How far the Oklahoma Sooners go in 2023 will depend on the Oklahoma Sooners’ defense. The offense has to improve. Of that, there is no doubt. But if the defense doesn’t take drastic steps toward improvement, another average season is in the cards for the Sooners.
Brent Venables and his coaching staff exited the 2022 season with no misconception about how much the defense had to improve in 2023. They attacked the transfer portal and landed some of the best defensive players available to infuse talent and experience into a unit that was one of the worst last year.
[autotag]Dasan McCullough[/autotag], [autotag]Rondell Bothroyd[/autotag] and [autotag]Reggie Pearson[/autotag] figure to be immediate impact players out of the portal. All three will either start or play significant snaps for a defense that didn’t have a lot of depth last year.
Additionally, [autotag]Danny Stutsman[/autotag], [autotag]Ethan Downs[/autotag] and [autotag]Billy Bowman[/autotag] will enter their second year as starters for the Sooners.
The growth and the development of the defense in addition to the transfer additions has the Sooners trending in a much better direction defensively. Will Backus of CBS Sports tends to agree. Backus included the Oklahoma Sooners among his most improved units heading into the 2023 season.
It almost has to be better, right? For a defense under [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag]’ leadership, Oklahoma’s performance last season was appalling. There’s no questioning the talent, though. The Sooners have recruited really well recently, and even after [autotag]Lincoln Riley[/autotag] bolted, the cabinet was still fairly stocked. Venables also leaned heavily on the transfer portal to plug any holes and primarily addressing Oklahoma’s biggest defensive worry: the pass rush. The Sooners managed just 28 sacks as a team last season, which ranked 64th nationally. Adding difference-makers like (Dasan) McCullough and (Rondell) Bothroyd — who would have led the Sooners in 2022 with his six sacks — will go a long way toward fixing that. Pair those two with the likes of Ford — who should see a return to form after a couple of injury-plagued seasons — and returning stars like [autotag]Ethan Downs[/autotag] and [autotag]Danny Stutsman[/autotag], and the Sooners should have a pretty imposing front. – Backus, CBS Sports
If the Sooners can make a substantial jump in performance this year, the Sooners will fulfill Brent Venables’ optimism that this team can win 10 games and have a chance to hang a banner at the end of the year.
Despite the turnover on offense, the defense’s performance will be the key to Oklahoma’s success in 2023.
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