Oklahoma Sooners Defensive Players to Watch vs. Texas

The Sooners are coming off a stinging loss to TCU in which the defense gave up 55 points and OU lost its second straight Big 12 game.

The Texas Longhorns will face the Oklahoma Sooners in their renewal of the Red River Rivalry Game at Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas on Saturday at 11 a.m.

Like the Sooners’ offense, the defense is under a new coordinator. Sooners head coach Brent Venables lured Ted Roof to take over the defense. Roof was a former head coach at Duke but has a wealth of defensive experience as a coordinator at several Division I schools. He was last at Clemson as a defensive analyst, so he has experience with Venables’ system, though he’s never run it.

Roof’s task was to help improve a Sooners defense that was No. 60 in scoring defense and No. 109 in passing defense last season. .

With that in mind, here are a few defensive players to watch for the Sooners when they face the Longhorns.

Be sure to stick with Longhornscountry.com as we preview every aspect of the matchup with the Sooners throughout the week

LB David Ugwoegbu

The senior has emerged as the Sooners’ leading tackler through five games. He has 44 total tackles (21 solo), along with two tackles for loss and a sack. He even has a safety. He’s on pace to have his best season for the Sooners, as he had 49 tackles last season. He’s never been an All-Big 12 selection, but he’s playing his way into consideration.

DL Reggie Grimes

This is already a big season for the junior. Grimes has become the Sooners’ chief pass-rusher after five games. He has just 10 tackles. But, he also has six tackles for loss, four sacks and a quarterback hurry. This tackles for loss and his sacks for five games this season are already better than his career production for his first two seasons in Norman (2020-21). If the Sooners are going to get to the quarterback on Saturday, Grimes will be leading the way.

LB DaShaun White

White had 66 tackles in 2021, which was third-best for OU. He’s not producing at quite that pace just yet. But, there’s versatility in his numbers. He has 24 total tackles, one tackle for loss, one sacks, three pass break-ups and three quarterback hurries. Given his holdover status from last year, he was one of the experienced players that could help accelerate the installation of Roof’s defensive system. The Sooners definitely had issues against TCU, but White hasn’t been one of them.

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You can follow Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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