It is what it is. That being, like last year OU has a scintillating offense but has a defense which quite frankly can’t tackle anyone at the line of scrimmage or in space down the field.
That’s kind of a critical shortcoming when you play on the defensive side of the football and like in the Georgia game when OU couldn’t get a stop when it needed one, they couldn’t get one in Saturday’s Red River Rivalry which was won by Texas on the last play of the game.
Should Mike Stoops be fired? Would that help or is it just that the culture of defense in the Big 12 is a past tense pipe dream?
I’m not sure. Mike Gundy fired Glenn Spencer as his defensive coordinator last season. If anything, O State is worse. Like OU they can’t tackle or stop anyone. They’re terrible as well. So, I mean, what I’m saying here is that Lincoln Riley could fire Stoops, but that doesn’t mean OU will be able to turn around their defensive woes.
I think it’s more a cultural deal of the high school football which is being played in both Texas and Oklahoma. All these high school programs play the spread and there is no emphasis on the physicality aspect of football. These are the two states which both OU and O State primarily recruit in to fill their rosters.
Why is it you think that when Brent Venables left OU he didn’t stay around in this region of the country to continue his coaching career? Because in the southeast region of the country they still play defense in high school.
And don’t tell me Texas is a great defense. They’re not. They were just torched for 45 points by an OU team which had two key turnovers or else OU would have scored 50 something points in this year’s version of the Red River Rivalry.
TCU’s Gary Patterson is alleged to be a defensive savant. Oh, really. Did you see the Horned Frogs play Ohio State and Texas?
See where I’m coming from?
No one in the Big 12 is very good defensively and that’s primarily why no Big 12 team since Vince Young’s 2005 Longhorn team has won a national championship. And based on Saturday’s results the Big 12 will not have a team in this year’s national championship football playoff.
Do you really think the committee would take West Virginia even if they went undefeated?
So while I love watching Kyler Murray and the OU offense it’s fairly evident the Sooners don’t possess a defense…. and at the end of the day if you want to ne mentioned with Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, and Ohio State you kind of need a defense.