The Oklahoma Sooners play their first of nine SEC games to conclude the 2026 regular season on Saturday afternoon. OU will visit the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens in Week 4. After Oklahoma beat UTEP 51-0 in Week 1, the Sooners have struggled in their last two games, a 17-10 Week 2 loss against Michigan and a 14-6 Week 3 win over New Mexico
. Head coach Brent Venables is trying to get things turned around this year.Georgia went 12-2 last year, winning its second straight SEC championship by beating Alabama in the league title game. However, the Bulldogs went one-and-done in the College Football Playoff for the second straight year, losing a thriller in the CFP quarterfinals in the Sugar Bowl to Ole Miss. Kirby Smart is the best of the best in the SEC,
and the league's longest-tenured head coach. He's in the midst of Year 11 coaching the Dawgs, but he knows that consecutive Sugar Bowl losses won't cut it.
Smart has won two national championships (2021 and 2022) as a head coach, and he has four SEC titles under his belt. In his first ten seasons in Athens, the Bulldogs missed the SEC Championship Game only twice. He's also made five playoff appearances. There's a reason he's the league's gold standard.
Smart's team is rolling so far in 2026. The Bulldogs are 3-0, having demolished Tennessee State (63-3), Western Kentucky (70-20), and Arkansas (45-17). This week marks Georgia's first real test of the year as they look to prove again that they rule the SEC.
Georgia's offense is led by offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, and he'll call the plays against Venables on the other sideline. Bobo has had multiple stints on the Georgia staff, and he's worked under Smart since 2022, calling the offensive plays since 2023. His unit has been on fire to begin the season.
Starting quarterback Gunner Stockton is at the controls of a loaded offense. This is his second season as a full-time starter, and he's been incredibly efficient when he's thrown the ball. However, the Dawgs haven't thrown the ball much, as Stockton has attempted just 45 passes in three games. For the fourth straight week, Venables' defense is up against an offense that wants to run the ball first, and run the ball often.
Running back Nate Frazier's status is up in the air for Saturday's game, and the Dawgs could be without their leading rusher. Frazier was listed as questionable on the SEC's initial availability report. If he plays, he'll be the focal point of the Georgia attack. If he doesn't, that responsibility will fall to running backs Chauncey Bowens and Nick Peal. Stockton is currently the team's second-leading rusher, and his scrambling ability will force the OU defense to stay honest.
When Georgia does pass, tight end Lawson Luckie is a matchup nightmare, and the two leading wide receivers thus far have been Craig Dandridge and Sacovie White-Helton. Jeremy Bell is another big-play threat at WR for Georgia. However, they'll plan to get behind their excellent offensive line and see if they can move OU up front in the run game first.
On the other side of the ball, Oklahoma offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle will face off against Georgia co-defensive coordinators Glenn Schumann and Travaris Robinson. The play-caller is Schumann, who came over to Georgia with Smart from Alabama back in 2016. He's been the lead defensive coordinator since 2024, but has been very heavily involved in the defensive game plan since Dan Lanning left to become Oregon's head coach after the 2021 season. Robinson is in his third year on Smart's staff, and he's been an assistant at multiple SEC schools.
Ultimately, even though Schumann is the play-caller, it's Smart's defense, as he is one of the best defensive coaches of his generation. His scheme obviously comes from the Nick Saban tree, as Smart spent nine years on Saban's staff at Alabama, and he coached for 11 years overall under his mentor.
Georgia's defense is loaded, and the Sooners will certainly have their hands full with the way they've played on offense so far this year. The secondary is stout, led by KJ Bolden and Ellis Robinson IV. Both are stars who will likely finish as all-conference players this year. Raylen Wilson and Chris Cole will pressure the Sooners from linebacker in Georgia's 3-4 defense, and the defensive front is filled with standouts Oklahoma's offensive line will have to beat.
Quarterback John Mateer and the rest of the OU offense have been very poor over the last two weeks, and this is about the last team you'd want to play when you're trying to get things right. It's a major uphill climb between the hedges at Sanford Stadium this week for a group that is just trying to find an identity and find anything that works.
OU special teams coordinator Doug Deakin is matched up against Georgia special teams coordinator Kirk Benedict. He's been at Georgia for four seasons, and he is one of the best in the business, as the Dawgs are excellent on special teams. Despite losing the Ray Guy Award winner (best punter) and the Patrick Mannelly Award winner (best long-snapper), the Bulldogs still have a Lou Groza Award (best kicker) semifinalist in Peyton Woodring, and this team is extremely good on special teams. That's important for the Sooners, who uncharacteristically lost the special teams battle last week against New Mexico. That can't happen again for Deakin's unit.
Oklahoma and Georgia have met only once on the football field. It came in the CFP semifinal for the 2017 season, when the Bulldogs beat the Sooners on New Year's Day in 2018 in the infamous Rose Bowl thriller. The 54-48 double-overtime loss concluded Baker Mayfield's legendary career in Norman, and to this day, it's the closest OU has gotten to winning a national championship. That was the best Oklahoma team in recent history.
Overall, Georgia is the better and more confident team heading into this Week 4 clash. They're firing on all cylinders on both sides of the ball, and they look primed to contend for the national championship this year. On the other hand, Oklahoma is basically playing with half a team. As good as the defense is, there's no way they'll win the game by themselves if they don't get help from their offense.
OU has a chance to get right back into the national conversation if they pull off the upset, but it won't happen unless the offense has at least some semblance of a pulse. The Sooners have to play like the more desperate, hungrier team this week, or they'll get put in their place quickly against the Bulldogs.
Kickoff for Oklahoma-Georgia is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. in Athens on Saturday.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Know Your Foe: Oklahoma Sooners vs. Georgia Bulldogs
