For the first time since 1998, Texas and Oklahoma are meeting as unranked teams. For Brent Venables, who is preparing for his first game in the rivalry as a head coach, he hopes the Sooners treat it as any other week on the schedule.
“Hopefully we’re not more excited to play this one than somebody else,” Venables said at his weekly news conference. “We shouldn’t prepare for this game any different we do any other game. And if we are, if I allow that, then I’m not doing a good job of leading. We shouldn’t do extra this week or be more committed this week. We should be habitual in how we get ready to play.”
The timing of the game isn’t ideal, with the Sooners’ defense struggling, including giving up the second-most points by an unranked opponent in program history in a 55-24 loss to TCU on Saturday. The Horned Frogs ran up 668 yards of total offense and averaged 8.8 yards per carry on 41 rushing attempts.
And starting quarterback Dillon Gabriel is in the concussion protocol after taking a late hit to the head on a slide in the second quarter. Venables did not give any new update on Gabriel, and just said that three quarterbacks will be taking snaps this week in case Gabriel isn’t ready to play. Pitt transfer Davis Beville, who went 7 of 16 for 50 yards, replaced Gabriel against TCU, and General Booty, a junior-college transfer, made a brief appearance during the game as well, but did not attempt a pass. Venables said that true freshman Nick Evers is also in the mix this week.
Venables compared the adversity facing his team to last year’s Clemson team when he was serving as defensive coordinator. After six straight conference titles, the Tigers started 4-3, then rallied to a 10-3 finish.
“Everyone wanted to burn everything down. We’ve got the worst players and coaches in America in the history of the game,” Venables said. “But that team made a decision to get better and not allow themselves to be influenced by the outside noise, only be influenced by straining to do everything you can to improve every day.”
Oklahoma won’t be the only team coming into the game with a mystery at quarterback. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said on Monday that he won’t say whether Quinn Ewers, who suffered a shoulder sprain in Week 2 against Alabama, would play, or if Hudson Card, who went 21-27 for 303 yards and three touchdowns in a win over West Virginia on Saturday, would be the starter.
“My philosophy is pretty simple: Play the guy that I think gives us the best chance to be successful, whether he’s the starter, the backup or the hot hand,” Sarkisian continued. “Whoever I think is going to give us the best chance to be successful and put us in position to win the ballgame, that’s who we’ll play.”
The Sooners are 10-3 against the Longhorns since 2010, including last year’s 55-48 victory that marked the most points in the 117 years of the rivalry. The Longhorns had a 28-7 lead after the first quarter in Sarkisian’s first game in the matchup, but the Sooners mounted the second-largest comeback in school history.
Venables was an assistant for Oklahoma in 13 of these games previously. He said he has challenged the team to look forward to the game at noon Saturday in the Cotton Bowl rather than worrying about the Sooners’ recent struggles.
“I want the focus to be on what’s ahead,” Venables said. “You know, what’s in front of us right now, going down to Dallas and the challenge. That is where all of our focus is right now.”
Gurriel was hurt in the sixth inning after he jumped awkwardly out of the way to avoid center fielder Blaze Alexander, who made a diving catch on a line drive by Rowdy Tellez for the third out of the inning.
Alexander was playing his first game in center field as a big leaguer.
Gurriel stayed on the ground for several minutes while medical staff attended to him. The 31-year-old eventually got up and walked to a cart before being driven off the field.
Additional tests confirmed the torn ACL.
Gurriel is batting .248 this season with 19 homers and 80 RBIs.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Ohio State climbed to No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 college football poll on Tuesday, LSU and Miami moved into the top five, and Florida State jumped back into the rankings at the expense of Alabama, which plummeted to its lowest spot in 17 seasons.
The defending national champion Buckeyes received 55 of 66 first-place votes to move up two spots after their win over preseason No. 1Texas. Ohio State is at the top of a regular-season poll for the first time since November 2015.
