Could This Be Another Sooner Football Championship Season?

You could make a strong case that championships are in the DNA of Oklahoma Sooner football.

Dec 31, 2015; Miami Gardens, FL, USA;Clemson Tigers and Oklahoma Sooners line up in the first quarter of the 2015 CFP Semifinal at the Orange Bowl at Sun Life Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /

The Sooners begin the 2016 college football season as the No. 3-ranked team in the nation in both the Amway Coaches Poll as well as the just-released Associated Press Preseason Top 25. That puts them in a strong position to capture a 10th Big 12 crown under Bob Stoops and the school’s 46th conference title overall.

Winning the conference championship, though, is only a requisite step along the way to Oklahoma’s primary goal, which every season is the same: to win the national championship.

There is a lot of chatter that this could be another one of those ultimate-goal-achieving years at Oklahoma. Sixteen years removed from the last Sooner national championship (2000), which was separated by 15 season from the one before that (1985), they will be celebrating in the streets of Norman, for sure, if Oklahoma is the last team standing come January 9, 2017.

But that is a long way off, with a number of formidable obstacles standing in the way of the reigning Big 12 champions on the road to the 2016 college football summit.

Some are comparing this Sooner football team to the best that ever played for Oklahoma. I think that may be a stretch, but it is always fun to compare great teams from different eras. With seven national championships, Oklahoma has certainly had its share of outstanding teams – Bud Wilkinson’s great teams that dominated the early-to-mid 1950s; Barry Switzer’s OU juggernauts of the 1970s and ’80s, and then you have Bob Stoops’ four national championship appearances in the 2000s.

Could it actually be that the 2016 edition of Oklahoma football is as good or better than the best that OU ever produced?

Dec 31, 2015; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; A member of the Oklahoma Sooners Ruf Neks waves a flag in the second quarter of the 2015 CFP Semifinal at the Orange Bowl at Sun Life Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports /

Only time will tell, of course. We should have a very good idea of how good this year’s team really is after the first six games of the season, three of which are against teams ranked in the nation’s preseason top 20 (and that doesn’t include Texas and Kansas State, two teams among those first six opponents that have always given Oklahoma trouble).

The 2016 Sooners have few weaknesses to begin the new campaign, but the three-month college football regular season has a way of throwing teams giant curves that require adjustments as the season progresses. So hard telling what head coach Bob Stoops and Co. will have to overcome to reach their desired destination this season.

I do know one thing: It will not be easy. And it probably won’t be without plenty of nail-biting moments, perhaps even some disappointment along the way.

I’ll probably incur the wrath of the Sooner nation for suggesting this, but I will be totally shocked – but, at the same time, beyond ecstatic – if Oklahoma is able to run the table in the regular season. The schedule is just too tough and loaded with land mines to take that bet with any degree of confidence.

I’d consider it an outstanding season if the Sooners were to escape with but one blemish on their 2016 record, which is what I candidly believe will transpire. And you might be surprised to learn I don’t believe Houston, Ohio State or TCU – perhaps the most likeliest of the candidates – will be the team that administers that one Oklahoma loss in 2016.

Getting back to the question of whether this Oklahoma football team has it in them to be the best Sooner team of all-time, here is where I come down on this controversial and delicate topic: