Back end must come forward
Published: 10/26/2007 10:23 PM
Last Modified: 10/26/2007 10:23 PM
When it came time to pick Oklahoma's most valuable defensive player in preseason, Pete Fiutak of CollegeFootballNews.com darn near selected an entire unit...
"Junior corner Reggie Smith ... or junior safety Nic Harris... or senior corner Marcus Walker," he wrote. "Smith started out at corner before moving over to strong safety and now will move back to corner. Wherever he plays, he's fast enough to always be around the ball. Harris was mostly a nickel back before turning into a whale of a free safety late in the year, finishing with 68 tackles, four interceptions and eight pass breakups. At 6-foot-3 and 226 pounds, he's an intimidating force who can do it all. It took Walker a few games before he became a starter, but he grew into the role, finishing with three picks and nine broken up passes. These three form the bulk of the nation's best secondary."
Funny that the only starter Fiutak left out is currently playing better than any of OU's defensive backs -- strong safety D.J. Wolfe. It underscores how good that secondary is.
And how big the Sooners' back end must play from here on out.
Forget about the next two games. Texas A&M can't pass and Baylor can't match up. But OU's secondary faces real stress at Texas Tech Nov. 17, when it tracks the best wide receiver it will face all year in Michael Crabtree, and again against Oklahoma State Thanksgiving weekend when it faces Adarius Bowman, the second-best. Survive those games intact, the Sooners will likely have to defend Missouri's combustible spread for a second time in the Big 12 championship, with even more danger lurking in January.
It's interesting that in a season OU's secondary was supposed to own, two members of the Sooners' front seven, Curtis Lofton and Auston English, have starred. Shows the depth of Brent Venables' D more than any back end shortcomings, but still, you want your playmakers doing their thing when it really counts.
For the Sooners' sake, Smith, Harris and Walker will take that to heart beginning Nov. 17 in Lubbock.
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
