Ole Miss Schedule Preview: Oklahoma Sooners

The Ole Miss Rebels will welcome the Oklahoma Sooners to Oxford in late October.

Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Jackson Arnold (10) warms up before a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the TCU Horned Frogs at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Friday, Nov. 24, 2023. Oklahoma won 69-45. / BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY

The 2024 college football season is still about a month away, but with SEC Media Days in the rearview mirror, now is the time to begin previewing the Ole Miss Rebels' schedule.

Ole Miss is coming off an 11-2 season that saw it capture a Peach Bowl victory over the Penn State Nittany Lions in December. The Rebels return a plethora of talent from last year's team (including quarterback Jaxson Dart, wide receiver Tre Harris, tight end Caden Prieskron and others), but they also made a huge haul in the transfer portal to shore up some holes on its roster.

It's this combination of talent and a seemingly-managble SEC schedule that have many believing the Rebels can qualify for the new 12-team College Football Playoff.

Over the next few days, Ole Miss OnSI will preview each of the Rebels' 2024 regular season opponents. We last looked at the LSU Tigers, and today, we analyze the Oklahoma Sooners.

Oklahoma Sooners

Ole Miss and Oklahoma have only met once on the gridiron, and it came as the final college football game of the 20th century.

The Rebels claimed a 27-25 win over the Sooners in the 1999 Independence Bowl, but now that the two programs reside in the same conference, this meeting will be a little more frequent. Oklahoma had a strong 2023 season despite dropping back-to-back regular season games against Kansas and Oklahoma State, finishing the year 10-3 with a loss in the Alamo Bowl to Arizona.

The biggest feather in the Sooners' hat was their 34-30 win over the Texas Longhorns in the Red River Showdown. Texas would go on to the College Football Playoff with Oklahoma marking its only regular season loss.

This years Sooner team will look a little different than last year's, however, with the most notable change coming at quarterback. Dillon Gabriel is now an Oregon Duck, so Jackson Arnold is expected to take over under center for Oklahoma. Arnold finished the 2023 season with 563 passing yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions, and two of his touchdowns and all three picks came in Oklahoma's bowl game loss to Arizona.

Oklahoma does return leading rusher Gavin Sawchuk (744 yards, nine TDs), and a pair of strong receivers in Nic Anderson and Andrel Anthony are also back. A big addition in the Sooners' wideout room came in the form of Purdue's Deion Burks who put up 629 yards and seven touchdowns in 2023.

Defensively, leading tackler Danny Stutsman (104 total tackles, 16 TFLs, three sacks) is returning to anchor the linebacker room, and safety Billy Bowman will patrol the skies once again after hauling in six interceptions last season. Oklahoma ranked 77th in total defense in 2023 among FBS schools.

This game will be an interesting one in Oxford and should provide both fan bases with a new experience. From a football perspective, this will be a critical game for the Rebels if they hope to reach the College Football Playoff as the Sooners will be a quality opponent this fall. Taking advantage of the game being at home would be huge for Ole Miss.

Kickoff in this game is scheduled for an early window on Oct. 26.