Spring is upon us, and that means spring practice for the Oklahoma football team. Spring practice will not get underway until March 22 for the Sooners, who head into the 2022 season under Brent Venables, who took over after the departure of Lincoln Riley at the tail end of last season.
Venables is widely respected in all collegiate coaching circles for his character, passion and defensive wizardry. It’s hard to imagine the Oklahoma Sooners struggling to become an elite defensive unit over time, considering Venables’ track record.
Offensively, the Sooners head into spring looking to pick up offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby’s offense.
Lebby takes over a Sooners offense that has plenty of talent in all the right places but is trying to bounce back from a bumpy 2021 season. The offense navigated two different quarterbacks (neither of which is with the team anymore); offensive line struggles throughout the season; and their play-caller did them no favors either.
Lebby’s offense differs from Riley’s in a few ways, but, most notably, it differs in its usage of running backs and the run game when married with tempo. Riley slowed the pace considerably. With Lebby in charge, look for a lightning-fast offense, reminiscent of Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford-led offenses.
Lebby goes fast, but his veer-n-shoot offense is a power running game with zone elements mixed in with the air raid as its foundation. For this offense to be at its best, running backs coach DeMarco Murray will have to have his room full of talented running backs ready to go.
Let’s look at what the Sooners will have in their running back room as we start spring ball.