Tag: Jordan Kelley

Sooners DL gets huge boost for 2024 with the return of Da’Jon Terry

The Oklahoma Sooners got some more new good news as their anchor in the middle will return in 2024.

While it seems like this has been a crazy week for the Oklahoma Sooners, they did receive some more good news on Thursday. The Sooners have been waiting to see how many of their key players from the 2023 season would return and how many would leave.

They are still waiting on a few guys to make that decision, but one very big piece, no pun intended, made his announcement Thursday. [autotag]Da’Jon Terry[/autotag] announced on social media that he would be returning to the Sooners in 2024.

The 6-foot-3, 321-pound defensive tackle was arguably the Sooners best defensive lineman in 2023. He was the man who clogged up the middle of the defense on key goal-line stands, including the one in the [autotag]Red River Rivalry[/autotag].

 

His numbers aren’t eye-popping. He finished with 17 tackles, three tackles for loss and one sack. But unless you are a superstar like Aaron Donald, for example, your numbers at that position usually aren’t off the charts. That position is key for clogging up the middle and holding blocks so the linebackers can fly around and make plays.

That’s what he did all season, and you need that big of a body when you head to the [autotag]SEC[/autotag]. Oklahoma is going to need more of those kinds of players before next season. Something they are trying to do in the portal.

But with the losses of [autotag]Isaiah Coe[/autotag] and [autotag]Jordan Kelley[/autotag], the Sooners needed Terry to come back. If so, they could only lose two key players at defensive tackle going into 2024.

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20 highest-graded Oklahoma Sooners through Week 10 per Pro Football Focus

The 20 highest-graded Oklahoma Sooners through week 10 per Pro Football Focus.

Though the Oklahoma Sooners are on a two-game losing streak, they’ve already surpassed their win total from a year ago with three games to go and a bowl game.

They still have a shot at a Big 12 title game berth. And after 6-7, that’s all we can really ask for.

The offense has shown improvement on third down and in the red zone. Dillon Gabriel is having a career year. The defense has shown significant improvement this season. A year ago, they allowed 30 or more points seven times. This year that’s only happened once against Kansas. Texas scored 30, but seven of those can be attributed to special teams on the blocked punt.

Yes, they lost winnable games the last two weeks, playing uncharacteristically sloppy football. Otherwise, they’ve been a really good team this year.

As they get ready to close the season, here are the top 20 highest-graded players according to Pro Football Focus through week 10.

Minimum 25% snap count

Offense: 177.75

Defense: 167.75

15 highest-graded Oklahoma Sooners through Week 5 per Pro Football Focus

Five games into the season, who are the highest-graded Oklahoma Sooners according to Pro Football Focus?

Football is a team game, but it’s made up of individual performances that enhance the whole. This season, the Sooners are playing well on both sides of the ball and have a top-five scoring offense and defense.

But what’s happening in 2023 is a change of pace from years past.

Of the Sooners’ top 15 highest-graded players, according to Pro Football Focus, nine of them are on the defensive side of the ball. Oklahoma has an elite offense but looks like they have an elite defense to match for what feels like the first time in forever.

Minimum Offensive Snaps: 99

Minimum Defensive Snaps: 89

Report Card: All three phases contribute as Oklahoma cruises to 30 point win over Iowa State

Oklahoma plays complementary football and rolls to a 50-20 win over Iowa State. A look at this week’s report card.

Oklahoma put together a complementary effort on Saturday night, beating Iowa State in their last matchup as Big 12 foes. In the Sooners’ 50-20 win, Oklahoma had big day on offense, added a defensive score, and a blocked punt resulted in a safety.

It was a pleasant sight as the Sooners avoided getting caught in a trap game. A few busts in coverage made the game closer than it was.

Outside of the two big plays, the Sooners allowed 234 yards and six points across the remaining three quarters. Brent Venables was able to rally and refocus his troops when the game got to 21-20 in the second quarter. The Sooners didn’t allow another point over the final 39 minutes of the game.

Here’s how the Sooners fared in this week’s Report Card.

Sooners DT Gracen Halton taking advantage of every opportunity

A pleasant surprise for the Sooners this year as been the emergence of Gracen Halton. Someone taking advantage of his opportunities.

Much has been made about how well the defensive line has been playing, especially against the run. The Oklahoma Sooners currently rank No. 15 in the nation in run defense.

That in itself is a massive improvement from a season ago. One guy on that defensive line who isn’t getting talked about enough is [autotag]Gracen Halton[/autotag]. Halton has arguably played the best of any of them and constantly flashes when he’s in the game.

Halton told reporters after practice on Monday he has improved from a year ago.

“I won’t say that I’m there but I’ve got a lot of work to do but I’m way better than I was last year,” Halton said. “Technique-wise and everything else, so I’ve got a lot of work to do, but I’m definitely better than last year.”

