SOONERS GRAB 36 OF 60 FIRST PLACE VOTES
Oklahoma has continued its tradition of being a preseason favorite, with the Associated Press announcing the Sooners are No. 1 in their sports writers’s preseason college football poll released Saturday.
The Sooners are No. 1 in the AP preseason poll for the 10th time, more than any other program. The defending Big 12 champions received 36 of 60 first-place votes and 1,464 points in the Top 25.
No. 2 Alabama, one of a record eight Southeastern Conference teams in the preseason poll, wasn’t far behind OU, receiving 17 first-place votes and 1,439 points.
No. 3 Oregon got four first-place votes, No. 4 LSU received one and No. 5 Boise State got two.
Florida State was No. 6, the Seminoles’ best preseason ranking since starting the 2004 season at No. 5. Oklahoma plays the Seminoles in Tallahassee on September 17, one of the early top 10 clashes of the season.
Heisman Trophy favorite Andrew Luck and Stanford were No. 7.
Rounding out the top 10 are Oklahoma’s Big 12 rivals, No. 8 Texas A&M and No. 9 Oklahoma State and No. 10 Nebraska, in its first season in the Big Ten after leaving the Big 12.
The Sooners are preseason No. 1 for the 10th time, more than any other program.
No. 16 Notre Dame is ranked for the first time since early November 2009.
Expectations are high for Oklahoma every year and this season is no exception. However, the Sooners haven’t won the BCS championship since 2000. That’s when coach Bob Stoops led the Sooners to their seventh AP national title in his second season in Norman. Since then, Oklahoma has lost three BCS championship games.
The mantry among players this year: “Chase the 8”.
The Sooners have won the AP national title four times when they were preseason No. 1 (1956, 1974, 1975 and 1985). The last time they started a season top-ranked was in 2003, but the season ended in a loss to LSU in the BCS championship game in the New Orleans Superdome.
“We’re very matter of fact,” Stoops said this week. “All we think about is doing the work.
“We’re also very aware we’re not much different than about 12, 15 other teams that’ll be competing for it that have legitimate chances to win it. What are we going to do differently to separate ourselves?”
Having the combination of quarterback Landry Jones and receiver Ryan Broyles is a good place to start. Jones passed for 4,718 yards and 38 touchdowns last season, his second as a starter, and Broyles was his favorite target. The senior had 131 catches for 1,622 yards and 14 touchdowns.
With No. 21 Missouri, the Big 12 has four teams in the preseason Top 25. Absent is Texas. Coming off a 5-7 season, the Longhorns are missing from the preseason Top 25 for the first time since 1998.
For now, ranked or not, every team is chasing Oklahoma.
“Who doesn’t want to be No. 1?” Sooners cornerback Jamell Flemming said.
2011 Preseason AP Poll
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