Pair of Oklahoma Sooners among SEC’s best pass rushers

Oklahoma has two of the highest pressure-rate players in the SEC.

The Oklahoma Sooners have transformed into a very good defense in their third year under head coach [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag]. One of college football’s best defensive coordinators has completely turned around a unit that struggled for years under Lincoln Riley.

While Venables is also responsible for OU’s train wreck of an offense, and clearly didn’t make the right hires to replace the departed Jeff Lebby on that side of the ball, he has done the job of getting Oklahoma’s defense closer to where it needs to be.

That includes pressuring the quarterback. It hasn’t exactly been OU’s biggest strength this year, but the Sooners have two players in the top three of the [autotag]SEC[/autotag] in pressure rate generated against FBS opponents, according to CFB Film Room.

Defensive end [autotag]R Mason Thomas[/autotag] is Oklahoma’s best pass rusher and he earned the second-place spot on the list. He closed out Oklahoma’s two most recent wins against Tulane and Auburn. When the Sooners got the lead and needed to slam the door, Thomas has been the guy to get the job done. His pressure rate currently sits at 16.5%.

Perhaps even more impressively is that defensive tackle [autotag]Gracen Halton[/autotag] ranks third in pressure win rate in the SEC. Halton is having success in a rotational role. He doesn’t start for the Sooners but is getting a ton of work, especially in passing situations. He’s third among interior defensive linemen in snaps, just one snap behind true freshman defensive tackle Jayden Jackson. Still, that hasn’t stopped him from getting after opposing QBs and he’s popped on multiple occasions already this year, finding himself in opposing backfields more and more. His pressure rate is 16.4%.

Both players sit behind the leader of the pack, which would be Tennessee’s James Pearce, who has a whopping 22.2% pressure rate against FBS teams this season. However, Thomas and Halton were the only other players to get above 16 percent.

Oklahoma’s defense will certainly be put to the test on Saturday against a wide-open attack courtesy of Lane Kiffin, Jaxson Dart, and the Ole Miss Rebels. With an offense that currently cannot be counted upon to put any points on the scoreboard, OU’s defense will have to play a near-perfect game and maybe even score some points of their own if the Sooners want to win this week on the road.