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Oklahoma football: Phil Steele has Sooners No. 4 in his preseason Top 25

By Chip Rouse

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - DECEMBER 28: General overhead view during the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl between the Oklahoma Sooners and the LSU Tigers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on December 28, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GEORGIA - DECEMBER 28: General overhead view during the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl between the Oklahoma Sooners and the LSU Tigers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on December 28, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images) /
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One of the bibles of college football, the annual Phil Steele College Football Preview is about to hit the newsstands and it gives high marks to Oklahoma football for the coming 2020 season.

Steele’s annual preview publication offers the most thorough, detailed analysis of the impending college football season, including a comprehensive preview of all 130 Football Bowl Subdivision teams.

In the coming days, we will be reporting on some of Steele’s statistical observations and 2020 projections pertaining to Oklahoma, but today we are highlighting his Top 25 preseason rankings for the coming season.

Ohio State and Clemson are the easy choices, according to Steele, as the nation’s top two college teams heading into 2020 season. Alabama is No. 3 and Oklahoma is No. 4 is his preseason Top 25 and the four teams Steele feels are most likely to make it to this season’s College Football Playoff.

The Sooners have been to four College Football Playoffs in the six-year history of that championship format, including each of the last three, coinciding with Lincoln Riley’s three seasons as the Oklahoma head coach.

Despite appearing in four College Football Playoffs, the Sooners have failed to make it beyond the opening game. OU came close to making it to the national championship game in 2018, when it went to double overtime against Georgia before falling 54-48.

Steele is of the opinion that this could be the year all of that changes.

As an interview guest on 247Sports’ “Social Distance” series and reported by The Spun, Steele said,

"“If that (OU) defense plays as good as I think it can, the chances are definitely there for them to get a win.“Now they’ll probably have to knock off a Clemson or an Ohio State, but we saw last year Oklahoma can play up there, and so I think — I’m going to call for Lincoln Riley to go out there and get one of those wins out there.”"

According to Steele’s 2020 Preseason Top 25, the rest of the top 10 rounds out this way: No. 5 Texas A&M, LSU, Georgia, Notre Dame, Oregon and Penn State. If you’ve been counting that’s four teams from the SEC and two out of the Big Ten.

Texas is the next highest Big 12 team after the Sooners, at No. 12, and Oklahoma State is No. 24.

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