Sports on Earth's Matt Brown has his sleeper for the 2015 season. And it's the Oklahoma Sooners.
Brown explains: "It's the same story every offseason: Results of bowl games disproportionately influence the hype of teams entering the next season," Brown writes. This is typically in the form of a bowl bump, when a team that played its best game of the year in a bowl -- our last memory of a team, supposedly gaining momentum into the offseason -- rockets up preseason rankings as a popular team to pick to do big things.
Bob Stoops and the Sooners have been their most dangerous when overlooked.
"Oklahoma knows this well. And now Oklahoma knows the opposite. Our last memories of the Sooners create the image of a team in the midst of a free fall, when in reality the Sooners have a chance to rebound in a big way."
I was actually having this conversation with ESPN Insider Travis Haney the other day. Has the cynicism with Oklahoma gone too far, to the point the Sooners could actually be a surprise team? Historically, under Stoops, when the Sooners have been off the radar or discounted, they've been dangerous. Nick Saban can attest to that. In fact, the last time preseason expectations for Oklahoma were this low was 2000. The Sooners went on to win the national championship.
This week during the Big 12 car wash, I asked Stoops whether the crash-landing final month of last year could have any carryover effect into 2015. Stoops had a good counter: What did the massively strong finish in 2013 do for the Sooners last season? The answer, of course, was pretty much nothing.
"Everyone equates the year before. What did it do for us?" Stoops said. "I’ve been 8-5 before [in 2005] and what we’d do the next year? We won the Big 12 championship. We’ve had other really good years. It doesn’t do anything for the next year. I’ve never bought into anything that happened last year is going to do anything for you this year."
Which takes us back to Brown's point. People, including yours truly, have been down on Oklahoma, largely because of how the Sooners finished last year. But as Stoops pointed out, that isn't always the best indicator for predicting how a team will fare the following season.
Stoops also made wholesale changes during the offseason, including hiring Lincoln Riley to bring back the air raid offense to Norman. The Sooners could have a new quarterback behind center in Baker Mayfield. And they have a pair of promising newcomers to the offensive lineup, too, in Joe Mixon and Dede Westbrook.
It won't take us long, though, to find out whether these Sooners will be different.
Writes Brown: "(That) makes Sept. 12 one of the most intriguing days on the college football calendar. Last year, a still-powerful Oklahoma torched Tennessee 34-10 at home in front of a prime-time audience. This year, trajectories are supposed to have changed: Oklahoma is falling, and it is visiting a Tennessee team that is supposed to be on the rise, with a chance to finally be a player in the SEC race again. This year's battle could be a confirmation of all preseason perceptions. While losing would not be the end of the world for Oklahoma -- after all, Tennessee very well could be a contender -- we may quickly learn a lot about where this new-look Sooners team is headed."
If Oklahoma gets drilled in Knoxville, the fall from national prominence could continue on.
But if the Sooners knock off the Vols, they could become one of college football's surprise teams.
As Brown put it, "Don't write an obituary for the Stoops era just yet."
Originally Posted by milesl
