Before vs. After Venables: Defense

Hello everyone! The last time I wrote to you, I was hopeful that OU would beat Arizona convincingly in the Alamo Bowl. We won't talk about what happened there. With the 2024 football season fast approaching (and EA Sports College Football 25, too!), I've pondered the state of the OU Football team since Brent Venables took over. I will break down across three different posts how OU changed regarding the roster, offensive production, and defensive production. Today, we're going to focus on the defense.

Not my photograph, but I did the editing.

Stats

Defense wins championships. We hear that every year in every sport in almost every game. When Brent Venables took over, Oklahoma's rich tradition of defense was nearly forgotten because of the Lincoln Riley and Alex Grinch years. Venables' hiring sent a loud message that not only did we get a head coach who understood Oklahoma football, but we were getting a coach who understood elite defense.

As excited as we were when Venables got hired, we were all understandably incredibly disappointed with how the 2022 season ended. The defense was an absolute disaster. This turned around in 2023 when the defense was a big reason we won half of our games. So, how did the defense compare from 2021 (last year with Lincoln Riley + Alex Grinch) to 2022 and 2023? Let's look at some numbers.

	2021	2022	2023
Points Per Game	27.9	30	23.5
Total Yards Per Game	390.8	460.96	389.42
Pass Yards Per Game	261.8	273.5	250.8
Rush Yards Per Game	129	187.46	138.62
3rd Down %	37.85%	40.87%	31.12%
4th Down %	63.16%	50%	52.94%
Sacks	33	28	24
Tackles For Loss	97	104	98
Fumble Recoveries	13	4	6
Interceptions	11	17	20

I know. That's a lot of numbers. So, let's break down what we see.

Analysis

2021, in more than a couple of categories, was not a terrible defensive year. We recovered more fumbles than the next two years combined, sacked the QB more, and allowed the fewest rush yards per game in those statistics. But in the others, the stats are not great and cost us in games. The numbers above don't tell you that the 37.85% of third down conversions we allowed came at the worst possible times of games. They don't tell you how small our players were and how they were bullied by physical teams (such as Baylor and Oklahoma State) that year. On top of this, we were struggling against teams we should have dominated. Tulane only won two games in 2021 and nearly upset Oklahoma in week one. Kansas only won two games that year and nearly upset Oklahoma. TCU (who wasn't bowl-eligible in 2021) gained over 500 yards of offense against us. I need to give props to Nik Bonitto, Isaiah Thomas, and Perrion Winfrey, as they got us a ton of sacks that year. They were maybe the only good parts of our defense that year.

2022 was a mess. There's no other way to put it. We led college football in tackles for loss, and that was it. We completely fell off the wagon after a solid start to the season on defense against UTEP, Kent State, and Nebraska (30 total points allowed in these three games). We would allow 40+ points in five of our next ten games, get completely obliterated by two teams, and have our defense embarrassed by teams we were better than (WVU and Baylor). In the post about the roster, you'll understand why I don't blame Venables for this season. He inherited a dumpster fire and did the best he could with it. That said, some OU fans were slightly worried about the direction of the defense after this season.

2023 saw an end to any and all doubts about OU's direction under Brent Venables defensively. Where we struggled in 2022, we dominated in 2023. More fumble recoveries. More interceptions. There are fewer points per game, total yards allowed per game, passing yards allowed per game, and third-down conversions allowed than in the previous two seasons. The fourth down defense did slightly worse in 2023 than the year before but still significantly better than in 2021. The change in the team's physicality, especially on fourth down, can best be acknowledged with OU's TWO goal line stands in 2023. My only complaint about the 2023 defense was the difficulty getting to the quarterback. While we faced a lot of teams who ran very quick offenses, not giving us any time to reach the quarterback, I still would've liked to have seen more sacks.

