The Oklahoma Sooners enter a very interesting season under head coach Brent Venables. They showed a lot of improvement in 2023, going from 6-7 to 10-3 in Venables’ second year. That was marked improvement, and showed that there is a foundation perspective.

The Sooners now make the transition to the SEC, which brings some major question marks. Just how well will Oklahoma make that transition in year one? The schedule sets up for a tough one.

Here is the entire 2024 schedule for Oklahoma:

Week 1: vs Temple

Week 2: vs Houston

Week 3: vs Tulane

Week 4: vs Tennessee

Week 5: at Auburn

Bye Week

Week 7: at Texas

Week 8: vs South Carolina

Week 9: at Ole Miss

Week 10: vs Maine

Week 11: at Missouri

Bye Week

Week 13: vs Alabama

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The easy wins

The key for a lot of teams to meet their expectations is to make sure you don’t slip up in the “easy wins” on the schedule. Like every team, that needs to be true for Oklahoma. Despite the jump in overall quality of the new conference, the Sooners are still a very talented roster.

That means that Oklahoma needs to take care of business against inferior competition. They have to beat Temple, Houston, Tulane, South Carolina, and Maine. That has to be five automatic victories. If you have a blemish within that group, there’s probably an issue from a full scope perspective.

Toughest stretch

You could have included Tennessee and Auburn in the toughest stretch of the season, but Oklahoma does have a bye week during week six, providing a nice break after the beginning of the top games on the schedule. That leaves a three-game stretch against Texas, South Carolina, and Ole Miss. 

The beginning and end of that stretch are both on the road, making for some really important battles against the Longhorns and Rebels. With South Carolina sandwiched in the middle, that does make it a little bit of a trap game. The Sooners are much more talented so they should win comfortably, but it still might not be as easy as one would hope, especially after a rivalry game against Texas in the Red River Rivalry.

Alabama will be tough. So will Missouri. The good news is that they are coming off of a bye week, and an easy game against Maine respectively. That should help immensely.

Final prediction: 8-4

Oklahoma is a program that does seem to be heading in a good direction. Coach Venables and his staff have been recruiting on a high level. As long as they keep putting together good coaching staff, they have a chance to continue to trend well.

Heading to the SEC, however, might be a very tough transition in the 2024 season. It’s going to be a season where it’s about setting a foundation. Playing against a more physically daunting style of play could be something that needs to get used to.

Between their matchups with Tennessee, Auburn, Texas, Ole Miss, Missouri, and Alabama, it’s going to be tough to win more than .500. It’s possible, which could allow this team to get up to nine wins potentially. That’s just hard to predict. In a vacuum, 8-4 might not be perceived to be a good season but with context, it’s a solid beginning.