2023 Oklahoma Sooners Football – Page 58

Don’t forget about these Oklahoma Sooners for 2023

Though the Oklahoma Sooners have added a lot of talent this offseason, there are several Sooners we shouldn’t overlook for 2023.

The Oklahoma Sooners coaching staff has been hard at work this offseason to retool and upgrade the roster. Through a transfer portal class ESPN ranked No. 4 and a recruiting class ranked No. 4 by 247Sports, the Oklahoma Sooners have brought in a ton of talent to compete for jobs in 2023.

And it’s a roster that needed it, considering they are ninth in the Big 12 in returning production for 2023, and they’re heading to the SEC in 2024.

At the same time, the talent they’re bringing back is young and unproven. In particular, the 2022 recruiting class and transfer portal additions. While they didn’t play a ton last year, they’ve now spent a year with Brent Venables and this coaching staff and will have an opportunity to earn some significant playing time.

Despite the additions, there are several returning Sooners we shouldn’t forget about for 2023.

ESPN’s David Hale projects the Sooners to have the best comeback in 2023

In ESPN’s latest college football roundtable, David Hale chose the Sooners to have the best comeback in 2023.

There’s a lot to like about what Brent Venables is building in Norman. The Oklahoma Sooners may not have had the season they would have liked in 2022, but there’s a lot of optimism surrounding the Sooners this offseason.

They’re bringing back a lot of the pieces that played significant roles in 2022. Though they lost several starters to the NFL, they’ve made significant transfer additions to mitigate those losses and bolster a defense that struggled for much of the Big 12 schedule.

And it’s those transfer portal additions that has ESPN’s David Hale optimistic that Oklahoma could have the best comeback (ESPN+) in 2023.

There were myriad reasons for Oklahoma’s down 2022 campaign, but Brent Venables isn’t interested in excuses. His focus is entirely on improvement, and there’s reason to believe 2023 will offer quite a bit of it for the Sooners. The transfer portal gutted last year’s roster, but Oklahoma has added some solid players this season, including two potential star edge rushers in Rondell Bothroyd and Dasan McCullough. Add in a terrific recruiting class and the return of QB Dillon Gabriel, and Venables has much more to work with this time around. Those edge rushers are key. Venables loves to dictate the action at the line of scrimmage, something he did better than any coach in the country at Clemson. If Oklahoma’s pass rush takes a big leap and the Sooners get a little better turnover luck — they saw the 10th-biggest year-over-year decline in points off turnover margin in 2022 — they should again be contending for the Big 12 title and a possible playoff berth. – Hale, ESPN

The transfer class, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, will make a huge difference for the Oklahoma Sooners in 2023. They needed an infusion of talent to give them more depth, and depth they have. Their pass rush should be better with the additions of [autotag]Rondell Bothroyd[/autotag], [autotag]Dasan McCullough[/autotag], [autotag]Trace Ford[/autotag], [autotag]Jacob Lacey[/autotag], and [autotag]Davon Sears[/autotag]. They’ll join a defensive front that was good at times and went cold other times. But Ethan Downs finished the season on a high note for the Sooners. After his first year as a starter

While the portal additions on offense will help replace the offensive line departures of [autotag]Anton Harrison[/autotag] and [autotag]Chris Murray[/autotag], Oklahoma will benefit from quarterback continuity and a strong running game.

[autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] now has a season of Power Five under his belt. He was good in 2022 and has a chance to be better in 2023 despite the losses of [autotag]Marvin Mims[/autotag] and [autotag]Brayden Willis[/autotag]. [autotag]Jalil Farooq[/autotag] emerged as a reliable and versatile option in Jeff Lebby’s offense. They also brought back [autotag]Austin Stogner[/autotag], which provides another reliable option for the passing game.

They’re bringing back a ton of talent, but just as important is that the Big 12 looks incredibly wide open in 2023. Texas may be the frontrunner, but the Sooners will be right there with teams like Kansas State and Texas Tech as contenders for the conference title.

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ESPN doesn’t like the 2023 schedule for the Oklahoma Sooners

Breaking down the Big 12 schedules for 2023, ESPN feels Oklahoma didn’t fair too well.

The 2023 schedule for the Oklahoma Sooners has some pros and cons. It’s a manageable schedule, but it isn’t without potential pitfalls.

Given the new 14-team alignment in the Big 12, how the schedule broke down was going to leave every team wanting a little bit more or feeling like it received the short end of the stick. No Kansas State leaves a bit to be desired.

Breaking down the schedule, ESPN’s Dave Wilson is looking forward to Oklahoma and Texas again in the Cotton Bowl. He’s also intrigued by the Sooners’ road trip to Cincinnati, which is the Bearcats’ first game in the Big 12. But that away game and the Sooners’ final road trip of the season, to Provo, give Oklahoma a couple of tough tests against the conference’s newest members.

