Red Flags: 5 college football teams on upset alert in Week 9
- Oregon and Oregon State go on the road in trouble spots
- Oklahoma almost got clipped last week, will they be as lucky in Week 9?
- Georgia heads to the Cocktail Party without Brock Bowers
3. Oklahoma Sooners
Opponent: at Kansas | Time: Saturday, Oct. 28, Noon ET (FOX) | Spread: OU -10.0
Coming out of the bye week, which came after a monumental Red River win over rival Texas, the Oklahoma Sooners almost erased all of their good work as John Rhys Plumlee and UCF put a scare into Brent Venables' team in Norman. Ultimately, OU stopped a game-tying two-point conversion attempt to pick up the 31-29 win, but it goes to show that Oklahoma is far from infallible.
So it's interesting to see the schedule with the Sooners going on the road to Lawrence this week for a date with Kansas. Yes, the Jayhawks have gotten to 5-2 this season by beating the worst teams on their schedule (including UCF when Plumlee was sidelined) and then falling at Oklahoma State after getting blown out on the road at Texas.
At the same time, though, we don't know what the status of Kansas QB Jalon Daniels is, which matters a great deal. That could hurt the Jayhawks in this game as Jason Bean is a great, high-end backup, but doesn't offer the same level of juice to get this offense cooking.
But it can still cook. We've seen that well-schemed offenses (RE: UCF) can cause Oklahoma's defense some issues and Kansas should provide that. Contrarily, the Jayhawks defense should also concede plenty to the Sooners.
With this game in Lawrence and, most importantly, with it being the week before Bedlam against a surging Oklahoma State team for the Sooners, OU could find itself looking past Kansas. If they do that, they can unequivocally get knocked off in this spot, especially with the lack of focus they showed just last week.