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A look at which teams could be the biggest threat to the Oklahoma Sooners crown in 2021.
The upcoming football season for the Oklahoma Sooners will be yet another challenge to get into the College Football Playoffs.
Continue reading “Who is the Oklahoma Sooners biggest competition in 2021?”
A look at which teams could be the biggest threat to the Oklahoma Sooners crown in 2021.
The upcoming football season for the Oklahoma Sooners will be yet another challenge to get into the College Football Playoffs.
Continue reading “Who is the Oklahoma Sooners biggest competition in 2021?”
Looking around the Big 12 Conference at the top Heisman Trophy candidates
The Big 12 Conference is still months away from kicking off the 2021 college football season. The Oklahoma Sooners viewed as the favorites once again, for good reason. Until a team can knock them off, the Crimson and Cream are the team to beat.
Another notable accomplishment that experts are looking at involves the Heisman Memorial Trophy, who are the top contenders? Over the last four years, the Sooners have produced two winners and one finalist at the quarterback position.
For that reason alone, the Sooners have the top player on most early candidates lists with quarterback Spencer Rattler.
Who else in the conference could be on the list? Betting odds provided by BetMGM.
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A look at where 247Sports ranked the Oklahoma Sooners in their post-spring rankings.
We have reached the point in the offseason where way too early mock drafts and power rankings are the themes of the day. Recently, the Oklahoma Sooners were named the No. 1 team in the country by ESPN. However, 247Sports top analysts voted on their post-spring rankings. Instead of the Sooners coming in at No. 1, it was the Alabama Crimson Tide. The defending national champions are definitely worthy of the rankings but the Sooners are looking to gain ground.
The Sooners were the only team in three versions of the 247Sports poll to receive a first-place vote. Alabama, however, took a unanimous No. 1 spot after National Signing Day, and remains up top after the spring. For Oklahoma, spring and the offseason brought plenty of excitement to Norman. The Sooners added multiple key talents via the transfer portal, and the hype around Spencer Rattler is as strong as ever heading into his second full season as the starter. Rattler threw for 3,031 yards, 28 touchdowns and seven picks last season, and is among the 2021 leaders to win the Heisman Trophy. Can he follow names like Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts by leading OU to the College Football Playoff?
Note: Ballots were submitted prior to the confirmation of Trejan Bridges and Seth McGowan dismissals
As seen time and time again with these rankings, the Iowa State Cyclones are consistently inside the top 10. They land at No. 6 sandwiched between the Georgia Bulldogs and North Carolina Tar Heels. The Sooners most-bitter rivals the Texas Longhorns come in at No. 19 and Oklahoma State barely made the cut at No. 25. No other Big 12 school received any votes.
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A look at each Big 12 team’s Football Power Index ranking.
With spring wrapping up for some teams around the country, preseason polls are just around the corner. The Football Power Index provided by ESPN is no different. On Tuesday they released their preseason FPI poll for all 130 teams in Division I.
Last season’s final FPI poll finished with the Oklahoma Sooners finishing at No. 4 with the Texas Longhorns right behind them at No. 6, and Iowa State Cyclones at No. 10. This year there were a total of seven conference schools inside the top 25 in the preseason poll.
Sooners Wire looks at each Big 12 school’s ranking with the initial FPI, Oklahoma checks in first with a ranking of No. 2.
Where is the trap game on the football schedule for the Oklahoma Sooners?
Each and every season there is a game that can potentially jump up and bite a team. Over the last two seasons, it has been the game against the Kansas State Wildcats. Continue reading “College Football News make the case for a potential trap game”
A look at the top returning defensive players in the Big 12 Conference.
The Big 12 Conference has been making waves in recent years of playing better defense. Last season, the conference had the No. 4 team (West Virginia), No. 29 (Oklahoma) and No. 30 (Texas Christian) in total defense. The Sooners were also the second-highest ranked rushing defense in the conference. The Iowa State Cyclones ranked No. 8 nationally with OU hot on their trail at No. 9.
These two defenses were a huge factor in them meeting in the Big 12 Championship game last season.
We looked at the top returning offensive player for each team:
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The best defensive players returning in the Big 12, starting with the Oklahoma Sooners:
Sooners lead future offensive rankings.
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When it comes to offenses in college football the Oklahoma Sooners and Lincoln Riley rank among the best. Since his arrival in Norman, Riley has put together some of the top offenses in the country. He learned from another former Sooners assistant in Mike Leach during his time at Texas Tech.
| Year | PPG | National Ranking | Conference Ranking |
| 2015 | 43.5 | 4th | 3rd |
| 2016 | 43.9 | 3rd | 1st |
| 2017 | 45.1 | 3rd | 1st |
| 2018 | 48.4 | 1st | 1st |
| 2019 | 42.1 | 6th | 1st |
| 2020 | 40.3 | 6th | 1st |
Recently ESPN (subscription required) put together their future offensive rankings with the Sooners coming in at No. 1. Their future quarterback ranking comes in at the top and their 2020 offensive rank at No. 3.
OU is absolutely loaded on offense and should remain that way as long as Lincoln Riley stays in Norman. The short-term outlook is stunningly good, and it’s a big reason the Sooners might be a trendy preseason national title pick despite their past CFP struggles. Quarterback Spencer Rattler will lead the offense for at least another year (potentially two) after eclipsing 3,000 pass yards with 28 touchdowns in his first season as the starter.
