Brent Venables Details Oklahoma’s Defensive Improvements
NORMAN — Some of the numbers put up by the Oklahoma defense so far deserve to be recognized.
Most notably, the 4-0 Sooners have been led by a defense that is second in the nation in points allowed (8.5 per game), which is remarkably the fewest by an OU team through four games since 1987.
But while that’s worthy of praise, it’s also important to acknowledge OU’s schedule is among the easiest of the last 36 years as well.
Try to get head coach Brent Venables to detail how close this team is to his vision of what an elite Oklahoma defense should look like, and what further improvements need to be made, and he easily seizes on both the good and the bad.
“I got long-term vision of what we need to do to have an elite, consistent defense,” Venables said. “And we got work to do. But we are certainly moving in the right direction.”
Venables felt compelled to state the obvious: four games is not 12 games — or 13, or 15.
“Let's see we're at the end of the year,” Venables said Tuesday during his weekly news conference. “I think that will be a little more accurate to where, OK, hopefully at the end of the year we've made and we've continued to make strides and improved individually and collectively. That's the expectation. That's the vision. That's the game plan.”
Against the likes of Arkansas State, SMU, Tulsa and Cincinnati, OU has been better across the board. Nowhere has it been more evident than in tackling — both one-on-one tackling and gang-tackling. OU’s three non-conference opponents and their lone Big 12 foe found little space to operate, often went down on first contact and were almost never left alone in the open field.
Through four games, the Sooners are averaging 9.75 missed tackles per game. Last year, that number was 13.2 per game. The year before, OU averaged 11.1 missed tackles per game. The 2018 team averaged 11.8.
So clearly, like Venables said, there is obvious improvement, but there’s still a lot of work to do.
“We got a long ways to go,” he said. “… Again, I have a great appreciation and respect for the improvement that our guys have made, which we've been talking about for some time now, that we have seen improvement. But again, they'll be the first ones to tell you if they stood up here, ‘OK, there's evidence that there has been some improvement, but nowhere close to a finished product.’ ”
Venables said it’s “hard to quantify” the “degree” to which Oklahoma has gotten better on defense.
Just looking at Pro Football Focus data, only seven Sooners in 2022 posted season-long grades of 70.0 or better. A third of the way through 2023, that number is 18.
Last year’s team was better at generating tackles for loss (fourth in the nation, 8.0 per game; this year’s squad ranks 34th at 4.5 per game), but this year they’ve been markedly better on third down (11th nationally, 28 percent, where last year’s squad ranked 87th at 41 percent).
Venables has spoken often about OU’s “competitive depth,” and that’s been evident across the defensive line as 11 different linemen have played at least 50 snaps so far this year, according to PFF.
But it’s also born out in the quality of the secondary play, where the Sooners were missing two starters last week but still put forth a dominant performance at Nippert Stadium and limited the Bearcats to just two field goals. Safeties Billy Bowman and Key Lawrence look like All-Big 12 contenders. Peyton Bowen is playing like a freshman All-American. Cornerback Woodi Washington is also playing at an All-Big 12 level, and corners Gentry Williams have upgraded things on the other side with athleticism and confidence.
Of course, nowhere is OU’s competitive depth been more obvious than at linebacker, where Jaren Kanak now looks like a natural and Danny Stutsman is playing at an All-American level, and backups like Kip Lewis and Kobie McKinzie have received quality snaps.
But a defense is only as good as its last performance. Iowa State comes to Norman this week off its best performance of the year, and the Sooners are in line to take on No. 3-ranked Texas in Dallas next week.
“Will our guys continue to keep their head down, stay focused and driven and hungry and humble?” Venables asked. “That's part of it that we don't know. And that story of transformation is going to constantly — it's going to be ongoing.
“But there has been some improvement made. But to what degree I don't know. But it's good, and can be a lot better. And that's in every way. It's tackling and it's covering, it’s zone, it's man, it's precision and timing, it’s alignment, it’s eyes, it’s pad level, it’s physicality, it’s consistency — all those things — it’s red zone, it's third down, it's fourth down, it’s (first) and 10.”
“I know what my trained eyes tell me, too. But it doesn't matter if I feel this way and the players feel something totally different. And I'll be the first one to affirm them. Celebrate the small successes that we've had. They deserve that. They've worked incredibly hard, our coaches have, the players have. But big picture, we think we've done and accomplished nothing but get better. And that should happen. This is a developmental game. The more you play, the better you should get.”
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