The first game in the rest of the Oklahoma football season and under interim offensive coordinator and new play-caller Jason Witten will take place under the lights on Saturday in the Sooners' first-ever trip to Gainesville, Florida, at a place they call "The Swamp," and for good reason.
Florida's Ben Hill Griffin Stadium is one of the most difficult places to play in the SEC, if not the country. Oklahoma historically has played well away from home, winning 39 of its last 53 true road games, but outside of last season, when OU went 4-0 in road games, the Sooners have struggled away from home under head coach Brent Venables.
Oklahoma is 11-10 in true road games in Venable's five seasons leading the Sooners. Over that same five-year span, Florida is 21-9 at home, including 3-1 this season. The Gators, who rank 23rd in the country among FBS teams in scoring offense, have averaged 57 points a game in their three home wins, including a 52-28 shellacking of then-No. 4 Ole Miss.
Both teams are coming off tough losses. Oklahoma (4-4, 2-3) lost at home in embarrassing fashion, 42-25, to surging South Carolina, which four weeks ago did the same thing at Florida, coming away with a decisive 38-19 victory over the Gators. Meanwhile, Florida (5-3, 3-3), No. 24 this week in the initial CFP Rankings, fell victim to Georgia in Atlanta, falling 27-8 in the annual border war between those two longtime rivals.
This will be just the third all-time meeting on the gridiron between Oklahoma and Florida, and the first on a campus. The previous two games between the two teams were in the postseason. The No. 1 Sooners lost to the No. 2 Gators 24-14 in the BCS National Championship Game for the 2008 season. A dozen years later, No. 8 OU defeated No. 10 Florida 55-20 in the 2020 Cotton Bowl Classic in Arlington, Texas.
How to watch Oklahoma vs. Florida
When: 6:45 p.m. CT, Saturday, Nov. 7
Watch: SEC Network (watch using Fubo TV free trial)
Announcers: Matt Schumacker (play-by-play), Aaron Murray (analyst), and Taylor Davis (sideline reporter)
What to know about Florida
- Florida ranks fifth in the SEC in total offense, averaging 425.3 yards per game, but 13th in total defense, allowing 28.1 points and 369.3 yards per game. Junior running back Jaden Baugh ranks No. 3 in the SEC with 801 rushing yards and an average of 5.3 yards per carry. His 13 rushing touchdowns lead the conference and are tied for fourth nationally.
- Florida has two quarterbacks who have started games and played effectively this season. Georgia Tech transfer Aaron Philo started the first six games, while sophomore Trammel Jones started for the injured Philo in Week 7 and led the Gators to an upset win over Texas. Jones will get his second start this week. Both played in the game against Georgia last weekend. Both QBs have a 70%-plus completion percentage this season. Philo has thrown for 1,367 yards and nine touchdowns; Jones has 579 passing yards in seven games and four touchdown passes.
- While the Gators' defense has given up a lot of yards through eight games, the front seven can be very disruptive. Florida ranks 15th nationally among FBS teams with 57 tackles for loss and is tied for 17th in sacks with 23. The Gators' 10 forced fumbles lead the SEC and are the third most in the FBS.
- Special teams has been a strength for Florida this season. Gator kick-returner London Montgomery ranks second in the SEC, averaging 23.7 yards per return, and as a team, Florida leads the conference in punt returns, averaging 22.4 yards. The Gators also have one of the conference's best field-goal kickers in Tulane transfer Patrick Durkin. He has been successful on 91.7% (11 of 12) of his field-goal tries this season.
What to know about Oklahoma
- Arbuckle was fired earlier this week as Oklahoma offensive coordinator. He has been replaced, on an interim basis, by Witten, who is in his first season on Venables' OU coaching staff as tight ends coach. Florida will be Witten's first game calling the offensive plays, which he will continue to do for the remainder of the season.
- Oklahoma's much-maligned offense is under new staff leadership and direction beginning this week but with the same personnel on the field executing the play calls. The Sooners entered the week tied for 108th in the FBS in scoring (22.0), 112th in total offense (336.9 yards per game), and 128th in rushing (108.6 yards per game). The Sooner defense, however, sits at the other end of the statistical spectrum: 38th in scoring (20.8), 21st in total defense (304.6), and 16th in pass defense (175.4).
- Over the past two seasons, the Oklahoma defense has held opponents to a 28.1% conversion rate on third down. The Sooners rank 1st in the SEC and 7th among all FBS teams this season in that category.
- The Sooners are No. 2 in the conference behind Florida in punt returns this season, averaging 20.5 yards per return. OU's Isaiah Sategna is the individual conference leader in that category, averaging 13.8 in 11 punt returns.
Other storylines
- Bob Stoops, the winningest head coach in Oklahoma football history, came to Oklahoma in 1999 as a first-time head coach after serving three seasons as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator under Steve Spurrier at Florida. Stoops won 191 games (191-48, .799) in 18 seasons as Oklahoma head coach. Spurrier, for whom the field is named at Florida's Ben Griffin Stadium, remains Stoops' close friend and longtime mentor.
- Sustaining drives on offense has been a major problem for Oklahoma this season. In the first five games this season. the Sooners had just five drives of at least 10 plays. Over the last three games, however, the OU offense has generated 10 drives of 10 or more plays.
- Much of OU's offensive difficulties this season have centered on the performance of quarterback John Mateer. To Mateer's credit, however, he has thrown 10 touchdown passes of at least 20 yards this season. That not only leads the SEC but also ranks 3rd among Power 4 quarterbacks and 7th nationally.
- Venables indicated this week, after making the change at offensive coordinator, that "Everything is on the table" in terms of other potential changes. It appears that Mateer will remain the starting quarterback for Florida, but whether we will see a change in-game against the Gators or at any other point over the final three games of the season is a question that remains up in the air. I would be surprised, however, if either of the backup QBs, junior Whitt Newbauer or freshman Bowe Bentley, remains at Oklahoma beyond this season.
Prediction
Even before this college football season kicked off, I had circled the road game at Florida as one of the three most difficult on the Sooners' 2026 schedule. This season has been a disappointment for both teams entering the final month of the regular season. No one is quite sure what effect the midseason OU offensive coordinator change will have on Saturday's game against Florida or on the rest of the season. But that uncertainty works somewhat to the Sooners' advantage in affecting Florida's defensive preparation.
I expect Oklahoma to play better on Saturday, especially on defense, than it did in the loss to South Carolina last weekend, but I feel the home environment in The Swamp, where Florida historically plays its best football, will prove to be the difference in the game.
Florida 27, Oklahoma 20
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