One of the best posts...the arena football OU has put out recently spits in the face of these former great Sooners.
And so the long road to football 2020 begins.
- Thread starter Scottsdale.Sooner
- Start date
Our defense lacks consistency and teeth. To play so dominate at times and then fall flat on our face is a serious problem. We have got to generate turnovers....and lots of them to impede other teams from marching on us. To say this was our year to get more turnovers was a head scratching myth. Next year better have some better push from the younger players and returning injured players to make this defense a changed one. Depth is critical to next season’s success. And removing those that could not get it done consistently this past year.
Seems like Brown is a shut down CB based on results, and he was timed in game faster than any NFL player ever at over 23 MPH when he ran down that track star WR on Baylor’s team and saved that game...
Motley definitely became a shut down CB this year Mims never caught a pass against Motley in two games...
The nickel and safeties definitely could be upgraded....
Really....I wouldn’t have a problem giving Grinch 5 MORE years to turn this program around as long as we see annual impact. The key is recruiting quality. If recruiting doesn’t improve each year it ain’t going to happen. Take it year by year and see what happens but don’t expect to turn OU’s defense into a Clemson in short order. It’s been neglected for too many years to expect greatness soon. Just hope Riley can maintain the offensive edge. I think he can.
Well when you have half the team's starters ranked #1 in offense all year there is no sense in changing for change sakes. On defense, you have a new coach w/ a new scheme, so naturally you want to give the experienced kids the opportunity to succeed. And besides, it's extremely rare that Freshmen 'start'. The pitfalls of freshman life is the adjustment to college life, college football, and in most cases the body needs bulk & weight. To me if you have multiple freshmen starting, you have a flawed program. But Riley played more freshman this year than anyone has prior years before.
STAFF: Let it begin with them...It's bound to be hard for them to be Motivational and Inspirational when they were not yet born when OU Teams of the past were breaking records, and making history. Those who haven't watched the Goal-Line Stands of the 50s haven't watched The Oklahoma D...A True Thing of Beauty...At times, it seemed almost as though they were toying with the opponents...Allowing them to get into the Red Zone, just so they could so easily keep them out...
And if you haven't heard the crowd chant Cum-by...Cum-by, You've missed a thrill of a lifetime moment...
Thanks, owen...for a Great Walk Down Memory Lane...
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I'm not totally bought in to what Grinch is selling. BUT ... I keep thinking back to 1999. We showed good improvement after a decade of little bowl involvement and less bowl success.
Then in 2000, the remarkable happened. It took the new staffs on both sides of the ball to get what they wanted to do, really implemented. It culminated with essentially a defensive shutout of the defending national champs.
These guys on defense will be better at understanding what to do in 2020. We're going to be missing at least three quality players who moved on to the NFL. But l still think we'll be better on the D side.
Not 2000 better, but better.
Then in 2000, the remarkable happened. It took the new staffs on both sides of the ball to get what they wanted to do, really implemented. It culminated with essentially a defensive shutout of the defending national champs.
These guys on defense will be better at understanding what to do in 2020. We're going to be missing at least three quality players who moved on to the NFL. But l still think we'll be better on the D side.
Not 2000 better, but better.
To be fair, Grinch did not and does not have the elite talent to turn the defense around in one year, or maybe even 2-3 years. Therefore, he has nothing to "sell"....and 63-28 reflected this fact.
If OU had hired the top defensive coordinator from anywhere a year ago, OU's defense would have fared no better than it did this past season. The "horses" just are not in the stable at this time.
Playing in a weak conference like the Big 12 revealed only a marginal improvement on defense, which of course, was proven to be an irrelevant claim vs. LSU.
It's going to be a learning experience next year. We'll be fielding almost an entirely new defense. We'll have almost 0 seniors on defense.
We also have 0 true safeties. Every DB is in that 5'10" - 5'11" and 175-185 pounds cornerback build.
We are screwed against large receivers, and we're screwed by any rushing attack that can get to the second level. And unless some DLs come out of nowhere, most rushing attacks are going to get to the second level against us.
We also have 0 true safeties. Every DB is in that 5'10" - 5'11" and 175-185 pounds cornerback build.
We are screwed against large receivers, and we're screwed by any rushing attack that can get to the second level. And unless some DLs come out of nowhere, most rushing attacks are going to get to the second level against us.
The incoming DBs have size, 5'11, 6'2, 6'2 and 6'3 (3 Freshmen and 1 JUCO), let's hope they can play!
Just consider if Switzer with his great wishbone offensive teams had OU’s current defensive team. How many national championships would he had won. I think none. Just saying.
We've rarely had outstanding play by Freshmen. Contributors, sure, but we can't expect them to be All-Big XII players.
More than likely, our starters will be on that list of 5'10" - 5'11" 180 pounders (So, Jr, Sr) - Jaden Davis (So), Tre Brown (Sr), Tre Norwood (Sr), Jordan Parker (Sr), Bookie (Jr), and Woodi Washington (So).
If our starting backfield is comprised by anyone not named above, I'd be shocked. Backup safeties will likely be incoming players, but you might be looking at the 2-deep for CBs in that list above.
