Oklahoma Football: Ranking Sooners’ 2020 opponents by toughness

Gone is Matt Rhule who pieced together an 11-win season for the Bears in 2019 after winning a total of eight games in his first two years. He took the job with the Carolina Panthers, bolting for the NFL.

That leaves the work up to former LSU defensive coordinator Dave Aranda. He inherits a talented roster and a defense that exceeded expectations in 2019 — music to his ears.

Baylor, however, will take a step back under new leadership in 2020 and while they may not be quite as good as they were in 2019, the Bears will still contend in the Big 12 and push for 8-10 wins. Charlie Brewer won’t go down without a fight here as he knew just how close the Bears were to a couple of upsets of Oklahoma last season.

Jeremy Pruitt did one of the best coaching jobs in the country in 2019, putting a horrid 2-5 start to the season with losses to Georgia State and BYU behind him to lead the Volunteers to an 8-5 finish with a six-game winning streak. That winning streak included a Gator Bowl comeback win over Indiana.

This game may have seemed like a future cakewalk for the Sooners if the 2019 season ended last October, but the turnaround has made it a little more interesting.

Yes, that means Tennessee is now the third-toughest opponent on the schedule and bringing back nine starters on an offense that was getting better near the end of the year only makes things more difficult for Oklahoma here.