2020 Oklahoma football predictions on the HG

By Jake Wimberly

What’s to like:

Offense – since Lincoln Riley took over three years ago, the Sooners have put three straight quarterbacks on the Heisman podium, collected three straight number one offenses in the country and sent a ton of offensive talent to the NFL.

Also the Sooners under Riley have been to three straight College Football Playoffs.

This year the Sooners begin the Spencer Rattler era – as Riley will start with his youngest quarterback to date in Norman.

While Rattler will be looking for a replacement for Cee Dee Lamb, he does have thousand-yard back Kennedy Brooks, back in the back field.

What’s not to like:

Defense – what else is new in Norman? The Sooners last outing was against LSU in the College Football semifinals and it wasn’t pretty. The Tigers dropped 63 on the Sooners and it could have been 103 if they wanted.

Oklahoma has to find answers on defense if they want to take that next step under Riley, which is to play for the National Championship.

What does the Hourglass Say?

2020 Oklahoma pick: Sooner’s 11-1 overall, runner up in the BIG 12

2019 HG analytics pick: 12-0; Actual Record 11-1 (96 percent)

 2018 Analytics Pick 10-2; Actual Record 11-1 (96 percent accuracy)

2017 Analytics Pick 11-1; Actual Record 11-1 (100 percent accuracy)

Three-year analytic percentage on Oklahoma = 94 percent

 2020 Oklahoma Analytics –

Hour Glass National Recruiting Ranking (three-year metric): 6th – Inside our Realistic College Football Playoff, National Championship Talent line. The Sooners have a roster worthy of playing for a National Title.

National Coaching Rank for Lincoln Riley on HG Scale: 3rd (Lincoln Riley 2020 coaching value set at 31) – Average coaching value for 2020 set at 6.5. – Riley is reaching elite status in coaching in college football.

Returning Oklahoma quarterback play rated 31st in the country in our Power Five quarterback Rankings. Average quarterback metric for 2020 set at 11.66. Oklahoma quarterback metric value is 10 – right now setting the bar at “average”. If Riley’s track record lives up to the billing, Rattler will climb the charts very fast in 2020 quarterback rankings.

ODE Analytics – NOTE: ODE is our offensive and defensive scoring efficiency ranking for each team. We use a two-year evaluation of each program.

Oklahoma ranks 24th in the country in our 2020 ODE evaluation. Offensively they have a ranking of 1st in the country and defensively 69th in the country.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

That defensive ranking in our ODE tracker of 69th in the country says it all. Oklahoma has the coaching, the recruiting and offense, but their defense or lack there of is what has kept Oklahoma from becoming Clemson.

This year the Sooners replace a lot of weapons and their offense might not be able to bail them out of some games. We have the Sooners again with double digit wins, but losing to Texas in the BIG 12 Championship and playing in a New Year’s Six game.

Projected Hour Glass W/L record: Games in BOLD denote games that could be a one possession game or even a different outcome than projection.

NOTE: All photos courtesy of 247sports.com