Why Making a Bowl Game is Important to Oklahoma's Players

The Sooners need one more win the next two weeks to extend the second-longest bowl streak in the country.

Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Jackson Arnold / Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images

Oklahoma needs just one more to get one more. 

At 5-5, the Sooners need to beat either Alabama or LSU the next two weeks to reach bowl eligibility and extend the program’s streak to 26 years of playing in a bowl game. It’s the second-longest bowl streak in the country only behind Georgia’s 27. 

If OU fails to notch a win before the regular season ends, then that’ll be it for the 2024 Sooners and OU won’t play in a bowl game for the first time since 1998. 

“We've just got to be consistent every day in everything,” OU defensive lineman Da’Jon Terry said. “These last two games are very important for us to reach our goal to go to a bowl game, so we've just got to keep doing the same thing we've been doing.” 

Said defensive back Woodi Washington: “This program's run on success, and it's been I don't know how many years since we've not been to a bowl game, so that's what we're working towards. This is the next step to it."

For guys like Terry and Washington, both redshirt seniors, a win and bowl appearance would keep their college careers alive for another month. Then there are the younger guys still getting a feel for this level and could benefit tremendously from an additional 15 practices and facing another high-level opponent. 

“It means everything for guys like (freshman cornerback) Eli Bowen, who has worked his tail off all season to become a starter,” Washington said. “Even Jackson (Arnold), getting the experience for a bowl game even as a starter for the entire year. It’s really important for us to just experience a bowl game for those young guys and some of the older guys that transferred in that maybe not having ever been to a bowl game. I think it’s really important.”

OU has burned the redshirts of 14 freshmen so far this season, and that number will likely increase by the time the regular season concludes in two weeks. Arnold, OU's sophomore quarterback, was one of those last season. He got minimal snaps before Dillon Gabriel was hurt at BYU and then entered the transfer portal, which elevated Arnold to QB1 for the Alamo Bowl against Arizona. 

“It was big,” Arnold says almost a year later. “If I didn't have those 15 practices and just a week to go into it, it would've been a lot different. For me last year, building confidence with the 1s, stepping into a leadership role at an early stage, it was all beneficial.”

It wasn’t a spectacular showing from Arnold, who threw three interceptions in his first career start against a top-15 team. But he also had a pair of touchdowns and passed for 361 yards, still a career-high and the fourth-most ever by a Sooner in a bowl game. 

Because of that game, Arnold was the presumed leader of the offense before the season even kicked off. And he still is, even after losing his job and winning it back midseason. 

It’s been a shaky season for Arnold and all Sooners, though. They didn’t win a game the entire month of October. They’ve won only one conference game so far in their first year in the SEC. The offense was so bad the offensive coordinator was fired midseason. During Brent Venables’ weekly press conference on Tuesday, he answered more questions regarding the future of the program beyond this season than he did about the upcoming top-10 opponent. 

"It'd be huge,” Arnold said of making a bowl game. “A lot of people are probably saying this team has nothing left to play for. But a bowl game is huge, being able to spend an extra month with the guys, the seniors that are going to leave. It's big. It's big for those guys, big for people who haven't been to a bowl game, like our freshmen. Being a part of that atmosphere is a huge goal for this team, it boosts a lot of morale."