Oklahoma-Temple: One Big Thing — Can OU Play Elite Defense Again?

It's been a generation since the Sooners presented one of college football's most feared defense, but Brent Venables and Danny Stutsman are confident it can happen.

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops (left) and defensive coordinator Brent Venables. / BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK

NORMAN — It’s Year 3 for Brent Venables as a head coach. And it's time.

The long-time defensive coordinator is widely regarded as a defensive genius, a savant, a tightly wound perfectionist, a screamer, spittle flying and veins bulging, eyes flaring and hands flailing. Venables has helped construct or lead championship defenses at Kansas State, Oklahoma and Clemson, and his reputation as one of the game’s top-shelf assistant coaches was secured years ago.

But Friday night against Temple, Venables kick off his third season as a head coach.  He’s been allowed to mold the Oklahoma Sooners in his image, but will Sooner Nation finally see what they’ve not seen in a generation?

Will OU under Venables finally play elite defense?

“We have come a long way,” said senior captain and All-American linebacker Danny Stutsman. “I don't want to say anything yet. We still have a season to play and we have a lot to improve upon still. We've made strides.”

Not since 2009 has OU put a defense on the field that was feared across the land. 

That unit, led by a 5-star defensive lineman who became an All-American and the No. 3 pick in the NFL Draft, was indomitable — despite carrying an offense that was without its Heisman Trophy quarterback and a handful of other stars. OU finished just 8-5 that season after Sam Bradford’s shoulder injury, but Gerald McCoy still led a defense that was among college football’s best.

Opponents managed just 272.6 yards per game that season — 92.9 rushing and 179.7 passing. No other OU defense over the next 14 years allowed less than 350 yards per game, none gave up less than 202 passing yards per game, and only two came remotely close to yielding less than 100 rushing yards per game.

That 2009 defense, coached by Bob Stoops and coordinated by Venables, gave up just 14.5 points per game and 4.1 yards per play. OU defenses since then have averaged 25.5 points per game and 5.5 yards per play.

College football has certainly evolved in the last 15 years. Whether through rule changes or recruiting, there’s more emphasis on offensive playmaking. Coordinators and quarterbacks are more conscientious about possessing the football and have dramatically improved efficiency in the red zone and on third down.

But realists know that’s just an excuse.

Since the start of the 2010 season, a total of 92 teams — that’s an average of seven per year — have finished a season by allowing less than 300 yards per game. 

During that same stretch, Alabama — the standard by which all college football defenses are now measured — finished ranked in the NCAA top 10 in total defense eight times (the Tide was ranked No. 1 twice and five times finished in the top five).

And it would be folly to think OU’s defense the last two seasons — in which the Sooners have yielded 369 yards and 22 points per game — is a Venables problem. In the last nine years of his decade at Clemson, the Tigers finished with a top-10 defense seven times. They ranked No. 1 in 2014, No. 4 in 2017, No. 5 in 2018, No. 6 in 2019, and never finished lower than 25th after Venables’ first season.

Meanwhile, since Venables left in 2012, Oklahoma has cycled through Mike Stoops and Ruffin McNeill and Alex Grinch and Ted Roof, the latter a key part of Venables’ return in 2022 and 2023.

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Playing elite defense in 2024 is absolutely still possible. Just ask Nick Saban, or Dabo Swinney, or Jim Harbaugh, whose Michigan squad led the nation in total defense last season as the Wolverines won their first national championship in more than a quarter century. A phenomenal defense remains the best path to winning a college football national title.

Venables — who coordinated that 2009 Sooner D as well as the next two before leaving for Clemson — is hoping he’s built a defensive unit that can finally cast similar terror in opposing offenses.

But it’s taking time, and it’s taking a shift in the culture inside the Switzer Center. And this year, it’s taken another change at defensive coordinator. Young Zac Alley, labeled a Venables clone by the OU players, has heeded his mentor’s call and intends to spearhead the turnaround as Venables continues the Sooners’ defensive rebuild.

“Looking back two years ago, me and Coach V joke about it here and there,” Stutsman said. “Now Coach Alley coming in, just the strides we're making now, I'm really excited to go out there and prove what we already know.”

Venables reminded his team after losing the 2022 season finale at Texas Tech of the old axiom, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Patience and perseverance was what Venables needed most from his players at the end of that 6-6 campaign.

“Here were are two years later and the pieces are finally coming together,” Stutsman said. “I’m really excited with the foundation that we've built. Shout out to the previous guys before me that put into the culture and built the standard here and now guys are coming in and upholding to it.”

Stutsman admits now that “we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into,” but added, “that commitment has come such a long way. You look back two years ago. It's to the level it is now. It's guys who want to be great every single day. It's not getting bored with the results that we see and just being hungry.”

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WATCH: Danny Stutsman Interview

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Venables says he doesn’t need to be the nation’s top-ranked defense — although it would be nice — and points to real progress made from his first year to his second. In 2022, Venables’ first defense as head coach gave up 461 yards and 30 points per game. Last year, those dropped to 389 yards and 24 points per game. The rushing defense improved, the passing defense improved, the Sooners were No. 2 nationally with 20 interceptions and No. 7 with 7.5 tackles per loss per game and the yards per play went from 5.7 to 5.4.

“We were not very good in any area our first year,” he said. “Made improvement in several areas through the course of the season last year, and we were terribly inconsistent and played really well in some spots. But again, we're looking for a level of consistency from the group.” 

Now Venables just hopes for another year of getting better.

“Seeing a defense that stops the run, swarms the football, tackles well, gets off the field on third down, creates turnovers, plays and competes with great, great passion,” he said.

“I think it's been an incremental improvement. You want it to happen faster. Yet (you) start completely over and what our expectations were, what we're looking for in recruiting, the type of people that are passionate and committed, that love the game, that have a mental and physical toughness that you can recruit to, you certainly can nurture and get better. And so that's an ongoing process.” 

“ … So the expectation is we're going to take the next step.”