The Oklahoma Sooners are looking to bounce back after a poor 2024 season that saw them go 6-7. Now, in 2025, Year 4 under head coach Brent Venables and Year 2 in the Southeastern Conference is a pivotal season for both the present and the future of the program.
OU plays in the loaded SEC and isn’t among the favorites to compete for the conference title in 2025. However, ESPN’s latest Football Power Index believes Oklahoma will be much better than they were a year ago.
According to ESPN’s Neil Paine, “The FPI is a predictive rating system that estimates each FBS team’s strength (in points per game relative to the national average) on offense, defense and special teams, making adjustments for starters lost, recruiting talent and other personnel changes. Those numbers are then plugged into the schedule, and everything is simulated 20,000 times to track each team’s odds of winning its conference, making the playoff and advancing through to the national title.”
Oklahoma came in at No. 17 in ESPN’s FPI. While that’s a very good mark, it actually puts them tenth in the SEC, speaking to the overall strength of the league.
The offseason additions of GM Jim Nagy, OC Ben Arbuckle, QB John Mateer, and RB Jaydn Ott, along with Venables taking command of the defense, have put the Sooners in a position to show marked improvement in 2025. Other moves like adding offensive analyst Kevin Wilson and LB coaches Nate Dreiling and Wes Goodwin to the staff and retaining DT David Stone are under the radar, but they could pay big dividends as well.
However, the Sooners play what’s been billed as college football’s toughest schedule. They play eight of the top 20 teams in the FPI. In fact, OU’s only game against Power Four competition that doesn’t see them face a team in the FPI’s top 20 is against Missouri.
Additionally, FPI projects that the…
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Publish date : 2025-06-04 16:02:00
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