College football coaches just sent a loud message to Oklahoma with preseason snub

There's no faith in the Sooners in 2025.
BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

USA Today on Monday released the preseason coaches poll ahead of the 2025 college football season, and the Oklahoma Sooners were nowhere to be found, proving college football coaches don't have any belief in the Sooners' turnaround under Brent Venables after a bad showing in 2024.

The Sooners were unranked in the preseason poll, but at least received votes as the first team left out of the top 25 with 221 points. They were behind Kansas State, Texas A&M, Iowa State, BYU, Texas Tech and Boise State, which made up Nos. 20-25, respectively.

It's the first time since 1999 that the Sooners were not in the top 25 of the preseason coaches poll.

Sooners left out of preseason coaches poll

This was a blow considering OU has been included on almost every other preseason ranking despite going 6-7 last season in its first year in the SEC. However, all of those are from media and college football experts. These latest expectations came from college football coaches.

According to USA Today, the voting panel was chosen by random draw, conference by conference plus independents, from a pool of coaches who indicated to the American Football Coaches Association their willingness to participate in voting for the poll.

Most outlets and experts have shown faith in OU based on tradition and offseason changes. The Sooners were terrible on offense last season, so Venables made a switch at offensive coordinator by bringing in Ben Arbuckle from Washington State. He also added veteran head coach and offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson to the staff as an offensive analyst.

The Sooners then added quarterback John Mateer and running back Jaydn Ott from the Transfer Portal. Both were the top prospects available when they committed, and Mateer was reunited with Arbuckle, who was also his OC at Washington State. OU also brought in talent to bolster its performance on the offensive line and at wide receiver.

Defensively, OU was in the top 20 last season, but with defensive coordinator Zac Alley bolting for West Virginia, Venables took over the defense himself for 2025 as a longtime successful defensive coordinator.

With this ranking, though, college coaches spoke loudly about OU's outside expectations without actually saying anything at all. Yes, these predictions are essentially meaningless once the season actually kicks off, but this preseason ranking does mean something when it comes to respect, especially for Venables by his peers.

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