All Sooners

COLUMN: Maybe Oklahoma and Texas Actually Do 'Know What They're Getting Into' in the SEC

LSU running back Josh Williams on Monday became just the latest SEC player to assume the Sooners and Longhorns will be in over their heads.

John E. Hoover

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Here we go again with the SEC narrative.

By now, Oklahoma fans should be used to it.

This time, it was a running back from LSU who warned the Sooners — and the Texas Longhorns — about joining the mighty Southeastern Conference.

“I don’t think they know what they’re getting into,” Josh Williams said Monday at SEC Media Days in Nashville. “The SEC is a beast, everybody knows. But I’m excited for them to actually get into the conference.”

Let’s be clear. Williams, a senior and former walk-on who has compiled 870 yards from scrimmage and six touchdowns in his LSU career, didn’t trash OU or Texas. He only gave credit to his school’s conference. And it’s all but factual that the SEC is, indeed, a beast.

But it’s also nothing that Sooner Nation hasn’t heard before.

In 2019, ahead of Oklahoma’s College Football Playoff matchup with LSU in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, LSU linebacker Patrick Queen took a shot — actually, he called his shot — when he said, “I feel like with this game plan we have, we’re gonna dominate them.”

Queen said the Sooners’ “o-line (is) not great, backs (are) not great. But they still make it work.”

The following year, prior to the Sooners’ matchup with Florida, Gators linebacker James Houston told media via Zoom that “Oklahoma is a good matchup, but they’re not on our level. … They’re not the SEC. They’re not the Florida Gators. So we should put on a good show.”

Let’s review.

Queen had a starring role (85 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, three sacks) for arguably the single greatest assemblage of college football talent the world has ever seen, and he and his teammates backed up his Clubber Langesque prediction with a 63-28 victory over the injury-riddled Sooners. That LSU team went 15-0.

A year later, Houston was concluding his three seasons in Gainesville with 37 tackles, 3.5 TFLs and one sack on a Florida team that made it through the pandemic at 8-4 and was gutted of starters by a steady stream of opt-outs. His team, playing with much less on the line, didn’t back up anything but the buses so they could get the heck out of Jerry World and get to DFW. OU won 55-20.

So which is it? Simple.

If OU plays Georgia in the playoff this year, expect a game that looks very much like the Peach Bowl did. If OU plays Kentucky or Missouri in the Alamo Bowl or the Texas Bowl, a repeat of the ’20 Cotton Bowl is certainly possible.

The message here being the top of the SEC is absolutely better than the top of any other conference. Queen, Houston, Williams and millions of others aren’t wrong about that.

But the SEC’s middling teams — which can change from year to year but stay mostly the same — aren’t anything special. Oklahoma State lost to Texas A&M in the Texas Bowl but beat Missouri in the Liberty Bowl. Kansas State lost to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, but beat LSU and Texas A&M in the Texas Bowl. Baylor lost to Georgia in the Sugar Bowl but beat Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl and beat Vanderbilt in the Texas Bowl.

See, when they actually play the games, sometimes the Big 12 can win, too.

Make no mistake, the SEC will be better than ever next year with the addition of the Sooners and Longhorns. Having more schools rooting around the Lone Star State and reeling in recruits who previously might have only considered OU or Texas will strengthen the whole league.

“I love the fact that the SEC is expanding more to Texas,” said Williams, who hails from Houston. “I feel like a lot of kids from Texas leave Texas because they want to play in the SEC, but now that they’re bringing it more to Texas, I think it’s a great thing for football.”

It’s also worth remembering that Oklahoma’s all-time record against its seven 2024 SEC opponents minus Texas — Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss, South Carolina and Tennessee — is 9-6-1. And that’s not including a 67-24-5 record against Mizzou, or a 19-12 mark against Texas A&M.

Let’s all be honest for a moment. Oklahoma and Texas aren’t going into the SEC blindfolded. They’re not deluded into thinking they’ll win six straight conference titles over there. They know what the deal is. They know their football programs (and baseball and probably a bunch of other programs) are going to have to step up to compete in the SEC.

But let’s also not elevate the SEC to divine status. Bob Stoops’ early OU teams competed with the SEC’s best. So did Mack Brown’s most talented Texas squads. Heck, Texas almost beat big ol' Alabama last year and didn’t finish the game with its starting QB.

But lately, while the Big 12’s identity morphed into a two-minute drill, the SEC planted its cleats in the grass and doubled down on great defense. The tradeoff has been Heisman Trophies and offensive records for one league, and national championships and NFL studs for the other.

With the exception of the 2017 Sooners and their late stumbles against Georgia in the Rose Bowl, Oklahoma’s recent talent just hasn’t measured up to the top of the SEC. And Texas — well, Texas hasn’t been “back” since 2009.

Maybe that narrative is already changing right under everyone’s nose.

Both Texas (No. 3) and Oklahoma (No. 4) signed top-five recruiting classes this year, and both are trending to repeat that feat in 2024, pending a handful of coming decisions. That’ll need to continue for the next 3-4 years to produce a national champion worthy of taking down the mighty SEC.

One potentially huge roadblock: it was Alabama and Georgia who finished No. 1 and 2 in the ’23 team recruiting rankings. And hey look at that, Georgia also ranks No. 1 in the 2024 rankings. And 2025, as well.

So Oklahoma and Texas probably know all too well what they’re getting into — a league where everybody, including Alabama, has the same problem.

Georgia.

Published
John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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