Statement. Made.
The No. 18 Oklahoma Sooners dominated the No. 15 Michigan Wolverines 24-13 on Saturday night at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. The score doesn't reveal domination, but if not for some special teams mishaps, the Sooners would have blown out a top-20 team that won the national championship just two years ago. And even with those mistakes, the Sooners were still always in control from the opening drive.
It's been just two weeks, but the 2025 college football season has been disappointing throughout most of SEC country. But not in Norman, Oklahoma.
Oklahoma exceeding expectations as rest of SEC disappoints
Media projected the Sooners to finish in the bottom half of the conference in the preseason SEC poll. Nationally, college football coaches around the country didn't even vote OU in the top 25 of the preseason coaches poll.
That same preseason media poll had Texas winning the conference, and although the Longhorns took on a tough challenge in their season opener, their offense looked abysmal against Ohio State in a 14-7 loss.
No. 3 on the list was Alabama. The Crimson Tide were dismantled by an unranked Florida State team Week 1. Florida then lost to an unranked South Florida on Saturday. LSU deserved props for beating then-No. 4 Clemson in Week 1, but then Clemson had to mount a comeback just to get past Troy a week later.
Georgia hasn't played anybody yet, but the Bulldogs will get tested next week against Tennessee, which might be the only other SEC team to exceed expectations so far.
The Sooners are not perfect or even superior to those other contenders yet. But no one is in this now wide open conference. And at the very least, OU isn't disappointing.
OU head coach Brent Venables has preached SEC games are won in the trenches. The Sooners have one of the best defensive lines in the country and on Saturday it seemed Bill Bedenbaugh finally found an offensive line combination he can build upon. Everything else also keeps showing signs for improvement, all led by a Heisman Trophy contending quarterback in John Mateer.
The Sooners are sure to soar in the next set of rankings, and as most SEC teams have disappointed so far, OU might be the only team exceeding expectations to assert itself among the conference leaders and as a legitimate College Football Playoff contender.
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