Oklahoma begins Big 12 play with a road trip to Cincinnati, and wraps up the season with its first-ever trip to BYU on Nov. 18 before hosting TCU. The Sooners have one of the most unfamiliar schedules, and won’t play Kansas State or Baylor this season. – Wilson, ESPN

Oklahoma plays three games against teams new to the Big 12. It is also playing the two teams that were added in the last round of realignment: West Virginia and TCU. No Wildcats, Baylor or Texas Tech. Teams the Sooners have had a long-standing relationship with.

Still, it’s a manageable schedule that has the opportunity to help the Sooners get back into conference title race and College Football Playoff contention as early as next season.

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Oklahoma Sooners way too early game-by-game predictions for 2023

Way too early game-by-game predictions for the Oklahoma Sooners in 2023.

No schedule is perfect. In a 14-team conference, there will be something that somebody or some school doesn’t like about the schedule. That’s true for Oklahoma. However, on paper, the 2023 schedule looks favorable for the Sooners.

They do not have to face Kansas State or an improving Texas Tech team. They don’t have to deal with Baylor, which has beaten them twice in a row. Road trips to Cincinnati and Provo aren’t ideal, and neither is the short week to face TCU. Again, scheduling isn’t a perfect world.

With the schedule out, let’s look at what the Sooners could do in 2023 with this way-too-early game-by-game prediction.

Oklahoma Sooners up to No. 4 in the final 247Sports composite rankings for 2023 cycle

Oklahoma Sooners up to No. 4 in final 247Sports composite rankings for the 2023 recruiting cycle.

And just like that, poof, it was gone.

The 2023 recruiting cycle has now officially closed after national signing day on Wednesday. The Oklahoma Sooners didn’t have a whole lot going on but closed the book on the 2023 recruiting class with one more signature from local product Taylor Heim.

Heim gave the Oklahoma Sooners 26 players in the cycle. Of the top 10 teams in the 247Sports composite rankings, only Oregon (29) and Alabama (28) had more prospects signed to their recruiting classes than Oklahoma.

Only Alabama, Georgia, and Texas brought in more five-star prospects than Oklahoma’s three. Though Texas finished higher in the final team rankings than the Sooners, the Red River Rivals tied in the number of four and five-star prospects signed at 17.

Additionally, the Sooners are one of six current or future SEC teams in the top 10 of the composite team rankings. 12 of the top 25 are current or future SEC teams.

Here’s a look at the top 25 of the 247Sports team rankings.

Oklahoma Sooners full 2023 football schedule released

The official Oklahoma Sooners 2023 football schedule.

The Oklahoma Sooners 2023 schedule is official with the release of the Big 12 schedule on Tuesday afternoon.

The entrance of BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF, and the departure of Oklahoma and Texas provided intrigue to this years’ schedule release. Conference realignment disrupted the natural flow of home dates for the Big 12.

After some initial delay, first-year commissioner Brett Yormark has his first schedule in an expanded Big 12.

We’ve known the nonconference schedule for sometime, though there was an adjustment on the fly after Georgia and Oklahoma mutually agreed to cancel their nonconference home and home with the Sooners moving to the SEC in 2025 at the latest. Joe Castiglione replaced the Bulldogs with SMU on the fly to provide the Sooners a solid Group of Five foe.

With an expanded Big 12 for at least this season, here’s a look at the Oklahoma Sooners 2023 football schedule.

‘Pound-for-pound, my favorite quarterback’: Josh Pate on five-star QB Jackson Arnold

Josh Pate of the Late Kick Show believes Jackson Arnold is good enough to play right away.

On a recent episode of the Late Kick Show with Josh Pate, Pate detailed a few programs he thinks will take a jump in 2023. One of those programs was Oklahoma.

On the same show, Pate broke down the newly minted five-stars and the top quarterbacks.

They have Jackson Arnold, who is possibly pound-for-pound my favorite quarterback in this cycle. In fairness we got to see him up close at the Elite 11 and got to know him a bit, so I just happen to believe he’s got the right stuff to go in there and compete for a starting job right away.

Here’s the thing about that… if he wins the job it’s because he was good enough and if he doesn’t win the job, it’s probably not because he wasn’t good enough, it’s just because Dillon Gabriel beat him out. – Pate on Late Kick

He, like many others, believes that Jackson Arnold has the talent to be a day-one starter at the collegiate level. He grants that Oklahoma is in a great position. They’ve got Dillon Gabriel, who is a really good starting quarterback and they’ve got Arnold who is a good quarterback in his own right, and the future of the program. Arnold’s good enough to start, but if he doesn’t, that means that Gabriel’s stayed healthy and is playing up to expectations.

Pate would go on to note that OU needed depth in the QB room, which is absolutely correct. Going into 2023 with more than one viable QB could end up being huge if Gabriel gets hurt again.

Arnold is ranked as the No. 4 QB in the country and one of five five-star QBs according to 247Sports. Sooners fans will be able to see him in action soon at the upcoming OU Football Spring Game.

