Why Oklahoma Coach Brent Venables Expects OU Defense to Be 'On Another Planet' in 2023

The Sooners got "bullied" at times last year, and with talent upgrades and a second year in the system, he explained why improvements should happen across the board.

Credit Brent Venables for being self-aware.

Oklahoma’s second-year coach said Monday he believes the Sooners will be much better on defense in 2023. Pressed to explain what makes him believe that after the Sooners ranked 121st in the nation in total defense (461 yards per game) and 98th in scoring defense (30.0 points per game), Venables didn’t hesitate.

“I just use years and years of experience,” Venables said during a 40-minute press conference to kick off spring practice. “Never happens fast enough. And wherever we are, by the end of next season, you know, it still ain’t gonna be good enough. I want our guys — the best of the best aren’t ever satisfied, but I expect us to be on another planet defensively.”

According to Pro Football Focus, OU ranked 79th in the nation in overall defensive grade, 54th in pass coverage grade, 79th in run defense grade, 26th in pass coverage grade and 71st in tackling grade.

While Venables offered myriad reasons for improvements on the horizon, he also acknowledged the Sooners’ obvious shortcomings last season — in brutally honest terms.

“At the point of attack,” he said, “we weren't very good last year. We got bullied around and beat up too much, whether it was outside on perimeter screens or at the point of attack on the quarterback counter. We got knocked off the ball and got ran through and just played bad, bad defense. And if we put it on the field, it means we coached it. So we got to get better, coaches and players.”

OU lost two of its top defensive linemen in Jeffery Johnson and Jalen Redmond and two of its top linebackers in Dashaun White and David Ugweogbu, as well as versatile and experienced safety in Justin Broiles.

But Venables on the eve of spring ball that the secondary is already showing signs of improvement.

“I really feel like, through recruiting, we've strengthened our roster positionally, particularly in the secondary,” Venables said. “That's probably where I feel like we made the most improvement, where you have a very — based on what you've seen up to this point in time, and you still gotta go prove it every position across the board — but I really feel like, ‘OK, we're better. We're better in the secondary.’ And we've added more bodies in other places.”

Venables said more linebacker help will arrive in the summer, and he’s already applauded the upgrades OU made on the defensive line.

“But the biggest thing is year two,” he said. “I’ve always seen improvement — and expect marked improvement.

“Learning how not to lose to Oklahoma, the fundamentals and the improvement there, the physical improvement from a strength and conditioning standpoint. And then the knowledge, the intimate knowledge that you got to have so that you can play fast, you can play sure of yourself, you can play with great fundamentals and technique, play aggressive within the scheme because of your assuredness.

“You know, everybody else can talk about projection of rankings and all those types of things — I just want to see improvement in all the basics, the fundamentals. Our guys played with good effort last year. We just didn't play or coach well enough in a lot of areas.”