Please, Lord. The Sooner faithful are begging you. Can we please have a defense….
Let’s just start this season by cutting to the chase right now.
The Sooners’ nuclear-powered offense is going to be great in 2019, as all of Lincoln Riley’s offenses have been.
Jalen Hurts is the man.
The Alabama transfer has a strong shot at grabbing the Heisman Trophy at year’s end. What a story that would be! Lost his starting job with the Crimson tide; transfers to Oklahoma; becomes the third straight Big Red QB to grab the big enchilada.
It’s a story with a Hollywood ending.
We’ve also got solid receivers and running backs. Heck, even though we have only one returning starter on the offensive line this season, no one seems worried that our guys up front won’t knock the stuffing out of nearly every defense they square off against. We’re just reloading up front, you see.
Nope, offense is going to be just fine.
This season is all about one thing: DEFENSE.
Everyone knows about defense. It’s something OU fans haven’t seen in so long on Owen Field they’ve almost forgotten what it is. It’s where you stop the other team from getting first downs, break up passes on third and twenty with regularity, and keep the other team from scoring.
At least that’s what I remember it being.
Oh, there have been moments for the defense over these last few years certainly, but not nearly enough for a team that has been in the college football playoffs as much as the Sooners have.
Take a look at last season’s year-ending stats and it’s enough to make Cecil Samara rise from the grave and weep face down on the 50-yard line.
Who among us doesn’t pine like lost puppies for the days of the Selmon brothers, Randy Hughes, Brian Bosworth, Darrol Ray, Ricky Dixon, Dusty Dvoracek, Jimbo Elrod, Rod Shoate or Roy Williams?
Please, Lord. The Sooner faithful are begging you. Can we please have a defense that is at least rated in the top 100 of all of Division I NCAA football statistics by season’s end?
Just think what the men in crimson and cream would accomplish if we did.
Heading into this season I actually feel sorry for OU Defensive Coordinator Alex Grinch. It’s a miracle that man hasn’t become a raging alcoholic in his brief stint with the crimson and cream.
There is uncertainty all over the starting eleven on defense, with the possible exception of Neville Gallimore and the D-line. There is confidence (or hope) that the D-Line, linebackers and defensive ends can be the foundation of a good defense. However, there are new guys popping up in those units too.
As it has been for nearly a decade, it’s the secondary that will require a defibrillator to constantly be within Grinch’s grasping distance as the year moves forward.
It’s a fact that this summer already has begun to increase Grinch’s migraines.
Tre Norwood, the secondary potential wonder who was going to lead the entire defense to glory this season, injured himself on the first day of camp and will ride the bench for the season.
So the position shifting there is well underway and those slots are going to be filled with a bevy of freshmen or sophomores in all likelihood; guys that have never played more than a handful of downs that mattered for OU – if they’ve played any at all.
Take it to the bank. OU is going to score a bunch of points this season. The Sooners are going to win a bunch of games.
They can win it all. We can have another Heisman winner. We can finally have that National Championship that we’ve been so close to the last several years.
All we’ve got to have is a defense, especially a secondary, that doesn’t look more like a girl’s powder-puff football team playing in their underwear than they do first-class defenders.
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