Brent Venables reveals expectations for Black Friday game vs. TCU

The last ever Big 12 regular season football game for Oklahoma will take place Black Friday against TCU in Norman, Okla. The expectations for the game will be high for many reasons.

For one, it will be the end of an era for the Sooners. They’ve been playing Big 12 football for nearly three decades. It is also a rematch of a game from last year that dropped them out of the AP Poll for the rest of the season.

While Oklahoma sunk like a stone, the Horned Frogs soared like a firework all the way to the national championship game that they lost to Georgia. Coming off a win the week before against rival SMU, TCU beatdown the Sooners in a 55-24 win that announced to the rest of the country they meant business.

Head coach Brent Venables was asked about the game at Big 12 Media Days this week and what he expects the game to be like at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

“Last year doesn’t mean anything to what happens this year,” Venables said. “That’s literally how you coach, how you prepare. Coach and his staff did an amazing job. What an incredible season that they had a year ago. What I expect out of Oklahoma is what I’ve seen for this will be my 15th year, and you’re going to see an incredible very passionate fan base. They’re going to show up deep. They’re going to show up early. That’s been the best winning percentage in college football the last 22 years, and I don’t expect anything different than that.”

Both Oklahoma and TCU are hopeful that their matchup in Norman will have more significance than just a note in the history books. Both teams, at minimum, will hope to be in the Big 12 Championship Game chase — if not, the College Football Playoff race.

If that is the case, it stands to reason that this game will be one of the most important on the calendar for both teams. Venables is hopeful that ends up as the case.

“This will be an incredible opportunity,” Venables said. “Hopefully something is on the line in that game, and expectations are something will be. Again, I know what Sonny and his group are going to bring. A great, great program that is going to come in with a championship mindset. But for us, man, hopefully, again, we’re playing our best football at that time of the year.”