OPENING KICK
• No. 16/16 Oklahoma opens the 2024 season – its first as a member of the Southeastern Conference – when it hosts Temple on Friday at 6 p.m. CT at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman. The game will be televised by ESPN with Anish Shroff, 1989 Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware and Paul Carcaterra announcing.
• The 2024 season marks the 130th in OU football history. The Sooners lead the nation with their 50 all-time conference championships, 27 11-plus-win seasons (tied), 33 AP top-five finishes and five No. 1 overall NFL Draft picks (tied). They rank second with their seven Heisman Trophy winners (tied), third with seven AP national championships, their 101 weeks as the AP's No. 1 team and 431 total weeks in the AP Top 5, and fourth with their 57 bowl appearances, 31 bowl wins (tied) and 417 NFL Draft picks.
• Friday's contest will mark the 1,339th in OU history. The Sooners rank fifth in college football annals with their .725 all-time winning percentage (944-341-53 record). They trail Ohio State (.734), Michigan (.734), Alabama (.733) and Notre Dame (.730). Since the end of World War II (1946 season to present), OU leads all programs with 700 wins (31 more than Alabama, the program with the next most) and owns a .766 winning percentage.
• This week's contest marks the first-ever Friday night home game in OU history. The Sooners boast a 60-19-2 (.753) record in Friday games (includes a 2-4 record in bowl games) but have only played five Friday evening regular season contests, all on the road and all victories.
• OU is 100-23-6 all-time in season openers and has won its last seven such contests and 13 of its last 14. The Sooners are 83-12-4 in their first game of a season at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, which opened in 1925. OU has won 17 straight home openers (last such loss was 17-10 vs. TCU in 2005).
• This marks the 25th straight season the Sooners have been ranked in the preseason AP poll. In only three of the previous 24 years has OU been ranked lower in the preseason poll than its No. 16 ranking this season (No. 19 in 2000 [went 13-0 and won national title], No. 19 in 2015 [made College Football Playoff and finished No. 5] and No. 20 in 2023 (went 10-3 and finished No. 16]). The Sooners have been ranked 10th or better in 20 of the last 24 preseason polls. OU has also ended seven of the last nine seasons ranked in the AP top 10.
• After going 6-7 in Brent Venables' first season as Oklahoma head coach in 2022, the Sooners posted a 10-3 record and tied for second in the Big 12 Conference with a 7-2 mark last year. OU, which headed into bowl play No. 12 in the CFP rankings, ended the season at No. 16 in the AP and coaches' polls following a 38-24 loss to No. 14 Arizona in the Alamo Bowl. The Sooners led that contest 24-13 near the end of the third quarter. OU's two regular season losses were by a combined eight points (38-33 at Kansas and 27-24 at Oklahoma State).
• Temple, which is in its third year under head coach Stan Drayton, has gone 3-9 each of the last two seasons. Its 2023 wins came against Akron (24-21), Norfolk State (41-9) and Navy (32-18). After five straight winning seasons (43-22 record from 2015-19), the Owls have posted four straight losing campaigns (10-33 mark during the span).
KEY STORYLINES
• Oklahoma is 1-1 all-time against Temple, with both meetings taking place in the 1940s. In the first matchup in Norman on Nov. 23, 1940, the Sooners prevailed 9-6 in head coach Tom Stidham's final season. On Nov. 21, 1942, in Philadelphia, head coach Dewey Luster's OU squad lost 14-7. Both teams were unranked in both meetings.
• Temple head coach Stan Drayton served as an assistant coach at Texas during the 2017-21 seasons under head coaches Tom Herman and Steve Sarkisian, with Oklahoma posting a 5-1 head-to-head record in those years, including a 39-27 victory in the 2018 Big 12 Championship. Owls linebackers coach Chris Woods spent the 2015-17 seasons as an OU defensive specialist. The Sooners went 34-6 and won three Big 12 Conference titles during his time in Norman.
