When the announcement was made that the Oklahoma Sooners would be heading to the [autotag]SEC[/autotag], there was one thing that had to change about this football program. They had to start winning battles for elite defensive linemen.
That’s one of the reasons why [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag] got the job. They knew his track record of building elite defenses that started with elite defensive linemen. He brought with him his defensive line coach [autotag]Todd Bates[/autotag], who is an elite recruiter, and also brought [autotag]Miguel Chavis[/autotag] with him, who has proven to be a very good recruiter as well.
They’ve done a very good job so far, landing two five-star defensive linemen in two years. They could add a third in February. Venables talked about the difficulties of recruiting elite defensive linemen in his press conference on Wednesday.
“It’s the law of supply and demand,” Venables said. “There’s just not as many of them. It’s been that way since football became a sport. Rushing the passer, stopping the run, the lines of scrimmage is where the game has always been won or lost. So, that’s not a new thing, but there’s just not as many of them that are able to play at a really, really high level.”
The Sooners have signed five defensive linemen so far this cycle. Those five gave the Sooners one of the best defensive line classes the program has had in the last 20 years. So, you can see Venables is building it the right way.
They just now have to start developing those players and then getting the results on the field.
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