Why Brent Venables Believes Oklahoma is Ready for 'Enormous Magnitude' of Playoff Game

NORMAN — There’s no denying the magnitude of Oklahoma’s next game.

The No. 8-ranked Sooners will host No. 9 Alabama on Friday, Dec. 19. Not only is it a rematch of a game that OU won 23-21 on the road in November, it’s a College Football Playoff first-round game.

Next week’s game will be arguably the biggest ever played in Norman — and OU coach Brent Venables believes his team is ready.

“I'm thankful just for the magnitude of this season,” Venables said on a video press conference Sunday. “Every game has this enormous magnitude.”

Venables believes that all 12 of OU’s regular-season games were high-magnitude situations.

But the stakes got particularly high in the final third of the regular season.

After starting the year 5-0, Oklahoma dropped two of three games, losing to Texas and Ole Miss. Another loss in the Sooners’ final four-game stretch — which included road games against Tennessee and Alabama and home games against Missouri and LSU — would have knocked the Sooners out of the College Football Playoff.

Time and time again, OU rose to the occasion.

Oklahoma found ways to win in Knoxville and Tuscaloosa despite inconsistent offensive performances. The Sooners put together similarly stagnant offensive showings against Mizzou and LSU, but the team’s grit allowed them to persevere, reach 10 wins and clinch a berth in the CFP.

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“It was like a 2 percent chance that we’d go 4-0,” Venables said. “There’s no way we’d be in this position if we’d gone 3-1. So this is a moment that our guys fought for, competed for and is a moment that they expected, so now let’s walk it.”

OU’s games against Texas and Ole Miss were certainly high-stakes scenarios — and the Sooners came up short in both.

Venables believes that while his team executed certain things well in those games, there were plenty of teaching moments in them, too, which helped OU go on its winning streak to end the regular season.

“You hate bringing the failures up, but you learn a lot more through the magnitude of the different moments within those games,” Venables said.

Oklahoma already overcame adversity in a high-stakes game against Alabama once this year.

Despite being outgained 406-212 in total yardage, the Sooners forced three turnovers en route to their two-point win in Tuscaloosa. They also held Alabama to just 5-of-13 converting third-down attempts.

Venables knows his team can beat the Crimson Tide again if they don’t let the moment get too big. And he believes the team’s ability to quiet the noise will hinge on their preparation.

“You dominate it through preparation, through your detail, continuing to be who we’ve been all year,” Venables said. “Let’s play our best four quarters of football the next time that we get together. That’s the vision.”