College football 2018 preview: Predicting the first loss for every Top 25 team

After winning the Heisman Trophy and rewriting Oklahoma record books in 2017, Baker Mayfield became the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. His backup, Kyler Murray, also became a first-round pick in 2018, but the two-sport athlete will be going pro in baseball rather than football next year.

The Oakland A’s used the No. 9 overall pick in the MLB Draft to select Murray. Although he’s just a junior, he plans to forgo his final year of football eligibility to report to spring training with the A’s in 2019. He won’t be Baker Mayfield, but Murray isn’t just a placeholder either. He’s a freak athlete, reportedly running close to a 4.4 40-yard-dash. Murray was a five-star recruit out of high school, Gatorade Player of the Year, USA Today Offensive Player of the Year, and Texas’s Mr. Football.

He’ll have a strong supporting cast, starting with running back Rodney Anderson. Defensively, the Sooners will be close to what they were in 2017 but the one thing they can’t replace is the experience. Outside of attempting to plant a flag on a turf field, Baker was unstoppable in road games and fed off hostile crowds rather than getting rattled.

The Sooners play on the road against Iowa State, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia. Coming off of the Red River Shootout and a bye week, I think OU stumbles against TCU. The Horned Frogs play a Thursday night game the week before Oklahoma comes to town so will have an extra two days to recover and prepare.

TCU will have five new starters on a defense that was the best in the Big 12 last year and between returning players and newcomers that will develop over the first half of the season, they’ll ride their defense to upset Oklahoma in Week 7.