Oklahoma enters 2026 with the kind of profile that makes people lean in. ESPN analytics and several other national outlets have the Sooners as the sixth-best team in the SEC, while also placing them among the top 15 teams nationally. That says plenty about the league they play in, and about how steep the climb is going to be.
The schedule is the first thing that jumps off the page. Oklahoma opens on Friday night, Sept. 4 against UTEP, but the next stretch is a grind: at Michigan, at Georgia, then the annual Red River matchup with Texas in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
And that’s just the start. The Sooners’ other seven regular-season games don’t offer much relief, either.
In all, Oklahoma faces nine teams ranked in ESPN’s 2026 College Football Power Index top 25.
That kind of slate is part of life in the SEC. ESPN Analytics says 11 of the top 12 teams with the toughest schedules in 2026 come from that league. Ohio State, ranked No. 1 in the preseason FPI, is the only non-SEC team in that group.
How Oklahoma handles that run will go a long way toward deciding whether the Sooners are simply a good team in a brutal league or a real playoff threat again.
A lot of that starts with John Mateer. He’s back for a second season at quarterback, and he remains the centerpiece of what is expected to be a better Oklahoma offense.
The former Washington State transfer followed Ben Arbuckle, his offensive coordinator at Washington State, to Norman and was asked to carry a heavy load last season because the supporting cast around him wasn’t consistent. Mateer also played most of the year with a broken thumb.
He took plenty of criticism for trying to do too much, and the list of issues was long: trouble handling defensive adjustments, accuracy problems and too many bad decisions with the ball. This offseason, though, he has worked to clean up the physical, mechanical and mental parts of his game. He’s also added weight and gotten stronger in both his upper and lower body.
On3’s Chris Low thinks Mateer is ready for a big leap. Low ranked him the fourth-best quarterback in the SEC entering 2026, behind Trindad Chambliss of Ole Miss, Arch Manning at Texas and Georgia’s Gunner Stockton.
"If he stays healthy, I think Mateer makes the biggest jump," Low said this week on the Paul Finebaum Show."They've done a nice job of surrounding him with better players."
The help around him matters, because Oklahoma’s run game was a mess a year ago. Jayden Ott arrived from California with expectations, but it never clicked and he was a complete bust. Tory Blaylock and Xavier Robinson ended up carrying much of the load, but both dealt with injuries and the Sooners finished with fewer than 500 net rushing yards from the pair.
That has to change in 2026, and there are reasons to think it can. Oklahoma brings back a more experienced offensive line and added two promising backs in true freshman Jonathan Hatton, a top-four running back in the 2026 class nationally, and Colorado State transfer Lloyd Avant, whom the coaching staff is high on.
The tight end room should help, too, especially in the run game. Oklahoma needs more push up front and more chunk gains from its backs after averaging just over three yards per carry last season.
The receiving group also looks deeper. Isaiah Sategna returns as the Sooners’ top receiver and Mateer’s top target from a year ago, and Oklahoma added Parker Livingstone from Texas and Trell Harris from Virginia. Livingstone posted 516 receiving yards and six touchdowns as a freshman for Texas last season, while Harris had 847 receiving yards and five touchdown catches as a junior at Virginia.
There’s more depth behind them with redshirt junior Jer'Michael Carter and sophomore Elijah Thomas, both of whom could be poised for a breakout. And 6-foot-3 true freshman Jayden Petit, ranked the No. 18 wide receiver in the 2026 class nationally, is another name to watch.
The numbers from last season show just how much room there is to grow. Oklahoma finished 92nd in total offense at 354.3 yards per game, 79th in scoring offense at 26.2 points per game and 113th in rushing offense at 118.5.
If the offense takes a real step forward and Brent Venables’ defense stays elite, Oklahoma has a path to being right in the playoff mix again. The defense was sixth in total defense and seventh in scoring defense in 2025, and that kind of backbone gives the Sooners a chance even with the schedule they face.
On3’s J.D. Pickell put it plainly on The Hard Count: "If this comes true that they have the best defense in college football, and the offense holds up their end of the deal, it's going to be a movie in Norman, man," Pickell said.
On paper, Oklahoma has the ingredients. The question is whether it can turn that into something real once the season starts.
In Other News...
Oklahoma May Finally Be Seeing The David Stone Payoff
David Stones rise has been one of the more encouraging developments for Oklahomas defense, especially for a player who arrived with the kind of recruiting profile that can create instant pressure and instant expectations. The five-star defensive tackle was used sparingly as a true freshman, but his second season looked much more like the version the Sooners hoped they were getting, with 42 tackles and eight tackles for loss while becoming harder and harder to ignore on the interior.
Now Stone is drawing national attention as one of the top defensive tackles in college football, and the praise around him has only sharpened the focus on what comes next for Oklahoma. His production already gives the Sooners a disruptive presence up front, and with analysts pointing to him as a potential difference-maker, the bigger question is how much more he can elevate a defense that will be leaning on him heavily moving forward. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma Is Being Held To A National Title Standard Again
After finishing 10-3 and getting back to the College Football Playoff, Oklahoma is once again being judged by a standard that used to define the program: not just whether it can make the field, but whether it can chase a national title. That shift matters in Norman, where the expectation has moved beyond simply recovering from a disappointing season and back toward the kind of ceiling that turns a good year into a memorable one.
The optimism around the Sooners comes with clear conditions. The defense has to stay strong, and the offense has to take a real step forward under quarterback John Mateer. If both sides of the ball come together, Oklahoma could find itself in the national championship conversation again, with a path that feels a lot closer to the programs old championship standard than its recent rebuilding phase. [Read more 🡒]
Brent Venables Keeps Giving Oklahoma Fans A Reason To Believe
Since Brent Venables took over before the 2022 season, Oklahoma has had a knack for turning overlooked or lightly celebrated recruits into real SEC contributors. That matters in a league where roster-building is supposed to be as much about development as it is about signing-day splash, and the Sooners have already seen that approach pay off in the trenches and on the back end of the defense.
Gracen Halton, Taylor Wein, Eli Bowen and Courtland Guillory all fit the same broader pattern: players who arrived with questions and quickly became part of the answer. For Oklahoma fans, the encouraging part is not just that Venables has found talent, but that the staff keeps identifying it early and getting it ready for bigger roles before the rest of the conference fully catches on. [Read more 🡒]