Oklahoma rises again:
A new yet familiar quarterback in Jalen Hurts and a revamped defense gives Sooners a fourth College Football Playoff spot.
NORMAN, Okla. – Oklahoma is returning to the College Football Playoff.
That was no sure thing. I’m not talking about what had to happen this season after the Sooners lost at Kansas State in October. The top-25 wins they had to accumulate. The losses other teams had to incur. The chaos that needed to happen.
I’m not even talking about the final hours before the selection committee’s rankings were made known.
But what wasn’t sure was whether a program changing as much as OU did from last season was going to be able to get to the Playoff. It lost the Heisman Trophy winner who became the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft (Kyler Murray). Lost a speedy receiver who was also a first-round pick (Marquise Brown). Lost four of five offensive linemen, all of whom went to the NFL, too.
Oh, and the Sooners were overhauling their defense, too, though that was a necessary change.
But here the Sooners are, back in the Playoff for the third consecutive year and the fourth time in five years.
“It’s been different,” Sooners coach Lincoln Riley said on ESPN after the Playoff pairings were announced, “but you know, it’s to be expected. It was different the last few years, too.”
Turnover in college, unlike the pros, is inherent. Players exhaust their eligibility. New recruits take their place. Rosters change. It happens everywhere.
But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stop and appreciate teams that continue to excel even in seasons with massive upheaval – and no other team in the Playoff this time around replaced more key players or changed more schematically than the Sooners.
They even changed during the season, going from a passoriented offense early to a more run-dominant offense late.
“We’ve always taken pride in adapting to the guys we have,” Riley said.
Jalen Hurts has been spectacular – he’ll be at the Heisman ceremony this weekend along with LSU quarterback Joe Burrow and Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields and defensive end Chase Young – but Hurts is different from the Sooners’ last two slingers. He doesn’t stretch the field with long throws as much or as accurately as Baker Mayfield or Murray did.
No shame in that, by the way. Those two were special in that regard. And yet Riley and the Sooners have found ways to maximize what Hurts does best.
The Sooners have also found ways to win with defense. They did last weekend in the Big 12 championship game, putting the clamps on Baylor for much of the game, then tightening the screws in overtime.
Add all of that up, and you have a team bound for the Playoff.
Rob Mullens, the Oregon athletics director and selection committee chairman, told ESPN there was some discussion about who should get the fourth Playoff spot. LSU, Ohio State and Clemson were all foregone conclusions as undefeated Power Five conference champs, but the committee discussed OU and Georgia for the fourth and final spot.
Still, it doesn’t sound there was much debate.
“In the end,” Mullens said, “it was a solid Oklahoma selection for the No. 4 spot.”
Now, the Sooners have become as much of a Playoff regular as any program. Clemson and Alabama have the most appearances, five each, but OU is right behind with four. That’s as many as Ohio State (three) and LSU (one) combined.
We shouldn't be surprised when OU makes the Playoff.
This season, however, we should be impressed. like