Sometimes it takes something to wake up a unit. There’s a part of Oklahoma defensive coordinator Alex Grinch that is going to wonder why his guys can’t bring that energy every single snap, but there’s another part who is going to love that fire.
Oklahoma was cruising on its way to a 55-16 victory against visiting Texas Tech on Saturday afternoon when there was a scary moment featuring running back Kennedy Brooks early in the third quarter.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts was picked off for the first time this season when Brooks was chopped at the knees by Tech’s Eli Howard as the play was coming to a conclusion.
Brooks remained down on the sideline for several minutes before walking away under his own power. Somehow, sounds like he’s going to be OK.
“He’s good. We’re lucky because it was a bad, bad play,” head coach Lincoln Riley said. “Coach Wells was classy about it. He knew it. I appreciate him for what he said over there. He felt about it like I would have if one of our guys did it. It was a bad play. I was thankful that Kennedy wasn’t hurt worse because he probably should have been.”
Brooks didn’t see the field the rest of the game, but Riley said it was more precautionary than anything else. The OU defense? It had his back.
With an intensity that hasn’t been seen in a long time in Norman, the defense played with its hair on fire. It crossed the line a few times with a taunting penalty and a face mask infraction, but the passion, hard to be mad at that.
“They were pissed. I was too,” Riley said. “Other thing I told them was stop them. Nothing extra. That obviously didn’t work very good. We were emotional about it at that point. All the guys saw the play. Love how feisty and fiery we played, but it’s got to be under control too. Love how we responded. It was not poor us. Let’s rise up and go do it, and we did it.”
Penalties made it nearly impossible for Tech to not be in position to score, but the Red Raiders only netted a field goal. Not a touchdown.
“You saw a group of guys that took advantage of an opportunity in the game from a momentum that's against us, that you kind of flipped it on its head,” Grinch said. “I think it's pretty good example, also from a crowd standpoint, the impact they can have for us.”
The type of play epitomized the nastiness that’s going to be necessary for the Sooners defense to become as elite a group as it can be.
You hit one of us, you’re gonna get us all.
“We’re not going to be disrespected by anyone,” safety Delarrin Turner-Yell said. “If you do that, we’re not really gonna retaliate. But you’re gonna feel us. We’re gonna let you know we were affected by that type of play by our opponent. We’re gonna go out and play the brand of football we know how to play.”
Following the game, Howard apologized for the hit and said he was glad it doesn’t appear like Brooks will be seriously injured.
No doubt the sentiment will be appreciated, but the hit brought the defense together and showed what a united Grinch-led defense can do.
“That's our brother on the field,” defensive tackle Neville Gallimore said. “When you see stuff like that obviously you don't take too kind to that so again, we saw another motivation, another opportunity to step up and do what we needed to do. That's pretty much it.”
Gallimore is one of the team captains as is linebacker Kenneth Murray.
“Definitely a moment where I kinda got a little pissed off because obviously it was a late hit out of bounds,” Murray said. “Felt like it was a cheap shot. Talking to the defense, we were fired up, ready to go out there and get after it, try to go out there and do our job to shut them down. Anytime something like that happens to my teammates, I'm gonna take that personal.”
