Oklahoma football has been knocking at the door of college football’s elite club for a number of years, but have not quite been able to join Clemson and Alabama in the penthouse of the sport.
However, there are plenty of reasons to believe this could be the year Oklahoma football figures out how to win some playoff games and add an eighth national title to their trophy case here are the reasons Oklahoma could win the national title.
Alex Grinch
The importance of Grinch’s hiring can be understated. The Sooners have been downright unwatchable on defense in recent years and bottomed out last year, finishing dead last against the pass out of every Division I football program.
Grinch brings with him a plan to fix the defense and give Oklahoma football fans a reason to be excited about the defense again. His Washington State teams were fast, aggressive and always on the attack and it was all done with less talent than the Sooners currently have on their roster.
Expect guys like Neville Gallimore to excel in Grinch’s one-gap system where he can go from occupying blockers to shooting gaps and creating havoc in the backfield.
10 of 11 starters return for the Sooners with most of the two-deep roster back as well. With more direction the Sooners have all the ingredients to be a good defense this year.
Jalen Hurts
Jalen Hurts’ passing ability has been criticized ad nausem by the media, but there’s no way Lincoln Riley is going to recruit a quarterback who can’t make all the throws to operate his offense. Hurts is big, strong and should add a quarterback power run game to the already-dangerous Oklahoma offense.
Add in an embarrassment of riches on at receiver that include potential All American CeeDee Lamb, Mackey Award candidate Grant Calcaterra, an emerging Charleston Rambo and a quartet of freshman wide receivers in Theo Wease, Jadon Haselwood, Trejan Bridges and Austin Stogner and the Sooners should be deep enough to rotate receivers in and out of their two deep without missing any production.
Yes, Oklahoma must replace four starters on the offensive line, but the Sooners aren’t exactly starting from scratch up front. Bill Bedenbaugh makes a strong case for being the best o-line coach in the country and he’s been stockpiling talent for the past few years to replace the four Sooners who left for the NFL Draft this past offseason.
All of this doesn’t even take into account the fact that the Sooners bring back two potential 1,000-yard rushers in Trey Sermon and Kennedy Brooks. The Sooners have as much talent on offense as any team in the country.
Lincoln Riley
The Sooners head coach is as sharp an offensive mind as anyone in the country right now and his offenses have been a step ahead of anyone trying to stop him for the past few years. Riley is 24-4 as a head coach and his teams have scored 31, 48, 34 and 45 points the Sooners’ only losses. Oklahoma football has scored 30 or more points in 27 of Riley’s 28 games as a head coach.
There’s no reason to think the Sooners are going to slow down in 2019 under Riley with a an even deeper talent pool at the skill positions.
And as good as Riley has been, he’s also only 36 years old with two years’ experience as a head coach. As he continues to learn from past experiences he’s only going to get better and more seasoned.
After suffering a pair of heartbreaking playoff losses, Riley may have the time put in to join the Nick Sabans and Dabo Swinneys of the world and get the hardware to prove he belongs in that club.