If you're unconvinced about Venables' growth as a coach, look at his first year against his second year when it comes to defense. In his 2nd year, his defense allowed 70 fewer yards per game, 23 fewer passing yards per game, almost 50 fewer rushing yards per game, seven fewer points per game, did nearly 10% better on 3rd down, and forced more turnovers. These may seem like small numbers, but when spread across 13 games, these are HUGE differences. Those are the differences between a bottom ten defense and a top 50 defense.

Finishing The Game

Something we (unfortunately) had to get used to with Lincoln Riley was that no lead was safe. Beating Georgia 31-14 in the Rose Bowl and losing (2017). Beating Kansas State 35-14 in the third quarter and losing (2020). Beating OSU 33-24 in the fourth quarter and losing (2021). On top of the losses, there were far too many near losses, such as the 2021 game against Kansas State. We were beating them 27-10 in the fourth quarter, and the final score was 37-31. That same year, we were beating Tulane 37-14 in the third quarter, and the final score was 40-35. All this is to say, it doesn't matter what happens in the first three quarters. What matters is what happens in the fourth quarter. Let's look at some stats from the fourth quarter from 2021 to 2023.

	2021	2022	2023
Games with 4th quarter points allowed	11	11	7
Total 4th quarter points allowed	112	99	70
Average per game	8.62	7.62	5.38
Rushing yards allowed	411	616	343
Passing yards allowed	928	851	666
Rushing TDs Allowed	5	8	5
Passing TDs Allowed	10	4	4

This is yet another example where the averages seem smaller/less significant than they are. Even with our defensive mishaps of 2022, Venables allowed 13 fewer points in the fourth quarter (two touchdowns) than Riley and Grinch did the year before. But he wasn't happy. He told reporters in 2023 that he felt he needed to be better in the fourth quarter. And he was better. His defense allowed almost 30 points fewer in the fourth quarter than in 2022 and 42 points fewer in the fourth quarter than in 2021 (six touchdown difference).

One other thing we need to mention regarding finishing the game: halftime adjustments. In Lincoln Riley's last year with Oklahoma, our team struggled with second-half fatigue and poor halftime adjustments. More often than not, the game plan in the second half was the same as the first half, and (surprise, surprise) would get shut down in the second half. Those issues continued in Venables' first year as many of Lincoln Riley's defenders were still on our team and learning the new strength and conditioning program. In 2023, the difference in the second half was stark. In almost every game, the second half was when we did some of our best work. I know you're probably tired of seeing tables, but this is the best way I can show you our team's progress defensively, half by half, not including special teams/opposing defense scores.

	2021	2022	2023
1st Half Rushing TDs	6	15	6
1st Half Passing TDs	11	11	11
2nd Half Rushing TDs	9	14	8
2nd Half Passing TDs	15	9	7
Total 1st Half TDs	17	26	17
Total 2nd Half TDs	24	23	15

The first half numbers in 2023 matched what happened in 2021. Given what our defense looked like in 2022, I'll take that. But the 2nd half is significantly different. 63 points scored in the 2nd half fewer than 2021. That level of a difference in 2021 would've made us 12-0 in the regular season and potentially a player in the national championship. Especially considering our two regular season losses that year were due to second half collapses against Baylor and OSU. That said, it's also what cost us against Kansas and Arizona in 2023. Regardless, it is hard to argue with numbers. And these numbers tell the story of a defense improving drastically.

Conclusion

We still have much to cover with Venables and his tenure with OU. But if you look at the defense as a whole, you can't say that we're not heading in the right direction. We have a tough, physical, fast, strong, and intelligent defense that comes ready to play week in and week out. But we will discuss the differences in the players/their stats in another post. For now, look at the big picture of what Venables has done with the defense. Look at the tables above and notice how almost every category is a major improvement from both 2021 and 2022. If you can't see that we have a legit head coach who will take us to a championship holding the reigns, I don't know what to tell you.

All stats above courtesy of cfbstats.com and sports-reference.com.