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Oklahoma football: Six storylines for OU-Florida State in Cheez-It Bowl

By Chip Rouse

ORLANDO, FLORIDA - DECEMBER 29: General view of the Clemson Tigers celebrating after defeating the Iowa State Cyclones to win the Cheez-It Bowl Game at Camping World Stadium on December 29, 2021 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)
ORLANDO, FLORIDA - DECEMBER 29: General view of the Clemson Tigers celebrating after defeating the Iowa State Cyclones to win the Cheez-It Bowl Game at Camping World Stadium on December 29, 2021 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images) /
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The seemingly endless December wait since the last Oklahoma football game in 2023 is now 48 hours away with the Sooners and Florida State going into battle in the third annual Cheez-It Bowl in Orlando.

The 6-6 Sooners and 10-3 Seminoles will tee it up at 4:30 p.m. CT on Thursday at what is now Camping World Stadium. Orlando has been a site for eight different bowl game sponsors.

The Sooners have played there once before in what was then the Russell Athletic Bowl against Clemson in 2014. That was not a memorable experience, with Clemson putting a 40-6 beatdown on the Crimson and Cream.

Oklahoma is 6-1 all-time against Florida State, but Thursday’s matchup is going to be a difficult challenge for the Sooners against the 13th-ranked Seminoles. Florida State is a 9.5-point favorite. It is interesting to point out that FSU was also a favorite the last time these two teams played in a postseason game. That contest, of course, was the 2001 BCS National Championship game, played in the Orange Bowl and won by Oklahoma, 13-2.

The Sooners are 31-23-1 all-time in bowl games. Their 31 postseason wins are the fourth most nationally.

This year is just the second time since 2014 Oklahoma has not played in a New Year’s Six bowl. Since 2014 (the last time OU was in Orlando in the postseason), the Sooners have played in the Orange Bowl (2015 and 2018), Sugar Bowl (2017), Rose Bowl (2018) Peach Bowl (2019), Cotton Bowl (2020) and Alamo Bowl (2021).

Here are some of the key storylines surrounding the OU-Florida State bowl matchup on Thursday:

  • Perhaps the biggest storyline from a Sooner perspective is that the outcome of the game will determine whether Brent Venables and Oklahoma finish with a winning record (7-6) for the 2022 season or a losing record (6-7). The last time OU finished with a losing record was in 1998 (5-6) under John Blake.
  • Oklahoma has won 41 of 51 games, an .814 winning percentage, against teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference.
  • Florida State leads the ACC in both total offense (475.7 yards per game) and total defense (307.3 yards allowed per game). The Seminoles rank 13 and 14th, respectively, nationally in both categories.
  • Oklahoma will be without the services of three key players on offense and one on defense: RB Eric Gray, who led OU in rushing this season with 1,364 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns and averaged 6.4 yards per carry,12th-best nationally, will not play in the bowl game. The other three Sooner starters who have opted out of the game are OLs Wanya Morris and Anton Harrison and DL Jalen Redmond. All four have declared for the NFL Draft.
  • This is a homecoming of sorts for OU QB Dillon Gabriel, who played three seasons for UCF, located in Orlando.
  • First-year Sooner head coach Brent Venables was 3-0 against Florida State as an Oklahoma assistant coach from 1999 to 2011 and 6-3 versus the Seminoles as the defensive coordinator at Clemson from 2012 to 2021.
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