• After adding 63 new players to the program last season, Oklahoma welcomes 55 newcomers (40 on scholarship) for 2024, Brent Venables' third season as head coach. That means 43% of OU's 2024 roster is comprised of first-year Sooners. Only nine of the 116 players on OU's 2021 end-of-year roster are on the 2024 roster, and just five of those are currently on scholarship [defensive lineman Ethan Downs, linebacker Danny Stutsman, defensive backs Billy Bowman Jr. and Woodi Washington and wide receiver Jalil Farooq).
• Oklahoma returns 11 players (not including specialists) who started at least six of the team's 13 games last season (seven on defense, four on offense). The seven defensive players are defensive backs Billy Bowman Jr. (13 starts), Woodi Washington (13 starts) and Gentry Williams (10 starts), linebackers Jaren Kanak (nine starts), Dasan McCullough (seven starts) and Danny Stutsman (12 starts) and defensive lineman Ethan Downs (12 starts). The offensive players are wide receivers Nic Anderson (six starts), Andrel Anthony (six starts), Jalil Farooq (13 starts) and running back Gavin Sawchuk (seven starts). The Sooners also welcome back five specialists in long snapper Ben Anderson, punter Luke Elzinga, holder/punter Josh Plaster, kicker Zach Schmit and Farooq, who served as OU's primary kickoff returner.
• Of the 78 players on OU's week 1 depth chart, 24 (or 31%) are freshmen. That includes 17 true freshmen and seven redshirt-freshmen.
• Sophom*ore quarterback Jackson Arnold is slated to make his second career start and first at home. The former Gatorade National Player of the Year replaces unanimous 2023 first-team All-Big 12 selection Dillon Gabriel, who transferred to Oregon. Arnold played in seven games last season, including the entire second half in a 31-24 win at BYU (the score was 17-17 at halftime) and the entire contest in the Alamo Bowl against No. 14 Arizona. He completed 26 of 45 passes for 361 yards and two TDs vs. the Wildcats.
• Since World War II, Oklahoma has played 16 regular season Friday games and is 10-6 in those outings. Ten of those 16 games, and the Sooners' only six losses, were against Nebraska. OU beat NU on Fridays in 1973, 1976, 1977 and 1990, and lost to the Huskers in 1982 and every year from 1991-95. The Sooners' other Friday wins since 1945 were at Detroit in 1947 (Bud Wilkinson's first game as OU head coach), at Miami (Fla.) in 1975, at Tulsa in 2002 and 2007, at West Virginia in 2018 and at home vs. TCU in last year's regular season finale.
100TH YEAR OF GAYLORD FAMILY – OKLAHOMA MEMORIAL STADIUM
• 2024 marks the 100th season of Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. OU owns a sparkling 418-86-15 (.820) all-time record at the "Palace on the Prairie" and has faced 94 opponents there (South Carolina and Maine this season will mark the 95th and 96th foes).
• The first game played at the current stadium site, called Owen Field and named after former head coach and athletics director Bennie Owen (a charter member of the College Football Hall of Fame), took place in 1923, before stadium construction got underway. On Oct. 17, 1925, the first contest was played in front of the new 16,000-seat stands on the west side of the field, a 7-0 victory over Drake in which Roy "Goat" Lamb scored the game's only touchdown on a 2-yard run in muddy conditions.
• Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, named in honor of University personnel who died in World War I, was erected at a cost of approximately $293,000 and dedicated on Nov. 7, 1925. Almost since its inception, the stadium has been a work in progress, with countless expansions and improvements taking place. Prior to the 2002 season, the stadium was renamed "Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium" after a generous donation from the Gaylord Family helped complete funding for one of those expansions. Capacity peaked at 83,489 from 2016-18, but dropped to its current figure of 80,126 in 2019 due to seat and aisle widening.
1974 AND '75 TEAMS TO BE HONORED
• Oklahoma's 1974 and '75 national championship teams will be honored on the field at halftime Friday, as this season marks the 50th anniversary of OU's 1974 title.
• Halftime festivities will get started with a National Football Foundation salute to former OU defensive lineman Dewey Selmon, a member of the 1974 and '75 teams who this December will become the 24th Sooner player inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
• OU's 1974 and '75 teams were coached by Barry Switzer, who directed those two squads to a combined 22-1 record and watched them outscore opponents by an 817-246 margin (average score of 36-11). In both seasons, they were ranked No. 1 by the Associated Press in the beginning and end of the year.
