The Oklahoma Sooners didn’t get to enjoy many high points in a six-win 2024 season. However, one of the undoubted highlights of the season was a 27-21 comeback win over the Auburn Tigers on the road at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Behind true freshman backup quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. and an incredible fourth-quarter pick-six by linebacker Kip Lewis, OU stormed back from a 21-10 deficit to win their first-ever Southeastern Conference game.
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The Tigers make the return trip to Norman this year in Week 4. It’s the SEC opener for the Sooners, part of the gateway to a daunting league slate.
Josh Pate, who hosts “Josh Pate’s College Football Show“, believes that the Oklahoma-Auburn matchup is a crucial one for both teams in the early portion of the season, because of how deep the conference is.
“Let’s go to Auburn at Oklahoma in Week 4 because it is a huge game,” Pate said. “Auburn at Oklahoma features the No. 10 and the No. 11 teams in the SEC odds right now … But here’s what’s funny about that: No. 10 and No. 11 in the SEC makes it sound like those teams are going to be terrible. But get this, they’re 17th and 18th in the College Football Playoff odds … It’s really just the fact that the SEC is pretty deep. Now we don’t know how many elite teams there will be, but there are a lot of pretty good teams, theoretically, in the SEC this year.”
Pate also noted that both head coaches in this matchup are already on thin ice, and neither did much to help themselves last season. He also noted that both squads have difficult nonconference matchups before this game that could play a part in how they’re being viewed at the time.
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“In this game we’ve got two head coaches in their third year that both have to get it done,” Pate said. “Hugh Freeze at Auburn, Brent Venables at Oklahoma … By the time they play this game in Norman in week four, Michigan will have already come to Norman and Auburn will have already played at Baylor. So, are they undefeated? Do they both have a loss? Maybe multiple losses? Two teams with, I don’t know what they’re rated, but whatever you would rate them, probably two of the most underrated pure roster talent teams in college football. Because no one expects much from either of them, and yet, they both have top-15 rosters … So, I’m gonna circle that one.”
However, one storyline will take the cake once we finally get to game week this September, and that’s the return of quarterback Jackson Arnold to Norman. He didn’t play in last year’s game after being benched the previous week in favor of Hawkins. Once thought to be the next superstar QB for the Sooners, Arnold has since transferred to play for Auburn, and will try to out-duel his replacement, Washington State transfer John Mateer.
“You’ve got Jackson Arnold. Presumably he’s starting at quarterback for Auburn, and he returns to Oklahoma,” Pate said.
One thing’s for sure, on a schedule littered with important games and plenty of conference and CFP implications, Oklahoma’s battle with Auburn on September 20th could be a tone-setter for what’s to come down the road in the SEC in 2025
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Josh Pate thinks this game will tell a lot about Oklahoma this year
