SEC legend excited about the Oklahoma Sooners heading into 2025
The Oklahoma Sooners may have questions surrounding the team heading into the 2025 season, but there's also a lot of optimism. The Sooners' defense looks ready to roll once again after a strong 2024 season. Armed with a quarterback in John Mateer, who is one of the best in the game, the Sooners have the makings of a team that could contend in 2025.
David Pollack, a former two-time SEC Defensive Player of the Year and three-time All-American for the Georgia Bulldogs, is a believer in the Sooners. Joining Dari Nowkah and Josh Helmer on the Dari Nowkah Show on KREF, Pollack said, "I love OU this year."
Pollack loves what the Oklahoma Sooners have up front, calling the Sooners' defensive line "the best in the conference." The former defensive end said, "If I'm gonna play in a system, I wanna play in Oklahoma's. Like, penetrate, make (tackles for loss), get sacks. Like, I think they're going to be a problem. Venables calling the plays."
Defense is certainly a strength of the Oklahoma Sooners in 2025. Brent Venables has remade the defense over the last four years and now has it primed to be his best defense yet as the head coach at Oklahoma. And with Venables returning to playcalling duties, the Sooners will benefit from one of the best defensive minds in the history of the game leading the charge.
But Pollack's praise didn't stop there. He's excited about what Oklahoma has to offer on offense as well.
"(Ben) Arbuckle on the offensive side," Pollack said. "Obviously, getting your quarterback (John Mateer). Like, that kid is a baller. Here's what I love about him. Obviously, he was at Washington State and he didn't have the greatest supporting cast in the world or the greatest offensive line but what I loved about him is when you watch the scramble play... he's going to make those off-script plays that you guys are used to seeing because you've had some freak athletes with Kyler Murray and Baker Mayfield and the list goes on and on."
Mateer's ability to make a play when things are breaking down around him might be his greatest quality. 404 of his 1,008 rushing yards came on scrambles in 2024. He does a great job of avoiding pressure and making plays on the move.
In addition to Mateer, Pollack is excited about the addition of running back Jaydn Ott and believes the Sooners did a good job in the transfer portal, adding players where they needed to. Concluding that if Oklahoma's schedule wasn't so tough, they would be a playoff team in his mind.
Pollack said, "If y'all schedule wasn't Murderer's Row, I'm putting you in the playoffs."
The schedule may be tough in 2025, but it's an opportunity for the Sooners to make some noise this year. If they get improvement on both sides of the ball, they'll have a chance to live up to Venables' belief that, "There's no game on our schedule that we can't win."
Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow John on X @john9williams.
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