Brent Venables sees a hunger in the Oklahoma Sooners ahead of 2026

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The Oklahoma Sooners landed at No. 7 in the SEC preseason predicted order of finish as voted on by the SEC media last week at media days. They received two first-place votes and were one of the buzziest teams in Tampa. That wasn't me. We had them at No. 3 in our preseason predicted order of finish.

Talking to a lot of people last week at SEC media days, it wouldn't have been surprising to see the Sooners land in the top four. There was a lot of positive buzz. Still, the voters are taking a bit of a wait-and-see approach with Oklahoma.

Head coach Brent Venables probably doesn't mind his team being underrated going into the season. This is a team that left some meat on the bone in their playoff loss to Alabama and regular season losses to Texas and Ole Miss. Not that he needed any motivation to keep his guys locked in and pressing toward big things in 2026, but the SEC media provided it.

Venables downplayed the buzz the Sooners have been receiving this offseason compared to where this team was a year ago, saying "Listen, we focus on things that we can control. Do you ever use that as a motivation for a guy to maybe humble a guy? Absolutely. But at the end of the day this is a game of performance, this is a game that's about the work, and this is a game where it's decided on the field."

For as good as last season felt, winning 10 games and making the College Football Playoff, you look back on it and have to admit it was pretty incredible that the Sooners made it as far as they did.

They didn't have much of a running game to speak of; they were playing three freshmen offensive linemen, and they had a quarterback playing with a surgically repaired thumb on his throwing hand for more than half of the season.

The Sooners got a taste of success last year and should have found more, save for a number of self-inflicted wounds in the playoff loss to the Tide. That had to leave Oklahoma's returning players hungry for more.

Venables said at SEC media days, "There's a confidence and momentum that comes from the season as well, as well as the way the season ended, the disappointment. I think the hunger of this football team is there. The motivation to put themselves in the conversation down the road, the work it needs to do that."

And if anything, that's the biggest takeaway from SEC media days and from the offseason. This Sooners team knows what they're capable of. There's a quiet confidence built through last year's success (and failures) and the work they've put in this offseason to improve.

Venables wouldn't want it any other way. He'd rather be the team ranked at the top of the polls at the end of the season rather than the one at the beginning. It's not about how you start but how you finish, and the Oklahoma Sooners have a team that has a chance to finish on top in 2026.

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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Brent Venables sees a hunger in the Oklahoma Sooners ahead of 2026

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