The Longhorns dropped to No. 7 as the media voters shuffled the rankings following a topsy-turvy Labor Day weekend. It was only the second time — and first since 1972 — that two top-five teams lost in Week 1 and the first time that four top-10 teams lost.
Only three teams in the Top 25 are in the same spot they were in the preseason poll.
Penn State got seven first-place votes and remained No. 2. LSU, which received three first first-place votes, was followed by Georgia and Miami to round out the top five.
The biggest movers in the poll were Florida State and Alabama after the Seminoles’ 31-17 victory in their head-to-head matchup.
The Seminoles, who were 15 spots outside the Top 25 in the preseason, are now No. 14. The Crimson Tide fell all the way from No. 8 to No. 21 — their lowest ranking since Bama was No. 24 in the 2008 preseason poll. That was the second of Nick Saban’s 17 teams in Tuscaloosa.
It’s been quite a turnabout for Florida State. The Seminoles were No. 10 in the 2024 preseason, lost their first two games, finished 2-10 and weren’t ranked again until now.
Utah, at No. 25, joins Florida State as the only newcomers to this week’s poll. The Utes are ranked for the first time since last October, when they were at the front end of a seven-game losing streak.
Utah had received the second-most points, behind BYU, among teams outside the preseason Top 25, but the Utes got more credit for beatingUCLA on the road than the Cougars received for hammering FCS foe Portland State.
Boise State, which had been No. 25, received no votes following its 34-7 loss at South Florida. The Broncos had appeared in 14 straight polls.
Ohio State is the first team to take over the top spot in the first regular-season poll since Alabama in 2012. It was the biggest jump to No. 1 in the first regular-season poll since USC was promoted from No. 3 in 2008.
Texas’ fall was the biggest for a preseason No. 1 since Auburn dropped to No. 8 in the first regular-season poll of 1984.
LSU has its highest ranking after Week 1 since it was No. 3 in 2012, and Miami has its highest ranking after Week 1 since it was No. 5 in 2004.
South Carolina is in the top 10 in the regular season for the first time since it was No. 8 in December 2013.
No. 15 Michigan at No. 18 Oklahoma: This weekend’s game will be the first meeting since Oklahoma beat the Wolverines in the Orange Bowl to win the 1975 national championship. Wolverines freshman QB Bryce Underwood gets put to the test in his second start.
College football reporter; joined ESPN in 2008. Graduate of Northwestern University.
While Dabo Swinney isn’t inflating LSU‘s grade for beating his team in Saturday’s season opener, Brian Kelly is ready to give the Clemson coach an incomplete for his evaluation.
Both coaches weighed in Tuesday on how LSU’s 17-10 win at Clemson should be viewed. After trailing 10-3 at halftime, LSU outscored Clemson 14-0 in the second half and finished with significant edges in both total yards (354-261) and first downs (25-13).
LSU rose six spots to No. 3 in the AP Top 25 poll Tuesday, while Clemson dropped four spots to No. 8.
“It was a helluva game, down to the last play,” Swinney said in his weekly news conference. “Right out of the gate. It’s like getting the final exam [on] Day 1 of class. They made a 65; we made a 58. Neither one of us were great.”
Kelly had not won a season opener at LSU before Saturday, and the victory was his first with the Tigers against an AP top-5 opponent.
“I thought we dominated them in the second half, so he’s really a really good grader for giving himself a 58, or he’s a really hard grader on us,” Kelly said in his news conference when told about Swinney’s comment.
“Or he didn’t see the second half, which, that might be the case. He might not have wanted to see the second half.”
Kelly added that LSU is moving on to this week’s game against Louisiana Tech.
“Clemson is a darn good football team,” Kelly said. “That’s a top-notch team, and they’re going to be a team in the hunt for [the] playoff picture. We hope we are, too. But it was only one game. So I don’t know if he’s a hard grader or an easy grader, but I like the way that we played in the second half.”