Brent Venables...

[BASSooner]

..as much as the defense needs to iimprove with tackling and covering do you guys think that BV needs to change his gameplan on defense to the Mike Stoops playbook or just be more aggressive?

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

how could he possibly be more aggressive? we blitzed about 75% of the time last year. the tackling and coverage just wasn't there for the zone press to work. well, until the oregon game.

[BASSooner]

or maybe i should ask, will he improve as a D coordinator?

[NormanPride]

I thought considering the fact that we didn't have a single person in the secondary with any real experience, we did pretty damn well. The LBs were studs, we got production from the DEs even though we only had 2 of them, and we were pretty good against the run, excluding a few instances.

[Jason White's Third Knee]

I thought he did a great job given the guys that he was working with. We had a decent defense and many of them were pups. Lots of injuries too. I think our D is back on track since we got rid of Pellini.

[yermom]

the coordinator doesn't teach tackling does he? (i'm serious, i don't know, i would assume that is covered by the position coach)

we had so many missed opportunities in the backfield it made me sick, hopefully experience will help?

[soonerlaw]

The cringe I had deep down when I found out Venables might leave for KSU was enough for me to realize how much I like BV and the job he's doing.

[oumartin]

the linebackers were a liability on pass coverage much the year.

[NormanPride]

Yeah, that gamewinning pick versus Oregon really sucked.

[oumartin]

I said much the year. Ingram is a stud.

[Tear Down This Wall]

..as much as the defense needs to iimprove with tackling and covering do you guys think that BV needs to change his gameplan on defense to the Mike Stoops playbook or just be more aggressive?

Dude, Venables is the only coach to continually have his players and their back-ups ready. Venables doesn't need to change - the rest of the staff needs to coach more like Venables.

Those linebackers of his saved our bacon in the bowl game. If Ingram doesn't oskie that pass, the Ducks are in the ends zone...Bassey burned again and a safety flailing over there way too late.

It's not Venables fault that we were having to play tailbacks at corner. He had his players recruited and ready to rock. In fact, his players are so ready they took one to play safety when Cade walked instead of one of the 1,016 safeties Stoops has signed over the past four years.

Give me a break. Venables is the only coach on the staff doing his job...or so it seemed this year. If there was any justice, the rest of the coaching staff would give half of their 2005 salaries to Venables for bailing their sorry arses out. Jackholes.

[BASSooner]

Dude, Venables is the only coach to continually have his players and their back-ups ready. Venables doesn't need to change - the rest of the staff needs to coach more like Venables.

Those linebackers of his saved our bacon in the bowl game. If Ingram doesn't oskie that pass, the Ducks are in the ends zone...Bassey burned again and a safety flailing over there way too late.

It's not Venables fault that we were having to play tailbacks at corner. He had his players recruited and ready to rock. In fact, his players are so ready they took one to play safety when Cade walked instead of one of the 1,016 safeties Stoops has signed over the past four years.

Give me a break. Venables is the only coach on the staff doing his job...or so it seemed this year. If there was any justice, the rest of the coaching staff would give half of their 2005 salaries to Venables for bailing their sorry arses out. Jackholes.Jeez calm down! I'm just trying to start a discussion here and hear peoples' opinions but thanks for yours though.

[Tear Down This Wall]

Venables is THE MAN. He's T-Man, buddy! He's not out there faking it like Cale Gundy and the others. I'll bet the dude goes from door to door when the phone books are passed out every year and just rips 'em in half for the fun of it. He's also never bailed on Stoops to take a crappy job for a Mountain or Pacific Time Zone school. Basketball-loving pansies.

[FirstandGoal]

Yeah, but can he crap footballs?

[MikeInNorman]

Dude, Venables is the only coach to continually have his players and their back-ups ready. Venables doesn't need to change - the rest of the staff needs to coach more like Venables.

Those linebackers of his saved our bacon in the bowl game. If Ingram doesn't oskie that pass, the Ducks are in the ends zone...Bassey burned again and a safety flailing over there way too late.

It's not Venables fault that we were having to play tailbacks at corner. He had his players recruited and ready to rock. In fact, his players are so ready they took one to play safety when Cade walked instead of one of the 1,016 safeties Stoops has signed over the past four years.

Give me a break. Venables is the only coach on the staff doing his job...or so it seemed this year. If there was any justice, the rest of the coaching staff would give half of their 2005 salaries to Venables for bailing their sorry arses out. Jackholes.

