NORMAN — No. 18-ranked Oklahoma opens the 2024 season — Team 130, history and Brent Venables remind us — on Friday against Temple, and it’s a big one.

Not necessarily the game itself. OU is a 43-point favorite to beat the Owls in the program’s first-ever Friday night home game.

But the whole season — Venables’ third as head coach since returning to Norman and replacing Lincoln Riley — is beyond huge for the Sooners. It’s gargantuan, titanic and monumental all rolled into one. 

Joining the Southeastern Conference will do that.

SEC play arrives in about 23 days when the Tennessee Volunteers come to Owen Field. Just beyond that lies a trip to the snake pit that is Auburn, AL.

So while the Sooners are sure to roll past Philly’s finest on Friday night, they’ll need to have a sharp eye tuned in to making the kind of continued improvements that will show up when the SEC games get here on Sept. 21.

Here are three keys to the Temple game:

Three of last year’s starting offensive line are currently on NFL rosters. A fourth just got waived. And a fifth is starting for Missouri (who hosts OU in an old Big Eight reunion on Nov. 9). 

It’s not clear if the Sooners have ever had to replace all five starters up front — but that’s exactly what Venables and o-line coach Bill Bedenbaugh faced this offseason. And no doubt, it was tricky.

Sunday’s two-deep shows that three of the five FBS transfers — left tackle Michael Tarquin, center Branson Hickman and right guard Febechi Nwaiwu — have earned starting jobs heading into week one. Two more transfers — right guard Geirean Hatchett and right tackle Spencer Brown — are listed as backups.

The other two starting jobs, per the two-deep, belong to junior left guard Jacob Sexton and third-year sophomore right tackle Jake Taylor.

That’s all pending everyone’s good health come Friday, of course.

Gone from last season are left tackle Walter Rouse, left guard Cayden Green, center Andrew Raym, right guard McKade Mettauer and right tackle Tyler Guyton. Rouse, Raym and Guyton all made NFL rosters this week, Mettauer was released Tuesday and Green is now a starter at Mizzou.

Two redshirt freshmen who got virtually no playing time last season — left tackle Logan Howland and left guard Heath Ozaeta — are top backups at their respective positions.

Four true freshmen — left guard Eddy Pierre-Louis, center Josh Aisosa, right guard Eugene Brooks and right tackle Spencer Autry-Dent — are listed third at their respective positions.

Bedenbaugh has recruited a lot of talent from the high school ranks (four 4-stars and four 3-stars in the last two classes), and he’s also landed a lot of experience from the NCAA Transfer Portal (97 career starts, 164 career games among this year’s five newcomers). 

Developing chemistry has been the priority since way back in spring practice, but many times that can only happen in games. 

If quarterback Jackson Arnold and his wildly talented receivers and running backs are going to stay clean and move the football effectively this season, it has to start Friday with the five new faces up front.

Oklahoma’s offensive roster is scattered with young, talented players who will no doubt be eager to impress their coaches and a hungry fan base.

Start with Jackson Arnold, the 5-star quarterback who played only a handful of games as a true freshman last season and didn’t look particularly conscientious about ball security in his one start — a four-turnover performance and double-digit loss to Arizona in the Alamo Bowl.

The top returning wide receiver, Jalil Farooq, lost two fumbles in that game as well, including a costly fourth-quarter giveaway.

After a strong true freshman season in 2022, running back Jovantae Barnes labored through most of last year with a foot injury and will be eager to make something special happen now that he’s fully healthy again. And behind him are FCS transfer Sam Franklin, true freshman Taylor Tatum and redshirt freshman Kalib Hicks — all of whom might just go into the game feeling like they have something to prove. That can often lead to being loose with the football.

If Arnold simply plays within the structure of the offense, follows the game plan and takes what the defense gives him — including any deep shots that may come open — then he can be turnover-free. And if the running backs and receivers adhere to their fundamentals and simply trust their blocks, there shouldn’t be any issues.

The defense is supposedly the strength of this team. At Oklahoma, that’s really saying something.

The Sooners have some impressive tools to use throughout every level of the defense. The edge rushers are talented and deep. The interior linemen are stout and come with talent, experience and youth. The linebackers are probably the heart and soul of the defense. The secondary is loaded with athleticism and savvy.

Venables’ only shutout in his first two seasons was a 73-0 route of Arkansas State in last year’s opener. Four games in, OU had given up just 28 points and was among the national leaders. But things went mostly downhill from there as th Sooners allowed 23.5 points per game.

Linebacker Danny Stutsman’s health is paramount. So is safety Billy Bowman’s. So getting a big lead early and getting them to the sideline quickly might be a sound strategy. At most other positions, the Sooners are actually deep enough to withstand a few minor injuries if it should come to that.

