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Steele stands by OU-as-No. 1 pick
Published: 6/22/2010 12:08 AM
Last Modified: 6/22/2010 12:08 AM

I thought Phil Steele was bonkers for picking Oklahoma No. 1 in his preseason magazine for one basic reason: You can't count on the Sooners winning all six games away from Norman.

They'll handle Baylor just fine. But Cincinnati, Texas, Missouri, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State? I would anticipate at least one loss along that road.

CBSSports.com columnist Dennis Dodd went a little deeper in dissecting Steele's pick, writing: "Steele's assumption, I presume, is that 5-11, 178-pound receiver Ryan Broyles is going to be a truly dominant receiver. I doubt whether Broyles will be able to hold up to the pounding unless OU develops a secondary option.

"He also assumes that quarterback Landry Jones has the chops to lead the Sooners to a national championship. The pressure was basically off him after Sam Bradford got hurt. Jones just had to keep Oklahoma from running into a ditch. He did well with 26 touchdowns, but now he's the leader not a stop gap. Opponents have tons of film on him.

"Also, I'll take anyone's bet right now that tailback DeMarco Murray, a great player when healthy, doesn't make it through the season without getting hurt."

What does Steele have to say for himself? Plenty.

"This was not done for sensationalism," he told the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World recently. "It’s a team I feel has the best shot at winning the title."

The man claims to have done his homework, calling 55-60 hours "a light week for me."

"Oklahoma suffered through an injury-plagued season after starting the year at No. 3," Steele told the Journal-World. "They had 42 starts lost to injury. That led the nation. If you factor in what they have coming back, they have an experienced quarterback (Landry Jones) and offensive line, and an experienced wide receiver corps led by Ryan Broyles. Then if Murray stays healthy, look out...

"OU has a great shot at going 12-0. I don’t think it’s off the wall too much."

-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer



Reader Comments 14 Total
Jimm (3 years ago)
Are you sure this is not Dick Steele, agent WD40?
pokesn09 (3 years ago)
9-3 at best. Sorry, these are'nt the '08 Sooners. Good Luck with the Number 1 thing though...
lovethemsooners (3 years ago)
With out schedule, I just hope we do better than last year. Don't think for a second that Sooners everywhere have forgotten Jones' 5 pick game in Lincoln last year. If he doesn't start 5-0, the QB race will be wide open in '11.
hootie (3 years ago)
Hey UR InXperienced - when was the last time an OU team (in any sport) was not being investigated by the NCAA?
hootie (3 years ago)
UR InXperienced - What did OSU have to do with the article then? We can have a pi$$ing contest about players and NCAA investigations but you would have to quit have way thru.
Oklahomer (3 years ago)
hootie: What does this article have to do with either program being under investigation? The argument should concern whether or not Steele has picked OU too high. I'm a huge Sooner fan, but I don't believe that the Sooners should be ranked number 1 in the pre-season poll. However, our season ending thumping of OSU and the gritty performance in overcoming all of the injuries to beat Stanford, do justify a top ten projection for the Sooners.

Boomer Sooner!
hootie (3 years ago)
I agree Oklahomer! OU overcame a lot of adversity last year and deserver to get some recognition for at least top 20 this year. RU Xperienced wanted to start talking trash, so let it flow!
Oklahomer (3 years ago)
RU Xperienced: pokesn09's comment was a sour-grapes comment typical of fans of "little-brother" schools all across the nation. People like pokesn09 feel compelled to make negative comments about the school that casts its much larger shadow over his beloved school. However, I would not classify his comment as "trash-talk." Both, you and hootie engaged in "trash-talk" by changing the spelling of each others' name. You also trash-talked by changing the spelling of the OSU stadium and hootie also trash-talked by bringing up an irrelevant point about supposed investigations of all OU athletic teams.
hootie (3 years ago)
UR InXperienced - So what if Pokesn09 is an OSU fan? He stated that he thinks that ou will loose 3 games. There are many other polls that have them loosing 2 not including a bowl game. The typical ou arrogance/ignorance is showing thru. Keep drinking the kool-aid! Oklahomer see above about "sour-grapes" comment.
TMS (3 years ago)
Steele is the only one that thinks so. Unfortunately they're not that good.If wishful thinking was enough they'd always be #1.
Oklahomer (3 years ago)
hootie: See WHAT above about a sour-grapes comment? pokesn09 was being a little snarky in predicting 3 Sooner losses in 2010. That kind of comment is posted by many OSU fans on OU stories. Texas, Florida, Alabama, USC, and the other top ten programs get the same kind of comments from the fans of their less successful rivals.

If we have the injury problem of 2009, we could lose more than 3. OU will probably lose a game or two this season even without injuries. Most teams do lose at least a game or two. OU hasn't had an unbeaten football team since 2000. When was the last time that OSU had an unbeaten football team at the end of a season?
hootie (3 years ago)
Oklahomer - like I said, look around, there are a lot of othe r people picking OU to loose 2 or 3 games. They have an pretty unproven O-line and lost a lot of people on D. Sure their line did better as the year went along but they played like cr#p away from home. Right? OU plays AT Cinn (decent), MU (should be pre-season top 25), A&M (improving and always tough to beat at home) and OSU (who knows and tough to beat at home)plus neutral Texas. They could easily loose 2 of those games not including Texas (which will probably be favored). Then you still have the bowl game which is unknown.
Oklahomer (3 years ago)
hootie: Sam Bradford and the 2007 Sooners played like crap away from home, but they did a whole lot better in 2008 after the qb had that all-important year of experience under his belt. You have no argument from me that my Sooners may lose 2 or 3 games this year. My point was that pokesn09 had to jump onto an OU story with a snarky comment that the Sooners WON'T do any better than 9-3 this season. That is a typical "little-brother" sour grapes comment.
soonerbeach (3 years ago)
Hootie, there is a horny sheep baaaaaing Hoooootie Hoooootie.
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OU Sports

Tulsa World Sports Writer Guerin Emig has covered University of Oklahoma football and men's basketball for the Tulsa World since 2004. He lives in Norman, where he keeps the fact that he is a University of Kansas graduate on the down low.

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Tulsa World Sports Writer Eric Bailey covered TU sports before coming over to the OU beat. He came to the Tulsa World in September 2004 after working eight years at the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader. He attended Haskell Indian Nations University and the University of Kansas, where he was a 1996 Chips Quinn scholar, a national award given to minority journalism students.

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