College football season is upon us. Week zero is this weekend and while the Sooners won’t play until Sept. 2, we can begin to put the offseason behind us. And more importantly, we can put the 2022 season behind us.
In ESPN’s 2023 college football preview, they believe the Oklahoma Sooners shrug off year one of the Brent Venables era.
Oklahoma bounces back: There’s no way a Brent Venables-coached defense can be that bad again. In the former Clemson defensive coordinator’s first season as OU’s coach, the Sooners ranked 122nd out of 131 FBS teams in total defense, allowing 461 yards and 30 points. They were ninth in the Big 12 in run defense (187.5 yards) and dead last against the pass (273.5 yards). With the addition of McCullough and five other defensive linemen out of the transfer portal, Venables should have enough bodies up front to play defense the way he’s used to. With quarterback [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] coming back, OU won’t have to worry about scoring. – Mark Schlabach, ESPN
It’s like Dabo Swinney said last fall, it’s not like Brent Venables all of a sudden forgot how to coach defense. Now, perhaps the offenses in the Big 12 are more challenging than the ACC. But the reality is that the talent on defense wasn’t good enough during the Lincoln Riley era and after five players were selected in the 2022 NFL draft, including Nik Bonitto in the second round, the Sooners were devoid of talent on BV’s side of the ball.
They made significant additions to the defensive side of the ball to bolster their front seven. [autotag]Rondell Bothroyd[/autotag], [autotag]DaJon Terry[/autotag], [autotag]Davon Sears[/autotag], and [autotag]Trace Ford[/autotag] join a developing defensive line. [autotag]Ethan Downs[/autotag] is likely to start again at defensive end and [autotag]Isaiah Coe[/autotag] and [autotag]Jordan Kelley[/autotag] are expected to see significant playing time after flashing in 2022.
The depth at linebacker will help that unit be better this year than last and the secondary could be one of the best units on the team this year.
The offense was inefficient at times in 2022, but it was good enough for the Sooners to win several more games if the defense had been merely average.
They’re an easy candidate to return to Big 12 title contention after a down year. This team is better for a lot of reasons and in less than two weeks, they’ll begin to show it.
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