Following a 35-9 drubbing at the hands of the South Carolina Gamecocks, the Oklahoma Sooners dropped to 1-3 in [autotag]SEC[/autotag] play this season and 4-3 overall.
With five games left in the regular season, OU is in serious danger of missing the postseason entirely this year, mainly because of the opponents that still lurk on the schedule.
The Sooners will need to get to at least 6-6 in order to make a bowl game meaning they have to win at least two more games to make the postseason. With one game coming up in a couple of weeks against Maine, an FCS team, getting to five wins should be easy enough.
Aside from that, Oklahoma is a heavy underdog against Ole Miss this week. Outside of Maine, the rest of the schedule is a grind. Those teams would be Missouri, Alabama, and LSU, which is a gauntlet of a late-season stretch.
After the 26-point loss at home, many believe that [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag]’ team will miss a bowl game. That would also mean finishing with a losing record for only the second time since 1998. The other season was also under Venables, when OU went 6-7 in 2022. They did make a bowl game, losing to the Florida State Seminoles in the Cheez-It Bowl.
ESPN has released their latest bowl projections (ESPN+). Staff writers Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach made their picks for every bowl matchup in December and January.
Schlabach has the Sooners missing a bowl altogether, while Bonagura still has a little bit of faith in Oklahoma. He predicts that OU will play in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl on ESPN on December 27. That game takes place at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas, a venue the Sooners know well, as it’s the home stadium of the TCU Horned Frogs.
Bonagura projects OU’s opponent in that game to be the Navy Midshipmen, who are currently in the midst of a spectacular undefeated season. The team is one of just three unbeaten teams outside of the Power Four, along with Army and Liberty. The Midshipmen compete in the American Athletic Conference.
While Navy is currently in the running for the Group of Five automatic bid spot in the College Football Playoff, Bonagura believes that slot will go to Boise State instead.
Oklahoma and Navy have met just once all-time, with the Midshipmen winning that game back in 1965 by a score of 10-0.
With Venables making the decision to shake up his offensive coaching staff on Sunday evening, the Sooners hope they can pull an upset somewhere along the line and extend the bowl streak another season.
The last time that Oklahoma failed to make a bowl game was all the way back in 1998. John Blake was the head coach that year, and his firing at the conclusion of that season paved the way for Oklahoma to hire Bob Stoops, the winningest head coach in program history.
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