All Sooners

Oklahoma-West Virginia GameDay: Three Keys to the Game

No more mindless penalties ... Stop the run ... Jeff Lebby’s Baylor roots

John E. Hoover

In this story:

NORMAN — Oklahoma is finding out every week that losing individual matchups can cost them a football game.

They learned that lesson in Lawrence, and they learned that lesson again last week in Stillwater. Cornerbacks need to be better in coverage (mistakes produced multiple opponent touchdowns). Someone has to generate a pass rush (zero quarterback sacks the last two weeks). Dropped passes, even just one or two, can be crippling.

“it's got to be eyes forward,” coach Brent Venables said. “You can't sit there and look in the rearview mirror and put the car in a ditch. You've gotta have eyes forward — what we've got to do in front of us, where we gotta correct, where we gotta get better. Whether that's schemes or it's fundamentals or it's some new players getting added to the mix, matchups for the next opponent. All those things.”

Here are three keys to the No. 17-ranked Sooners’ (7-2) game on Saturday night against West Virginia (6-3):

No more mindless penalties

Oklahoma has been its own worst enemy in this department all season. The Sooners currently rank No. 108 nationally in penalties per game (7.11) and 98th in penalty yards per game (59.22).

West Virginia is ranked No. 30 nationally in fewest penalties per game (5.11) and No. 41 in fewest penalty yards per game (45.78).

It seems unlikely OU will get many favorable calls for the remainder of its stay in the Big 12, so the Sooners need to take penalties out of the equation by cleaning up the ones they can control — such as the four pre-snap penalties they committed last week in Stillwater.

“We’ve had six false starts the last two weeks,” Venables said. “Can’t have that and get into a good rhythm offensively. It’s like having a PI (pass interference) or jumping offsides every other play. Can’t happen.”

Stop the run

West Virginia wants to run the football, clearly. The Mountaineers rank No. 6 in the nation in rushing offense, averaging 218 yards per game on the ground. C.J. Donaldson leads the team at 75 yards per game, and quarterback Garrett Greene — who still gives the OU defense fever dreams for his maddeningly slippery performance in Morgantown last year — averages 53, and averages 5.6 yards per rush.

And that’s not all.

WVU wants to run it more, as Neal Brown dusted off a two-back set in last week’s 37-7 win over West Virginia with Donaldson and Jaheim White, who averages 52 yards per game, and a team-leading 8.3 yards per carry.

Brown said WVU wanted to “play a little bit more two back in the game. I think time and place. It just depends on how defenses play different personnel groups.”

OU’s defense ranks 48th nationally against the run, allowing 133 yards per game. They’ll need to be at their best against WVU, which ranks No. 4 in the nation in time of possession per game at 33:56.

Even though Greene is completing just 53 percent of his passes, all that successful rushing has allowed him to strike consistently for big plays. Greene ranks fourth in the nation at 15.93 yards per completion.

“They are really running the ball well,” Venables said. “They are super efficient. The quarterback Greene is playing really well with the run and the pass. He’s a dual-threat quarterback.”

And that offensive line? The one Venables said has the chemistry and timing of a marching band? They’re No. 12 in the nation in fewest sacks allowed per game (1.00).

“Probably the strength of their team – they will tell you – is probably the offensive line,” Venables said. “They have great experience there.”

Jeff Lebby’s Baylor roots

There have been times this season that offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby absolutely looks like a descendent from the Baylor football coaching tree.

And there have been times that Lebby has resorted to trying to trick the defense and instead simply outfoxed himself and left his players guessing.

He gets too cute.

Lebby has fallen under the spell of the run-pass option, and it’s left the players uncertain and sometimes confused. Instead of playing with confidence and an edge, mistakes are piling up as players are sometimes left guessing.

If Lebby commits to a physical, north-south run game, with runners quickly hitting holes opened up by pulling, trapping linemen who know exactly what they’re supposed to do well before the snap of the ball, then that opens up the deep ball again and the WVU defense will be on its heels. The Sooners put it on display a handful of times last week in Stillwater and it was almost always effective.

For better or worse, Lebby comes directly from the Art Briles coaching family. On the field, it can be a devastatingly effective offense. But many think he’s simply lost his way as a game-planner and play-caller, and needs someone on the coaching staff to remind him what works best.

Published
John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

Home/Football