It's been a long seven months for college football fans, but the offseason is finally starting to wind down as fall camp is gearing up and the 2024 season begins to creep ever closer.
Today, another sign of the impending season was the release of the US LBM Coaches Poll, which precedes the AP Top 25 Poll by one week (Monday, August 12).
As Brent Venables and the Oklahoma Sooners prepare to embark on their inaugural trip through the Southeastern Conference, the program will have its fair share of doubters. Still, in the initial 2024 poll of head coaches at FBS schools, OU checks in at No. 16.
The Sooners finished the 2023 season ranked 15th in both the AP Poll and Coaches Poll after a 10-3 campaign that ended in a 38-24 loss to Arizona in the Valero Alamo Bowl.
OU began the Brent Venables era ranked No. 9 in the preseason coaches poll before going 6-7 in 2022 and was the No. 20 team in last year's preseason poll.
However, heading into Year three under Venables, folks in and around the program feel that things are headed in the right direction, regardless of the noise surrounding the Sooners as they head into the SEC. While OU checks in at No. 16 in the country, it also ranks behind seven other schools in the conference — six of which it will play in 2024.
With games against No. 4 Texas, No. 5 Alabama, No. 6 Ole Miss, No. 11 Missouri, No. 12 LSU, and No. 15 Tennessee on the docket, the Sooners' 2024 schedule might be the most daunting it has faced since the early 2000s.
Oklahoma is one of the most polarizing teams in America — which isn't uncommon — but it feels like there's even more on the line for this team coming into the year.
The Sooners will be subject to overwhelming judgment. Whether that is positive or negative is yet to be seen, but if one thing is certain, it's that the program's reputation is on the line as it enters unfamiliar territory.
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