Joel Klatt analyzes Oklahoma's chances to make the College Football Playoff

On Wednesday, Joel Klatt looked at playoff sleepers for this season in college football. Among the three teams from the Southeastern Conference that he considered was Oklahoma, which enters a crucial season.

Klatt, during his show yesterday, determined those sleepers for the College Football Playoff. He assessed Oklahoma, which came in at No. 18 in the release of the Preseason AP Poll on Monday, as well as Auburn, before ultimately making his official pick as Missouri.

“I also considered Oklahoma,” Klatt said. “This is a team that’s kind of in the back end of most preseason rankings.”

In his breakdown, Klatt expects the Sooners to be a more well-rounded team on both sides of the football. That’s with a defense that has already improved over every season of this tenure so far and an offense, which completely fell off last year, that has been reworked, namely with two additions to it from Wazzu.

“I love the additions on offense. John Mateer is a guy I’m very impressed with. I’ve talked about him at length this offseason. (Ben) Arbuckle, his offensive coordinator at Washington State, also joins him in Norman therer,” Klatt said. “Their offense should be better. It was bad last year. The film was some of the worst that I’ve ever seen, to be honest with you.

“Defense improved. The defense has steadily improved. (Brent) Venables called the defense last year. He will remain the playcaller on the defensive side for OU this year. I like that! I really like that. He’s entering his fourth season. We’ve seen them have a double-digit win season under Venables. So, can it happen? Absolutely.”

With all that, Oklahoma projects to see some improvements. However, just how much improvement, at least record-wise, is a real concern for Klatt in evaluating the Sooners as a team to potentially make the CFP. That’s because of their schedule.

“Here’s the problem. If they had a more favorable schedule, like Auburn’s? I think I would probably pick them right here. But I can’t, in good conscience, pick them with what their schedule is,” Klatt said. “They’ve had a losing record two of their first three years. And now they face a schedule where their last seven games looks like this – Texas (at) a neutral site, at South Carolina, Ole Miss, at Tennessee, at Alabama, Missouri, and LSU. C’mon. They went 2-6 in SEC play in their first year last year, with largely the same type of schedule and I think this one might even be more difficult. They’re not making this jump.

“Best-case is that they go into the Texas game undefeated. And then they still have to find, what, three or four more wins after that? I don’t like it.”

Again, based on what they changed this offseason, specifically on the offensive side, the Sooners should be a team that’s more like their second team, which got to 10-3, rather than their first or third, which both went 6-7, under Venables. The back half of their season, though, is why Klatt couldn’t fully consider them this conference’s sleeper this year to make the CFP.

“While I think they can improve, I don’t think they’ll make enough of an improvement, as it relates to their schedule, which we don’t talk about enough, to go to the playoff,” Klatt concluded.