OU football: Sooners host struggling Red Wolves to open season
Jul. 7—Editor's Note: This is the first installment in a series looking at Oklahoma's schedule for the 2023-2024 season. The Transcript will rank all games by evaluating their significance, difficulty and entertainment value. This article previews Arkansas State, which is ranked 12th among Sooner opponents in the series.
Since the 2008-2009 season, Arkansas State has just one win over a Power Five opponent.
That win came back in 2020, when the Red Wolves went on the road and scored 21 unanswered points in the second half, including a game-winning touchdown with 38 seconds left, to give Kansas State a nightmare start to head coach Chris Klieman's second season.
The Sooners will also open their season against Arkansas State at home under second-year head coach Brent Venables.
Still, outside of that one game there's little reason to be confident in the Red Wolves' chances heading into their third-ever meeting with Oklahoma. In the past two seasons under head coach Butch Jones, Arkansas State has gone a combined 5-19, which is the second-lowest win total the program has had in back-to-back seasons dating back to 1993-1994.
The Red Wolves went on a streak of nine-straight bowl appearances from 2011-2019, but haven't made the postseason since.
Quick facts
—When and where: Saturday, Sept. 2, 11 a.m. at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium
—TV: ESPN
Last season: 3-9
—Offense: 25.0 points per game (85th)
—Defense: 31.42 points per game (T107th)
All-time meetings: 2
The last time Oklahoma faced Arkansas State, the Red Wolves went by a different name. At that time, they were called the Arkansas State Indians, a name they eventually changed in part due to an NCAA policy that prohibited schools that use "hostile and abusive racial/ethnic/national origin mascots, nicknames or imagery" from hosting any of the NCAA's championships.
That season the Sooners, which happened to also be under a second-year head coach in Bob Stoops, dominated Arkansas State from the opening kickoff. They jumped out to a 28-0 lead before cruising to a 45-7 win to improve to 2-0 on the season.
Oklahoma would go undefeated that season on its way to winning its seventh national championship.
The Sooners defeated Arkansas State 61-0 in their only other meeting in 1992.
Overview
Finishing a season 85th in scoring offense and tied for 107th in scoring defense is never a recipe for a consistent success. The Red Wolves made moves to improve during the offseason with the addition of Colorado-transfer J.T. Shrout.
Shrout spent three seasons at Tennessee and one season at Colorado, but has just eight combined starts in four seasons. They'll be without last season's leading rusher, Johnnie Lang, but return some talent on a defensive line that struggled last season.
Melique Straker will be a senior this season after coming up with 81 tackles last season including eight tackles for loss.
The Red Wolves did rank in the top-50 in two important categories last year that typically gave the Sooners trouble — turnover margin (46th) and fewest penalties (T37th).
Tarik Masri is the interim sports editor for The Transcript covering OU athletics and area sports. You can reach him by emailing tarik@normantranscript.com