Halton has been playing as a role player rather than a starter, but he said the starters have really helped him get to where he is today. “I’m just learning from them,” Halton said. “They’re more experienced than me so every opportunity that I get, I’m just trying to go all in. That’s what I’m trying to display and show on TV and for the people watching.”

While his stats aren’t eye-popping, he is second on the team in tackles for loss with 2.5. But it’s the plays he makes consistently that don’t show up on the stat sheet like beating his guy and forcing the runner to cut back right into another tackler.

Stuff like that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet, but it’s stuff that will show up on film. Which will ultimately lead to more playing time for the one they call “G Baby.”

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Report Card: Defense flies high, offense stuck in a rut in 28-11 win over SMU

In our report card for Oklahoma’s performance against SMU, the defense leads the way with the highest marks.

The offense didn’t put its best foot forward in the Sooners 28-11 win over SMU. However, the defense kept Oklahoma in control until the Sooners were able to put together a couple of late scoring drives to seal the win.

Oklahoma knows it will have to play better as the season wears on. They’ll need to improve in all three phases to be in the mix for a Big 12 title berth in November. But for this game, it was enough.

Instead of a shootout, we got a game where neither team even scratched 40 points.

Here’s how each position group graded out in the 28-11 win over SMU.

Oklahoma Sooners pass rush will be better in 2023

With added talent and more experience, the Oklahoma Sooners pass rush will be much better in 2023 than it was a year ago.

Among the many issues the Oklahoma Sooners ran into when they entered Big 12 play was the dropoff of their pass rush. In a defense predicated on pressure, the Sooners finished tied for 64th in the nation with 2.15 sacks per game. Much of that success came in their nonconference, when the Sooners defense was looking pretty good. Once they entered Big 12 play, the pass rush was a different story.

The losses of [autotag]Nik Bonitto[/autotag], [autotag]Isaiah Thomas[/autotag], and [autotag]Perrion Winfrey[/autotag] were felt up front as Oklahoma broke in several new starters along the defensive line.

There was solid play from guys like [autotag]Reggie Grimes[/autotag], who got off to a hot start to the season, and [autotag]Ethan Down[/autotag]s, who closed the season strong. However, the play from their defensive line was inconsistent, and that was felt throughout the back seven.

With Downs and Grimes returning, along with other prominent fixtures in the defensive line rotation like [autotag]Isaiah Coe[/autotag] and [autotag]Jordan Kelley[/autotag], there’s hope that the Sooners’ pass rush will be improved this year.

[autotag]R Mason Thomas[/autotag] showed flashes last fall, as did [autotag]Gracen Halton[/autotag] in the spring. Both Thomas and Halton play with incredible quickness that they can create pressure in a hurry.

With more experience and another year of development, Oklahoma’s key returners along the defensive line will play a big part in the Sooners’ pressure resurgence.

But the Sooners’ coaching staff didn’t sit on their hands and assume the defensive front would develop. Brent Venables and his crew attacked the transfer portal with the same intensity that he coaches.

Oklahoma Added four defensive tackles in [autotag]Davon Sears[/autotag], [autotag]Jacob Lacey[/autotag], [autotag]Phillip Paea[/autotag], and [autotag]DaJon Terry[/autotag]. They also added defensive ends [autotag]Rondell Bothroyd[/autotag] and [autotag]Trace Ford[/autotag]. [autotag]Dasan McCullough[/autotag], who figures to factor in at Cheetah, played EDGE for Indiana in 2022 and accumulated four sacks as a true freshman. In Bothroyd, Ford, and McCullough, the Sooners added 28 career sacks to their defensive end room.

Then there are the incoming freshmen like [autotag]Adepoju Adebawore[/autotag], [autotag]Taylor Wein[/autotag], [autotag]Ashton Sanders[/autotag], and [autotag]Markus Strong[/autotag]. Adebawore is the five-star edge rusher that is long and super athletic. Wein flew under the radar until late in his senior year, but he’s also a very good athlete in his own right. Sanders and Strong offer good size and athleticism in the middle and can be disruptive. It only remains to be seen how quickly the freshmen can acclimate and help add to the Sooners’ depth along the defensive front.

If there’s truly strength in numbers, the Oklahoma Sooners have turned what was a weakness a year ago into a strength ahead of the 2023 football season. The talent added to the development they had in-house will be a big reason why the Oklahoma Sooners improve from the six-win team they were a year ago.

The Sooners raised their talent floor along the defensive line for 2023. Although we won’t be able to truly evaluate the pass rush until they get into Big 12 play, and the Texas game in particular, this team has added talent to rush the passer. They’ve raised the talent floor, minimizing any dropoff the Sooners might see from their starters to their rotational guys. That improved talent and more experience will help Oklahoma win on the rush a lot more frequently than it did in 2023.

