Oklahoma has had a rough 500 days. For a team with national championship aspirations, there’s been a lot of disappointment on and off the field. After finishing 2020 brent venables at the top of the rankings in 2020, they’ve experienced inconsistent play that has led to some coaching shakeups. They even switched quarterbacks at one point, which is an unusual move considering they had two former five-star prospects competing for the job.
Oklahoma came into the season with high expectations, but faced some tough contests after a loss on the road to Baylor. The day right after that loss, Lincoln Riley bolted for the University of Southern California after gaslighting an entire fanbase that he wasn’t going to LSU.
When Oklahoma hired Venables a week ago, Riley’s assistant coach helped put together the top-rated recruiting class in the 2022 recruitment cycle. Despite the attrition suffered by Oklahoma this season, Venables and his staff were able to recover and get back on track for the 2022 college football season.
During the offseason, expectations were high, and this carried into the summer. With our first three preseason games went very well, experts offered extreme optimism heading into the summer.
The most recent games against Kansas State and TCU weren’t what we were expecting. After a few weeks of watching, we’re starting to think that TCU is the best team in the Big 12. TCU has proven themselves by not only beating rival Oklahoma, but also renowned teams like California. When it comes to the College Football Playoff rankings, you can’t look past them.
The Oklahoma Sooners found their RBs were already injured, and they lost their starting QB in the first quarter. They then suffered an embarrassing loss to Texas with a 49-0 shutout. Their offense was so bad, they had to run the wildcat all game with 5 scholarship QBs dressed. The Red River take down felt like rock bottom.
Gabriel stepped in to face Kansas during homecoming week, and the offense shined. The defense made some plays too, but they couldn’t stop Baylor during the Sooners’ latest game.
Oklahoma is 5-4 and will be headed to the SEC once they play out their final game. Their biggest rival appears to be in a better spot and looking ahead as well, with a 4-5 record.
Oklahoma is doing well at the moment, but there are many factors to consider when looking at its future. With that in mind, here are five things you should consider or rethink about our state’s future.
Oklahoma currently sits at sixth place in 247Sports team recruiting rankings, but that number could go up significantly if four-star Colton Vasek decides to flip his commitment from Oklahoma to Texas.
For example, OU has five-star QB Jackson Arnold committed to their program. Most recruits have reaffirmed their commitment to the team, citing their trust and belief in the coaching staff.
Oklahoma is still in the hunt for five-star recruits, David Hicks and Anthony Hill.
National signing day looms, and Texas A&M is getting their fair share of headlines Monday. Five-star linebacker John David Hill decommitted from the program on Monday morning. Oklahoma has also been visiting with a lot of prospects – Tausili Akana, Ashton Sanders, Adrian Ealy Jr. – who are firmly in the Sooners’ football recruiting sights. Still, a top five class is very much alive for OU recruiting this year.
In order to promote a new era in Sooners football, Oklahoma plans on building its program through the development of these next two or three recruiting classes.
When Coach Venables was announced as the new head football coach, the fanbase was beyond excited. A beloved figure from the era of Stoops had returned home.
Venables has been incredibly transparent about the hurdles they’ve faced. No company is perfect, but this one seems to be taking accountability. The key to making mistakes is learning from them. If Venables can do that, there’s no reason to question their long-term viability.
