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Oklahoma Sooners Football: OU debuts at No. 5 in Preseason Coaches Poll

Five Big 12 teams made Amway Coaches Preseason Poll.

By Jack Shields
NCAA Football: Big 12 Championship-Texas Christian vs Oklahoma Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

With college football season less than a month away, the preseason polls are beginning to roll out. Today, the Amway Preseason Coaches Poll was released, and the Oklahoma Sooners debut at No. 5.

In total, five Big 12 teams made the initial poll, with the Sooners being joined by No. 16 TCU, No. 20 West Virginia, No. 21 Texas and No. 25 Oklahoma State.

TCU is probably the most legitimate threat to Oklahoma’s bid for a Big 12 four-peat, and a slightly higher spot would probably be justified in spite of what they lost on defense. Others — particularly West Virginia fans — believe West Virginia has a real shot at winning the league. They did a nice job of with grad transfers following a good deal of defensive attrition, but quality depth is still an issue on that end. The offense will be lethal, but voters seem to share my skepticism. The seemingly-obligatory inclusion of Texas in a preseason poll isn’t surprising, but I actually think it’s fair. They’re not to the point of contending for championships quite yet, but they can be an 8-9 win team if (BIG IF) they can get some relatively consistent play out of the quarterback position. Oklahoma State? Well, they lost quite a bit of both sides of the ball, so we won’t see them challenging for a league title this time around. Having said that, they’ll still be pretty good at the skill positions and don’t seem to be in danger of missing out on a bowl game.

Ahead of Oklahoma is Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Georgia. With the possible exception of Ohio State in the light of recent events, you won’t hear an argument from me on that one. With a new QB (albeit a very talented one) and defense that needs to prove itself, it’s more than reasonable to put the Sooners behind those guys.

Full Amway Coaches Poll:

  1. Alabama (61)
  2. Clemson (3)
  3. Ohio St (1)
  4. Georgia
  5. Oklahoma
  6. Washington
  7. Wisconsin
  8. Miami
  9. Penn State
  10. Auburn
  11. Notre Dame
  12. Michigan State
  13. Stanford
  14. Michigan
  15. USC
  16. TCU
  17. Virginia Tech
  18. Mississippi State
  19. Florida State
  20. West Virginia
  21. Texas
  22. Boise State
  23. UCF
  24. LSU
  25. Oklahoma State

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