It's not surprising that a former linebacker and linebackers coach would prefer a linebacker-focused defensive scheme. Just as Mike Stoops preferred to base his D on the secondary.

I thought the linebackers were average as a group in pass coverage for most of the season, especially Latimer. Teams that threw underneath ate him up. It never seemed that Latimer had any flair for coverage, as many times he would stand next to a receiver, watch him make the catch, and tackle him. Latimer had one game where he had @ 15 tackles, and 11 were on guys who caught a pass against him. Rufus played pass coverages like everything else. He either made a big play, or busted coverage. Luckily, he made way, way more plays than busts. Ingram was a very good pass coverage LB, but his position probably would have been played by Lewis Baker if Mike were still here. Baker would have been that nickel-type back LB/safety hybrid which Mike liked to play @ 75% of the time, to the detriment of one of the LB positions. It would then have been a tussle to see who would play regularly between Ingram and Latimer.

Overall, I thought they had a real good year, especially in run defense.

[goingoneight]

The cringe I had deep down when I found out Venables might leave for KSU was enough for me to realize how much I like BV and the job he's doing.
I beg to differ... he's a nice guy who relates to the players well, recruits decent... but poor tackling is really, really... REALLY becoming an issue for Oklahoma. Pass coverage was pitiful too, our 2000-2003 defense, aided by Mike Stoops hardly ever missed an interception oppurtunity, and when they hit you, they hit hard and were able to actually pull someone down. I'm crazed that hardly anyone sees this as a problem...

[Collier11]

Brent Venables bailed me out one time when my defenses were down and I almost got beat up by a pack of ravenous blood sniffing dung beetles

[TexasBoomer]

..as much as the defense needs to iimprove with tackling and covering do you guys think that BV needs to change his gameplan on defense to the Mike Stoops playbook or just be more aggressive?

He did a sensational job. When you consider how much time the defense was on the field because the offense was gaining experience while fumbling around on offense with their mistakes, which in the long run, gave the defense much needed experience, especially the DB's. OU will have a solid defense next year as they did at years end. Coach Venables will either go to HC job or he will stay with Coach Stoops as Gomer Jones did with Bud, depends on his motivations. We should be very happy to have him while he's here.

[AZfanIII]

Gee, I guess I must've seen a different OB than everyone else. This is the same DC that got torched by USC right? The bowl game was the first time in 2 years they've not let the pass kick their ***. We'll see if he can carry the momentum over to next season or not. It could be business as usual or MAYBE he now has it figured out. I hope he's got it figured out. Now it's on to tackling.

[Soonerman08]

Gee, I guess I must've seen a different OB than everyone else. This is the same DC that got torched by USC right? The bowl game was the first time in 2 years they've not let the pass kick their ***. We'll see if he can carry the momentum over to next season or not. It could be business as usual or MAYBE he now has it figured out. I hope he's got it figured out. Now it's on to tackling.



Yeah you want to know who was primarily responsible?! Look up Bo Pelini! Heck it was Venables and Stoops' idea to go back to the idea of using the same defense that he used when Mike Stoops' was here. Primarily using the 4-3 Defense, but with the hybrid Roy-Back philosphy of shifting to the 4-2-5. Man-on-man coverage was never seen with Pelini around, he had this lax idea of zone coverages, and it was his pathetic attempt at using an NFL style defense. Sure it was great against the run, but not against 'SC (especially passing). A lot of our problem is on the blitz, great pressure up front, but always overshooting the target and not being able to make the tackle. You never really saw our corners get burned deep that often, and we have that same philosphy of bend but don't break. They played lights out this year, compared to previous years. Bobby Jack Wright I believe will continually improve the secondary, people are just constantly wanting to fault an area of the team where we had to replace everybody to freshman who are learning the game.

[Blitzkrieg]

Mike Stoops has really whipped those Zona Wildcats into a ferocious 85 bears type machine hasn't he?


Bv took OUs least talented defense ( name the All Americans on that defense) in 5 years and held tech to 17 points in lubbock and the #6 offense in the country to 14 in a bowl game.

Had the offense not been a turnover machine against TCU and UCLA, we'd have had one loss all year.

Mike Stoops superior defenses lost twice to aggie and to a frosh named Reggie NcNeal. They also were run on against a terrible NU team.

BV did a great job this year.