‘Why Not Win?’: What Motivates Oklahoma Ahead of Armed Forces Bowl?

Oklahoma can clinch its second winning season in three years under coach Brent Venables with a win at the Armed Forces Bowl.

Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

FORT WORTH — Instead of a high-stakes game that many Sooner fans expected Oklahoma to play in before the season, the Sooners are just a couple of hours away at a bowl game reserved for a low-finishing SEC team.

OU (6-6, 2-6 SEC) will play against Navy in the Armed Forces Bowl on Friday, with kickoff slated for 11:04 a.m. 

In the Sooners’ first year in the SEC, they finished tied for 13th. As a result, they were given the league’s lowest bowl tie-in.

It’s not a College Football Playoff game. But OU’s players are treating it that way.

“I told the guys, I said, 'Why not win if it's on (the schedule)?'” redshirt sophomore linebacker Kobie McKinzie said. “If it were Alabama then everybody would be excited about it. I don't care who it is, simply for the bottom line that we get to go out and compete.”

---

WATCH: Oklahoma LB Kobie McKinzie Armed Forces Bowl Interview

---

It’s exciting for the Sooners in the fact that Navy is such an uncommon opponent.

OU and the Midshipmen have played just once, in 1965, and Navy won that contest 10-0. The Sooners have played the other two service academies that compete at the NCAA Division I level — Air Force and Army — in the 21st century. But all of the Sooners’ players, and not even any coaches, were alive the last time the teams squared off.

Oklahoma also gets a look at a team that plays a much different style of football. The Midshipmen run a variation of the triple option, a formation used heavily by all three service-academy teams. 

While offensive lineman Troy Everett won’t have to defend the triple option, he noted that it could help his team get better, as the scheme varies from the heavily used spread and air-raid offenses that OU usually faces.

“I grew up always on (the) NCAA (video game), playing the triple option, playing against my dad,” Everett said. “I always liked the triple option. I always say I'm gonna go install that back in my high school whenever I'm done playing football. So it'll be fun to watch that, and it’s another opportunity to play.”

WATCH: Oklahoma OL Troy Everett Armed Forces Bowl Interview

A national championship — or even a major bowl win — won’t be on the line Friday. But a winning season will be.

The Sooners will clinch their second winning season in three years under Brent Venables with a win. But they’ll post their second losing season in that span with a loss.

OU is also 0-2 in bowl games under Venables. The Sooners lost the 2022 Cheez-It Bowl to Florida State and lost the 2023 Alamo Bowl to Arizona.

Even so, the Sooners’ players are confident that Venables will give them the right game plan to earn win No. 7 and take home the Armed Forces Bowl trophy.

“It doesn't matter who you're playing; every game's the biggest game, and if it's not, lose and find out how big it really was,” McKinzie said. “Man, everybody here is excited. I can't say that I necessarily have to overdo anything or make everybody be overenergetic or anything like that. Everybody's very excited.”

Everett added, “I just like going out there and having fun with the guys. You're on TV. What else do you want? Your childhood self loves this, you know what I mean?”