The Oklahoma Sooners fielded one of the worst defenses in the country in year one under head coach [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag] and defensive coordinator [autotag]Ted Roof[/autotag].
If Oklahoma wants to see an improvement in their record in 2023, they’ve got to be better on defense.
Roof told reporters, while they aren’t to the finish line yet, improvement is happening.
“We’re coming along,” Roof said. “We are not where we want to be we’ve made a lot of strides. Our attitude and our work ethic have been great for the most part. We are going to see the fruits of our labor but we are going to continue to do that but we aren’t anywhere close to where we need to be.”
Taking a defensive unit from 122nd nationally to a top-10 defense after one season isn’t realistic. Roof feels there are steps in every area that need to be taken to get where they want to be.
“From process to physicality to execution, I mean we are where we are in camp and there’s going to be some mistakes. We’ve got to be able to learn from those mistakes,” Roof said. “Then what we’ve got to be able to do is, we’ve got to be able to fix them. Be able to take corrections from the video room right to the practice field and see those corrections take place and see improvement because that leads to confidence.”
Confidence is key no matter what side of the football you play on. We’ve seen a lack of confidence the from the defense the past few years. If they play well early, it usually translates to the whole game but as soon as they allow a big play, their confidence gets zapped.
That’s the challenge for this coaching staff. Keep their confidence high at all times. If Venables has proven anything, he knows how to do that and knows how to coach defense. There are not too many people out there more equipped to handle this job.
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