Sooners have the best back seven in the SEC per Phil Steele

Defense was long a strength for the Oklahoma Sooners. The Bennie Owen, Bud Wilkinson, Chuck Fairbanks and Barry Switzer days produced hard-nosed, hard-hitting defensive units that helped the Sooners win six national championships, along with explosive offenses. Wilkinson and Switzer each took home three titles in the 20th century.

After the dreadful 1990s, Bob Stoops’ arrival meant that OU was back to being a contender on the national stage. “Big Game Bob” added Oklahoma’s seventh national title in 2000 and kept the Sooners in the title picture quite often in his time as the head coach.

Defense was Stoops’ calling card. He was the defensive coordinator for coaching legends Bill Snyder and Steve Spurrier. Oklahoma enjoyed stifling defenses for most of Stoops’ tenure as the head coach.

But, in the mid-to-late 2010’s, OU’s defense slipped to below the standard in Norman. Stoops’ final season and the Lincoln Riley era at Oklahoma saw the offense being required to carry too much of the load to keep the Sooners in the title hunt. Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts were able to do that, but as the decade changed, the Sooners had fallen out of the College Football Playoff.

After Riley’s departure to Southern California, Brent Venables was hired to bring back the defensive standard. It’s taken a couple of years, but Venables may finally have the pieces in the right place to do the things he wants to do on defense.

In 2022, Venables’ first season, the Sooners were horrid defensively, leading to a 6-7 season. They allowed 30 points per game, finishing 99th in the nation in scoring defense. Last season, however, Oklahoma went 10-3 and the defense took a major step forward, improving their scoring defense 50 spots to 23.5 points per game.

Now, going into Year 3 under Venables, one college football analyst thinks OU has two of the best position units in the SEC.

Phil Steele released his positional rankings for every SEC team heading into the 2024 season. Oklahoma had two units ranked No. 1 in the conference.

OU’s linebackers are the SEC’s best, according to Steele. Danny Stutsman leads the way on the inside, but Kip Lewis, Kobie McKinzie and Jaren Kanak join him to make the Sooners at least two deep at both spots. Lewis Carter will also see more snaps in 2024 as well.

At the Cheetah position, Kendel Dolby and Dasan McCullough will see the majority of the snaps, but Samuel Omosigho and Michael Boganowski are younger options who will be on the field quite a bit as well.

Steele also thinks OU’s secondary is the best in the conference. Billy Bowman headlines the safety position, with Peyton Bowen and Robert Spears-Jennings in line for more playing time after graduation, NFL and portal losses.

At cornerback, veteran Woodi Washington returns for his fifth season, but will be playing a little bit of everything this year. Gentry Williams, Kani Walker and Dez Malone will all be experienced options on the outside, but there’s youth at corner as well. Jacobe Johnson and Makari Vickers both saw time last year due to injuries.

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Of course, Oklahoma needs to keep improving to get back to the way things are supposed to be for the Sooners.

Competing for and winning championships are the expectations. Quarterback, offensive line and defensive line all ranked outside of the SEC’s top five in Steele’s estimation. While the QB ranking is due to Jackson Arnold’s inexperience, the Sooners have to get better in the trenches to be where they want to be.

However, it’s been a long time since the defense has been as loaded in Norman as it is right now. Combine that with an offense that certainly isn’t lacking in talent, and the Brent Venables vision is starting to become clearer for the Sooners. Venables has the makings of a complementary, holistic program from top to bottom.

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