Back in the top 10.
That’s where Brent Venables’ fifth Sooner team will begin the season.
Yeah, it’s kind of meaningless.
Because no, it’s not a great predictor.
The last time OU claimed the national championship, 2000, it began the season ranked 19th. Thirteen times since the Sooners won that crown they’ve entered the season in the top five and seven times in the top three, all without winning another national championship.
Go figure.
Still, this time around’s preseason rankings appear worth noting.
Right now, both preseason polls having been released, the Sooners are No. 10 on the Associated Press media-voted list and No. 9 by the coaches, and the last time something like that occurred was Venables’ first season, 2022, when OU began ninth in each.
That season, of course, wound up a literal lost cause, Venables and offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby both appearing not to know what they wanted to do.
Just an aside, it should be noted that during his own five-season run, Lincoln Riley’s Sooners began no season ranked lower than seventh by the AP and eighth by the coaches, and in three of those seasons, OU reached what was then a four-team playoff. And still, it would seem everybody would rather have Venables’ next five seasons than what Riley might have done had he stayed.
Interesting.
Probably, it’s a simple case of it being good to be liked, rather than wearing everybody around you out.
Now, back to our program.
One way to look at it is Venables has finally returned to zero, ranked pretty much right where he was when he began his head coaching experiment. Four seasons later, two with 10 wins and two with six, folks believe in him again enough to put him right back where he began.
On the one hand, it’s hard to be any higher given the conference in which OU now plays. In fact, it appears to be some kind of trick.
Picked seventh in their league by media covering the SEC, the Sooners are nonetheless fifth among conference entrants on the AP list behind No. 3 Georgia, No. 6 Texas, No. 8 Texas A&M and No. 9 Ole Miss; and fourth behind No. 3 Georgia, No. 4 Texas and No. 8 Texas A&M in the coaches’ poll.
Go figure again.
The object is to do no worse than stay there, though moving higher remains preferable. So, if OU’s not to be tumbling again, let’s review what Venables can’t afford to let happen again. I’ve got three things.
