The Oklahoma Sooners are exiting a Week 5 bye, the first of two they’ll have this season. While OU was off, a big weekend of college football did no disappoint, and now the Sooners are back in action in Week 6. With the Kent State Golden Flashes on the horizon, Oklahoma has good odds to keep their perfect record intact.
With the good start giving Sooner Nation hopes of a trip to the College Football Playoff, it looks like CBS Sports think OU’s season will end up falling short of that goal. In their latest bowl projections, CBS thinks the Sooners will TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, which will be played on December 27th.
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Oklahoma’s projected opponent in that game is the Clemson Tigers, which is of course where head coach Brent Venables served as the defensive coordinator from 2012 to 2021. He worked for Dabo Swinney and helped bring two national championships to Clemson under Swinney’s direction. Many of the assistant coaches that work for Venables in Norman, especially on the defensive side of the ball, have Clemson roots.
The Sooners and the Tigers have met just five times throughout history. Oklahoma won the first two matchups at home in 1963 and 1972, before Clemson got their first win in the series in the Florida Citrus Bowl to finish up the 1988 season, prevailing 13-6. That Orlando night in January 1989 ended up being the legendary Barry Switzer’s final game as Oklahoma’s head coach. He would resign ahead of the 1989 season, which began a decade of darkness in Norman that lasted until Bob Stoops was hired ahead of the 1999 season.
In the 21st century, the Tigers have also won both matchups. Clemson dominated Oklahoma 40-6 in the 2014 Russell Athletic Bowl, capping an 8-5 season for the Sooners. That game was the end of the Trevor Knight-Josh Heupel duo at offensive coordinator and starting quarterback in Norman.
The following year in 2015, with a new offense and a much better record, the Sooners again faced the Tigers, this time in the CFP semifinal game at the Orange Bowl. Clemson was again victorious, winning 37-17, but that season marked a dramatic turnaround from the year before for the Sooners and Stoops.
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With the way OU has started this season, the fanbase is thinking playoff in 2025. Oklahoma’s schedule is absolutely loaded, but the program believes it has the right pieces in place to make a run at the CFP this year. A trip to the Gator Bowl would be a bit disappointing, considering that the Sooners are in the top 10 at this point in the season, but it would sill make for a big-time improvement over last year.
This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Where are the Sooners in CBS Sports’ new bowl picks?
