| 05 January 2010
2009 Defense Season Recap
While it was best to details the breakdowns at each position on offense (since every position pretty much had issues), on the defensive side of things were a lot more stable.
OU was in the top ten of almost every defensive category including #8 Rushing Defense, #7 Pass Efficiency Defense, #8 Total Defense, and finally #7 Scoring Defense (compared to last year's ranking of 57th), and the all important get the offense off the field 3rd down conversion percentage OU was ranked 8th (compared to 39th last year)
Statistically this was the best Sooner defense since 2001 and tied with the 2000 defense in several areas.
So clearly most positions did well this year, so let's try some Q&A to recap the Sooner defense.
1. Did the Sooners Defense meet the preseason expectation of being one of the best defenses of the Bob Stoops era?
As I've listed above stats wise this was a very impressive Sooner defense. Other than the Texas Tech game and some 4th quarter drives given up versus BYU and Miami, the answer is a resounding, yes. I'd offer that the OU defensive effort against UT was the best defensive performance since Mike Stoops was DC
2. Which Sooner defenders exceeded expectations this year?
Four candidates for this answer, First, Brian Jackson has as good a season at CB since Derrick Strait was around. He wasn't that dominant, but his play was at a ridiculously high level most of the year. Second, after he was put into the starting lineup Jonathan Nelson really made us wonder why that move didn't happen before. He was a play maker from the very beginning and stabilized the defensive backfield. Third, Adrian Taylor while playing almost every rep with McCoy had an excellent season at DT. Fourth, Quinton Carter playing his first year as a starter had a very good year at safety with a number of key interceptions and played a solid game in run support as well.
3. Did the big name returning stars live up to expectation?
Jeremy Beal and Gerald McCoy certainly did. However, Austin English got hurt again, really leaving Sooner fans with a dominant season in 2007 to remember and nothing more. Travis Lewis had a wildly inconsistent season that was clearly at best a lateral move from his impact freshman year. Dominique Franks had a bad start to the season with busts leading to TDs and FGs in the BYU and Miami games, and a horrible punt return decision against UT which cost OU a FG (margin of victory).
4. What was the biggest surprise about the Sooner defense?
Starting with the Texas game, Venables unleashed some fantastic changes in personnel and scheme. Finally after a year of internet DCs complaining, Venables finally shelved the 3 LB looks against 3 or 4 WRs looks and pulled Ryan Reynolds. So instead of Reynolds/Lewis/Clayton, OU went with Lewis/Clayton/Ibiloye (and Joseph had barely played all year) with a secondary of Franks/Nelson/Jackson/Carter with a modified look on 3rd down where OU would pull a DT and add Sam Proctor as an extra DB. This nickel/dime look with Beal playing a lot of standup DE/OLB was just astounding throughout the rest of the season. And throughout the second half of the year after Nelson took over at safety full time from Proctor, Venables also effectively used his LB rotation subbing Austin Box in for Clayton on occasion, and in the Stanford game OU changed up personnel playing more of a 3-4 look with Ronnell Lewis and Jeremy Beal playing an OLB look while moving Clayton back to SS. Hopefully, this is new strategy will continue as OU has recruited a number of hybrid athletes that could be plugged into different defensive schemes (Ibiloye SS/OLB, Trice NB/Dime CB, Nelson CB/FS, Ronnell Lewis OLB/DE, Beal OLB/DE).
