For Oklahoma, One Big Thing is Right in Front of Them, Right Here, Right Now

No one’s really talking about it — that’s bad juju, after all — but playoff madness is about to envelop Norman.

Oklahoma is ranked No. 8 in this week’s College Football Playoff rankings, meaning if the Sooners beat LSU on Saturday and don’t somehow drop to 9 or below, they’ll host the first playoff game in OU history.

As it currently stands, if Oklahoma were to host and win its first-round game (projected to be Notre Dame, how delicious is that for college football history buffs?), a trip to No. 1 and defending national champ Ohio State would be up next.

Boy, that escalated quickly.

Back to Saturday, where LSU can’t wait to play spoiler to Sooner Nation’s hopes and dreams of hosting a playoff game on Dec. 19 or 20.

The Tigers have had a bad season by their standards — LSU is just 7-4 — but now-unemployed coach Brian Kelly beat Brent Venables in the recruiting rankings three years in a row. The roster has talent, albeit diminished with starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier still out with an injury. But for LSU, an eighth win would be sweet.

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All of which makes any notion of OU having even the most tenuous grasp on a playoff spot utterly ridiculous.

“I’ve played a lot of football,” said senior linebacker Kendal Daniels, “and I know that once you start looking forward and stuff like that, you’ll lose the one that’s ahead of you. It’s LSU; it’s not like they’re a bad team.”

“It’s a high-stakes game,” said linebacker Kip Lewis. “We all know what we have to do. It’s nothing different. Just keep doing what we’ve been doing.”

Venables won’t look ahead to the unprecedented football that could be just ahead for his team. He can’t. And he’ll be beside himself if he thinks any of his players are counting their playoff chickens before they’ve hatched.

“You have to be disciplined,” said quarterback John Mateer. “And you can't just look around and be like, ‘This is so cool.’ You’ve got a job to do.”

“We’re definitely not overlooking them,” said tight end Jaren Kanak. “Obviously they’re an incredible team. They’ve got a bunch of great players, lots of talent.”

Another emotional element of Saturday that could be an obstacle for players: it’s their final game. It’s Senior Day. Moms and dads will be there, whole families. Kanak even said he intends to bring his adorable dog, Burger.

And you’d better believe even Venables will be an emotional wreck, as the players in this senior class were seniors in high school when he arrived from Clemson. Guys like Gentry Williams (his first in-home visit after getting the job) and Kobie McKinzie (Venables quickly flipped him back to OU after a brief verbal flip to Texas) and Kanak (he committed to Venables at Clemson, then followed him to Norman) will be playing their final game.

“Obviously, it's a very cool opportunity in front of us,” Kanak said. “ … We're just going to revert back to our process and do what we do. No matter what our record is, no matter what the implications of the game are, we're going to go out and try to win it. Just try to go 1-0 every week.”

Even if there’s a playoff on the line.

It’s been 25 years since the Sooners won a national title. With a defense this good, this might be their best chance since 2017, or 2008, or 2003.

So yeah, this is huge.

“That’s special, especially on senior night, too,” said defensive tackle Gracen Halton. “Last game. It’s really special. But once Saturday comes, just got to play the game. That’s where it’s at, can’t worry about anything else but just winning that game.

“No pressure. I feel like this whole season we didn’t worry about the pressure. We were just worrying about going forward. Whatever is ahead of us, we take care of that, then things start happening.”