Arizona Wildcats vs Oklahoma Sooners Prediction, Odds and Picks

The Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial StadiumESPN

9-3

Arizona

10-2

Oklahoma

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Money Line Pick

We are getting closer and closer to the New Year’s Six bowl games. The Alamo Bowl will host two teams that just missed out on playing during New Year’s. The Oklahoma Sooners will be set to take on the Arizona Wildcats. Oklahoma finished their season 10-2, and Arizona may have been the surprise of the college football season, finishing 9-3. This matchup will be between two programs that have had different season outcomes in recent history. This will be Oklahoma’s 25th straight bowl game appearance, while this is Arizona’s first bowl game since 2017.

Oklahoma will be without star quarterback Dillon Gabriel. Gabriel decided to transfer to Oregon for his final collegiate season. That leaves center stage for freshman quarterback and five-star recruit, Jackson Arnold to lead the Sooners in the Alamo Bowl and into the SEC next season. Arnold has seen a handful of college snaps, going 18-24 for 202 yards and 2 touchdowns. Arnold will still have a majority of the Sooners offense playing in this game, including receiver Drake Stoops and Nic Anderson.

Arizona shocked the college football world by competing and winning within the Pac 12 conference. Arizona started 3-3 but then won there last 6 games. This level of success is in large part due to the play of quarterback Noah Fifita. Fifita was one of the most efficient quarterbacks in college football this season with 23 touchdowns and only 5 interceptions. Arizona’s defense also deserves credit, improving from the rank of 124 in 2022 to 37th in 2023. A huge leap when considering Arizona’s schedule included going against offenses such as Washington and USC.

2023 was a great story for the Arizona Wildcats, and it is nice to see their program competitive again. I just believe the main storyline we will see come out of this game will be national emergence of Jackson Arnold. In the small amount of snaps Arnold has seen, he has seemed poised and collected. I don’t believe this game will be too big of a moment for the young freshman, especially when he will still have many of the star Oklahoma skill players competing in this game. I’m going to side with the more experienced program to take home the win in the Alamo Bowl.

Oklahoma +120 available at the time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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College football handicapper for Pickswise. I am a recent graduate from the University of Minnesota school of journalism, where I covered Golden Gophers sports and athletics.