HOME IS WHERE THE "W" IS
• Oklahoma is 140-13 (.915) at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium since the start of the 1999 season, giving the Sooners more conference championships during the period (14) than home defeats. It is the best home winning percentage in the country over the last 25 seasons (Boise State [.904] and Ohio State [.895] are next). OU has outscored its opponents by an average of 43-18 in those games.
• Including this week's game, OU has posted 153 straight sellouts of originally scheduled home contests dating back to the start of the 1999 season (Bob Stoops' first as head coach). Only Nebraska (396) has a longer current streak.
OU RANKED IN PRESEASON TOP 20...AGAIN
• Oklahoma is ranked No. 16 in both the preseason Associated Press Top 25 Poll and the USA Today Sports AFCA Coaches Poll.
• This marks the 25th straight year that OU has appeared in the preseason AP Top 25, which is the second-longest current string behind Ohio State (36) and the second-longest streak in program history (28 straight seasons from 1968-95). It also represents the 66th time that Oklahoma has appeared in the preseason AP poll, second most behind Ohio State (71 times).
• OU's all-time average preseason AP rank is 6.9, best in the nation (Alabama is second at 7.1).
• This is just the fourth time in the last 24 years that OU is not ranked in the AP preseason top 10.
• OU finished the season in the AP's top 10 in seven of the last nine years.
HELLO, SEC
• Oklahoma and Texas officially joined the Southeastern Conference on July 1 after 28 years in the Big 12 Conference. OU won half of the Big 12's football championships (14 of 28) since the league began in 1996 and posted a 187-61 (.754) record against conference competition (includes an 11-1 record in Big 12 Championship games).
• Oklahoma's 14 Big 12 titles were 10 more than the program with the next most (Texas won four). From 2010 through 2023, OU won eight Big 12 titles and was followed by Baylor (three), Kansas State (two) and Oklahoma State, TCU and Texas (one each).
• The Sooners are no strangers to their new SEC foes as Oklahoma has a 161-112-13 (.586) record against the league's current member schools, including fellow new entrant Texas. Not including the Longhorns, OU owns a 110-49-8 (.683) all-time record against current SEC programs.
• Oklahoma's first meeting against a current SEC school occurred on Sept. 30, 1933, a 0-0 tie against Vanderbilt in front of 16,339 spectators in Norman, at the time the second-largest Sooners home crowd.
• Sept. 21, 2024, will mark OU's first conference game as an SEC member when it hosts Tennessee, which is coached by former Sooner All-America quarterback and Heisman Trophy runner-up Josh Heupel. Other league home games will be against South Carolina (Oct. 19) and Alabama (Nov. 23). The first SEC edition of the Red River Rivalry against Texas in Dallas is scheduled for Oct. 12 at the Cotton Bowl.
ONE OF THE NATION'S TOUGHEST SCHEDULES
• Oklahoma's 2024 schedule is not for the faint of heart. The Sooners will face six opponents ranked in the top 15 of the preseason AP poll - tied with Florida for the most nationally - and eight total teams that made bowl games last year, including College Football Playoff participants Alabama and Texas. OU's opponents in the preseason AP top 15 are No. 3 Texas (in Dallas), No. 4 Alabama (home), No. 6 Ole Miss (road), No. 11 Missouri (road), No. 13 LSU (road) and No. 15 Tennessee (home). All six squads made bowl games last season, as did Auburn and Tulane (both are receiving votes in the AP poll).
• For just the seventh time in program history, OU will play seven home games in 2024. The Sooners are also the designated home team for the Allstate Red River Rivalry against Texas in Dallas on Oct. 12. The other six seasons in which Oklahoma played seven home games were: 1991, 2001, '03, '07, '18 and '21.
NEW (BUT FAMILIAR) COORDINATORS
• The 2024 OU coaching staff features new play-callers on both sides of the ball. Following the departure of former offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby who is now Mississippi State's head coach, Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables announced in December that Seth Littrell was promoted to offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Joe Jon Finley was elevated to co-offensive coordinator. Littrell, who was an offensive analyst for the Sooners in 2023 following a seven-year head coaching stint at North Texas, is OU's quarterbacks coach and serves as offensive play-caller. Finley, entering his fourth season on OU's staff, will continue to coach tight ends and will play an increased role in offensive game-planning and oversight.
