Big 12 Football: Has Everyone Forgotten About The Oklahoma Sooners?

As Keith Jackson would say, "Whoa, Nelly." And Lee Corso might even get in a "Not so fast, my friend" if he started to read all the fodder about the chances of no other team but one from the SEC winning the BCS title.

Did everybody forget about Oklahoma?

The Big 12 looks to be the toughest conference in the country—sorry, SEC fans. Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Texas, Mizzou, Kansas and yes, even Nebraska all have shots at the conference crown.

While the SEC has Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Auburn and LSU as potential title contenders, some of their schedules are just brutal. See Georgia's if you want to get some goosebumps.

And unless Florida gets some serious pass defense, it's going to be another strange year of lots of offense but porous pass defense. Tennessee has potential, but aren't they really a lot like Cal? Lots of good press, but can't quite get over that BCS title game hurdle in the last few years. LSU has a good shot, but wasn't that based a lot on the arm of Ryan Perrilloux?

Oklahoma, on the other hand, has quietly taken a little bit of a back seat to all the love the SEC has been getting. And it's just perfect.

Too often in the last five years, Bob Stoops' teams have come up short. Except for a Holiday Bowl win over Oregon (17-14) in 2005, the Sooners have lost in a Sugar, Orange and Fiesta Bowl (twice), including a waxing by USC (55-19, 2005 Orange Bowl) and West Virginia (48-28, 2008 Fiesta Bowl). That starts to sting after a while.

While the National Championship expectations are always there in Norman, so far, it's been quiet. Eerily quiet. Like the calm before the storm.

This year, phenom quarterback Sam Bradford returns with a most impressive resume. With a 176.52 QB rating, 36-8 pass ratio and almost 70 percent completions, this guy is a one-man wrecking crew. Yeah, he should be a Heisman front-runner.

Barring any sophomore slump, Bradford should be ready for the Red River Shootout after five games under his belt. RB DeMarco Murray, who led the team's rushes with an average 6 yards per carry until he went down with an injury, looks ready to pick up where he left off last season.

The only concern on the offense is losing their No. 2 all-time receiving leader in Malcom Kelly, but they do return an incredible TE Jermaine Gresham as well as WR Juaquin Iglesias. They just reload here, not rebuild.

The O-line looks just scary. This unit only gave up 14 sacks last year, and everybody with at least a half a year's starts is back.

Yep, you don't need to ask, "Where's the beef?" Duke Robinson (OG) stands 6-foot-5 and weighs 330 pounds. He is considered the best guard in the country by many pundits. His good buddy Phil Loadholt (OT) is 6-foot-8 and 350 pounds. Phil Steele ranks this line as No. 1 in the country.

So are there any problems? Not really. Remember, when Jason White left, there was concern over QB, and Rhett Bomar and Paul Thompson all performed well, despite some NCAA violations marring the program.

The D-line returns eight with starting experience, losing only DE Alonzo Dotson and a DT who started one game last year. The linebacker unit suffered some losses, and Stoops had to fill in some holes with JUCOs, but there is still experience there.

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