It’s an odd position to be in if you’re the Oklahoma Sooners, but certainly not an unwelcome one.
- The Sooners had just one player make the Big 12 media preseason first-team; punter Michael Turk. And the Sooners finished five first-place votes behind defending Big 12 champion Baylor for first place in the preseason poll.
To a man in the Oklahoma Sooners football program, they’ll tell you that none of that matters, and they’d be right. Preseason accolades don’t mean a whole lot in the big scheme of things.
But the big takeaway is that this is a program that many expect to be good, but because of the turnover, there’s uncertainty about how good they can be.
And that was reflected in comments made by opposing coaches to Athlon Sports for their 2022 College Football Preview there’s confidence in what Brent Venables and offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby can bring to the table, but some uncertainty as to how it will translate in 2022.
The best and most talented program in our league year in and year out, and now they’re dealing with more change than they’ve seen in 20-some odd years. The good news is that most of that is gonna be limited to coaches, not players… — via Athlon Sports
They’ve had a ton of turnover and that can’t be understated. On both sides of the football, the Sooners lost a lot of talent.
But that shouldn’t slow them down, because the coaching staff, led by Brent Venables, did a fantastic job attacking the transfer portal to fill holes in the depth chart.
The Sooners may not be heading into 2022 with as much hype or as many stars as they did in 2021, but that doesn’t mean they can’t achieve the same results or more.