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‘Oklahoma bounces back’: ESPN expecting good things for Sooners in 2023

In their 2023 college football season ESPN’s Mark Schlabach believes Oklahoma returns to form.

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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‘It feels like Christmas morning’: Todd Bates can’t wait to show off Sooners defensive line

The Sooners DL struggled last season, but Todd Bates thinks with the work they put in the offseason things will improve the defense.

Last season the defensive line struggled to stop the run or rush the passer with any consistency. It lacked what the staff calls competitive depth, especially right up the middle.

The interior defensive line is coached by [autotag]Todd Bates[/autotag]. He came to the [autotag]Oklahoma Sooners[/autotag] with [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag] from the Clemson Tigers.

While at Clemson, he developed some great defensive linemen, helping them become productive NFL linemen.

The interior defensive line should be the perfect example of how poor the last staff was at developing. It also should be an example of how they didn’t recruit well enough.

To win against the “big boys,” you need some 300-pound guys in the middle. That was something that just wasn’t there a year ago.

“Last year, just coming in, we only had one guy who weighed over 300 pounds when I got here,” Bates said. “When we pulled up to the door. Schmitty doing the work that he does with guys improved that number to three last season. Well, we’re going to camp this year with five.”

Those five guys are [autotag]Da’Jon Terry[/autotag], [autotag]Isaiah Coe[/autotag], [autotag]Phil Paea[/autotag], [autotag]Jordan Kelley[/autotag] and [autotag]Kevin Gilliam Jr.[/autotag] Two of which are brand new to the team. Gilliam is back healthy this season.

Even the guys who aren’t at 300 pounds have made a lot of progress as well. “[autotag]Gracen Halton[/autotag], he started at 267 when he arrived here, he’s up to 285 now,” Bates said. “[autotag]Jonah Laulu[/autotag] last year when he was at defensive end, he weighed 272. He’s already up to 290.”

Why is that so important?

“One of the main things that keep guys from getting movement in the middle on this earth is girth,” Bates said. “We finally got some girth.”

It’s not just that. The Sooners added competitive depth with some transfers coming in to make an immediate impact to add to the natural progression from the players who were already here. Bates can’t wait to show them off.

“We’ve gotten so many players that have gotten better and improved,” Bates said. “So many new guys as well, it feels like Christmas morning to my twins almost. You are going to unwrap some presents, and you can’t wait to show everybody what you’ve got.”

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Oklahoma’s defense among 247Sports most improved units heading into 2023

The Oklahoma Sooners were included among 247Sports most improved units heading into the 2023 season.

Last year you couldn’t get much worse than the product Oklahoma put on the field defensively.

The Sooners ranked 122nd out of 131 teams in total defense. Part of that was because of how many snaps they played due to the offense going up-tempo and having several three-and-outs but also just because of poor play.

The Sooners did show signs of what they could become. Go back and watch the first three games, the Bedlam game, and the first half against West Virginia , and you can see what this defense can become.

But ultimately, they have to put it together. 247Sports included the Oklahoma defense among their most improved units ahead of 2023.

Oklahoma had major struggles on defense last season and second-year coach Brent Venables used his roster-building tactics to avoid a similar fate. Through the transfer portal, the Sooners added four defensive linemen, two linebackers and one defensive back. Oklahoma also excelled through high school recruiting, landing a couple five-stars in EDGE Adepoju Adebawore and safety Peyton Bowen. They also brought in four-star safety Makari Vickers, cornerback Jasiah Wagoner and JUCO product Kendel Dolby. – 247Sports’ Raymond Lucas Jr.

There’s no doubt the Sooners saw areas of need and attacked them in the transfer portal. However, it’s not realistic to expect a complete turnaround.

Combine the new additions with a year in the system, and there should be a lot of improvements made.

Can Oklahoma get into the 60-80 range in total defense? It’s definitely possible. It needs to happen if they want to get where this team feels it can, back to the Big 12 title game.

The secondary has a chance to be the best unit on the team. The linebacker position, while not deep, should see a big jump in speed and athleticism with [autotag]Jaren Kanak[/autotag], [autotag]Kobie McKinzie[/autotag], and [autotag]Kip Lewis[/autotag] taking on more significant roles alongside [autotag]Danny Stutsman[/autotag] and [autotag]Dasan McCullough[/autotag]. The defensive line should be improved with the addition of [autotag]Rondell Bothroyd[/autotag] and the further development of guys like [autotag]Ethan Downs[/autotag], [autotag]R Mason Thomas[/autotag], [autotag]Jordan Kelley[/autotag], and [autotag]Isaiah Coe[/autotag].

I expect a nice jump defensively where we see more consistent play and consistent signs of what the defense can be. They will still have their duds and have poor games, but overall it should be and needs to be more consistent.

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