Oklahoma football: Sooners finish season as nation’s No. 4 team

For the fourth consecutive year, Oklahoma football has ended the season ranked among the nation’s top five teams.

The Sooners are ranked fourth in the final Associated Press college football rankings for 2018.

Not coincidentally, the years 2015-18 parallel the time Lincoln Riley has been at Oklahoma, for two seasons as offensive coordinator and the last two as head coach.

Oklahoma’s 2018 season ended with a 45-34 College Football Playoff loss to Alabama. The Sooners finished the 2018 campaign with a 12-2 record. Their only loss in the regular season was to archrival  Texas in the annual Red River rivalry game, 48-45.

Over the last four seasons, the Sooners own a record of 46-8 overall and 33-3 in the Big 12. They’ve finished third and fourth, respectively, the last two seasons in the final AP rankings. The two years before that (2016 and 2015), OU ended the season at No. 5.

The Clemson Tigers easily commanded all 61 first-place votes from the media representative who make up the AP voting panel to end the 2018 season as college football’s top-ranked team for the second time in the last three seasons.

Clemson entered Monday’s national championship game showdown with Alabama in Santa Clara, California, as the No, 2 seed in this year’s College Football Playoff, but quickly served notice that the Atlantic Coast Conference champions weren’t about to settle for second place.

The Tigers’ took total control of the national championship game in the second quarter, outscoring the defending national champion Crimson Tide 17-3 to take a 31-16 lead into the locker room at halftime. The smothering Clemson defense, led by former OU defensive coordinator Brent Venables, shut out Alabama, the nation’s No, 2 scoring offense, in the second half and the Tigers handed head coach Nick Saban his worst loss in 12 seasons at Alabama.

Ohio State, which lost out to the Sooners in the selection for the final spot among this year’s Playoff final four, jumped ahead of OU in the final AP rankings, finishing third. Notre Dame, the third seed in the Playoff, ended the season at No. 5. (For the complete final AP Top 25 rankings click here).

When you factor in a fourth consecutive Big 12 championship, a second consecutive Heisman Trophy winner, a potential top-five recruiting class and a second consecutive year leading the FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) in offense, it’s pretty hard not to feel good about the 2018 Oklahoma football season as well as the prospects for another outstanding season in 2019.