Michigan and Oklahoma was looking like it could be a Top 15 matchup in Week 2, with the teams being ranked No. 16 and No. 10 respectively going into the 2026 season. All both teams had to do was win their respective Week 1 cupcake matchups in convincing fashion. Well, Oklahoma did, but Michigan was a totally different story.
As everyone knows by now, it took a miracle Hail Mary for Michigan to pull off a 13-12 win over Western Michigan while Oklahoma cruised to a 51-0 win over UTEP. Oklahoma took a small hit in the AP rankings, dropping to No. 11, while Michigan fell out altogether, so this is no longer a ranked-on-ranked matchup in Week 2.
Even though Michigan looked horrible against Western Michigan, Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables isn't falling into the trap of overlooking the Wolverines.
"However, Michigan played last week, we are gonna bring out the best in Michigan, I promise you," Venables said in his weekly press conference. "That is a talented football team with great pride, and again a tremendous staff that will have these guys prepared."
Oklahoma is preparing for Michigan matchup like it has all offseason despite the Wolverines Week 1 performance
It is not like Michigan or Oklahoma just started game planning for this matchup. Both teams knew that, with it being an early matchup in the season, game prep would have to start early, as in the offseason. That game prep hasn't changed, though, for Oklahoma, even after Michigan struggled to beat a team from the MAC.
"Our players hold Michigan with high regard and tremendous respect like they deserve," Venables said. "It says a lot about a team to find a way to win when everything didn't go your way, and let's not forget that is a MAC Champion [Western Michigan] and an experienced 10-win football team with tremendous pride that put a lot into that game as well.
Kyle Whittingham has also worked his guys hard, saying that the attention didn't last long on the win, but quickly turned to Oklahoma. Let's face it, Michigan probably didn't want to focus on the win after the way they played, and that showed in the fact that there wasn't any celebrating going on in the locker room postgame.
Michigan is going to have to look like a totally different team on Saturday if they want any hope of beating Oklahoma. Hopefully, the reason Michigan looked so bad against Western Michigan is that they overlooked the Broncos and were so focused on facing Oklahoma, but let's be real, that isn't why.
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