The 2021 Oklahoma Sooners football team represented the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

during the

2021 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2021 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the 152nd season of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at its highest level of competition, the Football Bowl Subdivision. The r ...

, the 127th season for the

Oklahoma Sooners The Oklahoma Sooners are the athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to a nickname given to the early participants in the Land Run ...

. They played their home games at

Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, also known as Owen Field or The Palace on the Prairie, is the football stadium on the campus of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. It serves as the home of the Oklahoma Sooners football team. ...

Norman, Oklahoma Norman () is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,097 as of 2021. It is the largest city and the county seat of Cleveland County, Oklahoma, Cleveland County, and the second-largest city in the Oklahoma C ...

. They are a charter member of the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

. The team was led during the regular season by

Lincoln Riley Lincoln Michael Riley (born September 5, 1983) is an American college football coach and former player who is the head coach of the USC Trojans football program at the University of Southern California. He previously served as the head coach a ...

, in his fifth and final year as head coach. Riley departed Oklahoma for

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

on November 28. Former Sooners head coach

Bob Stoops Robert Anthony Stoops (born September 9, 1960) is an American football coach. He was the head football coach at the University of Oklahoma from 1999 through the 2016 season, and on an interim basis during the 2021 Alamo Bowl. He led the Oklahoma ...

was named the interim head coach and led the team to their win in the

Alamo Bowl The Alamo Bowl is an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game played annually since 1993 in the Alamodome in San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas. Since 2010 it matches the second choice team from the Pac-12 Conference and ...

Previous season

The Sooners finished the 2020 season 9–2, 6–2 in Big 12 play. Despite beginning the season 1–2, 0–2 in Big 12 play, they came back and finished the season in 2nd place in the Big 12 behind

Iowa State Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

, who they defeated in the 2020 Big 12 Championship Game 27-21 for their sixth consecutive Big 12 Championship. For the first time since 2016, the Sooners were not selected for the College Football Playoff. Instead, the sixth-ranked Sooners were selected to face the seventh-ranked SEC East Champion

Florida Gators The Florida Gators are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Florida, located in Gainesville. The University of Florida, its athletic program, its alumni and its sports fans are often collectively referred to as t ...

in the Cotton Bowl, where they defeated the Gators 55–20. They finished the season ranked 6th in the AP and Coaches Poll.

Offseason

Position key

Offseason departures

Recruiting

Transfers

Outgoing The Oklahoma Sooners lost seventeen players via transfer portal for the 2021 season. Incoming The Oklahoma Sooners add nine players via transfer portal from the 2020 season.

Returning starters

Offense Defense Special Teams † Indicates player was a starter in 2020 but missed all of 2021 due to injury.

2021 NFL Draft

NFL Combine

The official list of participants for the 2021 NFL Combine included Oklahoma football players: -

Team players drafted into the NFL

Preseason

Award watch lists

Listed in the order that they were released

Big 12 media days

Big 12 media poll

Preseason awards

2021 Preseason All-Big 12 *Offensive Player of the Year:

Spencer Rattler Spencer Michael Rattler (born September 28, 2000) is an American football quarterback who plays college football for South Carolina. Rattler began his college career with Oklahoma before transferring to South Carolina in 2021. High school car ...

, QB, Oklahoma *Newcomer of the Year: Eric Gray, RB, Oklahoma

Personnel

Roster

Coaching staff

;Graduate assistants ;Analysts

Depth chart

Injury report

Schedule

Spring Game

Regular season

The 2021 schedule consists of 7 home games, 4 away games and 1 neutral-site game in the regular season. The Sooners will host 2 non-conference games against Western Carolina and Nebraska and was originally scheduled to travel to Tulane, but the effects of Hurricane Ida forced the game to be played in Oklahoma with Tulane still being the home team. Oklahoma will host Iowa State, TCU, Texas Tech, and West Virginia, and travel to Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, and Oklahoma State in regular-season conference play. Oklahoma will play Texas in Dallas, Texas at the

Cotton Bowl Stadium The Cotton Bowl is an outdoor stadium in Dallas, Texas, United States. Opened in 1930 as Fair Park Stadium, it is on the site of the State Fair of Texas, known as Fair Park. The Cotton Bowl was the longtime home of the annual college football p ...

in the

Red River Showdown The Oklahoma–Texas football rivalry is a college football rivalry game between border rivals Oklahoma and Texas. The two teams first played each other in 1900, and the rivalry has been renewed annually and uninterrupted since 1929 for a to ...

, the 116th game played in the series.

Game summaries

at Tulane

vs. Western Carolina

vs. Nebraska

vs West Virginia

at Kansas State

vs. No. 21 Texas

vs. TCU

at Kansas

vs. Texas Tech

at No. 13 Baylor

vs. Iowa State

at No. 7 Oklahoma State

vs. Oregon (2021 Alamo Bowl)

Statistics

Scoring

Scores by quarter (non-conference opponents)

Scores by quarter (Big 12 opponents)

Scores by quarter (All opponents)

Rankings

Awards and honors

Postseason

Bowl game

References

{{Oklahoma Sooners football navbox

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

Oklahoma Sooners football seasons Alamo Bowl champion seasons

Oklahoma Sooners football The Oklahoma Sooners football program is a college football team that represents the University of Oklahoma (variously "Oklahoma" or "OU"). The team is a member of the Big 12 Conference, which is in Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (forme ...