UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY
Mike Stoops must prepare for diverse offenses in September
NORMAN — Mike Stoops is on the spot. And not for the reason you think.
The beleaguered OU defensive coordinator is going to have a strange August, because his Sooners are going to have a strange September.
The offenses of OU’s three non-conference opponents are wildly diverse. Animal, vegetable, mineral. Mountains, beach, desert. Country, classical, rock’n roll.
Florida Atlantic, which exploded offensively under coach Lane Kiffin last season, is a Big 12 prototype; spread it out, fling it around. UCLA brings new coach Chip Kelly, whose no-huddle, hurryup, quarterback-run offense was all the rage at Oregon and even still has its fingerprints all over the NFL champion Eagles. Then after a Big 12 opener against Iowa State comes Army, with its triple option, clock-eating offense that might as well be from Jupiter as far as the Big 12 is concerned.
“We’ve got a lot of work cut out for us,” linebacker Caleb Kelly said Sunday during OU Media Day. “But that’s the coaches’ job. They’re good at it.”
Stoops and staff are under the gun because of OU’s mediocre defenses in recent seasons. The Sooner defense was excellent in showdowns against Ohio State and TCU last season but not-so-excellent in equally important games against Oklahoma State and Georgia. Lincoln Riley has expressed nothing but faith in Stoops, particularly with OU’s defensive recruiting seemingly on the uptick, but there’s a limit to such patience.
And now comes a
September that figures to stretch any coach’s ability to teach.
“It’s probably the toughest one we’ve had,” Stoops said of what the defense faces in September. “Got a lot of firepower.”
Army is the biggest headache. The Cadets long have run the triple option, but under fifth-year coach Jeff Monken, Army is running it well.
In the Armed Forces Bowl last December, Army beat San Diego State 42-35. The Cadets ran 91 plays to the Aztecs’ 30 and held the ball for 46 of the game’s 60 minutes.
Now you know why OU spent a couple of days in spring practice working against the triple option and will spend part of August camp doing the same, preparing for a team that will be vastly out-talented
when it takes Owen Field on Sept. 22.
The Sooners got a semi-preview of Army last September; Tulane used elements of the triple option.
“Playing an option team, I hate to say it like this, but it’s kind of boring, because it’s assignment football,” said OU linebacker Kenneth Murray. “You can’t necessarily just run to the ball, because you run to the ball and it gets pitched, you’re screwed.
“You (must) get everybody on the same page, get everybody to realize OK, one guy has the quarterback, another guy has the pitch, and the other guy has the dive (fullback). So you have to get everybody on the same page, everybody focus on their job, and we’ll be fine.”
But that’s the point.
Army takes all kinds of preparation that won’t be used again all season. And stifling that preparation is UCLA, which, too, will bring a unique offense to Norman.
Kelly was considered college football’s resident offensive genius when he was at Oregon as both offensive coordinator and head coach. Kelly’s Eagles were 26-21 from 2013-15, then his 2016 49ers went 2-14 and the shine was off the star.
But now Kelly is back on a campus, where running quarterbacks can survive, and Stoops is scrambling to recall his days as Arizona’s head coach and mostly annual matchups against Oregon.
“Chip, you gotta get a big notebook on him,” Stoops said. “We had some unbelievable games when
I was at Arizona, and he hasn’t changed a whole lot. It’s the same stuff he did. You have a pretty good idea the direction we’re headed. They’re going to be all tough games.”
Stoops can’t gripe too much about the schedule — his brother Bob gave the OK, back when he was the OU head coach — but no way does Mike Stoops endorse a trio like this.
“I’m not a proponent of playing a lot of tripleoptions teams,” Mike Stoops said. “I don’t know where it benefits you. But Army’s such a great traditional school, you go do it. Can’t worry about it.”
Caleb Kelly said he and his defensive mates have been watching film of Army and Oregon, trying to get ready for the instruction that is to come.
How extreme are these
offenses? Kelly was motivated to say familiarity is “why we like playing in the Big 12 a lot.”
Enjoy playing in the Big 12? The cost to the reputations of Big 12 defenders and coaches is well-documented. Riley has just come out of a long quagmire with SEC loyalists, explaining why playing Big 12 defense is not for the soft.
But better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.
A devil you don’t twice comes to Owen Field in September.