NORMAN — For the sixth straight year and ninth time in the 11 years since the Big 12 moved to 10 teams, Oklahoma is the choice to win the league championship according to a preseason media poll released by the conference Thursday. The Sooners have won each of the last six Big 12 titles.
NORMAN — For the sixth straight year and ninth time in the 11 years since the Big 12 moved to 10 teams, Oklahoma is the choice to win the league championship according to a preseason media poll released by the conference Thursday. The Sooners have won each of the last six Big 12 titles.
Lincoln Riley’s Sooners, who have posted a 34-5 record against Big 12 opponents over his four years as head coach and have made three College Football Playoffs and won last year’s Cotton Bowl, garnered 35 of the poll’s 39 first-place votes. OU tallied 386 poll points to outpace second-place Iowa State (351 points, four firstplace votes) by 35 points. Third-place Texas totaled 273 points and was followed by Oklahoma State (266), TCU (255), West Virginia (185), Kansas State (163), Baylor (124), Texas Tech (103) and Kansas (39).
If Oklahoma wins the 2021 league title it will mark the Sooners’ 15th such championship in the conference’s 26 years. No other school has won more than three total. Since OU’s first Big 12 title in 2000, no other program has won more than two. The Sooners’ 50 all-time conference championships lead the country.
OU returns 13 players who started at least eight of 11 games on last year’s team that beat Iowa State 27-21 in the Big 12 Championship, downed No. 10 Florida 55-20 in the Cotton Bowl and finished No. 6 in the AP and coaches polls.
Six offensive players who started at least eight games are back from 2020, as is 2019 10-game starter and 1,000-yard rusher Kennedy Brooks, who sat out last year. Those six players are tight end/H-back Jeremiah Hall, offensive linemen Marquis Hayes, Tyrese Robinson and Erik Swenson, quarterback Spencer Rattler and wide receiver Theo Wease. Receiver Drake Stoops started six contests. Hall, Hayes, Rattler and sophomore wide receiver Marvin Mims were named Wednesday to the preseason All-Big 12 Team.
OU also returns seven defensive players who made at least eight starts a year ago, led by preseason All-Big 12 outside linebacker Nik Bonitto and defensive linemen Isaiah Thomas and Perrion Winfrey. Also returning are linebacker Brian Asamoah and DaShaun White and safeties Pat Fields and Delarrin Turner-Yell. Cornerback Jaden Davis started six games last season, while defensive lineman LaRon Stokes and cornerback Woodi Washington started five each.
Preseason All-Big 12 placekicker Gabe Brkic, who is 37 for 43 (86.0%) on career field goal attempts, is also back, as is punter Reeves Mundschau.
