How Oklahoma is 'Working on Oklahoma' While Preparing for Texas During Bye Week

The Sooners are in the midst of their first open week of the season before playing rival Texas at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 12 in Dallas.

Oklahoma Sooners linebacker Danny Stutsman / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

The Oklahoma Sooners have no one to prepare for this week but themselves. But let’s also not kid ourselves that it’s not essentially two weeks to get ready for the Red River Showdown. 

The Sooners are in the midst of their first of two open weeks of the season ahead of playing No. 2 Texas at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 12 in Dallas. The Longhorns, also idle this week, are unbeaten at 5-0, were ranked the best in the country a week ago and are getting healthier with expectations to get their starting quarterback back. But before the rivalry week, OU must first better itself if there’s any chance of toppling Texas.

“We’ve gotta get healthy,” OU defensive coordinator Zac Alley said. “We’ve gotta get our guys into recovery and get them ready for obviously a huge game. No. 1 in the country and all that. Get them ready for Dallas next week. 

“This coming week, just gotta do a good job of working on Oklahoma and getting better both defensively, offensively, special teams, everything. We can improve in every area. I believe that, particularly on defense, and just get some guys back healthy and ready to roll.”

Coming off a thrilling road win against Auburn, OU is 4-1 after what OU coach Brent Venables would deem the first part of the season while dividing the year between bye weeks. Now in his third season, the Sooners have never lost a game following a bye week under Venables. However, although OU narrowly beat UCF last season after the open week, the Sooners dropped the next two after that to Kansas and Oklahoma State. 

“Last year off the bye week we turned the ball over two back-to-back weeks, six times,” Venables said. “One was a pick-six in a game you lost by a score. On the third play of the game, you throw a pick-six, it's hard to beat anybody. You gotta get some work in, you gotta get better. You have to improve. You can't improve by doing walk-throughs for three or four days. And every team's different, and this is a team that probably a little bit less bangin' but we had to — we were in full pads (Wednesday) and did lots of good on good, and that's — you want guys to, if you're gonna get exposed, you want 'em to get exposed out here on the practice field. And we've worked a lot of situationals, but (Thursday) we'll be — we won't be in full pads (Thursday), we weren't in full pads on Monday.” 

Preparation for Texas won’t matter much if OU doesn’t have the tools needed to fix itself, though. The Sooners were without 11 players for their last game against Auburn. That included four who will be out long term or for the season and five of their top wide receivers. Kicker Tyler Keltner is expected to return after missing a week. Venables also said top receiver Deion Burks and emerging freshman running back Taylor Tatum could also be back to play Texas. 

 “I think it's very obvious, it's probably one of the most important weeks, especially leading up to the week that we have,” linebacker Danny Stutsman said. “I think guys just need to get healthy, take care of themselves and use this week as kind of a stepping stone.”

But recovery doesn’t equate to rest in what would be considered an off week. OU’s offense has been lackluster and one of the least explosive units in the country. The defense has been the 2024 Sooners’ backbone, but even that group gave up 482 total yards in its last outing against Auburn. Texas, meanwhile, is averaging 47.4 points and 513.4 yards a game while giving up only 7 points and 228.2 yards. The Sooners were given an extra week to try and narrow those margins. 

“You've got to treat it like a professional,” Stutsman said. “It's not really time off, you've got to be active in your recovery and your film and even through practice, when we have an opportunity, you've got to take the most out of it and just keep getting better.”