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Jul. 19—***
Are you ready for the most college football ever? Twelve teams in the playoffs means eight more postseason games than before. What used to be three is now 11 to decide who is best,
The favorites might dominate in the first two rounds. Or the semifinals will be filled with bottom seeds. We can only hope.
Kick back, relax and enjoy every moment of it. As a primer, I will use this space over the next month and half to count down my preseason Top 50. I welcome complaints and disagreements I might even include them in future stories.
And away we go …
After a rocky first season for coach Brent Venables, the team won 10 games in 2023, including a victory against despised Texas. … The defense welcomes back six starters, none better than linebacker Danny Stutsman. … Safety Billy Bowman Jr. ranked among the national leaders with six interceptions. … Jackson Arnold started the bowl game for the Sooners after Dillon Gabriel entered the transfer portal. He also got time last season when the starter was banged up. Arnold threw for 361 yards in the Alamo Bowl loss to Arizona. … Both the starting kicker and punter are back on what have been oustanding special teams at Oklahoma in recent years. … SEC favorite Georgia isn’t on the schedule. And the nonconference slate is soft.
Yes, Arnold threw for a lot of yards in San Antonio. But he also had four turnovers in a close loss. … This is not the Big 12. There are no weeks off. … Only two starters return on offense, none on the line. Recipe for disaster in a league that knows how to play defense. … Venables has a new offensive coordinator. So that makes a lot of changes on the side of the ball opposite the expertise of the head coach. … Top 5 Texas is on the schedule in Dallas. Oklahoma travels to Mississippi, Missouri and LSU and hosts Alabama. Good luck…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/cant-wait-saturday-defense-determine-144700624.html
Author : The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
Publish date : 2024-07-19 14:47:00
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