Sooners Ranked No. 3 in the Coaches’ Preseason Poll
After falling to the Florida Gators in the BCS National Championship in Miami last January, college football head coaches voted OU the No. 3 team in the nation on Aug. 7 behind the top-ranked Gators and No. 2 Texas Longhorns.
The Sooners received one first place vote, which was three less than the Longhorns and 52 less than Florida.
The top-25 includes two other Big 12 schools, Oklahoma State at No. 11 and Nebraska at No. 22, and one non-Big 12 schools that are on OU’s schedule, No. 24 Bingham Young University.
The University of Southern California and Alabama round out the coaches’ poll’s top-five.
Multiple Sooners Make National Preseason Watch List for Various Awards
Maxwell Award: Junior quarterback Sam Bradford, senior running back Chris Brown, senior tight end Jermaine Gresham and junior running back DeMarco Murray
Davey O’Brien Award: Bradford
Bednarik Award: Junior defensive end Jeremy Beal, sophomore linebacker Travis Lewis and junior defensive tackle Gerald McCoy
John Mackey Award: Gresham
Outland Trophy: McCoy and senior offensive tackle Trent Williams
Ted Hendricks Award: Beal and senior defensive end Auston English
Walter Camp Award: Bradford
Jim Thorpe Award: Junior cornerback Dominique Franks
Lott Trophy: Gerald McCoy
Doak Walker Award: Brown and Murray
Lou Groza Award: Sophomore kicker Jimmy Stevens
Bradford Named Big 12 Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, Sooners and Longhorns to Lead Big 12 South
Heisman Trophy winner Bradford was one of eight Sooners to snag spots on the Preseason All-Big 12 Team, and was named as the Preseason Offensive Player of the Year while OU and Texas tied for Big 12 supremacy as voted by the Big 12 media.
Other Sooners to be honored include Gresham, Williams, Murray, McCoy, Beal, Lewis and Franks.
To add to the hype of this year’s Red River Shootout rivalry is the fact that not even the Big 12 media could predict a clear winner. Both teams received 174 points to create the paper-tie, but the Longhorns did receive 17 first place votes over the Sooners’ 15.
No other team in the Big 12 South received any first place votes, and the Nebraska Cornhuskers received 172 points and 17 first place votes to lead the Big 12 North.
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