Hayden Hansen isn’t ready to write off Oklahoma’s season, and he’s leaning hard on what he lived through a year ago at Florida.
Back then, Hansen watched the Gators ride the jolt of a stunning upset over Texas, only for that momentum to disappear. On Oct. 19, 2025, Billy Napier was fired, and the chain of events that followed eventually led Hansen to Oklahoma.
Now the Sooners find themselves in a similar kind of swing, alternating wins and losses. They knocked off Texas, but Saturday’s 21-13 loss to Kentucky came with a familiar problem: repeated second-half turnovers that derailed any chance to finish strong.
“I just learned from that that the worst thing anyone could do right now is just like, ‘Oh, we’ve got three losses, the playoffs are kind of far, let’s just fold our cards,’” Hansen said after the Sooners practice Monday. “You can’t do that. You’ve got to show up to work at the end of the day.”
Hansen said the response has to come from within.
“You have that Oklahoma logo on your chest,” Hansen said. “It’s the man in the mirror.
… Your last name is still on that film that you put out there. You’re playing for everything.
You’re playing for this. You’re playing for that slim chance of the playoffs still.
You’re playing for the people in the stands. You’re playing for the coaches that believed in you.
So there’s still a lot to go. And I mean if we go out there and win these last six games and we go 10-3, that’s not a bad season.”
That kind of finish is still mathematically in play, even if the way this season has unfolded makes it hard to picture.
The offense has been the biggest issue. Oklahoma’s 311.5 yards of total offense per game rank ahead of only Michigan State among power conference teams. The Sooners’ 92.5 rushing yards per game are better than just Cal and Hawaii among FBS teams, and their minus-1.33 turnover margin is worse than only Sacramento State, Marshall and Charlotte across the FBS.
OU has already turned the ball over 14 times this season, after coughing it up just 16 times all of last year.
“Most of the time in the SEC, if you don’t win the turnover margin, you lose games,” Hansen said. “And when you turn the ball over like we have, I mean, it doesn’t lead to those results that you should get.
And at the end of the day you have to go back and look at it with a critical eye. All these turnovers you see, you might see it’s one way, but it actually could be something else that’s causing it.
… It wasn’t pretty on offense by any means, but when you have the No. 1 defensive in the nation, you got Doug freakin’ Deakin coaching special teams, you give yourself a chance. We gotta continuously fix up that end for sure.”
Still, Hansen sees enough in the Kentucky game to believe the Sooners can move the ball. Oklahoma had only three first-half possessions, and each one stretched for at least 12 plays. Those drives ate up 17:18 of the clock combined.
“That’s kind of the frustrating part and we know that,” Hansen said. “But also how close we are keeps us motivated.”
Oklahoma heads to Starkville, Miss., to face Mississippi State at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
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