Stoops makes right decision with plan for Caleb Kelly

We’ve seen some interesting moves over the years with Oklahoma’s defense.

Everything started in 2000 when Mike Stoops and Brent Venables invented the Roy-Back position during a national championship run.

There was the time Brent Venables shifted strong safety Nic Harris to middle linebacker against Kansas in 2008.

We’ve seen Dan Cody develop into a standup rush end at a position that became known as ‘Spinner’

There’s been a saying with Oklahoma defensive coordinators over the years. They’ve always talked about getting the best 11 players on the field.

It happened in 2009 when Oklahoma put Ronnell Lewis in the game at linebacker to combat Stanford’s punishing ground game led by Toby Gerhart. Lewis became one of the stars of that bowl game. He was one of the best 11 defensive players the Sooners had for that matchup.

After talking to Mike Stoops last week following our first post-practice media session, that old adage came to mind.

I just asked Mike Stoops a very direct question: How are you going to keep Caleb Kelly on the field?

“Well, we’re working on it, you know what I mean? We are going to see,” Stoops told me that day.

When a 4-3 defense shifts into the nickel position, the SAM (strongside) linebacker is usually replaced by a defensive back. So when the Sooners switch to their nickel defense (a defense they use a lot against passing teams in the Big 12) Kelly, the SAM linebacker, has to change positions if he wants to stay on the field.

Stoops has two options, move Kelly to middle linebacker (MIKE) or weakside linebacker (WILL) when the Sooners shift into their nickel defense.

It’s something they’ve toyed with since the spring. Kelly is one of the Sooners best 11 players on defense. He has as much NFL potential as any player on the OU defense.

“We’re trying to move him a little bit. You know, more inside to be a nickel MIKE-backer or a nickel WILL-Backer,” Stoops said of Kelly on Thursday. “But we love what Emmanuel (Beal) does and we’re going to try and see what our MIKE’s are going to do so it’s a little bit precarious.”

I left that interview thinking about the best 11. I couldn’t believe Stoops wasn’t sticking to that principle of putting his best 11 players on the field.

Then media day happened Saturday. Stoops took to the podium. He announced a firm decision regarding the future of Kelly in his defense.

“It’s been interesting trying to piece this thing together with those guys,” said Stoops. “When we go to nickel, we’re moving (Kelly) to WILL linebacker. WILL and SAM are pretty interchangeable. We’re looking to put (Kelly) and (Beal) at that WILL position. We’re looking to put Jon-Michael Terry and Kenneth (Murray) at the MIKE position when we go nickel. And then when we play regular people we like (Kelly) and Curtis Bolton at the SAM position.”

What caused Stoops’ change of heart? Maybe it was the way Kelly was progressing as a WILL linebacker in practices. Maybe it was the fact that this fall camp is longer than they have been in the past?

During Stoops press conference he mentioned they still had three more weeks to practice after already having one week in the books.

“Gosh, it’s four weeks before we play,” Stoops quickly reminded himself.

It took a week of practices, but Stoops finally came to a firm decision on Kelly. It’s the right decision. It’s making sure the Sooners have their best 11 players on the field.

If it works, Stoops can put this defensive plan right up there with those mentioned at the start.

Does Kelly become a Kanai-back?

Let’s see how it goes, kind of like the OU defense, the name needs some work.