There may not be a more scrutinized position group at Oklahoma than the secondary since 2010.
They are under a microscope every game. The Big 12 does them no favors, either. Its a conference that has been chewing up and spitting out secondaries and defensive coordinators since Mike Leach brought the air raid in in 1999.
But, Oklahoma’s secondary showed promise at times in 2019. There were definitely some growing pains under new defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, sure, but it seems headed in a right direction.
“… And yeah, secondary, I’m excited about them,” said Lincoln Riley on Tuesday. “I think the competitive depth in that room is really good. I like just kind of the vibe and mentality in it. We’ve got some really good leaders. Some of our strongest leaders, not only on defense but on our team are in that room right now. We’ll be excited as the year goes on and we continue to progress these young guys, I think there’s some talented guys there that can certainly help us right away. And even with that we’ve got a lot of competition and guys that have played a lot of snaps around here that are fighting like crazy to get on the field or stay on the field and that’s how you always want any group to be.”
Oklahoma is returning three of four starters in the backend of the defense.
Incumbent corner Tre Brown has the most experience out of any in the group. With losing Parnell Motley, it’s Brown who the Sooners will be looking to in order to be the shutdown corner.
He hasn’t performed to the level of the hype he had coming into Oklahoma, but Grinch thinks that’s changing.
“What I saw in Tre Brown 20 months ago was inconsistency—I would tell Tre Brown that if he was sitting here today,” he said. “He could try to mount an argument and I’d win it if we had that conversation. You saw ability. You saw speed. You saw too much reliance on that speed as opposed to techniques and fundamentals. Coach Manning has done a tremendous job with our corner room. Credit goes to him. But also credit goes to TreBrown for buying in and working. When I say he made a real jump this fall camp, I say that not in a critique of him a year ago. I just see more consistent play. I see a guy that is trying to make an impact down in and down out, and a guy that’s not just a speed guy anymore. A guy that’s trying to mix it up with technique and fundamentals. I think it will serve him this year if he commits to him on game day, which we expect him to.”
Opposite of him is a new face in sophomore Jaden Davis.
He played in a backup role a year ago with limited snaps, but is a guy Grinch has been impressed with.
“I think at times, I think he probably was content in playing,” he said about Davis as a freshman. “I think maybe midway through the year, we kind of accused him of that, as opposed to just trying to get better week in and week out. And that’s what a lot of times young players do, you kind of accept your role, you’re excited that you have a role and I don’t know that we from Game 6 to Game 10 saw a jump as a guy who’s played a lot of football for us. And so that was a major emphasis point over the course of the offseason, and obviously we didn’t get to spend as much time if it was normal offseason. But even in the fall camp, okay are you coming back as a guy that’s gonna fight to be a starter in this program, or are you content with just being the guy that kind of had a limited role as we went through things?
“And so I will say this, in the last couple weeks I’ve really been impressed with him. And a guy that I think certainly showed some flashes last year of being a quality corner in this conference and the guy that we need to be one for us this year. And so, you know less on the potential side and more on the doing side, but again, he’s got to go do it in games on a more consistent level than he did a year ago.”
Then the focus turns to safety.
Oklahoma lost Delarrin Turner-Yell prior to the Peach Bowl with a broken collarbone. He is back and started against Missouri State and was the Sooners second leading tackler.
Opposite of him is returning starter Pat Fields, who has earned a leadership role on the defense and is progressing as a player fast.
“I think it has accelerated,” Grinch said about Fields leadership role. “I think a lot of times what happens with guys, until you’re playing good football, until you’re a consistent member of any organization — but obviously I’ll speak to us defensively — the guys that have the biggest voice are, one, play, and then number two, play at a consistent level. It’s very difficult to be a leader if you’re constantly on the roller coaster, in terms of one, doing things right both on and off the field, but number two, if you’re one of those guys that is taking the appropriate opportunities to be a leader, which looks more like a positive role as opposed to a negative role.
“What Pat has done, he’s coupled the fact that he’s played and coupled with his ability to do things right consistently both on and off the field, and what happens in those instances Is you’ve got a voice that guys respond to. So he’s taken advantage of that. It suits him. It suits us. We need him to be that guy for us. Sometimes over the course of my career, you kind of cringe sometimes when you call a guy a leader, and say, ‘Wait a second, I don’t know if he does enough things right to be the leader of your defense or the leader of your position group.’ But, thrilled for him and thrilled for us that he’s a quality guy that the guys respond to.”