2021 Alamo Bowl Preview: Oregon vs. Oklahoma

The Alamo Bowl will be one of the weirder and less predictable games of the 2021-2022 bowl season, for reasons you will soon find out. There are some delicious plot points attached to this game, but how everything will unfold in San Antonio feels like a mystery at the moment.

Oregon Ducks vs. Oklahoma Sooners
Date:
Wednesday, December 29th, 9:15 PM ET

Location: Alamodome, San Antonio, TX

CFB Odds: Oklahoma -4.5

Oregon Ducks

The Oregon Ducks will have a new head coach in 2022. Mario Cristobal left Oregon to become the new coach with the Miami Hurricanes. Oregon has an interim staff in place for this game before new coach Dan Lanning, Georgia’s defensive coordinator, finishes his duties with the Bulldogs in the College Football Playoff. Georgia faces Michigan in the semifinals in the Orange Bowl. If Georgia wins, Lanning will stay on through the national championship game on Jan. 10 in Indianapolis. After Georgia’s last game, Lanning will begin work with the Ducks in full.

Oregon will have Anthony Brown start at quarterback in what is expected to be his last collegiate game. There had been a discussion about backup Ty Thompson getting some reps before 2022, but that doesn’t seem likely. Oregon star pass rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux has opted out of this game to prepare for the 2022 NFL draft. Receiver Devon Williams has also opted out of this game. Interim coaches and opt-out players will create a very uncertain bowl experience for Oregon after the Ducks were hammered twice by Utah in a three-week span, causing UO to fall short of the Pac-12 championship this season.

Oklahoma Sooners

The opt-outs in this game have a high-profile quality to them. Thibodeaux is a huge loss for the Ducks, but Oklahoma will miss defensive linemen Nik Bonitto and Perrion Winfrey, also two very big losses for the Sooners. Oklahoma receiver Jadon Haselwood entered the transfer portal. Tight end Austin Stogner decided to transfer as well. The roster reshuffling on both sides of this matchup is considerable, which could lead to a highly volatile game in San Antonio.

Oklahoma, like Oregon, has an interim coach after the previous coach decided he wanted to leave for another program. Much as Mario Cristobal left Oregon to go to Miami, Lincoln Riley left Oklahoma to go to USC. It was a shocking move which caught everyone off guard on the final weekend of November, but it happened. Oklahoma has to move on.

The Sooners hired Brent Venables as Riley’s replacement. Venables was the defensive coordinator at Clemson under Dabo Swinney for a full decade, but he decided he was ready for his first big head coaching job and that a bigger challenge was something he needed to embrace. Venables will not coach this game, but a familiar face will for Oklahoma: Bob Stoops is coming out of retirement for one game to lead the Sooners against Oregon. Stoops won the national title in 2000 at Oklahoma and coached the Sooners for over 15 years. He is a respected figure who should be able to motivate his players.

Outlook

Oregon has Anthony Brown at quarterback. Oklahoma has Caleb Williams. That is a mismatch in favor of OU, even though the Sooners and Ducks are both in scramble mode as they try to assemble their staffs for 2022.

Ducks vs. Sooners Prediction:

Sooners 34, Ducks 24

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