Opponent Preview: Oklahoma Sooners
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Mascot: Sooners, named for the *ahem* overly enthusiastic folks who rushed into the territory to claim land prior to the starter’s pistol that officially announced the race had begun.
2025 Record: 10-3, 6-2 SEC
Conference: Big 12 SEC. Still feels weird.
Series History: Georgia leads 1-0 (won 54-48-in the greatest Rose Bowl ever played).
Head Coach: Brent Venables, aka Great Valu Kirby Smart.
Famous Alumni: Ed Harris, Olivia Munn, Dari Nowkhah, Atlanta Braves broadcaster Joe Simpson, a whole buncha NFL talent, including Kyler Murray, Adrian Peterson, and DeMarco Murray, former Atlanta Hawk Trae Young.
Fun Fact: The university was founded in 1890, 17 years before Oklahoma itself became a state.
2025 Recap
Venables seems to live his life perpetually on the hot seat. The 2025 edition of the Sooners may have bought him some goodwill with a surprise playoff appearance and marquee victories over Michigan at home and Alabama on the road. They were sometimes fun to watch, thanks to quarterback John Mateer’s swashbucking style of play and the fact that their biggest margin of victory over a Power Four team was beating a floundering South Carolina by 19.
Of course, they also lost the game they care about the most, dropping the Red River Shootout 23-6 after trying to rush Mateer back from a hand injury, leading to a three-interception performance that set offensive football back a decade or two. And despite a thrilling regular-season win in Tuscaloosa, the Sooners promptly bowed out of the playoff at the hands of those same Elephants in a 34-24 loss.
Tl;dr: They overperformed last year, and they’re a likely candidate for regression.
On Offense
The Oklahoma teams of yesteryear wed high-powered offenses to Swiss cheese defenses, turning every game into a wild shootout. Under Venables, they’ve reversed that formula to play a grueling style of defense-first football that only a fan could enjoy. To try to goose the offense a bit, last year’s team brought in rising star OC Ben Arbuckle and Mateer from Wazzu. Early results were promising, with Mateer getting Heisman buzz after the Michigan win. But he never got quite back on track after his injury. Was that the nagging effects of the injury, or was Mateer just bumping up against his ceiling after beating an overrated Michigan team with a host of problems of its own? He’s back this year, so we’ll find out!
Beyond Mateer, the team returns its best offensive weapon in wide receiver Isaiah Sategna, III. He’s not CeeDee Lamb, but he’s fast and elusive. Whatever he lacks in size (he’s listed at 5’10, so he’s small for a wideout), he makes up for in speed and YAC ability. To help out some, the team also added receiver Parker Livingstone from Texas.
Arbuckle’s offense has elements of the air raid, and Mateer is well-suited to running it because he gets the ball out fast and is dangerous in the short- and mid-range passing game. But the Sooners were at their best last year when taking advantage of his abilities as a runner. If you’re looking for a reason to be nervous about this one, let me draw your attention to the frustrations a dual-threat QB has traditionally caused Kirby Smart’s defenses.
On the other hand, Mateer’s biggest weaknesses are his long-range accuracy and a susceptibility to pre-snap confusion. Stopping the Sooners will be a matter of jamming the middle with a lot of bodies, employing ample pre-snap twists and stunts, and forcing them to throw deep where Ellis Robinson will be waiting.
On Defense
Venables’ teams have made their hay on the defensive side of the ball, and there’s no reason to suspect the 2026 edition will be any different. Although they lost fearsome pass rusher R. Mason Thomas to the NFL, last year’s team sack leader Taylor Wein is back, as is Kip Lewis. If there’s a defensive weakness, the Sooners aren’t quite as ball hawky as you might expect a Venables defense to be. But that doesn’t mean they’re going to be a pushover by any stretch.
Unless Arkansas is much, much better than anyone expects, this game will be the first real test for new o-line coach Phil Rauscher’s group. You can be fairly certain their gameplan is going to be to stuff the line and jam the run, hassle Gunner Stockton and try to make him win it through the air. So basically the exact same thing we’re going to do to them.
Prediction
Because it’s early in the season, I’d be a little more worried if this were in Norman. And if the offensive line is still a work in progress in late September, this one could turn into a hammer fight in a phone booth. Oklahoma plays a similar style to Georgia but without quite as much panache or the same quality players, which should favor the Dawgs, as will playing in Athens. Points will come at a premium, but I think UGA pulls away late to win, 28-17.
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