Sooners to implement 4-man defensive front
WR, 6-2, 170, Cedar Hill, Texas. Despite a late visit to Florida, Rambo stuck with the Sooners. Arkansas also made a push for him and his other offers included Texas, Notre Dame, Baylor, Colorado and Iowa State among many others.
C, 6-4, 290, Shawnee. Humphrey, who made a big impression in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in January, was for a time committed to Texas A&M before flipping to the Sooners in August. His other offers included Oklahoma State, Texas and Virginia Tech.
CB, 6-0, 170, John Marshall. Broiles, an Oklahoman All-State selection, had 34 tackles and six interceptions as a senior despite team actively avoiding throwing his way. He committed to the Sooners in March and despite a December visit to Arizona State stuck with his plan and enrolled in OU in January.
LB, 6-2, 215, Collinsville. The inside linebacker had 115 tackles, four sacks, three fumble recoveries and an interception as a senior. He committed in December 2015 but still racked up offers that included Oklahoma State, Alabama, Washington, Nebraska, Georgia, Florida State and Clemson.
K, 6-0, 170, New Braunfels (Texas) Canyon. Mundschau committed in June and has the ability to both kick and punt. Kohl’s Kicking ranks him as the No. 3 punter in the 2017 class and a five-star in punting and a four-star in kicking.
The newly signed defensive members of Oklahoma’s 2017 class like linemen
and will jump right in with a new system that and
plan to implement in spring practice.
The Sooners will be moving away from the three-man front and back to the four-man front the program used in 2012.
“Yeah, because of all the spread we get, we just feel we’re gonna base out of a four-man front and jump into the odd occasionally, as opposed to being in an odd and jumping into a four-man front,” Bob Stoops said Wednesday afternoon. “That’s something we’ll concentrate on in the spring. With the amount of passing that we get, we feel that will allow us to get more pressure just from a four-man rush.”
Last season, OU ranked eighth in the Big 12 in pass defense as it struggled to get both consistent pass rushing and back-end defending.
The Sooners last regularly used the four-man front in Mike Stoops’ first year taking over for
The former Oklahoma defensive coordinator primarily used the 3-4 scheme, and Mike Stoops changed it out for the 4-3 with man-to-man coverage in the secondary for a season.
But when the run defense struggled, he went back to a 3-4 inspired by Alabama’s system.
This time around, the Stoops brothers are focused on adding extra defensive linemen to get more pressure on the quarterbacks in the Big 12’s pass-happy offenses.
“We still want to be more multiple in our defense and try to get our players on edges more and great more vertical penetration,” Mike Stoops said. “It’s all about trying to fit your defense to the players you have, so we’re going to try implement more of that to more spread out sets that are more passing situations.
“But we’re going to try and play both fronts as much as we can. With a young team, it’s hard to do. It was hard to do a year ago. We’re going to try to see how multiple we can be and still be effective.”
DeBerry to move to inside linebacker
Not only are the Sooners changing up their defensive scheme, but at least one OU player is also making a position switch as outside linebacker
is moving to middle linebacker.
DeBerry, a former fourstar linebacker, played in six games and started one in his redshirt freshman campaign.
With ahead of him on the depth chart at one of the outside linebacker spots and
and rotating in the other outside linebacker spot, it made sense to move DeBerry to the inside where the Sooners need to replace production lost with
graduation.
OU also has four linebackers in the 2017 recruiting class, ranked No. 7 in Rivals’ team rankings, in
and
Both Murray and Gumbs are listed as outside linebackers while Draper is primarily an inside guy. Daley is listed on some recruiting services as a defensive end, but Stoops might use him as a linebacker.
“Kenneth Murray, to me, he could play inside or he’s an outside,” Mike Stoops said. “K’Jakyre could play inside or outside. Addison Gumbs, where he’s longer, he’s a defensive end to outside linebacker. Levi is a true inside middle backer. It’s just how we position all those guys.
“I think you know better once you see them work out a few times, see movement-wise and how they pick up the defense.”
OU fills out quarterback room
jokes that he didn’t sleep all that well during the 2016 season. Maybe it was having a 3-month-old daughter. Maybe it was having just two scholarship quarterbacks on campus. He’s not sure.
And Riley will never know. His daughter will be much older next autumn. And OU’s quarterback depth chart isn’t nearly as precarious.
The Sooners jump to four scholarship quarterbacks next season —
and his 2016 backup, Texas A&M transfer
who becomes eligible after sitting out last season; and just-oncampus of Mesquite (Texas) Horn, who was part of OU’s announced recruiting class Wednesday but actually enrolled early and will be available for spring practice.
After the 2015 season, OU lost to transfer and to professional baseball. Both had started multiple Sooner games.
“We had to rebuild that (quarterback) room rather quickly,” said Riley, OU’s offensive coordinator. “We were fortunate that we were able to get through the year the way we did.”
Mayfield escaped the season unscathed, and Kendall played only a few games in mopup duty. Riley said more than alleviating depth concerns, having four scholarship quarterbacks will create competition on the practice field.
Murray played some as a true freshman at Texas A&M in 2015. He’s small (5-foot-9) but incredibly talented. Might Riley look to use Murray in shortyardage situations or at other positions?“We’ll see,” Riley said. “That’s probably down the line a little bit. Spring ball, our focus will be helping make him the best quarterback we can. We’ll see how other positions shake out. His future’s too bright at quarterback to do too much.”