Most everyone agrees that Venables has done a great job restoring talent and depth to the OU defense. Posting another shutout and putting forth a wire-to-wire domination of Temple would go a long way toward furthering that narrative and serving notice to the rest of their new conference that the Sooners are indeed SEC-ready.

With more people content to remain at their current jobs, Forbes recently released its 2024 Best Employers by State.

The media company partnered with Statista to survey more than 160,000 employees working for companies with at least 500 people in the United States.

Forbes listed 35 companies in Oklahoma with 19 headquartered in Oklahoma.

Here’s which companies in Oklahoma made the list:

No. 1: Chickasaw Nation Department of Commerce

CEO: Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby

Headquarters: Ada

Industry: Travel and leisure

Employees: 13,500

Year founded: 1983

No. 2: Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma

CEO: Choctaw Nation Chief Gary Batton

Headquarters: Tuskahoma

Industry: Government services

Employees: 12,000

Year founded: 1820

No. 3: American Electric Power

CEO: Benjamin G.S. Fowke

Headquarters: Columbus, Ohio

Industry: Utilities

Employees: 17,250

Year founded: 1906

No. 4: Oklahoma Heart Hospital

CEO: John R. Harvey

Headquarters: Oklahoma City

Industry: Health care and social services

Employees: N/A

Year founded: 2002

No. 5: Saint Francis Health System

CEO: Cliff Robertson

Headquarters: Tulsa

Industry: Health care and social services

Employees: 11,000

Year founded: 1960

No. 6: MidFirst Bank

CEO: Jeff Records

Headquarters: Oklahoma City

Industry: Banking and financial services

Employees: 3,268

Year founded: 1982

No. 7: Costco Wholesale

CEO: Roland M. Vachris

Headquarters: Issaquah, Washington

Industry: Retail and wholesale

Employees: 208,000

Year founded: 1983

No. 8: Oklahoma State University – Main campus

CEO: Oklahoma State University President Kayse Shrum

Headquarters: Stillwater

Industry: Education

Employees: 8,882

Year founded: 1890

No. 9: Dell Technologies

CEO: Michael Saul Dell

Headquarters: Round Rock, Texas

Industry: Semiconductors, electronics, electrical engineering

Employees: 42,560

Year founded: 1984

No. 10: Tyson Foods

CEO: Donnie D. King

Headquarters: Springdale, Arkansas

Industry: Food, soft beverages, alcohol and tobacco

Employees: 120,000

Year founded: 1935

No. 11: Stillwater Medical Center

CEO: Denise Webber

Headquarters: Stillwater

Industry: Health care and social services

Employees: 2,000

Year founded: 1916

No. 12: University of Oklahoma

CEO: University of Oklahoma President Joseph Harroz Jr.

Headquarters: Norman

Industry: Education

Employees: 18,000

Year founded: 1890

No. 13: OGE Energy

CEO: Sean Trauschke

Headquarters: Oklahoma City

Industry: Utilities

Employees: 2,329

Year founded: 1902

No. 14: Cherokee Nation

CEO: Cherokee Nation Chief Chuck Hoskins Jr.

