Greg McElroy reveals why he's higher on Oklahoma than most

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The Oklahoma Sooners are ready to prove to the college football world they are still among the best in the sport. The Sooners are coming off a 10-3 season, in which they returned to the College Football Playoff.

However, like the other four times the Sooners have made the College Football Playoff, they lost in their first game. In fact, Oklahoma is 0-5 in the College Football Playoff, the worst record for any team. Granted, four of those losses were in the Lincoln Riley era. If Oklahoma wants to reestablish itself as a true national championship contender, it must finally break through in the postseason and prove it can win on the sport's biggest stage.

ESPN's Greg McElroy said he thinks he will put Oklahoma in his top tier, even though other national analysts are not as high on the Sooners.

"Here's the last team in tier one," McElroy said on 'Always College Football.' "Will probably surprise some people. I'm higher on Oklahoma than most everybody in college football media. Look, Oklahoma's defense last year, they were not a game plan; they were a demolition derby. They led the entire country in tackles for loss. They piled up 45 sacks. That was top three in college football… A defense this good does not need a ridiculous amount of help to win a championship."

McElroy's confidence in Oklahoma comes down to one simple belief: championship-caliber defenses are difficult to find, and the Sooners already have one. With Brent Venables returning the core of that unit and Ben Arbuckle entering his second season running the offense, Oklahoma doesn't need to become the nation's highest-scoring team. It simply needs to complement its defense.

If the offense takes the expected step forward behind John Mateer, the Sooners won't just have a chance to return to the College Football Playoff; they could finally be equipped to end their postseason frustrations and make a legitimate run at the program's first national championship since 2000.

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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Greg McElroy reveals why he's higher on Oklahoma than most

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