On Monday, I highlighted teams that are trending up because of the way they were playing at the end of the season and what has transpired since. Today, we look at programs heading in the opposite direction.
In many cases, as with the No. 1 choice here, it’s a matter of a coach who has been successful finding a way to turn things around and win big again.
1. Oklahoma
Coaches I talked to in the fall genuinely believed that it might be in coach Bob Stoops’ best interest to start over somewhere else. Florida, because his friend Jeremy Foley runs the athletic department, made a lot of sense.
In the next breath, though, most of those coaches also said they figured Stoops was too stubborn to walk away from Oklahoma. They were right.
Those comments came before the Sooners were flattened by Clemson in the Russell Athletic Bowl, but that didn’t really change the climate much in Norman; it was already bad. It’s a frustrated fan base that was spoiled by Stoops’ second-season national title.