OU football has played in big stadiums, but nothing like Michigan's The Big House
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NORMAN — Brent Venables is well aware of his Sooners’ road schedule this season.
Their conference schedule includes games at Georgia between The Hedges, at Mississippi State where fans always need more cowbell and at Florida in The Swamp.
But OU football will get the ultimate nonconference warm-up this week: Michigan.
“We’re going to have to be a team that plays well on the road,” Venables said Tuesday during his weekly press conference, “and not a better opportunity to go into the biggest stadium in college football.”
The thing is, Michigan isn’t just college football’s biggest stadium, at 107,601 seats. It is also the second-largest stadium in the Western Hemisphere, behind only Estadio Azteca, the soccer behemoth in Mexico City.
And worldwide, there are fewer than three dozen stadiums larger than Michigan Stadium.
The Big House indeed.
Now, the Sooners have played in big stadiums. A few years ago, they went to Ohio State and famously planted its flag in front of more than 100,000 fans. Last season, of course, OU went to Tennessee and Alabama. Both Neyland and Bryant-Denny stadiums seat crowds in the six figures.
And OU won at both places.
“Every game is different,” OU quarterback John Mateer said. “Yeah, we’ve been to some cool places. I don’t think it’ll be a shock for me and the guys that did it last year.
“But it’s still brand new, new excitement, new week, new opportunity. I’ll only get to play there once in my whole life, so I’m going to take it in.”
All of the Sooners should. No OU football team has ever played at Michigan — the two programs only played in a bowl before starting their home-and-home series last season in Norman — and no OU football team has ever played in a stadium bigger than the one these Sooners are headed to Saturday.
That’s history worth soaking in.
“I’m an enthusiast of college football,” Sooners offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle said. “From an outsider looking in, yeah, I love going to see historical places rich in tradition.
“But … whenever you get between the white lines, it’s just football at that point.”
Even though the field will be the same dimensions, the yard lines the same distance, the end zone the same size, the surroundings Saturday will be bigger than any the Sooners have ever experienced.
“As a competitor, as a coach here, you enjoy going on the road and having an opportunity to help control the environment going into these hostile places,” Venables said. “You talk about adversity and poise under pressure every single day.
“Whether it’s home or away, chaos on game day is very real.”
You have to think the chaos at Michigan will be as amped up as any place. While this isn’t a rivalry game like Ohio State would be, it is a marquee matchup of college football nobility. Michigan has the most wins in the sport’s history and 10 national championships, while OU has seven national championships and is the only program with four 100-win coaches.
The teams will be the stars of this show.
But like a Broadway show that finally gets to play the Richard Rogers Theatre, it hits differently when this game is at The Big House.
“It’s a really fun place to play,” OU linebacker Cole Sullivan said.
He’d know — Sullivan played for Michigan the past two seasons.
“It’s going to be an electric atmosphere, for sure,” he said. “Obviously, it’s going to be a big game. Two ranked opponents, it’s always going to be a cool atmosphere.”
Venables knows the fans on both sides are excited about the matchup, the traditions being celebrated and the history being made. Rare is the day that two programs that have been playing since the 1800s get to do something for the first time.
But even though Venables is a lover of college football and its history, he’s most concerned about the here and now for his team.
“See where you’re at as a football team and find out what you’re made of,” he said. “See if some of the things that you learned last year going on the road, being battle tested, can carry over. I believe that some of it will, but this is a new team and that’s a new challenge.”
A big challenge, too.
Nothing bigger, after all, than The Big House.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at @jennicarlsonok.bsky.social and twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU football has played in big stadiums, but nothing like Michigan's The Big House
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