• In January, Venables announced the hiring of Zac Alley as co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. Alley joined OU's program after spending the last two seasons as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Jacksonville State. He also served the 2021 season in the same capacity at ULM. The 31-year-old is extremely familiar with Venables, having worked under him for four years (2015-18) as a graduate assistant at Clemson when Venables was defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. In those four seasons, with Alley working primarily with the defensive tackles and linebackers, Clemson posted a 55-4 (.932) record (tied with Alabama for the nation's best during that span) and won four Atlantic Coast Conference titles and two national championships (2016 and 2018).
40 SCHOLARSHIP NEWCOMERS
• Of the Sooners' 127 players, 40 are scholarship newcomers. That includes 27 December high school signees and 13 transfers. Thirty-two of the 40 (20 freshmen and 12 transfers) enrolled at OU in January and participated in spring practices.
• Twenty-four of the 40 scholarship newcomers are offensive players and 16 are defensive players.
• The 13 scholarship transfers have combined to make 258 collegiate starts (182 starts among 10 players on offense and 76 starts among three players on defense).
RETURNING ALL-CONFERENCE HONOREES
• The Sooners return three players who earned 2023 All-Big 12 honors, all three of them seniors on the defensive side of the ball. Defensive back Billy Bowman Jr. was a first-team All-Big 12 honoree after ranking third in the nation with six interceptions a season ago, with an NCAA-best and school-record three returned for touchdowns (238 INT return yards). Linebacker Danny Stutsman, also voted first-team All-Big 12 in 2023, led the Sooners in total tackles (104), solo tackles (51) and tackles for loss (16.0), and registered three sacks, an interception, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. Defensive end Ethan Downs earned second-team All-Big 12 accolades for the second straight year after he totaled 28 tackles, a team-high 4.5 sacks, 6.5 tackles for loss, one interception and six QB hurries.
• Bowman Jr. and Stutsman were 2024 preseason first-team All-SEC picks by league head coaches and media.
QUICK 2023 REVIEW
• Oklahoma finished 10-3 last season and tied for second in the Big 12 with a 7-2 league mark. The Sooners made their school-record 25th consecutive bowl appearance (nation's second-longest current streak), facing No. 14 Arizona in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, Texas.
• OU's victory total gave it 42 all-time seasons of at least 10 wins, one behind national leader Alabama.
• The Sooners ranked No. 3 nationally in total offense (507.0 ypg) and No. 4 in scoring offense (41.7 ppg). They were the only team in the country to score at least 59 points in four games or more. OU also ranked No. 6 in passing offense (324.8 ypg), pass efficiency rating (167.5), No. 7 in third-down conversion percentage (49.2) and No. 12 in fourth-down conversion percentage (68.4).
• Super senior Drake Stoops and redshirt freshman Nic Anderson were one of just five duos from the same team (the only one in the Big 12) to each register double-digit receiving touchdowns (each had 10).
• On the other side of the ball, OU led the country with their 1.5 interceptions per game (20 total pickoffs) and ranked No. 7 in tackles for loss per contest (7.5), No. 14 in opponent third-down conversion percentage (31.1) and No. 17 is pass efficiency defense rating (118.6). It ranked No. 46 in scoring defense (23.5 ppg), which was down considerably from 2022 when it ranked No. 98 (30.0 ppg).
• OU tied for the national lead with its 11 different players registering at least one interception.
• The Sooners finished No. 2 nationally with 26 takeaways, No. 4 with 2.0 takeaways per game and No. 23 with their +0.46 turnover margin per contest.
• In its 10 wins, OU outscored opponents 98-17 off turnovers. On the year, the Sooners' 111 points off takeaways ranked No. 2 nationally behind national champion Michigan (122 in two more games).
