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Oklahoma football: Phil Steele has Sooners No. 2 ‘Most Improved’ nationally in 2023

By Chip Rouse

NORMAN, OK - APRIL 23: Head coach Brent Venables of the Oklahoma Sooners runs his team's pre-game plays during their spring game at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on April 23, 2022 in Norman, Oklahoma. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images)
NORMAN, OK - APRIL 23: Head coach Brent Venables of the Oklahoma Sooners runs his team's pre-game plays during their spring game at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on April 23, 2022 in Norman, Oklahoma. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images) /
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Phil Steele, author of what many consider the bible of college football preview and analysis, is out with the 2023 edition of his popular publication, and he ranks the Oklahoma football team as his No. 2 “most improved” team heading into the new season.

This should be music to the ears of Sooner fans, who also hold high expectations for a much different season in Brent Venables’ second season as Oklahoma head coach. Only Texas A&M rated a higher evaluation on Steele’s most-improved list for 2023.

Steele ranks Oklahoma 20th in his preseason top 40 and joins a number of other college football national experts and media projecting the top teams and conference races, picking the Sooners and Texas to battle it out for the Big 12 championship in what will be the final season for both before switching allegiance to the SEC.

The Sooners are one of six Big 12 teams ranked in Steele’s preseason top 40 but are the second-highest behind No. 11 Texas. TCU is No, 25, Kansas State 29 and Texas Tech 39.

Steele also has Oklahoma as one of his “2023 Surprise Teams.” OU is No. 8 in that listing. That’s the good news. The not-so-good news is that Texas (No. 3) and TCU (No. 11), both of which the Sooners play in 2023, are also on that list.

Steele basis his positive outlook on Oklahoma on several factors:

  • Venables know defense and was very unhappy with how that group performed a year ago.
  • The OU head coach has remade the roster (56 of the 71 players who played in the 2021 Bob Stoops-coached Alamo Bowl are gone from the roster), with heavy emphasis on upgrading defensive talent.
  • The Sooner offensive unit is still a highly potent group with Dillon Gabriel back at QB and more depth at the position and at RB than last season.
  • A favorable 2023 schedule. The Sooners only play one top team (Texas) away from home and do not play Kansas State, Baylor or Texas Tech.

Steele reminds readers of what happened in Bob Stoops second season. Although the former doesn’t go as far as to suggest a perfect season and No. 1 ranking at season’s end, he does believe Oklahoma will be much improved on the defensive end with little drop off offensively. That in itself, Steele says, should result in an improved record. He also cites the four games Oklahoma lost last season by a combined 12 points.

The Steele 2023 College Football Preview also breaks down the respective position groups on both sides of the ball and ranks them both nationally and by conference. Here is how the Oklahoma position groups fared in that ranking, with the national ranking in parentheses.

Quarterback: 2 (21)

Running back: 1T (30)

Receivers: 3 (28)

Offensive line: 2 (7)

Defensive line: 1T (17)

Linebacker: 5 (38)

Defensive back: 3 (20)

Special teams: 7 (not ranked out of 66)

The Phil Steele 2023 College Football Preview publication hit the newsstands on June 30 and is recognized industry-wide as the most thorough analysis of every team and major conference in college football and how the respective teams will do in the coming season.

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