Coming to OU's defense
Published: 8/23/2009 5:28 PM
Last Modified: 8/23/2009 5:28 PM
"Defense wins championships."
Yawn... You've heard that so many times that it has become as big a cliche as there is in sports. Right?
Well, not exactly.
Some college football research turned in by Austin American-Statesman columnist Kirk Bohls,: "You want to win, you'd better play D. Four (of the last five) champions were rated among the nation's 20 best offenses, but all five had a defense in the top 10."
He's right, you know.
Florida had the ninth-best defense a year ago. LSU in 2007 was third. The Gators of '06 ranked sixth. Texas in '05 was 10th. USC in '04 was sixth.
You can even take Bohls' study another year back -- The 2003 LSU Tigers owned the nation's best defense, statistically speaking.
The last team to win the national football championship without a top-10-ranked D was Ohio State in 2002. The Buckeyes were 23rd.
So Oklahoma returns Sam Bradford, Jermaine Gresham and a couple 1,000-yard rushers in DeMarco Murray and Chris Brown. That's good news in Norman.
But even better is the return of nine starters on the other side of the ball. That, excuse the cliche, is what champions are made of.
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
