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With Georgia’s 33-18 triumph over Alabama in the College Football Playoff’s national championship game in the books, the college football offseason is officially upon us.
That means it’s time to overindulge on rankings that don’t really matter outside of stirring the collective college football discussion pot.
ESPN’s Mark Schlabach released his “Way-Too-Early college football top 25” and Oklahoma checks in at No. 17.
Schlabach wrote this about the Sooners’ 2022 season outlook.
The Sooners’ transition from former coach Lincoln Riley to Brent Venables might be a lot smoother if quarterback Caleb Williams sticks around. He has entered the transfer portal, although Williams said returning to OU remains an option. The Sooners weren’t taking a chance, however, and grabbed Gabriel, who threw for more than 8,000 yards with 70 touchdowns in three seasons at UCF. Freshman receiver Mario Williams also might transfer. Venables, who has never been a head coach, will have to address heavy losses on the line of scrimmage. Perhaps the team’s six best defenders are departing, along with the leading rusher and three of the top four receivers. The addition of Mettauer, who started 28 games at California, will help ease the losses in the interior offensive line. – Schlabach, ESPN.
Oklahoma has certainly seen its fair share of defections to the 2022 NFL Draft and to the NCAA’s transfer portal. Those departures probably aren’t done yet either as quarterback Caleb Williams and wide receiver Mario Williams have been crystal-balled to wind up at USC.
It’s important to remember that there will also be more additions to the Sooners’ roster between now and the start of the 2022 season, too. Here’s our handy Sooners Wire transfer portal tracker to keep up to date with which players are going where.
Schlabach listed UCF transfer quarterback Dillon Gabriel, Cal offensive lineman transfer McKade Mettauer, Hawaii defensive lineman transfer Jonah La’ulu and Missouri tight end transfer Daniel Parker Jr. among his key additions to Oklahoma.
Several 2022 signees were mentioned by Schlabach as key additions as well: running back Gavin Sawchuk, linebacker Kobie McKinzie and wide receiver Nicholas Anderson.
Schlabach’s “way-too-early” top five looked like this: No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Georgia, No. 4 Texas A&M and No. 5 Michigan.
Oklahoma State was the highest-ranked Big 12 team at No. 9, while Baylor slotted in right ahead of Oklahoma at No. 16.
Two other programs with Oklahoma ties found their way into Schlabach’s top 25. USC was ranked No. 22 and South Carolina snuck in at No. 25.
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