Editor’s note: Fifth in a series previewing each team in the Big 12.
Oklahoma’s first season under coach Brent Venables was close to a disaster, by the school’s standards, but the Sooners are expected to recover quickly in their last season in the Big 12.
The reason for the optimism in Norman after last year’s 6-7 record, which included a 35-32 loss to Florida State in the Cheez-It Bowl, is the fact that quarterback Dillon Gabriel returns and is surrounded by a lot of weapons on offense.
“A course of a season will really tell the story, but we are making the improvement we need to make, and there’s still a lot we’ve got to continue to develop and improve at for sure. This was the step (last year’s struggles) that was necessary to do so, though.” — Second-year Oklahoma coach Brent Venables
Defense, which was largely to blame for OU’s stumble in 2022, is a different story. How that unit recovers will largely determine whether the Sooners challenge for a Big 12 title in their last dance in the league before heading off to the SEC, or roll in like a downtrodden covered wagon.
Oklahoma hasn’t had two straight losing seasons since 1996-98, when the Sooners went 3-8, 4-8 and 5-6 under coach John Blake.
To be fair, Oklahoma was rarely blown out in 2022, losing five one-score games.
And the Sooners were plenty good on offense, as usual, as they averaged more than 30 points a game. Gabriel, who lost to BYU and Zach Wilson in the 2020 Boca Raton Bowl when he played for UCF, was the Big 12 Offensive Newcomer of the Year in 2022.
He threw for 3,168 yards and 25 touchdowns.
Running backs Jovantae Barnes and Gavin Sawchuk should be able to fill in for the departed Eric Gray, who rushed for 1,366 yards and 11 touchdowns last year.
Barnes rushed for 108 yards on 27 carries in the bowl loss to FSU, and posted five 50-plus yard games.
At receiver, the Sooners will go about replacing Marvin Mims Jr. — now with the Denver Broncos — with the likes of Jalil Farooq and Michigan transfer Andrel Anthony. In April, Venables picked up wide receiver Brenen Thompson, a transfer from rival Texas.
Offensive linemen Anton Harrison and Wanya Morris were selected in the first three rounds of the NFL draft, but Oklahoma landed Stanford’s Walter Rouse out of the transfer portal to bolster an offensive line that should be just fine.
Again, offense wasn’t the issue in 2022.
Defense certainly was.
Oklahoma ranked No. 99 in the country last year in points allowed, 30 per game. The Sooners were 122nd in total defense.
Help could be on the way in the form of Indiana transfer Dasan McCullough; linebacker Danny Stutsman is also a force Venables can work with.
Big 12 schedule-makers did OU no favors as a departing gift, as the Sooners must travel to BYU on Nov. 18, OU’s first-ever visit to Provo. It could be a chilly send-off, as the Big 12 newcomers tend to rise up for big-name opponents at LaVell Edwards Stadium, as the Baylor Bears learned a year ago.
Then again, a pair of Big 12 teams that knocked off OU last year, Kansas State and Iowa State, are nowhere to be found on the 2023 slate.
“A course of a season will really tell the story, but we are making the improvement we need to make, and there’s still a lot we’ve got to continue to develop and improve at for sure,” Venables said after the spring game. “This was the step (last year’s struggles) that was necessary to do so, though.”
Oklahoma Sooners 2023 preview
2022 record: 6-7 (3-6 Big 12).
Local ties: None.
2023 schedule
Sept. 2 — Arkansas State.
Sept. 9 — Southern Methodist.
Sept. 16 — at Tulsa.
Sept. 23 — at Cincinnati.
Sept. 30 — Iowa State.
Oct. 7 — vs. Texas at Dallas.
Oct. 21 — UCF.
Oct. 28 — at Kansas.
Nov. 4 — at Oklahoma State.
Nov. 11 — West Virginia.
Nov. 18 — at BYU.
Nov. 24 — TCU.