There’s depth behind him with Caleb Williams, ESPN’s No. 16 overall player in 2021. Top pass-catchers Marvin Mims, Theo Wease and Austin Stogner are back after combining for 1,562 receiving yards and 16 touchdowns. All three have multiple years of eligibility left, and Oklahoma adds Mario Williams Jr., ESPN’s top-rated receiver and No. 17 overall player in the 2021 class.
The Sooners have done a great job of loading up on the offensive talent. Riley is continuing to load up and looking at the 2022 recruiting class, that is still the case. In the 2022 recruiting cycle, OU has No. 1 wide receiver Luther Burden as well as No. 3 running back Raleek Brown.
Next, we look at the other Big 12 teams on the list:
Postgame wrap-up and quotes from Oklahoma’s 79-73 win over Iowa State in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament on Wednesday night.
No. 25 Oklahoma closed the regular season in the midst of their toughest stretch of the entire year to this point. After being one of the surprise teams in the country all year long and climbing their ranking all the way up to No. 7, the Sooners plummeted down the rankings and Big 12 standings after four straight losses.
Needless to say, they really needed to get back in the win column before the NCAA Tournament begins next week. And that much-needed win came on Wednesday night against Iowa State in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament.
“Really, really happy for the guys,” head coach Lon Kruger said postgame. “When you’ve dropped a few in a row that go right down to the wire, you got to get that feeling of winning again and happy for the guys. They did a good job to get it in the right column.”
The game unfolded somewhat similarly to the second meeting against the Cyclones, with a big second half lead suddenly shrinking down into a competitive game. After trailing by 18 points, Iowa State came battling back to work the lead all the way down to six with just over three minutes to play.
It was at this point that the man who often comes up big late for Oklahoma would step up yet again, with All-Big 12 guard Austin Reaves coming through with multiple key buckets to keep the Cyclones at bay and help keep his team in the lead.
“It was huge,” Kruger said of Reaves’ shots to keep the Sooners’ lead intact. “Huge plays at a time where we needed to kind of stem their run. He’s done that for us on many occasions and certainly he was great at that time tonight.”
Elijah Harkless was certainly huge again as he was the definition of a stat sheet stuffer in this game picking up 12 points, nine rebounds, six assists and five steals. He was everywhere on Wednesday night.
“All I can say about that is that’s big time,” De’Vion Harmon said of teammate’s stat line. “We feed off him on the defensive end. When he’s doing that, man, we’re a very hard team to beat.”
Harkless was a huge part of the Sooners defense having an uptick back to more like what it was earlier in the season when Oklahoma was racking top-15 wins seemingly every other day. Getting out in transition for easy scores is a must for them to be at their best, and they did that much more often against Iowa State than they had in the losing skid.
Also big in helping the defense jump back up in production was Kur Kuath off the bench. He was a constant disruption in the painted area picking up three blocks along the way. He was one of the more unsung heroes of the win for the Sooners.
“Kur’s done great, that’s back-to-back games where he’s had a big impact,” Kruger said. “Around the rim especially. He’s doing a good job, doing what he’s best at doing and that’s great for everyone. Everyone gets a little security from him at the rim. He does a good job of not only blocking shots but changing some others.”
Now the challenge of the conference tournament setting starts to take place as Oklahoma will have to turn around and play Kansas tomorrow roughly just 19 hours after this game ended. This is really the only time of the year where teams are asked to play in consecutive days, which provides a unique obstacle that only this week provides.
“It’s like AAU all over again,” Harmon said. “Usually you got two games in one day. But we got one game. Give it everything you got, get some rest, and move on to the next one and that’s what we’re going to do.”
The Sooners will take on the Jayhawks for the third time this season tomorrow night at 5:30 p.m. CT in Kansas City.
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Three takeaways from Oklahoma’s 79-73 win over Iowa State in Kansas City in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament on Wednesday night.
After nearly a week without game action, Oklahoma returned to action on Wednesday night in the first round of the 2021 Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City against Iowa State. It was the third meeting of the year between the Sooners and the Cyclones, with Lon Kruger’s group taking each of the first two in mostly competitive games.
Oklahoma entered the matchup on a four-game losing streak and needing a win as bad as any non-bubble team in the country, and they delivered the performance they were desperate for. Nearly every aspect of the game was much better than what we have seen in recent weeks as the Sooners got back in the win column 79-73.
De’Vion Harmon and Austin Reaves were the two leading scorers as per usual putting up 18 and 21 points in the opening round victory. As a whole, it was really a solid all-around team win.
The win gets Oklahoma up to the 15-win mark at 15-9 and gets them a date with Kansas tomorrow in the quarterfinals. Here are three immediate takeaways from the game:
When Oklahoma was at their best this season, it was when they were moving the ball around and getting lots of guys involved. Obviously Austin Reaves is your go-to guy with De’Vion Harmon right behind him, but spreading the love and showcasing their depth is how the Sooners toppled so many good teams earlier this season.
On Wednesday night, they did that really well having eight different guys score – all of which got involved in the first half. None of those guys even scored more than seven points, as it was an overall group effort to get them a halftime advantage.
That mostly continued throughout the rest of the game although Harmon and Reaves did assume their place as the leading scorers by game’s end. As a whole though, the offense was mostly balanced out very nicely.
For the Sooners to keep winning in Kansas City this week and to try and win some NCAA Tournament games next week, this needs to be much closer to what they do offensively. The last few weeks the offense has felt so Reaves-reliant that the ball movement has really suffered. While he is certainly their best player and a fantastic one, it isn’t the best recipe for winning. It needs to be more than just him.
