Rives Mitchell & Dave Myrick
The most anticipated day of every year has finally arrived and cemented itself on this beautiful Friday. After a long and strenuous off-season, we can finally echo everyone’s favorite five word saying, “it’s football time in Oklahoma.”
After a successful 10-3 campaign a season ago, OU comes into 2024 with a whole new list of changes and expectations. The most obvious change, joining the SEC conference, will serve as a tremendous opportunity for OU to test the program against the nations best talent. Before the Sooners have to worry about the Tennessee Volunteers in Week 4 or any of their other SEC opponents, three non-conference home games stand in the way.
The first of these three opponents is the Temple Owls, led by Head Coach Stan Drayton. Temple went 3-9 last year and obviously did not have too many bright spots throughout the year. Some of their defeats included 48-26 to Tulsa, 55-0 to SMU and 41-7 to Miami. Coach Drayton named Forrest Brock the starting QB for Temple, after previously saying he would wait until game-time to announce his gunslinger.
Though the Sooners first three games are not a walk in the park, the matchup tonight with Temple should be the easiest affair for Oklahoma all season. The Owls simply do not contain the defensive depth to keep up with OU. We expect OU to run the ball very well behind Gavin Sawchuck and Javontae Barnes. These are not the only two backs that can do damage, however, as Taylor Tatum is a five-star waiting for his opportunity, and Kalib Hicks has tremendous flashes in the spring game.
Running the ball effectively will not only help the offense, but it will give first year starter Jackson Arnold confidence to spread the ball out on his end. The play-action passing game should be working in full force tonight, so look for receivers like Deion Burkes and Andrel Anthony to be highly targeted players all night. Of course, Jalil Farooq should be involved as well after a sub par 2023 season.
All in all, Rives and Dave are both taking OU to win by 4+ scores tonight in Norman. The Sooners know what to expect out of this underwhelming Owl squad and should have no problem making this game a distant memory at halftime.
Rives prediction: 70-7 OU
Dave: 52-17 OU
