Is OU transitioning to a 3-4 defense? Well...
Published: 2/11/2013 6:16 AM
Last Modified: 2/11/2013 6:16 AM
A few weeks ago, word reached sports radio and the Internet that Oklahoma was switching defenses. That the Stoops brothers were scrapping their 4-3 base defense in favor of a 3-4.
Mike Stoops noticed, so he tried to cork the bottle on Signing Day last week.
Sort of.
"There's been a lot of speculation on our style of defense and what we'll do," Stoops said. "People hear one thing and run with it. I hear all of this speculation. You guys know what we're doing defensively before I really know what we're doing. I heard that we changed our defense… that we're going to a 3-4.
"We're going to do what's best for our team and our players in having the ability to play better. That's what we need to do if we want to compete for more championships here. That falls on our responsibility."
Soooo you're not switching to a 3-4?
"We want to develop flexibility in our defense, be more flexible than we were a year ago. There are things I thought we did well, but we have to critique the season as a whole. I know I wasn't very comfortable the way it ended. The last four or five games were very troublesome.
"Those teams gave a lot of people trouble. They averaged five or six hundred yards a game… (but) what we judge ourselves on is going up against the best, and that's not good enough right now. When we went up against the best, we weren't at our best. We need to be better at stopping teams like Oklahoma State and Baylor, the elite teams, Texas A&M. We have to become more diverse, and that's what we'll attempt to do throughout the spring and summer, to gain some flexibility."
Soooo gaining that flexibility might include a little 3-4?
"You have to do what your personnel dictates. We have to be flexible as coaches and develop to the strengths of our players. I feel our linebackers are a very strong group of players. It's not comfortable for me sitting all those guys all the time."
OK, now we're getting somewhere. If nothing else, Stoops wants to see his linebackers play some sort of role, not fade into irrelevance like they did a year ago. It was so discouraging that Tom Wort up and left the program.
Well, Corey Nelson, Frank Shannon and Aaron Franklin are still around. So is sophomore-to-be Erik Striker. Stoops mentioned all four by name on Signing Day: "They're some of the best athletes we have on our football team… These guys can all play. And we have to give them a chance to play. That's what we want to do, not eliminate them.
"When we play Baylor, they're in four wides or three wides the whole game. I can't dictate when West Virginia is going to come out in five wides the whole game. That was what happened to us the last third of the season, and we just have to find better ways to compromise and get the best players on the field."
Will Nelson, Shannon, Franklin and Striker figure in a revised 3-4 base defense? I'm not totally convinced of that, based on Stoops' comments this week. It might not be a bad idea, given the ineffectiveness of OU's defensive linemen. The arrival of JUCO tackle Quincy Russell will help, but this is still a needy position.
Right now, I'd simply predict linebackers will be more of a factor. For what Stoops and the Sooners learned a year ago is without them making some kind of impact, they're asking for trouble, regardless of the offenses they line up again.
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
