On the defensive
Is OU’s Mike Stoops coaching this week to keep his job?
Lincoln Riley isn't firing Mike Stoops or anyone else on Oklahoma's defensive staff.
At least not right now. "That's not on the table," the Sooner head coach said Monday when I asked if changes were a short-term option. "We have a really good defensive staff, and that's who we're gonna have."
And yet with OU preparing for its annual throwdown with Texas after an unsettling nail-biter at Baylor and an earthshaking loss to Iowa State, you have to think Stoops and Co. are fighting for their coaching lives. Ever since that blockbuster victory at Ohio State, the defense
has regressed. Badly.
Zach Smith threw for 463 yards, Kyle Kempt for 343, and if neither of those names ring a bell — or if you’re a Sooner fan who’s tried to forget them — they are the little-known quarterbacks from Baylor and Iowa State who went up and down the field on OU.
To think that the Sooners haven’t even faced the big-name quarterbacks on their schedule. What do you think Nic Shimonek, Mason Rudolph, Kenny Hill and Will Grier will do to this defense?
Not to mention Slingin’ Sammy E.
Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger threw for 380 yards against Kansas State. Ran for another 107. Even though Tom Herman has refused to name his starting quarterback, the Longhorn coach needs to have his head examined if it’s anyone other than Ehlinger.
One saving grace for the Sooners may be that he’s a true freshman in his first Red River Rivalry.
Of course, Kempt had only completed two passes in his career coming
into Saturday’s game, and that didn’t slow him down.
Neither did OU. The Sooners missed tackles. Blew assignments. Botched opportunities.
“Some of the old scars kind of repeated again,” Stoops said after the game.
The issues against Iowa State were the issues only a couple weeks earlier against Baylor. The pass defense was poor, and the pass rush wasn’t good enough to cover for it.
Then again, those have been the root causes of the Sooners’ defensive struggles for several seasons. Against these pass-happy offenses in the Big 12, you’ve got to have a secondary that can consistently cover or players and/or a scheme that can regularly get to the quarterback and screw with the timing.
The Sooners are deficient, and the numbers show it.
The past five seasons, the Sooners have ranked near the bottom nationally in total defense (65th in 2012 and 82nd in 2016) as much as they’ve ranked near the top (20th in 2013 and 39th in 2015).
If you want to argue that Big 12 offenses skew that number, OK. But I would argue that blue bloods with OU’s pedigree should look
for answers instead of excuses when it comes to rankings that poor.
The shorter view of some national rankings so far this season doesn’t bode well either. Total defense: 44th. Pass defense: 79th. Passing efficiency defense: 97th.
“There’s nothing wrong schematically with what we’re doing,” Sooner defensive end Ogbo Okoronkwo said Monday. “The players gotta play. The coaches aren’t out on the field. The players got to execute.”
True, but how they perform has a direct correlation to how they are coached. How are fundamentals taught? How are techniques drilled? How are game plans presented?
Is it done in a way that gives the players the best chance of succeeding?
Where OU’s defense is concerned right now, the answer is no — and the answer has been no more times than not during Stoops’ current stint as defensive coordinator.
The Sooners, of course, have won a ton of games during that same stretch, and the defense has had great moments. Alabama, 2013. Baylor, 2015. Oklahoma State and Auburn, 2016. But there have been some clunkers, too. Baylor and Clemson, 2014. Ohio
State, 2016.
Tavon Austin, anyone? Or Texas Tech and its 854 yards of offense?
Some wanted Stoops fired on the spot — and OU won both those games against West Virginia and Texas Tech.
The consternation is understandable, though midseason firings are tough. They leave the coaching staff shorthanded, adding difficulty to the struggles.
Lots of games remain to turn around these recent struggles, and still, it seems fair to ask if a candidate with Stoops’ resumewas in the running to be OU’s defensive coordinator, would he get the job? On the plus side, hehas been part of three conference titles in the past five years and beaten the likes of Ohio State and Alabama. But his defenses also struggle regularly to defend the pass, make similar mistakes repeatedly and have been made to look foolish occasionally.
Would he get such a coveted job?
I’m not even sure he’d get an interview.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405475-4125 or jcarlson@ oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ ok or view her personality page at newsok.com/jennicarlson.