REVAMPED QB ROOM
• OU's quarterbacks room looks quite a bit different than it did last year, with only one returning signal-caller on this year's roster and first-year offensive coordinator Seth Littrell serving as quarterbacks coach. The lone returning QB is sophom*ore Jackson Arnold, the 2022-23 Gatorade National Football Player of the Year, who takes over for two-year starter and unanimous 2023 first-team All-Big 12 honoree Dillon Gabriel.
• Arnold played in seven games as a true freshman last season, completing 44 of 69 passes for 563 yards and four touchdowns, and rushing 31 times for 116 yards and a score. He started in the Alamo Bowl against No. 14 Arizona and threw for 361 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He also played the entire second half at BYU on Nov. 18, directing OU from a 17-17 halftime tie to a 31-24 win.
• Casey Thompson, who is believed to be first seventh-year offensive player in OU history, spent four years at Texas, before transferring for one year each to Nebraska and Florida Atlantic. A starter in 23 of his 35 career games, Thompson has completed 63.5% of his passes for 5,338 yards and 52 touchdowns, and has rushed for 191 yards and 10 TDs.
• Freshmen Michael Hawkins Jr. and Brendan Zurbrugg joined the program as mid-year enrollees in January. Hawkins Jr. was rated as a four-star prospect by ESPN, On3 and Rivals and as the No. 3 dual-threat QB recruit in the country by Rivals and No. 7 by ESPN. His father, Michael, played cornerback for Oklahoma under Stoops in 2002 before spending multiple years in the NFL. Zurbrugg was a consensus three-star prospect who was rated as the No. 18 dual-threat quarterback in 2023 class by ESPN and the No. 30 quarterback overall by On3.
• Redshirt-freshman Steele Wasel, from Choctaw, Okla., transferred from Akron. As a high school senior, the former all-state honoree passed for 3,325 yards and 38 TDs, and added 543 rushing yards and five scores.
MORE NOTES ON THE OFFENSE
• Running back Gavin Sawchuk led the Sooners with 744 rushing yards and 120 carries (team-high 6.2 yards per rush) as a redshirt freshman last season, and scored nine touchdowns. His biggest output came the second half of the season, as he totaled 617 rushing yards and six TDs on 86 carries (7.2 yards per rush) in the team's last five games. He surpassed 100 rushing yards in each of those five contests.
• Oklahoma returns eight letterwinners at wide receiver, its most returning producers since the 2021 season. The Sooners welcome back 65% of their receiving yards from last year, led by senior Jalil Farooq (45 catches, 694 yards, two touchdowns), redshirt sophom*ore Nic Anderson (38 catches, 798 yards, 10 TDs), senior Andrel Anthony (27 catches, 429 yards, one TD) and junior Brenen Thompson (seven catches, 241 yards, two TDs).
• Purdue wide receiver transfer Deion Burks (47 catches, 629 yards, seven TDs last season as a redshirt sophom*ore) was a preseason All-SEC Third Team pick by league media. In the first half of OU's spring game, Burks caught five passes for 174 yards and two TDs. Including Burks' starts at Purdue, six Sooners receivers have made a combined 50 career collegiate starts.
• Oklahoma's tight ends group was extremely thin depth wise a year ago, but that's no longer the case. Even though OU's returners in that room have combined for no college starts and only two receptions, the Sooners are excited about what's to come thanks to three new additions and a couple of players returning from injury.
• Tight end transfers Bauer Sharp (Southeastern Louisiana) and Jake Roberts (Baylor) are atop the depth chart. Sharp, who began his career as a quarterback, has played in 25 career games at tight end and has made 10 starts (40 receptions for 366 yards and four TDs). Roberts, from Norman, spent his first three years at North Texas before playing the 2023 campaign in Waco. He has 66 career catches for 772 yards and four TDs (25 starts in 49 games).
• For the second straight year, OU must replace multiple starting offensive linemen who were selected in the NFL Draft, resulting in a 2024 returning group that totals only eight combined starts and 37 games played in an OU uniform. Junior Jacob Sexton and redshirt junior Troy Everett each made four starts last season, and redshirt sophom*ore Jake Taylor is the only other returner with significant game experience.
