The opponents they share make it plain. Mississippi State scored 41 on South Carolina in Columbia. Oklahoma went to Starkville and held the same team to 15. Kentucky beat both of them, 35-34 in a shootout with the Gamecocks and 21-13 in a grinder with the Sooners. So you have an offense that will trade touchdowns against a defense that would rather the game never reach 40. Neither team is in the AP Top 25, and both are 4-3, so the loser falls to .500 with November coming.
Look at the receivers on both sidelines. South Carolina lost J. Sellers and J. Gibson for the season back in August, and it is still scoring like this, which says a lot about whoever is catching the ball now. The bigger worry is the defensive line. D. Stewart is out with a back injury and has no timetable, and G. Brownlow-Dindy's upper-body injury left him questionable going back to the Florida week. That's a lot to ask of a front heading into a road game where the opponent wants to run the clock and shorten the game. Oklahoma has its own issues at receiver: T. Harris is out with a back injury and E. Thomas was questionable for the Mississippi State game. For an offense already short on big plays, that hurts.
Then there's the weather. The early forecast for Norman calls for 73 degrees, light drizzle, a 34% chance of rain and wind around 24 mph. A week out, that can change a lot. If it holds, though, it favors the team that's fine winning 20-13 over the team that needs 30, and it puts plenty of weight on a South Carolina kicker who just won a game from 48 yards. Both teams are 4-3, both lost to Kentucky, and both have a big win to point to: Oklahoma beat Texas, and the Gamecocks just took down Tennessee. Whoever gets the game played at their speed probably wins it.