It wasn't all LR. It WAS his choice for DC. I guess anybody would have been an improvement on Mike, but there is a difference between making a school like Washington State a good defensive team, with mirrors and stunts and lots of movement, and make a blue blood program like OU an elite defense. All great defense starts with the ability to control the defensive LOS. And you can't consistently do that by trying to trick anybody. Expecting you big guys to chase the ball every play like linebackers my sound good in theory, but you really have a hard time recruiting truly great DL's by requiring them to emphasize their chase willingness, over being what big guys want to be. I.E. great big men.
Great big guys are greater when they have great quickness are better big guys. But they want to spend time being stronger. And our big guys were spending half of the energy in every game, running off the field every three or four plays. To stay "fresh." And you really can't recruit many quality big men by telling them were gonna make you run. We want you to lose weight.
The Fridge couldn't play for Alex Grinch. Neither could a whole lot of difference maker defensive linemen. I complained about this when Grinch came in, and announced his intentions. Everybody talked about how much better Wassou on defense. But they also gave up thirty something to lousy teams with ordinary offenses in upset losses. When you rely on stunts, lineup trickery, that's part of the deal. When you look back over OUr 2021 defensive season, pretty mediocre offenses controlled the ball a lot against us. Even KANSAS. And they sucked against everybody else. Well, except Texas.
I don't know how long it will take, and this whole new NIL stuff is going to make getting truly elite defensive big guy a harder accomplishment. But BV defensive credentials are as good as there is in college football. And his whole defensive staff has the potential of being truly elite. We'll just have to see. Perception can really screw it up, if we don't have a ten win or better season this year. But I think we'll see greatness in two or three years. Maybe, we'll surprise even some optimistic Sooner fans in 2022.
BEAT TEXAS.