Bob Stoops did not re-reference the 2000 Sooners. He could have, but the Oklahoma coach, ready to begin his seventh season on the Owen Field sideline Saturday, steered clear.

Perhaps, as the season gets closer, national-title comparisons to the last OU team with so few household names serves less and less a purpose.

Who needs to be saddled with such expectations?

Or maybe, for the first time this preseason, it slipped his mind.

No matter. It’s clear.

Not that OU will make another trip to the Rose Bowl, this time to play for all the marbles a third straight year. Rather, this is the season of the question mark.

How will the Sooners be at quarterback?

Even if we know who it’s going to be all season, which I think we might, it’s still a good question.

How about the offensive line? Another good question.

The receivers? Well, if three freshman are going to play — and Stoops let it be known at Tuesday’s weekly media luncheon Malcolm Kelly, Manuel Johnson and Juaquin Iglesias won’t spend any time redshirting — it’s hard to know if that’s good, bad or indifferent.

If those are some of your questions, understand Stoops’ own queries take form long before he starts thinking about this or that player, this or that position.

“You want to see what you are. How competitive are we? How tough are we? What’s our attitude?” he said. “What’s the players’ demeanor, in the locker room (and) coming out of the tunnel? What’s the discipline level that we have here?”

Heck, those are good questions, too.

Take a look at the depth chart.

Chris Chester and Akim Millington are 40 percent of the offensive line.