I've also been thinking about the turn in defensive talent at OU. Maybe it started with the laziness of prior staffing. Maybe it has to do with the demographics like we've been discussing the last few weeks, but one correlation that has struck me with our increasingly difficult job of recruiting defensive talent is the advent of Internet recruiting evaluation services.
Hear me out.
Perhaps before recruiting services, blue blood programs like Oklahoma naturally drew the attention of top athletes, and our staffs were good at what they do. They could evaluate talent (on their own) and find the gems and the correct fits. Beyond the Top 10 that knew their place in the world, maybe the rest had some self doubt and lacked awareness of their skills versus the rest of the talent pool.
Since the advent of recruiting services and the wealth of almost free information, it seems extremely easy to understand and follow recruiting. Any one of us can go look at the common denominators from the breadth of lists and pick out an all-star team. All without knowing jackshit about football or at least without the need to travel and blow time and money. And beyond that, all of the athletes kind of KNOW their worth now. They can go look at themselves and know exactly how they stack up against the competition. No more tricking a recruit into thinking, "Oh, I'm lucky that OSU is giving me an offer!" No, now they're like, "OSWho? Dude, I'm Alabama caliber. Look at the lists."
So now the ones and twos of our area that are legit 5-star defensive players aren't getting swept up by the local teams because A) no one outside of the area knows about them, and B) they know they are 5-star defensive players capable of going anywhere.
Hear me out.
Perhaps before recruiting services, blue blood programs like Oklahoma naturally drew the attention of top athletes, and our staffs were good at what they do. They could evaluate talent (on their own) and find the gems and the correct fits. Beyond the Top 10 that knew their place in the world, maybe the rest had some self doubt and lacked awareness of their skills versus the rest of the talent pool.
Since the advent of recruiting services and the wealth of almost free information, it seems extremely easy to understand and follow recruiting. Any one of us can go look at the common denominators from the breadth of lists and pick out an all-star team. All without knowing jackshit about football or at least without the need to travel and blow time and money. And beyond that, all of the athletes kind of KNOW their worth now. They can go look at themselves and know exactly how they stack up against the competition. No more tricking a recruit into thinking, "Oh, I'm lucky that OSU is giving me an offer!" No, now they're like, "OSWho? Dude, I'm Alabama caliber. Look at the lists."
So now the ones and twos of our area that are legit 5-star defensive players aren't getting swept up by the local teams because A) no one outside of the area knows about them, and B) they know they are 5-star defensive players capable of going anywhere.
OU's biggest challenge comes from the shortage of quality instate players. All of OUr national champions had Oklahoma hs players who wanted to play at OU. For Bud,or Barry, or Bob or even Chuck.
ESPN doesn't help. But instate football isn't what it was.
ESPN doesn't help. But instate football isn't what it was.
The lack of Oklahoma instate talent not being what it was surely hasn't helped OU, and 2006 was the last year that as many as 4 instate players (Bradford, Gresham, McCoy, Madu) came on board to make significant contributions. There have been other good instate players, but they are only a trickle.
Since 2006 OU has averaged two instate players per year, with 2011 and 2016 showing no help at all from the two instate players recruited in each of those two years. Jon-Michael Terry (Tulsa) from the 2016 haul has not made a significant presence.
To OU's credit, there has been successful out of state hauls during this time which has allowed OU to win 80% of its games....a 151-38 record over 189 games.....while averaging 40 points per game. The usual recruiting in Texas plus some very good cherry picking from coast to coast are factors and it appears to me that even more dependence on out of state recruiting is in order.
Since 2006 OU has averaged two instate players per year, with 2011 and 2016 showing no help at all from the two instate players recruited in each of those two years. Jon-Michael Terry (Tulsa) from the 2016 haul has not made a significant presence.
To OU's credit, there has been successful out of state hauls during this time which has allowed OU to win 80% of its games....a 151-38 record over 189 games.....while averaging 40 points per game. The usual recruiting in Texas plus some very good cherry picking from coast to coast are factors and it appears to me that even more dependence on out of state recruiting is in order.
2019 Daxton Hill (replaced incumbent starter at the end of the year)
2018 Josh Proctor (yet to see the field much due to big time OSU safety Jordan Fuller)
Brey Walker, Steven Parker, Gabe Lynn, and Ronnell Lewis all to OU. That's the only Rivals 100 players from Oklahoma in the past 10 years.
Hill and Proctor were huge recent losses. Proctor would have probably started the last 2 years.
Rewind to the 80s/90s... Does Michigan and Ohio State even know who these guys are, or are they Oklahoma locks?
2018 Josh Proctor (yet to see the field much due to big time OSU safety Jordan Fuller)
Brey Walker, Steven Parker, Gabe Lynn, and Ronnell Lewis all to OU. That's the only Rivals 100 players from Oklahoma in the past 10 years.
Hill and Proctor were huge recent losses. Proctor would have probably started the last 2 years.
Rewind to the 80s/90s... Does Michigan and Ohio State even know who these guys are, or are they Oklahoma locks?
Our biggest problem is the inability to attract the top defensive talent to the program. Riley went w a relatively new and unknown DC and as such he has to prove himself which takes time.
