Bryan Albin’s College Football Preview

Yesterday, the Florida Gators checked in my Top 25 countdown at #6. Today, a team replacing last year’s #1 pick in the NFL Draft takes its spot in my rankings.

5. OKLAHOMA SOONERS

2009 Recap-           Oklahoma came into last season with extremely high expectations. However, the injury bug had derailed the Sooners’ season by the 2nd quarter of their first game. TE Jermaine Gresham was injured before the season, and would not return. Then, in the 2nd quarter of the season opener against BYU, QB Sam Bradford injured his shoulder and had to come out of the game. Oklahoma ended up losing that game, as its national title hopes were crushed. With Landry Jones at QB, Oklahoma fell again on the road against Miami. Then, when Bradford returned for the Red River Shootout against Texas, he again was injured in the first half, and was out for the rest of the season. Oklahoma did end the season on a strong note though, as the Sooners defeated Stanford in the Sun Bowl to finish 8-5.

Offense- Technically, Bradford and Gresham left the offense this year, but considering Gresham didn’t play a down all year and Bradford barely played all of last year anyway, so its not like the Sooners aren’t used to playing without them. In fact, I expect the offense to be explosive with the trio of Landry Jones at QB, DeMarco Murray at RB and Ryan Broyles at WR. Broyles caught 80 balls for over 1,000 yards and 15 TD’s in 2009. He is a frontrunner to win the Biletnikoff award at the end of the year, which goes to the nation’s best Wide Receiver. Oklahoma’s offense should be able to light up scoreboards, especially in the Big XII where offenses have been way ahead of defenses recently.

Defense- DT Gerald McCoy, who was the 3rd pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, is going to be very hard for the Sooners to replace. However, the Sooners still have DE Jeremy Beal, who was a monster last year. Beal had 11 sacks and wreaked havoc, making life very difficult for quarterbacks. Last year, when things went wrong for the Sooners, the defense was not at fault. The Sooners held Texas to a 16 points, but lost 16-13. Against BYU, a 20-17 loss was mostly blamed on the offense. With a much improved offense expected this year, look for the Sooners defense to lock in and play sound football.

Schedule- Oklahoma as a difficult schedule ahead of itself in 2010. Non-conference games against Florida State and at Cincinnati will provide major challenges for a Sooners team looking to get back in the national title mix. The Red River Shootout will be difficult as always for the Sooners. While I expect the Big XII to be down this year, I do think that there are some tough road games on Oklahoma’s schedule, including Texas A&M, Missouri and Baylor. Avoiding Nebraska ought to make many Sooners fans happy as well.

Prediction- After the disappointment that Oklahoma felt on week 1 last year, I expect that coach Bob Stoops will have the Sooners up to their early season challenges. On September 11th, Oklahoma will hand Florida State its first loss under Jimbo Fisher, and Oklahoma will be off to the races. After surviving a road test in Cincinnati, Oklahoma will be 4-0. A win the next week against Texas will have many people thinking that he Sooners will roll to a 12-0 season. However, that is not as easy as it sounds, and Oklahoma will find that out the hard way when it loses at Missouri. Oklahoma will be forced to settle for an 11-1 season and a Big XII South title, as they will fall short of reaching the national title game.