OU football: Five players Sooners need to especially account for this season
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma football begins the 2017 college season the same as its has 13 times in the last 18 years: ranked among the top 10 teams in the country.
Because of the 2017 schedule, though, the Sooners will have one of the more difficult challenges advancing higher in the rankings. Based on the preseason top-25 rankings, almost half (five games) of Oklahoma’s regular-season schedule is against ranked teams, including a date in Columbus, Ohio, on Sept. 9 against No. 2 Ohio State.
When you go up against good teams, you can expect to encounter more than a few good players, and the Sooners will face their share of both in the upcoming college football season.
Since the beginning of this month, timed nicely to coincide with the opening of Oklahoma’s 2017 preseason training camp, we have been filling these pages with what and who are expected to make a difference for the Sooners as they set out to make it three straight Big 12 championships and 11 since 2000.
Today we are going to turn our attention 180 degrees and focus in on several of the Sooners’ 2017 opponents. Here are five opposing players that the Sooners cannot afford to let out of their sights when the line up against them this season: