Oklahoma Has A Better Roster Than Texas?

and speaking of which PFF with uh OU at number 13 in the nation Phil steel has his power ranking which indicates how good he thinks the team is then he combines it with the schedule he's got Oklahoma's the seventh best team in the country now he combines that with the difficult SEC schedule and he's got at number 20 ranking athlons say the Sooners at number 16 number eight in the SEC uh how much of that's reality versus just giving Oklahoma it's typical due respect as a brand yeah well uh I think there's you know we were having this conversation last night on the OU Insider under the visor podcast but I I think there's some truth uh on both fronts when you're talking about the transition for Oklahoma to the SEC is on the one hand yes there needs to be some respect to hold out for what Oklahoma is as a brand the coaching staff that they have in place uh and the talent that they have not only retained on the defensive side but brought in on the offensive side to set themselves up well for 20124 but also the SEC is a meat grinder and so I don't I don't really know where I stand I think it's going to be hard to render a definitive judgment until we see some games this fall non-conference play might not tell us everything but I think it'll start to give us a sense of who's real and who's not in the SEC but Oklahoma's not going to be a pushover in the SEC by no means are they going to walk in and dominate that conference that should not be the expectation that anyone has even the most diard of sooner fans and I would hope that there's nobody that does have that expectation uh there's going to be an adjustment period into the SEC no question about it but Oklahoma's not going to jump into that conference and being an also ran that is not their standard that is not their expectation and you look at the talent that they have on both sides of the ball heading into 2024 uh that's not a that's not a 67 win team that's an A9 maybe 10 win team is there a concern Parker whether it's from the fan base or from people that are more in the know a more reasonable concern that Texas is getting away that that 2023 was a strong indication of where Texas football is headed and maybe they're getting away from Oklahoma even though the Sooners have course won the game on the field yeah no I don't think so Mark um and I think look uh if you if you look at Oklahoma and Texas's Seasons their respective seasons in 2023 certainly Texas made the college football playoff Oklahoma went to the alamoo Bowl uh the Longhorns won what 12 games they were 12-2 Oklahoma was 10 and three so there's some separation there but Oklahoma lost a couple of the close games that they played with ranked opponents in Kansas and Oklahoma State those were their two losses in Big 12 play and Texas escaped when they were challenged uh by a couple of those same and not even not even ranked yes Kansas State played them close at home that game went to overtime they got to run for their money from Wyoming in non-conference play so I think there's a Houston exactly Houston and so there were several of those games for both programs right that could have gone either way and I think the way that many and this I don't think this is exclusive to Oklahoma fans I think the way that uh many are looking at it is there's a degree of um variance of fluctuation there that just happened to fall in Texas's favor in 2023 and the degree of separation between those two programs in 2024 and Beyond is not terribly large I might even say and look look Mark Texas has a much easier schedule than Oklahoma in 2024 much easier Texas ought to win more games looking at their schedule versus Oklahoma but I think Oklahoma's got the better roster in 2024 you look at all that Texas lost they they had 11 players drafted which you know had tip to them Steve sarkeesian and his staff they're developing good on them but you got to replace 11 NFL bound guys those aren't the only guys you got to replace right they lost guys that maybe aren't NFL talent but graduated having held a role of some kind with Texas football as part of the starting 22 and so Oklahoma brings back nine of 11 starters on defense they replace Dylan Gabriel at the quarterback position with a former five-star quarterback s and Jackson Arnold and so yeah I don't think that's even a hot take I'd say Oklahoma has the better roster I'd say Texas is set up better from a scheduling standpoint and I think it's going to be really really interesting to see which of those two teams comes out with the upper hand record-wise this fall because of that uh give and take discrepancy there