New Defense for 08?

[adoniijahsooner]

I was looking through the spring practice videos, and I heard brian jackson, and a few other players say the defense is working on some new schemes. Is this encouraging?

http://www.soonersports.com/ot/2008_spring_practice.html

[Curly Bill]

I was looking through the spring practice videos, and I heard brian jackson, and a few other players say the defense is working on some new schemes. Is this encouraging?

http://www.soonersports.com/ot/2008_spring_practice.html

How could it not be?

...seriously

[Youngsooner]

They're prolly working on how to stop a Fullback from making a 57 yard touchdown....
sorry
I had to :(

[bstuff1979]

Depends on what those new schemes are. Right now, the defensive strength is on the line and at end. The secondary and linebacking groups are going to be breaking in some new talent, so the thought that OU will be playing something outside of the regular Nickle package is maybe a little strange. The only thing that I can think of, off the top of my head, is maybe moving one of the tackles to end and playing a 3-4 scheme? It does allow for a wider variety of zone-blitz schemes, and the Big 12 has become rather pass-happy. Other possibilities could be a 4-2-5 (though I really hope not, you think the secondary had given up some big plays in the past...), maybe more out of the 4-3 than the nickle. One thing I would LOVE to see is more man-zone and man-under combos with zone-blitz mixed in rather than flat out zone (too much cover 2/tampa 2 zone, and the Sooners don't have an Urlacher so it's a little difficult to work it) and zone blitz. The other thing I'd really like to hear of is the offense saying the same type things, maybe throw in a 2 back shotgun set for when Loadholt misses the outside blitz.

[The Maestro]

I was at the Fiesta Bowl....so, yes.

[Charla]

We gotta Defense ?

[JLEW1818]

Franks will be key this year.

[DangTire]

That's good news indeed but unless someone decides to go back over the fundamentals and instills some team discipline it's going to be the same crap different year. Nothing's going to work as long as individuals keep trying to do everyone else's job to the detriment of their own.

[MojoRisen]

The only thing that I can think of, off the top of my head, is maybe moving one of the tackles to end and playing a 3-4 scheme? It does allow for a wider variety of zone-blitz schemes, and the Big 12 has become rather pass-happy. Other possibilities could be a 4-2-5


I like this potential - I would say get more athletes on the field at LB and SS

4-2-5

This may allow for Keenon Clayton to be a Run Stoping Saftey - he had some pretty explosive stats in winter testing - 225 - 4.5 forty flat, 400+ Bench press and Squat and broad jump of 10 feet. This guy is supposed to be a Hitter and if we have another undersized backer in Austin Box we could go with a 4-2-5 or 3-4 and blitz a lot more.

Clayton is definitely strong enough, big enough and hits hard enough to play LB. Will be interesting

[East Coast Bias]

I like a shift in talent in critical areas over revamping systems. Our strenght is DE, why not use Austin and Washington at end, shift Beal and Williams to LB?Now try to run the ball or get a pass off.I am not sure Stoops confidence in Reynolds abilities is well-founded....

[stoopified]

We gotta Defense ?
There is no D in Oklahoma!

[Salt City Sooner]

Depends on what those new schemes are. Right now, the defensive strength is on the line and at end. The secondary and linebacking groups are going to be breaking in some new talent, so the thought that OU will be playing something outside of the regular Nickle package is maybe a little strange. The only thing that I can think of, off the top of my head, is maybe moving one of the tackles to end and playing a 3-4 scheme? It does allow for a wider variety of zone-blitz schemes, and the Big 12 has become rather pass-happy. Other possibilities could be a 4-2-5 (though I really hope not, you think the secondary had given up some big plays in the past...), maybe more out of the 4-3 than the nickle. One thing I would LOVE to see is more man-zone and man-under combos with zone-blitz mixed in rather than flat out zone (too much cover 2/tampa 2 zone, and the Sooners don't have an Urlacher so it's a little difficult to work it) and zone blitz. The other thing I'd really like to hear of is the offense saying the same type things, maybe throw in a 2 back shotgun set for when Loadholt misses the outside blitz.
I know that's in the offense, because we used to run it quite a bit when Long was here. Now, whether or not they decide to dust it off & use it, is another issue.

[goingoneight]

I read in the newspaper that the new stuff they're woring on is basically doing what Lewis Baker was supposed to do last year. They have a "hybrid" linebacker who is a little "lighter" (for lack of a better word... not as hefty as a stereotypical LB) for tight end coverage. This theoretically sounds good until your run stuffers get iced and the QB scrambles for 15 yards. Sounds to me like your D-line has to completely surround mobile quarterbacks for it to work well and we had a problem with over-pursuit last year... too many guys crowding the same area, so guys like Pat White would just cut the other direction and burn us.

The key to this year's defense is how consistently dominant we are on the line of scrimmage. OUr secondary last year wasn't at all bad, it just got a major workout every week since everyone in the BIG 12 likes to go five-wide these days. Kinda hard to shut someone down when their QB gets passes off too quickly for a DL to get to him and they throw it 50 times a game. That's where unfortunately you need the dreaded prevent defense to stay out in front of them and work at picking them off when they slip up.

