Five Reasons OU Football Is Being Underrated for 2015

Oklahoma last won a stand-alone conference championship in football in 2010. Up to that point, Bob Stoops had led OU football to seven Big 12 football crowns in 12 seasons.

The Sooners shared a conference championship with Kansas State in the 2012 season. Since then, their highest league finish has been a three-way tie for second place in 2013.

Stoops’ Oklahoma teams have typically responded better when they are not high on the national radar and projected before the season to be among the nation’s top echelon in a particular season (lay translation: top 5). Historically under Stoops, the Sooners have done very well following a season with fewer than 10 wins.

Nov 8, 2014; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners sooner schooner before the game against the Baylor Bears at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

We think being underrated going into the 2015 season (if you can call being somewhere between No. 15 and No. 25 in the national polls as underrated), will work in OU’s favor again this season.

Here are five reasons why:

Did not live up to expectations of the college football prognosticators and punditry in recent seasons.

Who knows, really? Until the season is played out, it is difficult to tell sometimes whether a team’s preseason ranking is more because of its obvious skill and talent advantage or because of its national branding.

Last season, Oklahoma began the season in the top five in both the USA Today Coaches Poll and the Associated Press Media Poll. The Sooners were ranked No. 4 in the USA Today poll and 3rd in the AP poll. They ended the 2014 season 8-5 and outside of the top 25 in both polls. The season before that, OU began the year ranked in the middle of the second ten, but with three solid victories to end the season, including the stunning two-touchdown win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, the Sooners ended the season ranked No. 6.

Oklahoma began the 2000 college campaign in the No. 19 following Bob Stoops’ inaugural 1999 season, when the Sooners went 7-5. By game No. 5, they were up to No. 10 and two games later, after a 31-14 defeat of previously top-ranked Nebraska, OU claimed the top spot, where it would finish out the season.

The point of all this being that the Sooners have typically performed better when the expectations were lower to begin with. Welcome to 2015.

Dependability at quarterback is the cornerstone of any winning program.

Apr 11, 2015; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) looks to pass during the spring football game at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Red wins 20-7 over White. Mandatory Credit: Rob Ferguson-USA TODAY Sports

With the exception of two or possibly three games the past couple of season, the performance out of the quarterback position has been erratic at best and dreadful at worst. Heading into fall preseason practice, the OU coaching staff has yet to declare a starting quarterback. The prevailing wisdom is that Texas Tech transfer Baker Mayfield will draw the starting nod, largely because of his familiarity and better fit at quarterback in new offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley’s up-tempo, air-raid offense.

Trevor Knight, last season’s starter and the most valuable player in the Sooners’ stunning Sugar Bowl win over Alabama to end the 2013 season, is the other candidate for the starting QB role. Knight does not possess the same passing ability as Mayfield and was not overly impressive in the majority of the games he started in 2014.

Until the Sooners settle on the starting quarterback, there will continue to be doubts about OU’s ability to consistently advance the ball and put up enough points to take the pressure off a good but not great Sooner defense.

Prolific, high-scoring, high-flying offenses win a lot of games, but great defensive play trumps great offenses, and that’s what wins championships.

Solid defensive play has been a staple of the successful Oklahoma teams under Bob Stoops. Conversely, the seasons in which the Sooners underachieved has typically been when the OU defensive unit has not performed well. The Sooners led the Big 12 in pass defense and total defense and was second in rushing defense in 2013. The following season, in 2014, Oklahoma was ninth in the conference in defending the pass and in the middle of the pack in total defense.

Sep 13, 2014; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners linebacker Eric Striker (19) chases Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Justin Worley (14) during the game at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

The four seasons Oklahoma played in the BCS National Championship game (2000, 2003, 2004 and 2008), the Sooners were at or near the top of the Big 12 in scoring defense and total defense. Although they will be best remembered from those years as an offensive juggernaut, it was actually their outstanding defense that got them all the way to that prized final game.

Defensive coordinator Mike Stoops and big brother Bob like what they’ve seen in the offseason and believe that the most improvement will be in the back end of the defense in the secondary.

“I think the where we’ll grow the most is in the secondary, just with more experience and a year behind these guys and a year in the weight room and everything they’re doing,” Bob Stoops said during Big 12 Media Days last week. “I really like what I saw in the spring and the summer.”

OU may have the best linebacker corps in the Big 12 and is strong again upfront on the defensive line. If the Sooners can get the back end shored up, they will become a difficult matchup for the high-flying, highlight-reel Big 12 offenses.

One-dimensional offenses are like blood in the water to a school of hungry sharks .

Because of OU’s inability last season to mount a consistent passing attack (the result of too many bad passes and too many dropped balls by a young, largely inexperienced receiving corps), the Sooners were forced to resort to Samaje Perine and the running game more than the coaching staff may have wanted. Opposing defenses became wise to Oklahoma’s inconsistent and mostly ineffective passing attack and stacked the box to stop or slow down the run game, showing little respect for the Sooners ability to go deep or advance the ball through the air.

The Sooner coaches and players have worked hard and long this offseason on building more balance into the offense, including installing a new offensive scheme and upgrading the receiving talent in the offense.

The OU running game is rock solid. With a healthy Sterling Shepard and an immediate contribution from newcomer Dede Westbrook, who will give the Sooners another explosive target in the passing game will be in a much better position than a year ago to spread the field and stretch opposing defenses.

Strength at running back should not be underestimated.

While those in the know about college football are zeroing in on the Sooners’ holes in the dike, so to speak, they are overlooking the fact that the OU running game next season could be the best in the nation and by far the cream of the crop in the Big 12.

Sophomore brusier back Samaje Perine was virtually unstoppable at time last season (just ask the Kansas Jayhawks about that), and there are reports that he’s gotten stronger and faster in the offseason. The Oklahoma passing game should be much improved in 2015, which will take some of the load off of Perine, but it should also give him even better opportunities to pile up big chunks of real estate when he does carry the ball. Former five-star recruit Joe Mixon will provide a serious second threat when the Sooners employ the running game, and there is also junior Alex Ross, who packs some speed of his own.

It should also be pointed out that all three players can be used as pass targets out of the backfield, and all three have breakaway speed in the open field.

Much will be riding on game two in the coming season, when the Sooners travel into SEC country to take on the Volunteers of Tennessee. This will be the second game in the home-and-home series that commenced last season with Oklahoma winning 34-10 in Norman. The Vols should be much tougher at home.

How OU performs in this high-visibility Sept. 12 matchup could be a bellwether on what to expect out of the Crimson and Cream the remainder of the season.