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The Oklahoma football program has so much to look forward to under new head coach Brent Venables. Now comes a challenge Venables is looking forward to. On the college football Week 3 slate, there's no game with more tradition in the sport than Oklahoma Nebraska, the revival of a storied and significant rivalry. Nebraska football might be in crisis, but the Cornhuskers figure to give the Sooners a battle. Let's make some Oklahoma football predictions for this clash.
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3 Bold Oklahoma Football Predictions For Game Vs. Nebraska
Let's look at what will happen for (and against) the Sooners in Lincoln in this highly-anticipated college football Week 3 game.
3. Oklahoma Sooners will not reach 400 total yards
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It is fascinating to contemplate what might happen in this game. Nebraska is playing this game one week after losing at home as a 23-point underdog to Georgia Southern. The Huskers fired Scott Frost and are moving forward with an interim coaching staff which knows that it will be looking for new jobs this December. That's a weird position to be in, but it also means every Nebraska coach is fighting for a job and is trying to get noticed in the industry. If these staffers do well, they will have something to put on the portfolio for prospective employers. That point aside, every Nebraska player has a sense of wounded pride and will want to play as hard as possible. This should lead to an inspired performance by the Nebraska defense against an Oklahoma offense which was held in check for the first half of last week's game against Kent State. The Sooners needed to make some halftime adjustments before regrouping and then busting loose in the second half.
If you remember last year's game, Oklahoma's offense never did break free of the Huskers' defense. The game was a conservatively played slugfest. We shouldn't be too surprised if that happens again this year.
2. Nebraska football will be held under 300 yards
The Nebraska offense is in for a world of hurt against Oklahoma. This is not Lincoln Riley. This is Brent Venables, who knows how to coach defense and has already shown signs of changing the way the Sooners play. It used to be an offense-first approach under Riley. Now the defense leads the way. The Sooners have been extremely good on this side of the ball. Against a soft Nebraska team which has clearly not changed relative to previous seasons (at least not enough to save Scott Frost's job), Oklahoma's defensive front should be able to dictate the way this game is played. Nebraska will have a very difficult time moving the ball against this OU defense, which is extremely well coached by Venables and his defensive staff.
1. Oklahoma Sooners will beat the Nebraska Cornhuskers by 10 points
Oklahoma's defense will win the game, but Nebraska's defense will keep the game close. Last year's game was 23-16 in favor of the Sooners. This year's game probably won't be very different from last year's meeting between these two storied football programs. It's true that Spencer Rattler and Adrian Martinez, the two starting quarterbacks in the 2021 game, are now gone. Rattler is at South Carolina and Martinez is with Kansas State. Yet, with Venables replacing Riley and Nebraska treating this game as its Super Bowl one week after the Frost firing, one should expect a fierce defensive battle without a ton of offensive fireworks. Oklahoma 27, Nebraska 17.
