The path just got a little bit more difficult for Oklahoma in its bid to return to the college football playoff for the fourth time in five seasons.
Despite a 42-41 win against Iowa State, the Sooners fell from No. 9 to No. 10 this week when the college football playoff rankings were released Tuesday evening.
Many expected the Sooners to drop after nearly blowing a 21-point lead in the fourth quarter against the Cyclones, and now OU knows there’s still a heck of a lot more work to be done.
“I know it sounds easy on the outside, but the level of focus you have to have – it’s really, really hard to do,” head coach Lincoln Riley said. “We’ve kind of got guys at different points, but certainly, we’re trying to attack those as much as we can, and then the common things that we find together as a team that we have to get better, those are the ones we’ve got to kind of band together, where we attack that in every way possible.”
OU has some resume-building chances left on its schedule, beginning Saturday evening in Waco against undefeated Baylor. The Bears also dropped a spot to No. 13 and are the lowest-ranked Power 5 conference undefeated team in CFP rankings history.
The Sooners earned a top 25 victory via Texas’ win against Kansas State. The Longhorns are now No. 19, while Kansas State slipped to No. 24. Oklahoma State remains in the rankings as well at No. 22.
With Bedlam in a couple of weeks and the Bears this week, it’s OU’s chance to show the committee and the nation what it can do. To show that the uneven defensive performances of the last two weeks are a thing of the past.
In order to do that, OU’s offense will have to perform against a strong Bear defense.
“They’ve definitely changed quite a bit schematically, and it’s done well for them,” Riley said. “When you look across, just up and down the depth chart, it’s senior, senior, senior, senior, junior, senior, senior, I mean – and it’s all guys that have played a lot of meaningful snaps for them. They’ve got better and better.
“They’ve moved a few guys, position-wise, and they’ve really landed well and has made a big difference for them. They’ve caused turnovers, they’ve done the things you’ve got to do to play really good defense. So they’ll be certainly as big a challenge as we’ve faced all year.”
LSU takes the top spot, followed by Ohio State, Clemson, Georgia and Alabama to round out the top five. Oregon, Utah, Minnesota, Penn State and the Sooners complete the top 10.
