The Oklahoma Sooners are one of the more intriguing teams heading into the 2024 college football season. They have a talented roster, led by a defense that has a lot of experience coming back for Oklahoma’s first foray into the SEC.
[autotag]Danny Stutsman[/autotag], [autotag]Billy Bowman[/autotag], [autotag]Ethan Downs[/autotag], and [autotag]Woodi Washington[/autotag] lead the way for a defense that made substantial improvement in year two under [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag].
Offensively, there’s a lot of talent too. But at arguably the most critical positions, quarterback and offensive line, the Sooners are facing turnover. [autotag]Jackson Arnold[/autotag] is as talented a quarterback as you’ll find in the country, but he has only one start under his belt.
Oklahoma generally has its offensive line together, so that typically isn’t a long-term concern, but they are replacing the five guys who started the most games for them in 2023. However, [autotag]Bill Bedenbaugh[/autotag] did a fantastic job bringing in experience to supplement his young blue chippers along the offensive line. But they haven’t worked together in a game situation. So there’s reason to be skeptical.
Throw in a schedule that will give Oklahoma all it can handle in 2024 and it’s understandable why Adam Rittenberg of ESPN might be a bit skeptical of the Oklahoma Sooners No. 8 ranking in the updated ESPN Football Power Index for the 2024 season. Rittenberg believes the Sooners are one of the overvalued teams at this point in 2024.
Oklahoma at No. 8 wouldn’t concern me as much if the Sooners were staying in the Big 12, rather than moving to the SEC. The combination of a young quarterback ([autotag]Jackson Arnold[/autotag]), two new primary coordinators (Seth Littrell and [autotag]Zac Alley[/autotag]), a defense that hasn’t really found its way under coach [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag] and a schedule that features Alabama, Ole Miss, LSU, Tennessee and Missouri, in addition to rival Texas, sets off a few alarm bells. Oklahoma has done well in the portal and returns some star power on defense, but I don’t see a top-10 finish this year in Norman. – Rittenberg, ESPN
Turnover hit Oklahoma in a big way this offseason. But it’s the University of Oklahoma and the depth chart has improved drastically since Venables took over in Norman. They have a defense that is set up to help them win games in 2024 and an offense that will continue to score a ton of points.
The offensive line will come together and Oklahoma features arguably the best collection of wide receivers in the nation. Time will tell if Rittenberg is right, but there’s reason to be optimistic that the Sooners are one of the 10 best teams in the nation for 2024.
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