Oklahoma’s turnaround last season changed the conversation around the Sooners, but inside the program, the bar has already moved again.
After finishing 10-3 and getting back to the College Football Playoff following a disappointing 2024 season, Oklahoma made its case as a team built to handle life in the SEC. That part is no longer the question. The bigger issue now is whether the Sooners can push beyond simply making the playoff and get back to the standard that has defined the program for more than a century: chasing national championships.
That’s the lens J.D. PicKell used when he talked about Oklahoma on “The Hard Count.” He sees real championship upside if the defense stays at an elite level and the offense finally matches it.
“If this comes true that they have the best defense in college football and the offense holds up their end of the deal, it's going to be a movie in Norman, man,” PicKell said.
The defensive side of the equation is the easier one to trust. Oklahoma already had one of the best defenses in the country last season.
The offense, though, is where the Sooners have to level up. There were stretches when it flashed real promise, and others when it looked stuck in the mud.
Last season proved Oklahoma can compete in the SEC. Now the Sooners have to show they can close the gap between being a playoff team and being a true title threat. If Brent Venables’ defense stays among the nation’s best and the offense takes the expected step forward under quarterback John Mateer, Oklahoma could find itself in the national championship mix and give Norman its best shot at a title in years.
In Other News...
Oklahoma May Finally Be Seeing The David Stone Payoff
David Stones rise has been one of the more encouraging developments for Oklahomas defense, especially for a player who arrived with the kind of recruiting profile that can create instant pressure and instant expectations. The five-star defensive tackle was used sparingly as a true freshman, but his second season looked much more like the version the Sooners hoped they were getting, with 42 tackles and eight tackles for loss while becoming harder and harder to ignore on the interior.
Now Stone is drawing national attention as one of the top defensive tackles in college football, and the praise around him has only sharpened the focus on what comes next for Oklahoma. His production already gives the Sooners a disruptive presence up front, and with analysts pointing to him as a potential difference-maker, the bigger question is how much more he can elevate a defense that will be leaning on him heavily moving forward. [Read more 🡒]
Brent Venables Keeps Giving Oklahoma Fans A Reason To Believe
Since Brent Venables took over before the 2022 season, Oklahoma has had a knack for turning overlooked or lightly celebrated recruits into real SEC contributors. That matters in a league where roster-building is supposed to be as much about development as it is about signing-day splash, and the Sooners have already seen that approach pay off in the trenches and on the back end of the defense.
Gracen Halton, Taylor Wein, Eli Bowen and Courtland Guillory all fit the same broader pattern: players who arrived with questions and quickly became part of the answer. For Oklahoma fans, the encouraging part is not just that Venables has found talent, but that the staff keeps identifying it early and getting it ready for bigger roles before the rest of the conference fully catches on. [Read more 🡒]