Oklahoma defenders get nasty
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -Even as Oklahoma's players got ready to play in the national championship game this past winter, the buzz was not entirely flattering. The Sooners had the highest-scoring offense in college football history, but a defense that wasn't championship caliber.
That's something that doesn't sit well with a Bob Stoops-coached defense.
``I think our guys have talked about it a lot since the end of last year. We were tired of over the course of a month in preparation for the national championship that we were a joke,'' defensive coordinator Brent Venables said. ``I think a lot of guys took that to heart.''
Perhaps more than a growing quarterback tradition with two Heisman Trophy winners and one runner-up, the hallmark of Stoops' decade in Norman has been stingy defenses. But last year's unit ended the year a middle-of-the-pack 68th in total defense, and players are none too happy about it.
``We've got to be just like a grimy, angry, mean defense,'' second-team All-America defensive tackle Gerald McCoy said. ``We've got to be more selfish and stingy. We just can't give up anything. We don't plan to give up anything this year.''
The Sooners bring back nine starters on defense, needing only to fill holes at both safety positions. A big part of this preseason is teaching the right attitude instead of just Xs and Os.
``You want all your guys to be right on the edge of going completely and totally berserk and ballistic, and at the same time holding composure. I think having experience does that,'' Venables said.
Oklahoma's defense was hampered by its youth last year, particularly when Ryan Reynolds suffered a season-ending knee injury in the second half against Texas. Venables didn't have anyone else who had played middle linebacker, and it showed.
Fill-ins Austin Box and Mike Balogun got up to speed over the course of the year and return now better suited to back up Reynolds, who's healthy again. Cornerbacks Dominique Franks and Brian Jackson each had a full year in the starting lineup, and the front four is one of the deepest and most talented in the country.
``You can have that energy, you can have all the intensity, when you know what you're doing, when you've been there, you've done that, you're sure of yourself,'' Venables said. ``Guys can kind of turn it loose a little bit more.''
Venables wants his defense have the attitude that it's not OK to give up a score anytime - even in the final 2 minutes of a game that's well in hand. That happened in four of Oklahoma's 14 games last season.
But perhaps more important, both of the Sooners' losses came in games in which they held fourth-quarter leads. Texas scored twice in the final 8 minutes and Florida twice in the last 11 minutes to each win by 10 points.
``We need to just be mean,'' linebacker Travis Lewis said. ``We have the potential to be a great defense. We're just missing that one little thing to stop people in the fourth quarter, to make that play when it counts.
``It's just that nastiness to go out there and have that mentality that nobody's going to score.''
Between 2000 and 2005, the Sooners ranked among the top 13 defenses in the country every year. That's started to slip lately, to 16th in 2006 and 26th in 2007 before last year's drop-off.
Venables cringes at the thought of explaining away the subpar performance with the rationale that six of the nation's top 12 offenses were in the Big 12 last year, largely due to the proliferation of the spread offense.
``If you hear it enough, you can start to buy into it. You start to believe that and you give yourself an excuse,'' Venables said. ``For us, we try to hammer into our guys that it still comes down to us.''
``It doesn't take anything superhuman,'' he added. ``There's a lot of offensive gurus out there and all these `great spread schemes' and 'unstoppable schemes.' It still comes down to man-on-man physically dominating your opponent, stopping the run and playing with great technique.''
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -Even as Oklahoma's players got ready to play in the national championship game this past winter, the buzz was not entirely flattering. The Sooners had the highest-scoring offense in college football history, but a defense that wasn't championship caliber.
That's something that doesn't sit well with a Bob Stoops-coached defense.
``I think our guys have talked about it a lot since the end of last year. We were tired of over the course of a month in preparation for the national championship that we were a joke,'' defensive coordinator Brent Venables said. ``I think a lot of guys took that to heart.''
Perhaps more than a growing quarterback tradition with two Heisman Trophy winners and one runner-up, the hallmark of Stoops' decade in Norman has been stingy defenses. But last year's unit ended the year a middle-of-the-pack 68th in total defense, and players are none too happy about it.
``We've got to be just like a grimy, angry, mean defense,'' second-team All-America defensive tackle Gerald McCoy said. ``We've got to be more selfish and stingy. We just can't give up anything. We don't plan to give up anything this year.''
The Sooners bring back nine starters on defense, needing only to fill holes at both safety positions. A big part of this preseason is teaching the right attitude instead of just Xs and Os.
``You want all your guys to be right on the edge of going completely and totally berserk and ballistic, and at the same time holding composure. I think having experience does that,'' Venables said.
Oklahoma's defense was hampered by its youth last year, particularly when Ryan Reynolds suffered a season-ending knee injury in the second half against Texas. Venables didn't have anyone else who had played middle linebacker, and it showed.
Fill-ins Austin Box and Mike Balogun got up to speed over the course of the year and return now better suited to back up Reynolds, who's healthy again. Cornerbacks Dominique Franks and Brian Jackson each had a full year in the starting lineup, and the front four is one of the deepest and most talented in the country.
``You can have that energy, you can have all the intensity, when you know what you're doing, when you've been there, you've done that, you're sure of yourself,'' Venables said. ``Guys can kind of turn it loose a little bit more.''
Venables wants his defense have the attitude that it's not OK to give up a score anytime - even in the final 2 minutes of a game that's well in hand. That happened in four of Oklahoma's 14 games last season.
But perhaps more important, both of the Sooners' losses came in games in which they held fourth-quarter leads. Texas scored twice in the final 8 minutes and Florida twice in the last 11 minutes to each win by 10 points.
``We need to just be mean,'' linebacker Travis Lewis said. ``We have the potential to be a great defense. We're just missing that one little thing to stop people in the fourth quarter, to make that play when it counts.
``It's just that nastiness to go out there and have that mentality that nobody's going to score.''
Between 2000 and 2005, the Sooners ranked among the top 13 defenses in the country every year. That's started to slip lately, to 16th in 2006 and 26th in 2007 before last year's drop-off.
Venables cringes at the thought of explaining away the subpar performance with the rationale that six of the nation's top 12 offenses were in the Big 12 last year, largely due to the proliferation of the spread offense.
``If you hear it enough, you can start to buy into it. You start to believe that and you give yourself an excuse,'' Venables said. ``For us, we try to hammer into our guys that it still comes down to us.''
``It doesn't take anything superhuman,'' he added. ``There's a lot of offensive gurus out there and all these `great spread schemes' and 'unstoppable schemes.' It still comes down to man-on-man physically dominating your opponent, stopping the run and playing with great technique.''
