If fans across the country were asked to name off the top of their head the four or five best college football programs of all-time, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if Oklahoma football did not make the cut in the majority of cases.
The Sooners have won 861 games in 121 years of playing college football. Twenty percent, of 179 of those games, have been won under head coach Bob Stoops, the winningest of 21 Oklahoma head coaches and the only Sooner head coach to record 10 or more wins in 13 out of 17 seasons.
Oklahoma is the seventh winningest college team of all time, both in terms of victories as well as winning percentage, and with seven national championships, the Sooners are tied for third behind Alabama, which now has 11, including four in the past six seasons, and Notre Dame (8). The University of Southern California is tied with the Sooners, both with seven national crowns in football.
From all indications, Oklahoma should be among the top national contenders again in 2016. Quarterback Baker Mayfield will be back for one more season, as will a good number of the Sooners’ offensive weapons.
All of this got me thinking about what we can expect from Oklahoma football when the new season rolls around in the fall. Here are five bold predictions:
- Oklahoma will go 3-0 in its nonconference schedule next season. That may not sound very audacious, but when you consider that the Sooners open the 2016 season against Houston on the road in Week 1 and Ohio State in Week 3, two teams that finished in the top 10 in the final AP rankings for 2015, that prediction takes on an entirely different tone.
- Samaje Perine will account for at least 2,500 yards of total offense next season, his best season as a collegian. Perine rushed for over 1,700 yards his freshman season, but in the newly installed Air Raid offense in 2015, his rushing numbers (1,349) were down from a year ago.
- Baker Mayfield will not win the Heisman, but he will be one of the finalists to go to New York City for the presentation ceremony.
- The Sooners will win 11 games in 2016, repeat as Big 12 champions, but suffer their only regular-season loss at home against Baylor.
- Offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley will interview for and take a head-coaching job after the 2016 season.