Oklahoma football: Five Sooners named Preseason All-Americans
By Chip Rouse
Several days ago we wrote about four Oklahoma football players who have been named first- or second-team preseason All-Americans in the Phil Steele 2021 College Football Preview.
Athlon Sports has five Sooners on its 2021 Preseason All-America teams.
Quarterback Spencer Rattler and linebacker Nik Bonitto represent the Sooners on the Athlon All-America First Team. Iowa State, expected to be Oklahoma’s biggest Big 12 challenger in the coming season, also placed two players on the Athlon All-America First Team: running back Breece Hall and tight end Charlie Kolar.
Kolar is from Norman and played high school football at Norman North.
The Sooners also placed one offensive player, one defensive player and a specialist as third-team preseason All-American selections, according to the Athlon Sports college football staff.
Sophomore wide receiver Marvin Mins is on the third-team offense. senior defensive tackle Isaiah Thomas is named to the third-team defensive unit and junior kicker Gabe Brkic is on third-team special teams.
The Athlon Sports 2021 College Football Preview issue has Oklahoma, by the way, ranked No. 3 in its preseason rankings behind No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Clemson and winning its seventh consecutive Big 12 title.
Like the Phil Steele College Football Preview, Athlon Sports also ranks the teams on a national basis by position groups.
Here is how Athlon ranks the OU position groups (with Phil Steele’s ranking in parentheses for comparison):
Quarterbacks: No. 1 (1)
Running backs: No. 6 (4)
Receivers: No. 3 (2)
Offensive line: No. 6 (1)
Defensive line: No. 6 (3)
Linebackers: No. 4 (9)
Defensive backs: No. 10 (3)
Here is what the Athlon Sports college football staff have to say about Oklahoma as the No. 3 team in their preseason college football rankings:
"“The Spencer Rattler-led offense speaks for itself. It’s the emerging defense that has Sooner fans talking about a national title.”"