Only about three hours of a college football Saturday can be spent actually watching the Oklahoma Sooners, so the rest of the weekend is spent figuring out what other game to turn on. Although Sooner Nation will always watch the Sooners, sometimes you flip to a game not because of who you root for, but against.
Between rivals, former coaches and players who transferred away, Sooner Nation has plenty to hate watch during the 2025 college football season, and between these options, one will always be on TV to root against and enjoy their demise.
Texas
The Longhorns are the most obvious and hated choice. Nothing quite ruins a good Saturday like a Texas win. It just influences more arrogance oozing out of Austin that we all have to hear about, and it doesn’t help that ESPN has also started stroking that fragile ego of Texas and Arch Manning groupies. But an OU win paired with a Texas loss is the perfect combo, like a Bevo burger with a side of fries.
Texas will open its season on the road against Ohio State at 11 a.m. CT Saturday on FOX. The Buckeyes are also hard to love and still despise the Sooners ever since Baker Mayfield planted the flag, yet it still might be the only time of the year when we’d rather see the other OSU win.
Lincoln Riley
If anything rivals that Texas hatred, it’s that guy. He enters 2025 on the seat hot, so every USC loss is one step closer to him getting fired from the program he left Oklahoma for. Nothing will be more satisfying than that breaking news alert that he got canned.
Zac Alley
Similar to the guy before, Zac Alley abruptly left Oklahoma for a lesser program when he took the defensive coordinator job at West Virginia this offseason after just one year in the same position at OU.
Truth is, Alley wasn’t around long enough to create much of a grudge and the defense is in better hands now, but just like any ex, it will be nice to watch him struggle in the Big 12 knowing what he could have had if he stuck around.
LSU
There are murmurs LSU could be one of the Sooners’ three future annual SEC opponents, so that potential rivalry could influence more hate watching later on. The Tigers might also have the most unlikable coach in college football with Brian Kelly.
For now, though, the Tigers just swiped two of OU’s best pass catchers this offseason in wide receiver Nic Anderson and tight end Bauer Sharp. Sharp was already despised by Sooner Nation even while wearing crimson and cream, so that will be cranked up even more after joining another SEC program.
Sharp and Anderson will return to Norman for the Sooners’ regular-season finale with plenty of boos expected.
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