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College Football: Oklahoma Sooners offer great value
at 7 to 1 odds
At 7 to 1 odds to
win the 2007
NCAAF Championship, the Oklahoma Sooners offer great
betting value and for good reason. The team is
ranked #3 among online oddsmakers worldwide
including
SportsInteraction.com (See Web
Site Here)
Popular sports
handicapper, Phil Steele, recently commented on why
he thinks the Oklahoma Sooners could win the 2007
NCAAF Championship.
Steele relayed to
Scout.com:
"A lot of folks do
question when you pick a team number one that has
lost four games the previous season but, ironically,
three times in the last six years, the eventual
national champion has lost five games the previous
year. So the Sooners are in pretty good shape
compared to that crowd. And one of those teams that
lost five games the previous year was the 1999
Sooners, who were playing in the lowly Independence
Bowl.
"The thing I like
about Oklahoma this year, love about Oklahoma this
year, is the defense. They’re my number one rated
defensive line, my number two set of linebackers,
number one set of defensive backs. Overall, it’s the
number one defense in the country in my rankings.
Unlike other preseason magazines, I put more
emphasis on defense than necessarily the skill
players and I also don’t look as much at last year’s
final record as I do at last year’s statistics.
"If you look at Oklahoma offensively this year,
remember last year Adrian Peterson was coming off
almost a 2,000-yard season. He “only” had about a
thousand yards rushing last year, a little over a
thousand because of injuries. He’s healthy this
season. Rhett Bomar didn’t even begin the year as a
starter. He ended up starting as a freshman, now
he’s an experienced sophomore and keep in mind, last
year Bomar completed 54 percent of his passes. Brady
Quinn (Notre Dame QB) in his first year as a starter
only completed 47 percent of his passes as a
freshman. So he had a better freshman season than
Brady Quinn did. I like the receiving corps. With
some of the newcomers, I think there’s good talent
and good speed there. Of course the biggest question
on Oklahoma is the offensive line, but once again,
good talent throughout. I think they’re gonna
surprise a lot of folks on the offensive line.
"And then I look at the schedule. The only two
question mark games I have on their schedule all
year, at Oregon in Autzen Stadium, of course the
Ducks have knocked off quite a few teams nationally
ranked heading into Autzen, but I think Oklahoma has
beaten Oregon the last two years and has a good shot
at winning there, and then Texas. And while Texas is
loaded – seven of their eight positions rank in my
top 25 in the front of the magazine, including my
number one O-line, number three D-line – the thing
about Texas is, if you watched their big games, like
the Rose Bowl the last two years, they got their
victories with the ball in Vince Young’s hands. I
think it’s going to be a completely different Texas
team without Vince Young at quarterback."
Linebacker Rufus
Alexander and running back Adrian Peterson have
already been mentioned as Big 12 Player of the Year
candidates and Peterson is among the early favorites
to win the Heisman Trophy, according to
Muskogee Phoenix.
There’s a lot to be excited about. That’s what
worries
OU coach Bob Stoops.
And he has a history lesson ready for anyone who
sings his team’s praises before they’re earned.
Stoops told
Muskogee Phoenix one of the reasons for the
early-season struggles was players believing they
would win because it was owed them, not because of
the effort.
OU rallied and finished the season 8-4 with a
victory over Oregon in the Holiday Bowl. It helped
remove the bitter taste from the first five games.
“Going through winter and going through spring
finishing that way, I think, gives the players the
added belief and confidence that they can do it,
that we were not as far off as people wanted to say
we were all year,” Stoops said. “Now we have grown
through a lot of this and we should be stronger for
it. We have another full year to be even better if
we train in the right ways. We have through the
winter and we had a good spring. I can’t tell what
they are going to do this summer, but to me that
will be the biggest factor.”
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Sports911.com News
Wire
Originally published July 11, 2006 11:01 pm EDT
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