Oklahoma’s defense has spent the offseason taking ownership

Oklahoma has left the Mike Stoops defensive days behind them. That started with the hiring of Alex Grinch, who helped shape the unit into a somewhat respectable defense. While it eventually hit a wall under Grinch’s direction, the days of being lambasted for weeks upon end are long gone.

Enter Brent Venables, college football’s best defensive mind over the last 10 years, as the new head coach of Oklahoma, a place he’s won a national championship as their defensive coordinator. He’ll no longer be the coordinator of the defense, that role has been passed to Ted Roof. As the team gets started with fall camp, Roof’s words about Oklahoma offer encouraging signs that the Sooners are on the precipice of breaking through the proverbial wall they ran into under Grinch.

When speaking with the media ahead of fall camp, Roof spoke on numerous topics, including the defense’s football IQ and the players’ willingness to get better on their own.

When asked about the biggest areas of progress from the defense since arriving, Roof had this to say,

“Well, I see an improved football IQ. And you can tell that the guys have been working because of that, as far as knowing assignments, understanding the defense, understanding where their help is because playing team defense is a big deal, as far as knowing where your help is and playing opposite your help; where, if you’ve got help outside, you want to make sure you stay inside leverage, things like that, the details of that, that allow you to play fast and allow you not to have to think and process as opposed to reacting.

“And so in addition to that, (it’s) learning offense, too, meaning formation tendencies, motions, shifts, all the receiver splits, all those things that go into the pre-snap process that the more you can understand that and recognize that, the faster you can play because then you can anticipate. And I think that’s what the great players do, they anticipate. They play ahead of the play instead of behind the play. …”

Oklahoma’s defenders immersing themselves in the nuances of football, understanding tendencies, knowing route combinations and even minute details such as receiver splits are something that should be refreshing to the ears of many Sooner faithful.

Knowing and understanding details like this are the difference between being a top-60 defense and a top-20 defense.

Venables’ 2014 Clemson defense led the nation in total defense, while his 2018 version led the nation in scoring defense. The Sooners want to level up into an elite defense and this staff’s tutelage could be the thing that gets them there. However, there has to be buy-in, and the buy-in comes from the players going the extra mile and immersing themselves in the fine details.

How does this level of commitment happen though? It starts with the players and the players taking ownership. That starts with doing things and coordinating player-led practices and workouts when NCAA rules prohibit coach interaction. Roof spoke on that in detail.

“Well, there are NCAA rules that we have to follow as far as a certain amount of hours that we can require them to be here, but you never regret doing more than what’s required,” Roof said. “And our guys have spent a lot of time on their own this summer, and I think we’ve had a great summer. I think we’re better defensively now than when we started the summer. But we should be. But some places aren’t. So, I’ve been real proud of the way that our guys have worked, and I think we’ve made some strides and looking forward to getting started. But being player-led, that’s a big deal. Coaches can do this and do that, but when your players take ownership and it becomes player led, then you’re moving in a really good direction.”

Oklahoma is less than a month away from unveiling its new defense to the world. With full buy-in from the staff and most importantly the players, Oklahoma can begin to try and push themselves to a level on defense that Norman hasn’t seen in years.

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Story originally appeared on Sooners Wire