After Three Straight Losses, Leadership is More Important Than Ever for Oklahoma

Players expressed their thoughts about this week's leadership council meeting and how vital strong leadership is in hard times like this.

NORMAN — There were lots of signs and plenty of talk throughout the fall of 2021 that the Oklahoma football team lacked good, strong, forceful leadership from the players.

And those Sooners went 11-2.

So what of the 2022 squad, with its new coaching staff and its SOUL mission and its weekly appointed captains? What to make of the leadership on a team that has already amassed three straight losses for the first time in a generation, historically dubious back-to-back weekends in the DFW metroplex, and an unprecedented defeat to rival Texas?

“Leadership is the biggest thing,” said sixth-year senior safety Justin Broiles. “As a leader, you’ve got to step out in front. You’ve got to be the spearhead. You’ve got to kind of look back and assess: where, as a leader, did we go wrong? As a leadership council, where did we go wrong in terms of getting the guys ready to play, in terms of how we hold guys to the standard?”

OU (3-3) plays No. 19-ranked Kansas (5-1) on Saturday at Owen Field, hoping to get back in the win column and maybe salvage its season. Injuries have been a problem, but not nearly as big a problem as drastically inconsistent play on both sides of the football.

This team’s mettle is being tested like never before.

A dearth of leadership isn’t all that easy to spot when a team starts 9-0. But then losing two of their last three games last season — to two good teams, to teams that played for the Big 12 Championship — perhaps shined a light on what had been talked about in dark corners for much of the 2021 season: there wasn’t good leadership on the roster last year.

But at 3-3, and on a three-game skid, and with seemingly nothing going right for the Sooners, player-led leadership may be at a premium.

“Leadership is definitely essential right now," said junior wide receiver Drake Stoops. “We need to show the younger guys that this isn’t the end of the world. We’re going to keep working hard and going back to work. We have to put that behind us and focus on Kansas now.”

“It kind of feels like maybe while you're winning, I wouldn't say it gets swept under the rug,” said senior linebacker DaShaun White, “but you don't maybe need so much of it in such an urgent sort of manner. But right now, more than ever, we need our leaders to step up.”

In Brent Venables’ first season, he’s met weekly with a group of team leaders to discuss the team’s most pressing issues.

“We come together every week,” White said. “It's something that we want to stay sharp on, keep our leadership team together and just address different problems and stuff like that. Right now, it's more important than ever.

“It's not really players-only. Just a lot of things. Specifically, how we want to handle the locker room, especially being in uncharted waters of 3-3. Over the last few years, we haven't really had a start like this. The leaders wanted to band together and make sure that we're as strong now as when we started, if not stronger.”

Stoops said it’s actually not hard to be a leader when the chips are down.

“Not when the whole world is counting you out and everyone is kind of crucifying you in the media,” he said. “It’s kind of easy to stick together. We’re all we’ve got and we’re all we need right now. It’s easy for us to all stick together and have each other’s back because no one else does.”

“It sounds a little cliché,” said White, “but he hit it on the nose. It's one of those things where you kind of always prepare to be the best sort of leader for the worst situations. And this is one of those situations where we're down in the mud and the leaders have to really step up.”

There are endless self-help books and seminars and YouTube videos on how to be a better leader. But for a football team, it pretty much has to just happen organically. The older players follow the lead of the coaches, and then the younger players follow the lead of the older players. On a team populated with almost entirely new faces in the staff room and a bunch of transfers and a bunch of freshmen, it’s incumbent on the older players to step into that void — sometimes on their own.

“Just being the best leader that I can,” said senior tight end Brayden Willis. “Being an older guy who has been in a lot of situations — I’ve never been in this situation, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been through a whole lot of football situations. Being an older guy who has been through a lot of stuff, being able to tell the young guys it’s OK, the sky is not falling down, the sun is still gonna shine in the morning. If we can get it turned around, we can still have a really good season.”

Said Stoops, “It’s going to be big for leaders like myself and Brayden Willis, guys like Justin Broiles on defense, David Ugwoegbu, just older guys who have been there before and lost tough games before. Just lead the way and show this isn’t the end of the world.”

Sometimes strong leaders come from being around other strong leaders — seeing it for themselves — and then applying it to their own lives.

“My parents used to say all the time that ‘I’m gonna talk to you until I’m blue in the face,’ ” Willis said. “I don’t have too much longer here, so I’m going to talk until I’m blue in the face and make sure I get the job done.”

And sometimes, in football, strong leadership can be passed down directly. In Stoops’ case, being a leader on the football team is something he’s destined for. Stoops said he’s gotten plenty of advice on how to lead from his dad — hall of fame coach Bob Stoops.

“Definitely just step up, be a leader and the guys need you right now,” Drake Stoops said. “He’s been there. He’s been through tough losses before. He knows how that can go and how younger guys need to be led. Understand that this isn’t the end of the world. He tells me to step up and be a leader. At the end of the day, he’s there for me and always supports us. I appreciate that.”

---

Want to join the discussion? Click here to become a member of the AllSooners message board community today!

Sign up for your premium membership to AllSooners.com today, and get access to the entire Fan Nation premium network!

Follow AllSooners on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest OU news.

Get your OU tickets from SI Tickets HERE.