A new era is beginning in Oklahoma this season as coach Brett Venables steps into some mighty big shoes.
Gone is Lincoln Riley who ran the most exciting offense in the nation during his tenure with the Sooners.
His teams lost no more than twice in his five years as head coach and they won the Big-12 in each of his first four seasons. In fact, last season’s third place finish -in spite an 11-2 record- ended a string of six straight years finishing on top.
The Sooners have had just two head coaches in the last 22 years and Venables was arguably the best assistant coach in the nation as the defensive coordinator of Clemson for the last four years.
But he also has experience in Oklahoma having coached under the legendary Bob Stoops as defensive coordinator from 1999-2011.
As good as Riley was, his teams could never quite win the whole thing and the defense which never quite managed to hold up their end of the bargain was the biggest reason why.
Makes sense that the Sooners would pivot and bring in a head coach who can fix that.
He made a smart hire in bringing in Lane Kiffin’s co-offensive architect the last few years in Jeff Lebby.
Gone are the two in house quarterbacks, including the highly touted Caleb Williams, and the replacement, at least this year is transfer Dillon Gabriel from UCF.
Gabriel played under Lebby and Kiffin in 2019 as a freshman, so he should be able to take command of the offense early.
Now we’ll see if everything can gel right away, or if they need an extra year to make all the pieces fit together.
2022 Oklahoma Sooners NCAA Football Futures Odds
- Odds to win the 2022-23 NCAA Championship: 40/1
- Odds to win the 2022 Big 12 Conferences: +200
- 2022 Regular Season Win Total: Under 9½ (-135)
- Odds to Make the Playoffs: Yes +430 | No -725
- 2022 Heisman Contenders: Dillon Gabriel +2500 & Marvin Mims +20000
- Official website: soonersports.com
- Twitter Account : @OU_Football
Odds to win the 2022-23 NCAA Championship: 40/1
If history is any indication, even when Stoops took over, he needed a year to get his program up to full speed. In 1999 the Sooners went 7-5 and in 2000 they were national champions with a 13-0 record.
Oklahoma is not starting from the same place in 2022 that they did in 1999. They have a top receiver in Marvin Mims who averaged 22 YPC last year, but they are thin in some places.
The offensive line was a weak point last year and even with a stud left tackle in Anton Harrison, they are still rebuilding the position.
There are a lot of new pieces coming in through the portal at each level of the defense, and how quickly they gel under new leadership could go a long way in determining the kind of season they have.
NCAA Champs in year one seems like too high a bar to set.
The Verdict: Skip it
Odds to win the 2022 Big 12 Conference: +200
The Sooners are the favorites to win the Big-12 and they should be in the mix. It also helps that the schedule is soft in the first half to help them get up to speed. Their ability to play for the Big-12 championship is going to be based on how they do against Texas, Baylor and Oklahoma State.
It’s pretty much a coin flip, as all those teams are good enough to win. It helps that the last two of those games will be played at home.
They’re not my favorite – Oklahoma State is-, but even at these low odds, given how well matched they all are, it’s worth a small wager.
The Verdict: Worth a small bet
2022 Regular Season Win Total: Under 9½ (-135)
They open wth UTEP, Kent State and at Nebraska. Then they raise it up a notch hosting Kansas State and visiting TCU. We’ll know just how much of a rebuild this is if they’re anything less than 5-0 before they play Texas in Dallas at what will essentially be a home game for the Longhorns.
They’ll have Baylor and Oklahoma State at home to contend with and that helps. In between are games they should win, versus Kansas, at West Virginia and at Texas Tech.
The biggest wildcard to a 10-win season is arguably at Iowa State on October 29th.
But at the end of the day, there remains a lot of talent in the starting-22 and a lot of time to figure out their identity in the first half. They’ve won ten or more regular season games in each of their last six full seasons, so odds say yes here as well.
The Verdict: Over 9½ (+100)
Odds to Make the Playoffs: Yes +430 | No -725
With teams improving at the top of the ACC, Big-Ten and Pac-12, along with what will likely be two SEC teams in the mix, it will be a stretch for the Big-12 champ to make the playoffs this year. So even if Oklahoma does pull off the championship, I think it’ll more than likely be as a two-loss team.
The Verdict: No -725
2022 Heisman Contenders: Dillon Gabriel +2500 & Marvin Mims +20000
Gabriel lost most of last season to a collarbone injury. But in his first two seasons, he threw for a combined 7.200 yards, 61 TDs and just 11 INTs. He only completed 60% of his passes those two years, but it jumped to 68.6% last year before getting injured.
He’ll have more talent to throw to in Oklahoma against stiffer competition. He’s worth a flier as his touchdown numbers could take a jump.
The Verdict: Worth a small bet
It was a very democratic system last year with Mims leading the team with 705 yards, even though he averaged 22 YPC. That adds up to just 32 catches on the season. He had 37 as a freshman. He would need to triple his number of catches while maintaining close to the same YPC. That seems like quite a reach.
The Verdict: Skip it
Odds According to Bovada as of August, 2022
Oklahoma Sooners 2022 Schedule
| SEASON | |||
| Date | Time | Opponent | TV |
| 3-Sep | 3:30 p.m. | UTEP* | FOX |
| 10-Sep | 7:00 p.m. | Kent State* | ESPN+ |
| 17-Sep | 12:00 p.m. | at Nebraska* | FOX |
| 24-Sep | Kansas State | ||
| 1-Oct | at TCU | ||
| 8-Oct | vs. Texas | ABC | |
| 15-Oct | Kansas | ||
| 29-Oct | at Iowa State | FOX/FS1 | |
| 5-Nov | Baylor | ||
| 12-Nov | at West Virginia | ||
| 19-Nov | Oklahoma State | ||
| 26-Nov | at Texas Tech | ||
Home stadium: Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, Norman, OK
*Non-conference game – All times are in Eastern time
Bet on the Oklahoma Sooners 2022 Season at Bovada Sportsbook.