Headquarters: Tahlequah

Industry: Government services

Employees: 11,600

Year founded: 1839

No. 15: Target

CEO: Brian C. Cornell

Headquarters: Minneapolis, Minnesota

Industry: Retail and wholesale

Employees: 415,000

Year founded: 1902

No. 16: Arvest Bank

CEO: Kevin Sabin

Headquarters: Lowell, Arkansas

Industry: Banking and financial services

Employees: 6,462

Year founded: 1961

No. 17: Cox Entertainment

CEO: Alex Taylor

Headquarters: Atlanta, Georgia

Industry: Telecommunications services, cable supplier

Employees: 50,000

Year founded: 1898

No. 18: Amazon

CEO: Andrew R. Jassy

Headquarters: Seattle, Washington

Industry: Retail and wholesale

Employees: 1,525,000

Year founded: 1994

No. 19: Oklahoma State University Medical Center

CEO: Johnny Stephens

Headquarters: Tulsa

Industry: Health care and social services

Employees: N/A

Year founded: 1972

No. 20: Whirlpool

CEO: Marc Robert Bitzer

Headquarters: Benton Harbor, Michigan

Industry: Semiconductors, electronics, electrical engineering

Employees: 18,880

Year founded: 1911

No. 21: Oklahoma Department of Human Services

CEO: Deborah Shropshire

Headquarters: Oklahoma City

Industry: Government services

Employees: 5,000

Year founded: 1936

No. 22: Sodexo

CEO: Sophie Clamens

Headquarters: Gaithersburg, Maryland

Industry: Business services and supplies

Employees: 435,159

Year founded: 1966

No. 23: U.S. Department of Defense

CEO: U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III

Headquarters: Arlington County, Virginia

Industry: Government services

Employees: 3,400,000

Year founded: 1947

No. 24: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

CEO: U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough

Headquarters: Washington, District of Columbia

Industry: Government services

Employees: 400,000

Year founded: 1930

No. 25: Enterprise Mobility

CEO: Andrew C. Taylor

Headquarters: St. Louis, Missouri

Industry: Travel and leisure

Employees: 90,000

Year founded: 1957

No. 26: Oklahoma City Public Schools

CEO: Oklahoma City Public Schools Superintendent Jamie Polk

Headquarters: Oklahoma City

Industry: Education

Employees: 4,285

Year founded: 1889

No. 27: Macy’s

CEO: Antony Spring

Headquarters: New York, New York

Industry: Retail and wholesale

Employees: 85,581

Year founded: 1858

No. 28: FedEx

CEO: Rajesh Subramaniam

Headquarters: Memphis, Tennessee

Industry: Transportation and logistics

Employees: 600,000

Year founded: 1971

No. 29: One Gas

CEO: Robert S. McAnnally

Headquarters: Tulsa

Industry: Utilities

Employees: 3,900

Year founded: 2014

No. 30: AT&T

CEO: John T. Stankey

Headquarters: Dallas, Texas

Industry: Telecommunications services, cable supplier

Employees: 149,900

Year founded: 1876

No. 31: Hobby Lobby

CEO: David Green

Headquarters: Oklahoma City

Industry: Retail and wholesale

Employees: 43,000

Year founded: 1972

No. 32: Devon Energy

CEO: Richard E. Muncrief

Headquarters: Oklahoma City

Industry: Construction, chemicals, raw materials

Employees: 1,900

Year founded: 1971

No. 33: State of Oklahoma

CEO: Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt

Headquarters: Oklahoma City

Industry: Government services

Employees: 30,000

Year founded: 1907

No. 34: City of Oklahoma City

CEO: Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt

Headquarters: Oklahoma City

Industry: Government services

Employees: 4,500

Year founded: 1889

No. 35: Norman Regional Health System

CEO: Richie Splitt

Headquarters: Norman

Industry: Health care and social services

Employees: 2,700

Year founded: 1946

Starting Thursday, Oklahoma will become the latest state to end its state tax on groceries.

It’s a move more states across the country are considering to ease the burden of inflation and grocery prices on families, and in Oklahoma, it’s expected to save families as much as $650 a year.

“I was so excited,” Oklahoma resident Debbie Reyn said. “You know that is really going to help us. We’re on fixed income, and you don’t think that’s gonna make much difference, but it does. It makes a big difference in the grocery bill.

Kansas became one of the first states to tackle its grocery tax in 2022, an added cost that goes to the state and is separate from local sales tax. It voted to phase out the 6.5% tax, so by next year, it will be gone. Now, more states are following suit.

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Illinois voted to do away with its grocery tax starting in 2026, and when Oklahoma’s 4.5% grocery tax goes away on Thursday, only 12 states will still have the tax. That number could decrease to only seven by 2026.

On November’s ballot, voters in Utah and South Dakota will decide the fate of their state grocery taxes, and Idaho will consider if it wants to eliminate its 6% grocery tax in a legislative session next year.

“Most of the benefit of a grocery exemption actually flows to the middle income and higher income,” said Jared Walczak, vice president of state projects at the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan non-profit. “It doesn’t actually do what it says on the label, but it’s very popular.”

Walczak says that while grocery taxes are a popular policy and do provide relief, they typically benefit higher-income earners since those who purchase groceries on SNAP and other subsidized benefits are tax-exempt. He says while Oklahoma’s grocery tax elimination will save taxpayers around $370 million, there is still the fine print.

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“Oklahomans need to recognize when they go to the grocery store, even after this takes effect, they’re still paying sales tax, partially because they’re still paying their local sales tax. That hasn’t been repealed,” Walczak said. “Also partially because much of what you buy at the grocery store isn’t actually classified as a grocery. Prepared foods aren’t, a lot of the other items you buy aren’t.”

It’s an important distinction: After Thursday, if you buy a rotisserie chicken in Oklahoma, you will still pay a 4.5% grocery tax, but if you buy raw chicken, you will not.

Even still, those who struggle know a little bit can go a long way, like Ivris Owens who spoke to Scripps News shortly after Kansas passed its bill in 2022

“Sometimes you’ll have to go without, you know?” Owens said. “There have been times where I’ve had to go without, and I never wanted my kids to feel that. I never want them to know of me struggling.”