Sooners have the best back seven in the SEC per Phil Steele

Defense was long a strength for the Oklahoma Sooners. The Bennie Owen, Bud Wilkinson, Chuck Fairbanks and Barry Switzer days produced hard-nosed, hard-hitting defensive units that helped the Sooners win six national championships, along with explosive offenses. Wilkinson and Switzer each took home three titles in the 20th century.

After the dreadful 1990s, Bob Stoops’ arrival meant that OU was back to being a contender on the national stage. “Big Game Bob” added Oklahoma’s seventh national title in 2000 and kept the Sooners in the title picture quite often in his time as the head coach.

Defense was Stoops’ calling card. He was the defensive coordinator for coaching legends Bill Snyder and Steve Spurrier. Oklahoma enjoyed stifling defenses for most of Stoops’ tenure as the head coach.

But, in the mid-to-late 2010’s, OU’s defense slipped to below the standard in Norman. Stoops’ final season and the Lincoln Riley era at Oklahoma saw the offense being required to carry too much of the load to keep the Sooners in the title hunt. Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts were able to do that, but as the decade changed, the Sooners had fallen out of the College Football Playoff.

After Riley’s departure to Southern California, Brent Venables was hired to bring back the defensive standard. It’s taken a couple of years, but Venables may finally have the pieces in the right place to do the things he wants to do on defense.

In 2022, Venables’ first season, the Sooners were horrid defensively, leading to a 6-7 season. They allowed 30 points per game, finishing 99th in the nation in scoring defense. Last season, however, Oklahoma went 10-3 and the defense took a major step forward, improving their scoring defense 50 spots to 23.5 points per game.

Now, going into Year 3 under Venables, one college football…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/sooners-best-back-seven-sec-111819312.html

Author : Sooners Wire

Publish date : 2024-07-06 11:18:19

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