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ESPN tabs Peyton Bowen as a ‘freshman worth following’ in 2023

ESPN considers safety Peyton Bowen a “freshman worth following” in 2023.

When Brent Venables and his staff pulled off the flip-flip of Peyton Bowen, it helped the Sooners secure their highest-rated recruiting class in the modern era. Beyond everything that transpired during the early signing period, Oklahoma earned a signature of a difference maker.

Peyton Bowen is one of the best players in the class and the No. 2 safety in the nation. It’s that talent that has ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg believing Bowen is a freshman to watch in 2023.

The [autotag]Peyton Bowen[/autotag] drama was one of the biggest stories around signing day, but we now know he will be an Oklahoma Sooner. Bowen, ESPN’s No. 2 safety and No. 14 overall player in the 2023 class, should be an immediate factor on a defense looking for production and playmakers in the back end. His adjustment to Brent Venables’ defense will be interesting, but Bowen is the type of elite-level recruit that OU needs. He will make the trip to Norman with his former high school teammate in Texas, quarterback [autotag]Jackson Arnold[/autotag], who is set to play behind [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] but also could see the field. Arnold is ESPN’s top dual-threat quarterback and No. 8 overall player in the class. – Rittenberg, ESPN

The Oklahoma Sooners were 119th in passing yards allowed in 2022 at 273.5 per game. They didn’t fair much better in run defense, allowing 187.5 yards per game on the ground. The Oklahoma Sooners coaching staff has a mandate to make significant changes on the defensive side of the ball. That could lead to opportunities for Bowen to have a role for Oklahoma in year one.

The Sooners return Billy Bowman and Key Lawrence. Robert Spears-Jennings should see a jump in playing time in his second year in Norman and Oklahoma added Texas Tech transfer Reggie Pearson. The Sooners also brought in fellow 2023 signees Daeh McCullough and Makari Vickers, who could factor into the safety rotation as well.

It’s not impossible for Bowen to crack the two-deep at safety, but there will be a lot of competition at a position that’s much deeper in 2023 than it was this time a year ago.

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After strong sophomore season, Sooners WR Jalil Farooq headed for huge 2023

After a strong performance in 2022 where he was third on the team in total yards, Sooners WR Jalil Farooq is set to have a huge season in 2023.

A freshman during the 2021 season, Oklahoma Sooners wide receiver [autotag]Jalil Farooq[/autotag] didn’t see much playing time. That was until the Alamo Bowl after [autotag]Mario Williams[/autotag] and [autotag]Jadon Haselwood[/autotag] departed via the transfer portal, and [autotag]Michael Woods[/autotag] declared for the 2022 NFL draft.

That left [autotag]Marvin Mims[/autotag], [autotag]Drake Stoops[/autotag], and Farooq, then a true freshman for the Sooners, to lead the way for Oklahoma in their matchup against the Oregon Ducks.

Mims and Stoops did what they do, each recording a touchdown reception from then-quarterback [autotag]Caleb Williams[/autotag]. But it was Farooq’s performance that provided a glimpse of the future at wide receiver.

In his first extended action in the Alamo Bowl, Farooq caught three passes for 64 yards in the win over the Ducks. He had 48 yards after the catch, and each of his three receptions went for a first down.

That led to an opportunity for him to earn a feature role with the Sooners in 2022. And he didn’t disappoint.

Operating on the outside, opposite Marvin Mims, Farooq became the do-it-all option for the Sooners in 2022. He had 37 receptions for 466 yards and five touchdowns. He also ran the ball 12 times for 121 yards, averaging 10.1 yards per carry on the season.

Only Eric Gray and Marvin Mims had more total yards than Farooq’s 606 in 2022. Farooq was also the Sooners’ best kick returner, averaging 22.9 yards per return on 12 opportunities for 275 yards.

He was a threat in the run game on reverses and helped the Sooners in the intermediate part of the field. He ran hard and with purpose with the ball in his hands and is a perfect fit in Jeff Lebby’s offense. An offense that wants to run a lot of wide receiver and bubble screens and jet sweep action.

Jalil Farooq’s after-the-catch ability will make him a huge threat in Oklahoma’s offense in 2023. With Marvin Mims gone and doubt as to who will replace him, Farooq should see a huge uptick in touches both as a receiver and a runner. With more of a focus on getting the ball in his hands, Farooq will push for 1,000 total yards next year in Lebby’s fast-paced offense.

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Where did the Big 12 land in College Football News first look 1-131 rankings for 2023?

College Football News put together their early 1-131 rankings for the 2023 season, so how did the Big 12 stack up?

The new Big 12 is going to be a lot of fun, at least for one season. The Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns are likely out the door in 2024, which is likely one of the hangups in getting a 2023 schedule.

Until we get an actual schedule to digest, and with just over eight months remaining till the start of the season, we continue to look at early look power rankings for 2023.

This time, it’s College Football News taking an early look at their 1-131 rankings for the 2023 season. Let’s see how the Big 12 stacked up.