• To fill in the openings left by four former starters who signed NFL contracts, OU brought in five transfer offensive linemen, and all have at least two years of FBS experience. They are redshirt super seniors Spencer Brown (24 starts at Michigan State) and Michael Tarquin (18 starts at Florida and USC) and redshirt seniors Geirean Hatchett (four starts at Washington) and Branson Hickman (33 starts at SMU), and redshirt junior Febechi Nwaiwu (19 starts at North Texas).
DEFENSIVE NOTES
• Oklahoma's defense made big strides in year two under Brent Venables in 2023, and many analysts expect the improvement to continue this season. That includes Phil Steele, who ranks OU's linebacker and defensive back units each as second best nationally and No. 1 in the SEC.
• The Sooners' linebacking corps is led by preseason All-American Danny Stutsman, a senior who decided to forgo the NFL Draft and who has started all 25 of his games the last two seasons, has amassed 267 tackles, 28.0 tackles for loss, 7.0 sacks, three interceptions, four forced fumbles and eight pass breakups in his career. He ranked second in the Big 12 and 15th nationally with 1.3 tackles for loss per game last year.
• One of the nation's top defensive playmakers a year ago, Billy Bowman Jr. leads a defensive backfield group that is full of talent and experience. The senior has started 29 of 35 career games and leads all current Sooners with nine interceptions (returned for 249 yards and three TDs). Only two players nationally totaled more interceptions than his nine over the last two seasons.
• OU's defensive line may be its most talented and deepest in years. While several young players figure to play significant roles this season, OU boasts a wealth of accomplished veterans, led by ends Ethan Downs (two-time second-team All-Big 12 pick with 23.0 career TFLs and 9.5 sacks in his 39 games [25 starts]) and Trace Ford (45 career games and 16 starts), and tackle Da'Jon Terry (49 games and 13 starts), who have all played at least 39 games collegiately.
• A pair of new OU tackles are expected to start Friday against Temple. Junior Damonic Williams (27 starts at TCU; freshman All-American in 2022) and freshman Jayden Jackson will make their Sooner debuts.
A QUICK LOOK AT SPECIAL TEAMS
• Redshirt senior Zach Schmit served as OU's placekicker the last two seasons and has made 28 of his 40 career field goal attempts (70%) and all 124 of his PAT tries. His streak of 124 made extra-points is the fourth-longest in program history.
• Super senior and Florida State transfer Tyler Keltner, who arrived in January, spent his first four seasons at East Tennessee State, where he was 56 for 74 on field goals (76%) and 131 of 131 on PATs, and three times earned All-Southern Conference honors. He is expected to see the field to start the year.
• Super seniors Josh Plaster and Luke Elzinga split punting responsibilities the first six games last season, with Plaster taking the field in longer situations and Elzinga serving as the team's short-field specialist. Elzinga took over full punting responsibilities in game seven vs. UCF and averaged 45.1 yards on his 27 kicks on the year (long of 58; 13 inside the 20-yard line; eight fair catches). Plaster is the team's primary holder, after serving in that capacity all of last season.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL'S BEST
• During the modern era of college football (since the end of World War II), the Sooners are the nation's No. 1 team with more wins (700) than any other program (next most is 669 by Alabama).
• Oklahoma has finished in the top 5 of the AP poll a nation-leading 33 times (Ohio State is second with 30).
• OU leads all FBS programs with 50 all-time conference championships. The rest of the top five includes Nebraska (46), Michigan (44), Ohio State (39) and USC (37). The Sooners' 14 league titles since 2000 are the most among Power Five programs (Ohio State ranks second with 11).
• No program has more all-time 11-win seasons than Oklahoma's 27 (Alabama also has 27). And since the start of the 2000 season, OU and Ohio State have produced a nation-leading 18 seasons of at least 10 wins.
• Since former head coach Bob Stoops arrived in Norman in 1999, OU leads the country with its 12,778 points scored, which is 611 more than second-place Boise State (12,167) and 888 more than third-place Oregon (11,890).
• OU's 80 consensus All-Americans since 1950 lead the nation (Alabama ranks second with 77 and Ohio State third with 73). Since 2000, OU has produced 30 consensus All-Americans, second only to Alabama.
