Since the Oklahoma Sooners were idle during Week 5 of the college football season, OU head coach Brent Venables got to watch the chaos unfold like the rest of us.
Week 5 was full of upsets, including in the SEC, while Venables watched comfortably from home with his team undefeated at 4-0 and even cracked the top-5 of the Associated Press Top 25 without even playing thanks to teams ahead getting knocked off. What occurred could be both good or bad news for the Sooners, depending if your glass of crimson Kool-Aid is half full or empty.
Brent Venables witnessed college football parity during OU's bye week
"It was affirmation for us if we continue to put the work in that we can play with anybody in the country," Venables said. "There's not a team we can't beat. But there's also a team not capable of beating us if we don't show up and do what's required."
Week 5 started with Virginia upsetting No. 8 Florida State 46-38 on Friday night. Florida State had rapidly risen as a top-10 team after dominating Alabama in Week 1. However, after being counted out because of that early loss, the No. 17 Crimson Tide proved they should still be considered a national contender after beating No. 5 Georgia 24-21 in Athens on Saturday.
Another seismic SEC outcome was No. 13 Ole Miss handling No. 4 LSU 24-19 to now be considered one of the top teams in the conference. No. 6 Oregon also beat No. 3 Penn State 30-24 in two overtimes in the game of the week for many college experts to now consider the Ducks the best team in the country.
The Sooners can relax this week when hosting 1-3 Kent State, but they have Texas in the Red River Rivalry the week after. Starting with that Red River Rivalry matchup on Oct. 11, six of OU's final seven games are against teams ranked in the most recent AP Top 25.
The parity Venables and every college football fan has witnessed all season so far can give the Sooners confidence heading into that daunting stretch, but like Venables warned, OU can also never get comfortable, even as a top-5 undefeated team.
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