Kirk Herbstreit has a strong opinion on Oklahoma's CFP ranking

Although they’re a squad with a perfect 9-0 record, the Oklahoma Sooners have been anything but a consistent college football team throughout the 2021 season. As a result of how they’ve looked in games this year, the College Football Playoff committee ranked the Sooners at No. 8 in their first ranking of the season, which was released Tuesday night on ESPN.

Lincoln Riley’s team may be undefeated, but they’ve significantly struggled with consistency this season. In its season opener against Tulane, which is now 1-7 on the season, Oklahoma had to fight for a 40-35 win. Since then, the Sooners have had to battle for wins over Nebraska (23-16), West Virginia (16-13), Kansas State (37-31), Texas (55-48) and Kansas (35-23) and finally played a near-complete game Saturday in a 52-21 victory over Texas Tech.

During ESPN’s broadcast Tuesday releasing the first CFP ranking, analysts Kirk Herbstreit and Greg McElroy both had some strong words to say about Oklahoma coming in at No. 8.

“I say congratulations to the committee putting them at No. 8,” Herbstreit said. “This is a team that from the Tulane game at the beginning of the year until last week against Texas Tech, they have not played a complete game. Caleb Williams has helped light a fire on the offense, but this defense has not played up to their standard. They have got to start taking themselves more serious and opponent more serious. This team almost looks bored, and they better light a fuse quickly or they’re going to get left behind.”

While Herbstreit focused on the Sooners’ seriousness level, McElroy made it clear that this year’s committee – which includes seven new members – looks at more than just a team’s record when putting together their rankings.

“This also shows you that this committee values the eye test a little bit more than they value maybe that zero in the loss column because this Oklahoma team … they’ve been unpredictable, they’ve been unreliable, they’ve been up-and-down both offensively and defensively, so clearly the committee is doing a deep dive into the Sooners on just how inconsistent they can be,” McElroy said.

Oklahoma’s final three regular season games are against Baylor (Nov. 13), Iowa State (Nov. 20) and Oklahoma State (Nov. 27).

Quarterback Caleb Williams playing well for Sooners

A big reason that Oklahoma is still undefeated is because of the way quarterback Caleb Williams has been playing for the Sooners. Since becoming the team’s starter after Lincoln Riley benched Spencer Rattler, Williams has put up solid numbers week-by-week.

A freshman who was a five-star recruit out of Washington D.C., Williams has completed 78 of 109 passes for 1,189 yards and 14 touchdowns with just one interception this season. He’s also rushed for 288 yards and four more scores.