Heading into the 2023 season, it's no secret that the defense in Norman needs to be vastly improved from a season ago. In 2022, Oklahoma allowed 5.74 yards per play, its highest mark since allowing 6.13 yards per play in 2018, when the unit was historically bad.
The Sooners also allowed 461 yards per game (the highest mark since at least 2000) and 187.5 yards per game on the ground, the most since 2012. All of that offensive success from opponents culminated in a third-down conversion rate of 40.4% in 2022. Simply put, OU just couldn't get off the field last season.
Despite all of that, there's reason to believe that the Sooners' defense will flip the script in 2023. With a plethora of new faces, and those returning looking much better-suited for the physical style of play that OU coach Brent Venables demands, there's an expectation that they will be better in 2023, and he is seeing it come to fruition on the practice field.
"Confidence. Aggressiveness. Physicality. Consistency in that two-deep. It’s never where you want it to be, but it’s improved from where we were, that’s the biggest thing,” Venables said of the defensive improvements from a season ago. "I like watching guys that have really invested that have been here for whatever amount of time, I like to see them invested in chasing excellence. And knowing that again, I may not get there, but… there’s an intent that matters.
“So we’ve got a lot of guys that are straining and competing and having the right mindset when it comes to every moment on the practice field, every rep in the meeting room, everything matters. So that’s part of it too. Just developing a culture of expectations and the willingness to move the expectations in the right direction.”
Venables isn't one to throw around praise flippantly in discussion but seems to acknowledge that things are headed in the right direction heading into his second year. But it's not just about the plays being made on the field. It's the attitude. It's the culture. As he's said many times, "The little things matter," and that's how he's viewing fall camp in Year 2.
"Just the things that we talked about before we started camp," Venables says. "Just the overall efficiency of everything. I want to see the improvement in the areas that we're looking for. Obviously, there's expectations on how we do what we do. And so you're always managing that. If that’s the uniform of the day. How they get on and off the field. Their body language with their coaches."
To further his point, it's not just the players that have to have the right mindset heading into 2023, but the coaches as well.
"A coach’s job is not to make you happy, a coach's job is to make you better," Venables said. "I want coaches to go all the way to strain guys right now. I want to know what they're made of right now. And you develop that mindset, too. The intensity and the passion. That's all part of the game. Managing your emotions is incredibly important for the players. Having poise in those tough moments. So just looking at everything both pre and post-snap scheme. Sidelines. All of those things.”
It'll never be good enough. It's something Venables has said since he arrived in Norman two Decembers ago, but it still rings true. At a place like Oklahoma, where the expectations never come out of the clouds, there's always room for improvement.
“We’ve still got a long way to go. Not coach speak, we’ve just got a lot we’ve got to improve on," Venables said. "… I like the spirit of the team. We’re in a good spot. And again, love the competition on both sides of the ball. We’ve got some young guys in some spots that are growing up really really fast. Love seeing them get in there and get an opportunity with different groups and sub-packages to see what they can do. So really, (we’re) in a really good part of camp right now.
