Oklahoma football: College Football News predicts Coaches Poll Preseason Top 25
By Chip Rouse
In the next few weeks, traditionally after the calendar turns to August, college football top-25 preseason polls will be issued by the Associated Press, the Coaches Poll and Sports Illustrated. Oklahoma football has been permanent fixture in the preseason top-25 rankings throughout the 2000s.
In fact, only Ohio State (66) has made more appearances in the AP college football preseason top 25 that OU (64) since the AP poll was introduced in 1950.
Most of the Sooners’ preseason rankings in the two major college football polls (AP and Coaches Poll) over the past two decades have been top-10 placements. Oklahoma was No. 9 in both polls to begin the 2022 season but finished with a 6-7 losing record and outside of the top-25 rankings last season. A
As a result, concern abounds within the college football community over how quickly Brent Venables could realistically get things turned around in Norman. The pride was certainly there, but what about the performance.
The way-too-early media teasers projecting who the top-25 teams would be to start the 2023 season predicted that the Sooners would again be among the top 25 team to kick off the new season, but those early picks don’t hold the same weight that the AP and Coaches polls do.
Earlier this month, the staff at College Football News predicted what the AP 2023 Preseason Top-25 would like when it is officially released in the coming weeks. Oklahoma settled in at the No. 19 in the CFN early prediction. That same staff has now come out with a prediction of what the Coaches Poll view of the preseason top 25 will be.
The two official polls generally mirror each other, especially at the top of the rankings. The biggest disparities usually fall in the 10-25 range, and CFN is predicting that the panel of coaches who cast ballots in the Coaches Poll will how a little more confidence in what the Sooners will achieve in Year 2 of Venables coaching era as they set the stage for the transition to the SEC.
CFN predicts Oklahoma will be as high as the No. 16 team when the Coaches Poll Preseason Top 25 becomes official.
“There’s a ton of work still to be done, but the 2023 Sooners will be a whole lot better,” writes CFN staff writer Pete Fiutak. “The schedule is a lot more manageable, and they should get a huge season from returning quarterback Dillon Gabriel.”
Whatever happens, don’t expect 2022 all over again.