Each of the 138 teams playing at the NCAA Division I FBS level this season has now played at least one game to open up the year. A handful of teams (12 in total) have already played twice. Ten teams (NC State, Virginia, Miami, Stanford, SMU, Florida State, Sacramento State, Eastern Michigan, UNLV and Hawaii) have even played a conference game already. All of that means that there's still so much to be figured out in college football in 2026.
As the Oklahoma Sooners prepare for their massive Week 2 date with the Michigan Wolverines, it's hard not to think back to a similar situation that OU was in last year, one that ultimately led to a bad loss that Brent Venables' team had to bounce back from.
Oklahoma was riding high at 5-0 heading into the
second weekend of October last year, when they met the archrival Texas Longhorns at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas for the annual Red River Showdown. Texas had very high preseason expectations, but an early loss to Ohio State and a bad loss to Florida in the game prior to Red River had the 'Horns sitting at 3-2 and unranked in the AP Poll Top 25 heading into South Dallas.
Of course, Sooner Nation knows that the Longhorns won their second-straight Red River Rivalry last year, beating OU 23-6. Despite the Sooners being ranked in the top 10, the unranked Longhorns prevailed.
Now, Venables has a similar situation on his hands. Oklahoma won 51-0 last week, rarely being tested against UTEP. They're feeling good after Week 1. On the other hand, the Wolverines were a very questionable officiating decision away from losing at home to Western Michigan last week. Yes, Michigan is 1-0, but it is by just about the slimmest margin possible.
The Wolverines had high expectations coming into the year, with new coach Kyle Whittingham at the controls. Michigan can still achieve all of those things, but the excitement has been dampened after last week's debacle. Though still ranked in the US LBM Coaches Poll, the Wolverines dropped out of the AP Poll Top 25 heading into Saturday's game. Sooner fans shouldn't get too caught up in rankings, as OU will have plenty of opportunities to show what they're made of with their tough schedule, but it all means that the Sooners will be facing a much more desperate team this week, after what was basically a loss last week for Michigan.
That's where Venables has to learn from the mistakes made in Dallas last year. Texas was simply more desperate and needed the game more than OU, and it showed. Venables can't let that happen again in a very similar situation on Saturday. The Wolverines really need this game to gain back some goodwill and a stronger national perception, but top-15 ranked Oklahoma has to snuff that out. In fact, OU's other two losses last year (to Ole Miss and Alabama in the playoff) also came against teams that had just lost their previous game. Against teams playing angry coming off of defeat, the Sooners suffered three losses in 2025.
Yes, it's much earlier in the year this time, and yes that Texas team was absolutely one of the 25-best teams in the nation, but the Wolverines will play much better on Saturday than they did last week. Venables failed in a very similar situation last season, and he has to learn from that mistake and make the Sooners play like the more desperate team in Ann Arbor.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: One error from last year OU's Venables has to correct to beat Michigan
