Missouri football preseason preview: What Oklahoma will bring when old foes reunite

To say Missouri football’s first game in November this season will be a reunion of once-heated Big 12 rivals is something of an understatement, as the Oklahoma Sooners are scheduled to visit Columbia in the first year of the newly-minted SEC member’s existence.

The Tigers get their season started Thursday, August 29, with Murray State at Faurot Field, and beginning with a four-game home stand in a year that seems to present the chance to achieve the new, twelve team College Football Playoff.

MU coach Eli Drinkwitz’s team then travels to Texas A&M and UMass, hosts Auburn and then goes on the road to Alabama in October, before Oklahoma marks the beginning of the final third of the regular season.

Here is everything you need to know about Oklahoma’s off season, advances, coaching vacancies and noteworthy players to watch when the Sooners visit CoMo for the first time in 14 years.

Who are the key competitor names to learn about when Missouri football?

Who are the opposing names to recognize in the period of time when Missouri football is going to host Oklahoma?

Quarterback: Following he played for the OU in the Alamo Bowl as a starter in 2023 Jackson Arnold will be the starting quarterback for the Sooners in the 2024 season. In the bowl loss to Arizona, he threw for 364 yards, two TD’s and three interceptions. The former five star has a huge shoes to fill after the departure of big time duel quarterback Dillon Gabriel to Oregon but has a big arm that will make many teams regret letting him go.

Offensive playmakers: OU gets back its leading rusher in Gavin Sawchuk – the kid carried the ball 120 times for 764 yards and nine touchdowns last year, but was more or less a backup. Oklahoma also acquired the FCS’s fourth-best rusher, Sam Franklin of UT Martin through the portal after a 1,500 all-purpose yard season at UT Martin.

In passing game, they lost their best mediator Drake Stoops that has entered into the league as an undrafted free agent but back 1,492 receiving yards, and 12 receiving touchdowns in between the remaining wide receiving Jalil Farooq and Nic Anderson.

Defensive playmakers: Dealty Stutsman would be expected to be added to All-SEC first-team preseason list for its line backer position and, Bowman Jr. , a senior, might be anticipated to be in the same list for safety position.

Stutsman has had a stocky 268 tackles in his three years with Sooner and 16 tackles for loss, three sacks, two forced fumbles, and one interception returned for a touchdown in the previous season. Bowman selected six passes to which he responded with a double-take 238 yards three of which were touchdowns.

What would the period of the offseason for the players of Sooners be like?

Key additions: Caiden Woullard (EDGE); Deion Burks (WR); Damonic Williams (DT); Branson Hickman (IOL/C).

Key losses: Full list includes; Dillon Gabriel (QB); Cayden Green (OL); Tawee Walker (RB); Tyler Guyton (OT); Walter Rouse (OT)

Key coaching changes: Zac Alley (Co-DC, Jacksonville State); Seth Littrell (OC, Jacksonville State internal)

The Oklahoma program didn’t lose too many of the star players to the portal and was mostly able to retain them. Beginning quarterback Dillon Gabriel transferred to Oregon from Oklahoma, and … offensive lineman Cayden Green will play for Mizzou in the current season.

As if the November meeting of the two rivals required any more intrigue …

And, as luck would have it, Oklahoma’s greatest area of flip is along the mad, specifically on its offensive starters. This year two starters on Sooners’ offense, the two offensive tackles, were picked in the NFL Draft. The other starter was signed as an UDFA to the Kansas City Chiefs’ roster as well.

That has left head coach Brent Venables and new offensive coordinator Seth Littrell having to arrange order an O-Line in the transfer portal, as five of OU’s fifteen total incoming transfers focus on that position. With Arnold taking up the new role of QB starter, and the strenuous plan set to welcome the sooners to the league, protecting him is non-negotiable.

After the last season, the Sooners dismissed defensive coordinator Ted Roof and have hired Jacksonville State’s Zac Alley to co-ordinate this with linebackers coach Todd Bates; truth be told, this shake up on this side of the ball is a major upheaval.

OU managed not to have significant turnovers, although for some unknown reasons, safety Key Lawrence transferred to Ole Miss. The Sooners made a big addition up front, Mizzou lost a player engaged in a transfer portal battle for highly rated TCU’s Damonic Williams.

Initial prediction of the game Mizzou vs. Oklahoma

This promised to be the biggest game on Faurot Field this year.

Yes, the teams are reviving something that was very familiar to them in the past. Absolutely, recent recruiting wars — See: Williams Nwaneri, together with Luther Burden III and Green have poured kerosene to that specific fire.

However, potentially most crucially, if Mizzou is to be a part of the College Football Playoff, this probably must be the match that they win. It will be a war of attrition, because before the Nov. 9 showdown, Aubrn has rather difficult games against Texas A&M and Alabama. An optimist will tell you both of those are winnable, and he or she would be right. A realist will remind one that by that time, there will surely be a notch in Missouri’s loss side.

Two losses is the very most Mizzou can have in the regular season if it wants to have a chance at the 12-team College Football Playoff. This is probably the biggest must-win games for Missouri for as often as not, they lost to the teams with rather sparkling records.