Alex Grinch says Sooners "made major progress" in winter months
Alex Grinch didn’t exactly step into pristine waters when he took over as Oklahoma’s defensive coordinator.
On the heels of the team’s messy divorce with Mike Stoops, the defense was coming off a historically awful 2018 season in which they allowed over 33 points per game.
Grinch spearheaded a marked improvement in his first year; however, his turnover-minded ideal remained largely unrealized. The Sooners forced just 11 total turnovers on the year, and they’ll enter 2020 sans NFL-bound defensive playmakers Kenneth Murray, Neville Gallimore and Parnell Motley.
Nevertheless, Grinch is confident that there’s plenty of growth ahead for his defense, and it starts in the weight room with strength coach Bennie Wylie.
“We made major progress in January and February,” said Grinch. “That’s the bigger, faster, stronger months… We can’t play football those months, and so what we need to do is take advantage of those things.”
Grinch hinted that he’s placing special emphasis on adding mass, especially in the secondary. It certainly helps that the Sooners landed two hulking safety recruits in Bryson Washington (6-foot-2, 196 pounds) and Justin Harrington (6-foot-3, 214 pounds). But as for the players already in the program, Grinch says he won’t let their development stagnate.
“We don’t want to coach the same team. I don’t want to look at the same guy,” said Grinch. “I don’t mean that any other way except physically; they better not look the same.”
Grinch’s group certainly faces a challenge in that capacity, as they’ll have to replace two physical specimens in Murray and Gallimore. Murray grabbed headlines at the NFL combine with a 4.52 in the 40-yard dash and a 38-inch vertical jump. Meanwhile, Gallimore ran an astonishing 4.79 at 304 pounds, and cranked out 23 reps in the bench press.
Filling the void left by two likely first-rounders (and a three-year starter at cornerback in Motley) is much easier said than done, and Grinch is fully aware that such a process demands year-round devotion from his players.
“You can’t all of a sudden hit stop now that we’re into spring ball. We better not see the same group come back in fall,” he said.
“It’s been pretty positive, but we’ve still got work to do.”
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