Rely Joel Klatt as a believer in Oklahoma soccer.
Regardless of the Sooners’ 6-7 end underneath Brent Venables in 2022, Fox’s main school soccer analyst had OU “virtually” in his “too quick” for final season’s prime 10 for 2023.
“I thought-about them for the rationale they simply misplaced so many shut video games,” Klatt mentioned this week on his school soccer podcast “The Joel Klatt Present”.
“There have been actually solely two video games the place they exploded,” Klatt mentioned. “And by the way in which, in each video games they misplaced their base – both he was dropped from the Dillon Gabriel recreation towards TCU or not performed within the Texas recreation. And when he was “What did they do? They performed a singular recreation. Sadly, they misplaced all of them.”
The Sooners began Venables’ new season 3-0 with a 49-14 victory over Nebraska in Lincoln. However then they misplaced 3 times in a row to the Kansas Massive 12 champions, seven on the TCU Nationwide Runners-up and Texas rivals – the final two after Gabriel collapsed with a collision.
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From there, OU beat Kansas, Iowa and Oklahoma, however misplaced 38-35 to Baylor, 23-20 in West Virginia, 51-48 at Texas Tech and 35-32 in Florida within the Cheez-It Bowl.
“They appear to be the direct reverse of what TCU did this yr,” Klatt mentioned. “TCU is a crew that once they get near the end line they find yourself profitable that shut match. And that is Oklahoma 0-5 in a recreation with a rating; So right here is the Oklahoma crew that gained six video games after which they went 0-5 in a single recreation. That’s straightforward to return.
Klatt’s 2023 prime 10 contains Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama, Penn State, LSU, Florida State, USC, Tennessee and Washington. OU is within the group with Oregon, Notre Dame, TCU and Clemson within the prime 10.
Klatt identified that within the Related Press Prime 25 final season this yr, the highest 12 groups have gained not less than 10.
“What all of the groups have in frequent, they typically win 10 or extra,” Klatt mentioned, and I believe Oklahoma may very well be in that class. They’re a crew that may simply climb. This can be a crew underneath Brent Venables that has completed a terrific job of recruiting and with Dillon Gabriel again and wholesome I simply don’t see why Oklahoma couldn’t progress a lot to win a detailed recreation. Some shall be 9-, 10-, perhaps 11-team wins.