Originally posted by owenfieldreams
For all our success on O in '03, O.U. still remains a team that hangs it's hat on defense. Obviously, this is a manifestation of it's head coach. The key ingredient incumbent in all Stoops' defenses is speed. The pundents will tell you that to beat our D, you must do two things.......run right @ us, negating our speed & open field tackling ability, & exploit our tendency to be too aggressive & overrun plays.
O.U. will line up in an off-set 4-3 & a two-deep zone. While this is our base set, we spend most of the time in a 4-2-5, dropping our Sam LB & adding a 5th DB, a big, fast safety. Philosophically, we play a gap/control style in the D-line, keeping opposing O-linemen off our LB's freeing them up to make tackles all over the field.
The key position in O.U.'s D IS THE "Roy" safety position, manned by #8, Donte Nicholson, & named after the second best defensive player to ever suit up for the Sooners. To play this position in our scheme you must be able to line up in the box & take on blocks, blitz effectively, & still cover the field in pass D.
DL: We rotate 8 players in the D-line with no drop off in productivity. This fact coupled with our gap philosophy is why our individual stats are so misleading. There's only one senior in this group, Kory Klein, but everyone expects Tommy Harris to declare after his junior year. This group is not large by today's standards but very athletic & quick.
LB: The thinnest group on the team, even more so than our O-line. We lost our best LB to a season ending injury against Fresno St. Lance Mitchell will get a hardship ruling & return next year, but he is sorely missed right now & his absence was never more obvious than in the K-State game. Our Will LB, Teddy Lehman, is as advertised. He was a 100 meter sprint champion in HS & still runs a sub 4.5 @ 245 lbs. Frankly, I would love to see us move him to Mitchell's position for this game & replace him with future super star & true freshman, Lewis Baker (the only freshman to have his shirt burned this year). If Lehman stays outside, either Gayron Allen or Wayne Chambers will man the middle. We lost our potentially best reserve LB to a knee injury in Spring ball. Rufus Alexander (from Baton Rouge) has rehabed & will suit up in the Sugar Bowl, but is not all the way back.
DB: Arguably the most talented group on this Sooner squad & compared favorably to what many consider the best Sooner secondary ever....the '73 group made up of Clyde Powers, Randy Hughes, Durwood Keeton, & Kenith Pope. This group is fast, great open field tacklers, & vicious hitters. They do have a tendency to be too aggressive & will bite on double cuts but have the speed to recover. The corners, Antonio Perkins & Derrick Strait are outstanding, both as cover men & in run support. Strait is the leader of our D. We'll play 3 safeties regularly, the aforementioned Donte Nicholson, Brandon Everage, & Brodney Pool. Everage is the biggest hitter but can get himself into trouble by concentrating on the hit rather than the tackle.
We will disguise our schemes very well, showing MAN when we're really in ZONE, changing blitz tactics, etc. in an attempt to confuse the opposing QB.
Besides the wisdom of running right @ us, & attempting to take advantage of our aggressiveness, we have shown a susceptability to biting on play-action, particularly in less than obvious down & distance situations. K-State was successful using this tactic when they iso'd Terry, their best WR on Antonio Perkins out of a first down run formation. Everage crept up into the box & Roberson play faked & hit Terry down the boundry. Perkins actually had good coverage but lost the ball & when the offside safety got over there, Terry came back for the ball & the two Sooner defenders ran into each other & Terry scored.
Our whole D philosophy is to cut the field in half & give our O a down hill shot from the opponents side of the 50. Couple this approach with one of the great college punt returners, Antonio Perkins, & it's a game plan that has worked well for us.
L.S.U. will need to have success running right @ us & then play actioning off this run success. If our "Roy" safety is allowed to creep & we stuff the run, we will be very difficult to throw on with any kind of consistency.
Watch #8. If he has a big game, we will probably be successful on D. If not, it'll be a long night for O.U.
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