugural season of the new-look 16-team conference, the Dawgs aren’t the favorite. It’s one of the newcomers.
Here’s a look at the projected win totals for the SEC in 2024.
Where does Jackson Arnold rank among SEC quarterbacks heading into spring ball?
As the SEC expands to 16 teams in 2024, the conference is stacked at the quarterback position. From former five-star prospects to 2024 Heisman contenders to intriguing transfer additions, there will be some fantastic quarterback play on display this fall in the SEC.
Seven of the last nine Heisman winners have come from Oklahoma and the SEC. Two of those seven were non-quarterbacks, DeVonta Smith and Derrick Henry.
Much of what will determine which teams emerge as SEC title and College Football Playoff contenders will be on the shoulders of the quarterbacks who will lead their team in 2024.
There are some quarterback competitions that need to take place, but here’s our pre-spring ball SEC quarterback rankings.
The Oklahoma Sooners are heading into a new era in the SEC and come in at No. 8 in the preseason SP+ rankings.
The Oklahoma Sooners had a really good season in 2023 as they bounced back from their 6-7 season in 2022 to win 10 games last year. Now, they prepare for a new era of Oklahoma football with the move to the [autotag]SEC[/autotag].
But they aren’t the only change coming to college football in 2024. The landscape as a whole has changed. The [autotag]Pac 12[/autotag] is essentially no more as everyone but Washington State and Oregon State left for the [autotag]Big 10[/autotag] or the [autotag]Big 12[/autotag].
For those that don’t know, Connelly releases a preseason SP+ ranking every February where he bases his projections on three primary factors weighted by their predictiveness. Those would be returning production, recent recruiting, and recent history.
So, let’s take a look at how Oklahoma stacks up against the rest of the SEC.
The Oklahoma Sooners are considered a top five program in the SEC according to Josh Pate.
The Oklahoma Sooners are heading into a new era of college football. Now, there are two mega conferences in college football with the additions the [autotag]SEC[/autotag] and Big 10 are making in 2024.
The Sooners elected to join the SEC, which sort of started this new wave of conference realignment. Much has been made about whether Oklahoma is “SEC ready”? Even after a 10-3 season, that question still looms over the program.
The program is heading in the right direction. They may not be ready to compete for an SEC championship in 2024, but you can tell with how they are recruiting, especially on the defensive side of the ball, they have a vision of what it’ll take to make this team ready for the week in, week out grind of the SEC.
While Oklahoma will be competitive in their inaugural season in 2024, 2025 is the year they’ll be serious title contenders. They’re still a young team and by 2025 a lot of this young talent will be seasoned.
But what about next season? How well can the Sooners do in Year 1? CBSSports’ and the Late Kick Show’s Josh Pate shared his SEC Power Ratings heading into the 2024 season Sunday night. In it, he values a rolling three-year snapshot of on-field performance, talent acquisition, and stability resource pool. Given all of that, he feels the Sooners are the fifth-best SEC program heading into 2024.
That means Oklahoma is probably around an 8-4 or 9-3 team in 2024, which is what I would have them at. And with the 12-team playoff incoming, there’s a possibility that puts them in the College Football Playoff in 2024.
I do think the LSU Tigers are a little overvalued because last year they were so bad defensively and were carried by their offense. Well, gone is Heisman winner Jayden Daniels and their star receiver Malik Nabors. Both are first round picks in 2024.
Here’s a look at how the SEC stacks up, according to Josh Pate.
Yahoo was very judicious with its choice of who to leave out. Two teams hail from the SEC East and two from the West.
Yahoo Sports recently ranked all the Southeastern Conference football stadiums from one to 10, excluding the bottom four.
The rankings were chosen based on the SEC as presently constructed, so apologies to fans of the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma, you all will have to wait until August to be included.
Yahoo was very judicious with its choice of who to leave out. Two teams hail from the SEC East and two from the West. Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt were left on the outside looking in.
Therefore, if you’re a fan of Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, Kroger Field, Davis Wade Stadium or FirstBank Stadium, you likely have an axe to grind with Yahoo Sports, not us. For what it’s worth though, they weren’t necessarily wrong.
In descending order, let’s find out where Texas A&M‘s Kyle Field in Aggieland ranks among the best conference in college football.
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