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Oklahoma football: Which Power 5 teams are having the best offseason?

By Chip Rouse

NORMAN, OK - SEPTEMBER 18: Oklahoma Sooners cheerleaders run across the field with Sooners flags after a 100-yard return on a blocked point-after-touchdown for two points against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on September 18, 2021 in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma won 23-16. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images)
NORMAN, OK - SEPTEMBER 18: Oklahoma Sooners cheerleaders run across the field with Sooners flags after a 100-yard return on a blocked point-after-touchdown for two points against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on September 18, 2021 in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma won 23-16. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images) /
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Oklahoma football is experiencing the most uncertainty between college football seasons the program has undergone in over two decades.

Since the end of last season, the Sooners have had a head-coaching change and lost a number of key offensive and defensive players to the transfer portal, the NFL and graduation. Staff and player turnover is nothing unusual in today’s college football landscape, but it is out of the ordinary at programs that have and are experiencing sustained success like at Oklahoma.

The transfer portal and the new environment created by Name, Image, Likeness is changing the game of college football like never before.

Generally speaking, the teams that best utilize the offseason months between seasons to make necessary tactical and personnel adjustments and build team chemistry toward success in the coming season are the ones that claim their rightful place at the top of the national rankings.

New head coach — but longtime OU assistant before that under Bob Stoops — Brent Venables has done a yeoman’s job in tackling all the issues and chaos left in the wake of Lincoln Riley’s surprising and sudden departure after last season.

There is a growing belief that, despite all the turmoil and fallout created by the Riley exit, Oklahoma football could come out better because of it, — and sooner rather than later.

FanNation.com recently published a ranking of the 10 college teams having the best offseason so far, less than three months out from the start of the 2022 season.

It might be a surprise to some that the staff at FanNation.com ranks Oklahoma as having the sixth best offseason.

The five programs ranked ahead of the Sooners are No. 1 USC, where Riley has set up shop, Texas A&M, Texas, LSU and Ohio State. That group is followed by the Sooners, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Miami and Nebraska. Four of the 10 schools rated as having the best offseason programs are being led by new head coaches.

In addition to OU, USC, LSU and Miami all have new head coaches this season.

Here, in part, is what FanNation’s James Parks writes about Oklahoma in his article on the 10 teams having the best offseason:

"“Maybe no other big-time program, aside from USC, will look more different than the Sooners, who had to do major surgery on their roster and coaching staff after the Lincoln Riley-led exodus that included eight outgoing transfers and 14 lost starters in total.“OU appears to have landed on its feet, though, after hiring Brent Venables as head coach. Venables spent much of the last generation building a reputation as the most respected defensive mind in the game…”"

We won’t know exactly what effect all the offseason developments will have on Sooner football in the 2022 season until the game begin for real in the fall, but this is definitely a positive sign that the program post-Riley is in good hands and headed in the right direction.

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