Where do Sooners land in CBS Sports' latest bowl predictions?

The Oklahoma Sooners are 3-0 on the 2024 season, reaching that benchmark with nonconference wins at home over Temple, Houston, and Tulane. Now, OU turns its attention to conference play, beginning with the Tennessee Volunteers coming into Norman on Saturday night.

The college football season is still fairly young, and nearly everything is still to be decided. Oklahoma is a perfect example of that. They haven’t played a team with as much talent as them yet, but the strong majority of their final nine regular season games will provide that exact situation. A stout defense has buoyed a struggling offense so far this year, and OU’s tune-up opportunities have run out. The Vols are knocking on the door.

Though the Sooners are unbeaten, they haven’t exactly been impressive in their wins. That has led to their weekly bowl projections being lower than OU fans would like, aided in part by the brutal conference in which the Sooners now reside.

CBS Sports college football writer Jerry Palm updated his bowl season predictions after week three of the season, and he thinks that Oklahoma could run into a familiar face this winter.

Palm has Oklahoma slated to take on the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the TaxAct Texas Bowl on the afternoon of December 31st. The game is played in Houston, Texas at NRG Stadium and pits the SEC against the Big 12.

Of course, the Sooners and Red Raiders were conference foes from 1996 to 2023. Oklahoma holds a 23-7 record all-time against Texas Tech, playing in a couple of memorable games over the years.

In 2008, the Red Raiders came into Norman undefeated and ranked second in the country, enjoying the best season in program history. But it was the fifth-ranked Sooners who stole the show in front of a national TV audience, dominating from start to finish on their way to a 65-21 victory. Bob Stoops got the better of his former pupil Mike Leach, and OU would go on to win the Big 12 and play for a national title.

In 2016, perhaps the greatest shootout in the sport’s history took place on an October night in Lubbock. Superstar quarterbacks Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes led their offenses up and down the field all night long, and neither defense could do anything to get a stop. The Sooners prevailed 66-59 on their way to another conference title and a Sugar Bowl victory in Stoops’ final season.

Certainly, the Texas Bowl is not where expectations like for this proud program. A berth in the College Football Playoff is still well within reach, as Oklahoma has escaped in a couple of early-season battles to remain undefeated.

Head coach Brent Venables knows his offense has to build off of an improved performance against Tulane in order to be where this team is capable of being and where this program expects to be every single year.

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