It’s that time of the year when magazines begin to release their preview of the upcoming college football season.
Lindy’s, Athlon’s and Phil Steel’s magazines are still the rage of the offseason when they hit the shelves at book stores. In those, rankings of teams, players and anonymous coaches give out what they think of their opponents.
Athlon’s magazine is the first to hit the shelves. In that, some coaches gave their opinion of Lincoln Riley and Oklahoma.
“Their performance in the playoff game was a total aberration,” one coach said. “I think any coach in this league would tell you that. Nothing about that game really matched up with the improvement they’d shown last year. I think the personnel killed them. Too many injuries and too many suspensions. Grinch did a phenomenal job with them last year up until that point. Don’t judge them on that game.”
Oklahoma lost to LSU 63-28 in the 2019 Peach Bowl. Impact player Ronnie Perkins and major contributors Rhamondre Stevenson and Trejan Bridges were out. Starting safety Delarrin Turner-Yell broke his collarbone in the practices leading up to the game.
The Sooners will be returning to form offensively in 2020 with presumed starter Spencer Rattler, not to say that 2019 was off from the norm—Oklahoma had the No. 2 best SP+ offense in college football behind LSU. Alex Grinch will be in year two commanding the offense, and Riley has had more success in his first three years than every coach since 1894.
Yes, 1894.
“If you assume that Lincoln is automatic at finding ways to score points, you measure Oklahoma’s quality by how long it will take Grinch to get them up to speed on defense,” another coach said. “You have to consider them a conference title contender every single season. Lincoln has shown he’s the real deal.”
Oklahoma is set to begin its 2020 campaign on Sept. 5 against Missouri State at home.
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