3. Oklahoma Sooners
Rank: 7 | Opponent: Texas Tech Red Raiders | Time: 8:00 p.m. ET
The Oklahoma Sooners may be a one-loss team that’s well on the outside of the top-four in the College Football Playoff rankings looking in, but they are still not a team that should remotely be taken lightly. Since their lone loss to the rival Texas Longhorns, the Sooners have gone out and made a statement, pouring 52 points on TCU and then 51 points on Kansas State in back-to-back wins to move to 7-1 on the season.
However, the Sooners will now head to Lubbock, TX on Saturday for a date with Kliff Kingsbury and the Texas Tech Red Raiders. This isn’t a meeting between two ranked teams by any means, but this is a matchup that Oklahoma can’t take lightly. Put simply, this Texas Tech team overall on the 2018 season has been far more formidable than they’re seemingly getting credit for.
After losing to Ole Miss in the season-opener — a game where, in truth, you can sometimes throw things out given the early nature of it — the Red Raiders have some impressive wins. They handed Houston their lone loss of the season, then ran over Oklahoma State in Stillwater. What’s more, they almost came all the way back to beat West Virginia in a thriller the week after.
The point is, this Red Raiders team has the offensive prowess and a good enough defense (much better than in many years past) to compete with high-level competition. Oklahoma is clearly the better of the two teams in this matchup, but don’t be surprised if Texas Tech pushes them while in Lubbock.