[bstuff1979]

I read in the newspaper that the new stuff they're woring on is basically doing what Lewis Baker was supposed to do last year. They have a "hybrid" linebacker who is a little "lighter" (for lack of a better word... not as hefty as a stereotypical LB) for tight end coverage. This theoretically sounds good until your run stuffers get iced and the QB scrambles for 15 yards. Sounds to me like your D-line has to completely surround mobile quarterbacks for it to work well and we had a problem with over-pursuit last year... too many guys crowding the same area, so guys like Pat White would just cut the other direction and burn us.

The key to this year's defense is how consistently dominant we are on the line of scrimmage. OUr secondary last year wasn't at all bad, it just got a major workout every week since everyone in the BIG 12 likes to go five-wide these days. Kinda hard to shut someone down when their QB gets passes off too quickly for a DL to get to him and they throw it 50 times a game. That's where unfortunately you need the dreaded prevent defense to stay out in front of them and work at picking them off when they slip up.

To a good degree, I'd argue that the prevent type D is more or less what they did last year with the zone-cover 2. It stops most things when the needed pressure is given to the qb, but it's a little dicey when the qb has time to go vertical or when he's got a good TE to throw to (see Finley with texas). I think that's why the play of the front seven, in particular the mlb and Austin English, is much more important than the secondary. When you're playing zone, you could have a group of All Americans in the secondary and still get burned when the front 4 or 3 (depending on the package) doesn't get a push on the line. That's why I'm hopeful that the inclusion of a nickleback/linebacker hybrid will provide more pressure while, at the same time, take nothing away from the secondary in terms of numbers. A move to the 3-4 would have done this, with the linebackers being a little thin with graduation/draft defections. The big thing that I want to see addressed is coverage of TE's/Slots/Backs in the cover 2. The flats are generally secure, but with relatively new linebackers it could get ugly over the middle if Venables/Stoops insist on playing cover2 as the base package more often than not. Maybe they've already run it (more than just a handful of times), but I really want to see some man-zone combos mixed in so guys like Finley won't consistently burn the D over the middle.

[Big John]

I think a 3-4 might be a good fit for OU, especially since we have hybrid DE/OLB's on campus like English, Beal, or possibly even Washington. I'm also not sold on the idea of OU sucking on defense this year. For God sakes, it's OU! We have excellent coaches and excellent athletes. We just need the right players to step up this year and we'll have the potential to be great. But I'm not saying that it will be easy, I'm just saying that I have confidence in the coaching staff in place at OU to produce a solid group like they do year in and year out.
DT-
DeMarcus Granger (6’2” 315)
Cordero Moore (6’2” 310)

SSDE-
Gerald McCoy (6’4” 290)
Adrian Taylor (6’3” 295)
Cory Bennett (6’2” 275)


WSDE-
John Williams (6’4” 260)
Alan Davis (6’2” 255)
Frank Alexander (6’4” 260)

WSOLB-
Austin English (6’3” 240)
R.J. Washington (6’3” 240)
Travis Lewis (6’2” 240)

SSOLB-
Jeremy Beal (6’2” 260)
Mike Balogun (6’1” 250)
Pryce Macon (6’1” 251)

ILB-
Ryan Reynolds (6’1” 235) or
Austin Box (6’2” 235)
Brandon Crow (6’0” 230)
Daniel Franklin (6’2” 220)

ILB-
J.R. Bryant (6’2” 230)
Keenan Clayton (6’1” 220)
Lamont Robinson (6’1” 225)


SS-
Nic Harris (6’2” 230)
Joseph Ibiloye (6’2” 205)
Sam Proctor (6’0” 210)


FS-
Quinton Carter (6’0” 195”) or
David Sims (5’10” 200)
Brett Bowers (6’0” 200)
Desmond Jackson (5’11” 195)

CB-
Lendy Holmes (6’0” 195)
Jonathan Nelson (5’10” 175) or
Jamell Fleming (5’11” 185)

CB-
Dominique Franks (5’10” 190) or
Brain Jackson (6’0” 195)
Lamar Harris (6’1” 180)

I wouldn't mind seeing this group of players out on the feild. Go OU!

[soonerfan28]

I think our best D will be our offense. Just kidding. I think after to Fiesta Bowl beat downs we will be doing some things different, but it doesn't hurt that we basically return our entire O.

[MALE918]

I've searched and can't find anything about this-so forgive if it already exists. Also I don't have the privileges to start a new thread. It seems Coach Stoops might be taking more of an interest in the defense....yeah I know he's been involved a little in the past but this seems more than usual

http://www.cstv.com/allaccess/player/07-oas-mediaplayer-okla.html?content=mms://a1981.v8108e.c8108.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/1981/8108/v0001/cstvcbs.download.akamai.com/8108/open/okla/07-08/video/m-footbl/03mar/20080305_stoops_drills_cbs.wmv&school=okla&

or try this one and look on right where it states "coach stoops drills db's"

http://soonersports.com/sports/m-footbl/sched/okla-m-footbl-sched.html

I'm absolutely giddy inside