Ranking Oklahoma’s Three Most Losable SEC Games of 2024

The Sooners have one of college football's toughest schedules, but some games will be harder than others – and not for reasons you might think.

Oklahoma linebacker Danny Stutsman / BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK

Trying to bring Oklahoma’s 2024 season into sharp focus, it’s helpful to hone in on breaking the eight-game SEC schedule into smaller bits.

Yesterday, Sooners On SI presented the three most winnable SEC games facing OU this fall. In truth, there aren't many.

Against one of college football’s most imposing schedules, armed with new coordinators in all three phases, as well as a new quarterback and a completely revamped offensive line, this team could finish anywhere from 10-2 to 5-7.

The 16-team SEC seems to be logically heading toward a nine-game conference schedule, but that wouldn't happen until 2026 at the earliest.

The SEC certainly won’t be OU’s playground like the Big Seven, Big Eight and Big 12 were. Bud Wilkinson won 14 conference titles in 16 years. Barry Switzer won 12 in 16 years. And Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley combined for 14 Big 12 trophies in 21 years, from 2000-20. The longest drought without a Big 12 title in that stretch was just two years (2013-14). After winning six straight, the current Sooners have now gone three years in a row without one.

No other school won more than four in the 28-year history of the league.

OU does own more conference championships (50) than anyone.

But since the SEC instituted a conference championship game in 1992, Alabama has won 11 SEC titles, Florida has seven, LSU five, Georgia four, Auburn three and Tennessee two. Nick Saban remolded the SEC in his image, but the Tide still has just 11 crowns in the last 32 years.

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FOR MORE: Oklahoma's Three Most Winnable SEC Games of 2024

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And Saban has retired. SEC parity might be stronger than ever.

So now let’s try to get a handle on OU’s upcoming season by ranking the SEC games that we rate as the most losable, and then Thursday we'll pick three games that will either make or break the season for Sooner Nation.

Here are Oklahoma’s Most Losable Games of 2024:

1. Ole Miss

In addition to Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss having the kind of talent that could actually make a run at the SEC, as well as it being staged in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, this game falls in a tricky spot for the Sooners: after a likely get-right game at home against South Carolina and a cupcake against Maine.

It also starts a second-half run that features the No. 6, No. 11, No. 5 and No. 13 preseason teams in the AP Top 25. No. 16 OU is already early underdogs in all four. 

Ole Miss went 11-2 last year — their first time to reach 11 wins in school history — but was humbled in losses at Alabama and Georgia. 

The Rebels have talented, experienced QB Jaxson Dart, are loaded at receiver and running back and have three starters back on the offensive line, plus two Washington OL starters from the portal.

Five portal additions on defense were 4- or 5-star recruits, including Texas A&M 5-star DT Walter Nolen.

If Kiffin can find the right blend between all the returning talent and all the newcomers, Ole Miss is a problem.

Plus it’s a road game (see above).

2. Alabama

Texas probably belongs in this section, but that game is always a toss-up no matter what the rosters look like.

No, this spot goes to Alabama because — well, because it’s Alabama. 

Sure, the Crimson Tide come to Norman to play a regular-season game for the first time since 2002, and the Palace on the Prairie will be rocking. And would you look at that, Nick Saban retired, just in time.

But the Tide still have assembled the most 5-star recruits. They’ve still got much of Saban’s squad that went 12-2 last year and shocked Georgia in the SEC title game. 

That assemblage includes QB Jalen Milroe, hero of the Iron Bowl.

Kalen DeBoer is a newbie in Tuscaloosa, but he’s no rookie. In his previous stops, his record is 104-12 — which includes a run to the CFP title game with Washington last year.

Only five starters are back on defense, but that includes maybe the nation’s top linebacker tandem, four regulars and a 5-star portal addition up front, and there are 5-star transfers and 5-star freshmen competing in the secondary.

Knowing it’s their last home game of the season, the Sooners could be focused enough to take down the Crimson Tide. But if the Sooners’ season has gone sideways by late November, this could easily go the other way.

3. LSU

Losing the season coda in Baton Rouge, just seven days after losing the home finale? Now imagine if things have gone sour and OU is 5-5 and there’s a bowl game on the line going into the final two weeks of the season.

It might seem like a million years since the Sooners have dropped three straight Ls, but actually, it happened in 2022.

Still, that’s no way to go into the offseason.

LSU went 10-3 last year in Brian Kelly’s second season, and fans weren’t too happy about it. Kind of like Oklahoma, that’s the expectation that’s been set in Baton Rouge.

Jayden Daniels won the Heisman Trophy (LSU’s second in four years) but he’s off to the NFL, as are two first-round wide receivers. So the Tigers face a little bit of a rebuild.

But four starters are back up front, promising Garrett Nussmeier has taken over at QB, and the Bayou Bengals always have NFL receivers ready to go.

Defensively, it’s another story. LSU gave up 30 points in eight games (40 or more four times) and 416.6 yards per game, and opponents converted 45 percent of their third-down plays, 17th from the bottom nationally — and that needs to improve.

But it wasn’t as bad as LSU fans remember. The Tigers missed 116 tackles last season. In the SEC, only Georgia, Alabama and Arkansas had fewer. 

Kelly hired Blake Baker from Missouri to remake a defense (three new assistants) that finished 105th nationally and next-to-last in the SEC but brings back six starters.

LSU has seven home games this year, and that infamous fan base (102,321 strong) will be well-oiled for the last one — OU’s first-ever trip to Tiger Stadium.

Tomorrow: Three coin-toss games that will make or break OU's season.