2023s schedule would rank 3rd in the SEC. won 10 games and without the flukey turnovers against arizona it would’ve been 11. with a very inexperienced team.

OUs AVERAGE strength of schedule ranks 4th in the SEC. the conference schedule isn’t as hard as the SEC but OU typically has one of the toughest non conference schedules in the country. the SEC is the opposite. and without divisions, the schools in the west will now have easier schedules and the schools in the east will have tougher schedules. IOW georgia will finally get a real schedule.

Lincoln Riley absolutely gutted the program. i believe only 2 starters last year were recruited by riley. and then one more that played for him was bob stoops son.

Venables recruiting has been the best in school history. first time ever having 3 straight top 10 classes.

OU was one of the id say around 8 schools that had the potential to win it all lasts year. the only problem was depth. don’t forget that with everyone healthy, we beat Texas. and texas beat bama with everyone healthy. OU had a VERY young team last year and injuries were hitting after texas. However, with almost every defensive starter returning plus 3 years of the best defensive recruits we’ve had since venables was the DC here, our depth has been helped immensely.

The ONLY real question mark on the entire team right now is the offensive line. except it looks exactly like it did going into last year. and last year we sent 3 guys to the nfl. we have the best offensive line coach in the country. in his time at OU i believe only alabama has had more OL drafted.

Venables also coached at OU for a long time and won a natty here. then was what got clemson over the hump to win 2 more. he brought in basically a carbon copy of himself as DC. brought in some offensive guys to run a more balanced and powerful offense like what OU used to run. He brought back the amazing S&C coach that everybody points a lot of their success to who left after riley’s first year. Year 3 is also when his defenses are fully operational, as his defense is extremely complex.