The Oklahoma Sooners could be getting some great news on Wednesday when the first availability report comes out ahead of their Red River rivalry game against the Texas Longhorns.

Oklahoma is coming off a bye week, and teams usually use that time to get healthy. This team has been struggling with injuries all season and needs bodies back in a big way. The timing couldn’t be more important. Texas is ranked No. 1 in the country, and the Sooners are still trying to shake off an embarrassing loss to Georgia, which came right before the bye. OU could use a boost from some players returning from injury, and Venables made it sound like that boost could be on the way.

Brent Venables plays it close to the vest ahead of Texas

Oklahoma coach Brent Venables spoke with reporters Monday night after practice and left the door open for some good news on the injury front.

“We might have several guys available that we didn’t have last game, but you won’t know until Wednesday,” Venables said.

Venables is playing a bit of cat-and-mouse there. He isn’t going to reveal names right away, and that’s part of the strategy when preparing for a team like Texas. There’s no reason to hand the Longhorns’ coaching staff extra information days before kickoff.

Still, that statement tells us something. If several players who missed the Georgia game are available against Texas, the Sooners will look a lot different than they did two weeks ago.

Here’s where it stands with the players who missed the Georgia game

When you look at the availability report Oklahoma released before facing Georgia, the list of players who missed that game was long. That gives a pretty clear picture of who Venables could be talking about.

Players ruled out against Georgia:

Wide receiver Jer’Michael Carter; linebacker Taylor Heim; wide receiver Trell Harris; linebacker Cole Sullivan; defensive back Michael Boganowski; offensive lineman Michael Fasusi

Two other names were on that report, too. David Stone was listed as questionable heading into the Georgia game after suffering a knee injury a few days before, but he still played. Kip Lewis was listed as probable and not only played but turned in what may have been the best game of his career.

That leaves the six players above as the likely pool Venables was referring to. Based on his comments, it wouldn’t be surprising to see more than one of those names come off the list for Texas. Who exactly? It’s impossible to predict, and Oklahoma won’t tip its hand before Wednesday.

Getting even two or three of them back would change things for this team. Two of those players are wide receivers, two are linebackers, and the other two help in the secondary and up front on the offensive line. That’s depth at nearly every level of the roster, and the Sooners have been short on it for weeks.

Why this matters so much for OU right now

This is the biggest game of the season so far for the Sooners. The Red River rivalry always carries weight, but this one comes with extra pressure after the Georgia game. Oklahoma needs a win, or at the very least, a competitive performance against the top-ranked team in the country.

To be fair, nobody is expecting the Sooners to be at full strength. However, Oklahoma can’t afford to walk into the Cotton Bowl as banged up as it was against Georgia. The bye week was supposed to help, and Venables’ comments suggest it did. If Oklahoma loses in embarrassing fashion again this week, things could start to get ugly for some people at OU.

The fan base won’t have much patience for back-to-back blowouts in two of the program’s biggest games of the year. Regardless of who ends up on the field, any returns on Wednesday’s availability report would be massive news for a Sooners team that has been dealing with a ton of injuries.