Column: Oklahoma's Defense Was Better in '24, Yes, But Wasn't Nearly Good Enough

Brent Venables leaned on the Sooners improved defense all season, but after losing its top two stars, OU couldn't put a good product on the field in the Armed Forces Bowl.

Navy Midshipmen quarterback Blake Horvath goes 95. / Andrew Dieb-Imagn Images

FORT WORTH — Brent Venables has clung religiously to the tenet that Oklahoma’s defense is so much better than it used to be.

But that tenet is getting a little worn.

The Sooners’ head coach invoked OU’s horrid recent past again on Friday, minutes after his team lost another game, 21-20 to Navy in the Armed Forces Bowl.

“I don’t think that I need to remind anybody what Oklahoma has been on defense for a decade: historically bad on that side of the ball,” Venables said.

And yet, there he was, reminding anybody what Oklahoma has been on defense for a decade.

Listen, nobody with half a brain could suggest OU’s defense isn’t better than it was under Mike Stoops, or Ruffin McNeill, or Alex Grinch.

But just being better than an historically bad decade or more, when OU’s defense was the butt end of a joke … well, that doesn’t mean it’s good.

And Friday at Amon G. Carter Stadium was just the latest irrefutable evidence: Oklahoma’s defense has a long, long way to go if the Sooners are ever going to compete for a championship in the Southeastern Conference.

Let’s call it like it is: Venables and defensive coordinator Zac Alley could not field a unit Friday that was capable of handling a starkly one-dimensional offense. Navy amassed 318 total yards, 226 of which came on the ground. Like it did most of the season, the OU run defense was good — but not good enough.

And certainly nowhere close to good enough when quarterback Blake Horvath cut through the middle of the Sooner D like Moses leading the Israelites 95 yards out of Egypt across the Red Sea. No fewer than four Sooner defenders were out of position, allowing Horvath to set multiple “longest touchdown ever” records.

“We missed a fit,” Venables said. “ … That’s what that team can do to you when you miss a fit.“

The Sooners missed more than a fit.

They also missed assignments in coverage on a 32-yard pass from Horvath to Nathan Kent and a 21-yard pass to Cody Howard. Kent’s catch came on third-and-8 when Peyton Bowen was fooled at the snap and left Kent completely alone, while Howard’s catch behind Bowen came on third-and-1. The first one ended in a punt, but the second one produced a Navy touchdown.

Here’s the thing: both of those receivers are tight ends. Oklahoma hasn’t been able to defend the tight end all season.

The harsh truth is this: the defense OU rolls out there in 2025 could look very much like the one that frustrated Sooner Nation on Friday.

This, this loss to a 9-3 Navy squad on the TCU campus in late December, is what the OU defense looks like without inspirational leaders Danny Stutsman and Billy Bowman. This is what OU’s defense looks like without a consensus All-American at linebacker and a four-year starter at safety.

After the 95-yard sprint by Horvath in the third quarter, he came back in the fourth quarter and put together a 12-play, 66-yard drive, patiently grinding away the same running plays he had all game long, and then peppering the OU secondary with a 10-yard completion on third-and-7 and a 16-yard completion on fourth-and-3.

“I thought that was maybe their best drive of the game,” Venables said. “Defense, man, they fought their butt off top to bottom. They did what they needed to do to to give ourselves a chance to win. Navy's a good offense.”

Venables isn’t wrong. 

It was probably a harbinger of things to come when Oklahoma showed up for the coin toss with four captains — all from the defense.

This is a football team that has been fighting with one hand tied behind its back since August. It’s no secret, the OU defense has carried one of the worst OU offenses in school history.

And that offense was back at it again on Friday.

There were curious play calls and odd decisions by the coaching staff. 

There were seven dropped passes by the receivers. 

There untimely sacks (two of them ended drives, and that doesn’t include the one that ended the game as quarterback Michael Hawkins was taken down on the decisive 2-point conversion play with six seconds left on the clock). 

There was a fumble lost by Hawkins.

And there were two drives that ended on fourth-and-short because the offensive line couldn’t open the tiniest of holes to run through.

So the defense was called up yet again to win the game.

And yet again, the defense failed.

Nonetheless, Venables says he’s proud of the legacy that Stutsman and Bowman and Woodi Washington and Ethan Downs and Da’Jon Terry and other seniors have left in setting the OU defense on a better path than it was on when he arrived.

“They were a huge part of turning things in the right direction on defense,” Venables said, “and we’ve got a lot of work to do still. A lot of work, and we’re not where we want to be yet.

“That young group of players that are returning, and a few veterans, you know, they really stepped up and I’m just proud of all of them.”

Maybe some help will arrive in the transfer portal. Maybe 5-star recruits like P.J. Adebawore and David Stone will be more impactful in 2025. Maybe some of the incoming freshmen will be good enough to log quality minutes next year.

But like Venables said, this OU defense — for all its progress — has a long way to go.