Oklahoma football: Who are best position groups in Big 12?
By Chip Rouse
For years, the Big 12 has been billed as a quarterback-driven, high-scoring, passing-oriented conference with a flair for flinging the ball all over the field. In recent seasons, though, the best teams in the conference have made giant strides defensively. That upgrade hasn’t reached Oklahoma football yet, but this could be the season you actually start seeing it.
Everyone in the know around college football knows what Brent Venables brings to a defense, and he has brought along several of his former Clemson defensive colleagues to bring that thinking and execution to Oklahoma.
Yes, there will be a much stronger emphasis on defense starting this season at Oklahoma. You can take that to the bank. But that is not to say there will be any less emphasis on what has been one of the country’s most prolific offensive machines for most of the past decade. New OU offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby, who will have his former quarterback at Central Florida under and behind center for the Sooners in the 2022 season, will see to that.
As Dillon Gabriel’s offensive coordinator at UCF in 2019, the Knights were the second-best team in the country in total offense, averaging 540 yards per game.
The continuation of outstanding offensive performance with complementary defensive play is what Venables and Company are building at Oklahoma, but as we all know there are 11 players on both offense and defense, and that breaks down into four different position groups on offense and three levels of defensive players.
How do the Sooners compare to the other teams in the Big 12 this season in ranking the various position groups on both sides of the ball?
Phil Steele’s College Football Preview and Athlon Sports’ annual college football preview publication rank all of the position groups for the teams in all the major college conferences every year and they do a highly credible job doing it. Using these two widely popular reference sources, here is how they rate the top five teams in every position group for 2022.
Quarterback
Phil Steele: 1. Oklahoma, 2T. Texas and Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, West Virginia and Texas Tech
Athlon Sports: 1. Oklahoma State, 2. Oklahoma, 3. West Virginia, 4. Texas, 5. Kansas State
Running back
Steele: 1. Texas, 2T. Kansas State and Iowa State, 4. Oklahoma, 5. Kansas
Athlon: 1. Texas, 2. Kansas State, 3. Oklahoma, 4. TCU, 5. Texas Tech
Receivers
Steele: 1. Texas, 2. TCU, 3. Oklahoma, 4. Texas Tech, 5. Oklahoma State
Athlon: 1. Texas, 2. Oklahoma, 3. Iowa State, 4. TCU, 5. Oklahoma State
Offensive line
Steele: 1. Oklahoma, 2. Baylor, 3. Texas, 4T. TCU and West Virginia
Athlon: 1. Baylor, 2. Oklahoma, 3. West Virginia, 4. Iowa State, 5. Oklahoma State
Defensive line
Steele: 1T. Baylor and Oklahoma State, 3T. Kansas State and Iowa State, 5. Oklahoma
Athlon: 1. Oklahoma State, 2. Baylor, 3. Oklahoma, 4. Kansas State, 5. West Virginia
Linebacker
Steele: 1. Oklahoma, 2T. Iowa State and Kansas State, 3T. Texas and Baylor
Athlon: 1. Baylor, 2. Oklahoma, 3. Kansas State, 4. Iowa State, 5. Texas
Defensive back
Steele: 1T. Oklahoma and Baylor, 3T. Oklahoma State and TCU, 5T. Texas and Kansas State
Athlon: 1. Baylor, 2. Oklahoma, 3. Texas, 4. Oklahoma State, 5. Iowa State
There are obvious differences of opinion between the two publications, but what’s interesting to note for Sooner fans is that Oklahoma ranks in the top five in every position group and Nos. 1 or 2 in five of the nine categories by one or both of the sources.
If you were to take a composite average of where Oklahoma ranks across all nine position groups, Oklahoma would rank No, 2 according to Phil Steele and 1.8 by Athlon Sports.
Breaking things down by offense and defense, the Sooners would rank 2,25 by both Phil Steele and Athlon Sports. Defensively, Phil Steele average ranking for OU was 2.33, and it was the same for Athlon.