As Oklahoma's Defense Looks for Continued Improvement, New Leaders Must Step Up

NORMAN — The refit that Brent Venables has accomplished with Oklahoma’s defense in three years has been nothing short of remarkable.

But now, as the Sooners plot their way into Year 4 under Venables, is he looking at another minor rebuild? Are there enough players back at the right positions to ensure Venables’ defense continues its upward trajectory? Or as the team hits the midway point of spring practice this week, could OU’s defense be on the verge of taking a step back?

The losses from 2024 are heavy: All-American linebacker Danny Stutsman. All-SEC safety Billy Bowman. All-Big 12 defensive end Ethan Downs. Plus a few others. Venables must replace the talent and the productivity, of course.

But, after those seniors all cycled out of eligibility, the Sooner defense must also find a way to replace the experience and the leadership that those guys provided.

But, it’s college football. There’s always a “next.”

“I just feel like once you put so much money in the bank, your time's gonna come,” said safety Robert Spears-Jennings. “So me, R Mason (Thomas), Kobe (McKinzie), Kip (Lewis) — we all been here for the last four years. I feel like it's our turn, and we sat, we waited, we watched how Danny, Ethan Downs, really how they prepared for the game. So I feel like we just took it how they did. We're gonna put our own little spice on it and be ready to play.”

Other pieces of the OU defense have been shifted around as well. Zac Alley — Venables’ hand-picked, personally groomed choice for defensive coordinator — went to West Virginia. So Venables will call the defense, while newcomer Nate Dreiling takes over coaching the linebackers.

It’ll be worth watching how Venables does as the primary defensive boss — he was arguably the best in the nation when he did it at OU and at Clemson — but now he’ll do that as well as his head coaching duties, split tasks in which he took a more active role in 2023 working over Ted Roof. But now Venables also welcomes a new offensive coordinator (Ben Arbuckle) as well as a new offensive analyst (Kevin Wilson), a new defensive analyst (Wes Goodwin) and a new general manager (Jim Nagy).

The coaching matrix will be complicated enough for the Sooners’ new defensive coordinator to figure out as it unfolds in real time. So it’s all the more important that Venables has an established leadership core from the players that he trusts moving forward.

“RJ stepping up for Billy's position,” said Thomas. “Kobie, Kip stepping up for Danny's position. Huge loss, but how they was behind him, taking notes, getting little details from them, (it's like) Billy and Danny are still here.”

A quick rundown of the Sooners’ impressive improvements during Venables’ first three seasons, per official NCAA statistics:

In total defense, OU improved from 121st nationally in 2022 (461.0 yards per game to 77th in 2023 (389.4) to 19th in 2024 (318.2).

In scoring defense, OU improved from 90th nationally in 2022 (30.0 points per game) to 46th in 2023 (23.5) to 29th in 2024 (21.5).

To see any kind of regression in 2025, or even a leveling off, would be a natural and completely expected sign that Stutsman, Bowman and Downs were special players at the very heart of the OU defense’s steady but dramatic climb.

But to see another year of drastic statistical improvement for a fourth consecutive year with those benchmark players now gone off to the NFL would signify that it’s Venables’ system — his coaching, his scheme, and the players’ buy-in — that has truly taken hold and changed the way everyone looks at the Oklahoma defense.

Downs, for one, was impressed by how the younger players have grown — physically, for starters. Back in Norman for his pro day recently after spending two months away training for the NFL Draft, Downs said he was impressed by the Sooners coming up behind him.

“Freak athletes,” he said. “They're already bigger. You know, I haven't seen them in a few months — already swollen up and faster, and coaches saying great things about them. I know they're gonna do great. I practiced with them every day. I just look forward to seeing how they grow and (keep) doing it.”

That pro day atmosphere isn’t lost on the underclassmen. Guys preparing for their senior or junior season remember it was just a few short years ago that they were freshmen, and the ends of their careers seemed so far away.

Now, it’s not that far at all. Downs described the urgency of his senior year as having an “hourglass in your face.”

“Yeah, we all were talking about it in the locker room earlier today,” Spears-Jennings said recently, “Like, ‘Hey, pro day, we're one year away from all of us being in the pro day next year.’ So we’re just put our heads down and getting ready to work.”

Spears-Jennings got plenty of playing time last year alongside Bowman, but now he’ll be stepping up into a bigger leadership role as a senior.

Likewise, Lewis and McKinzie have played a ton of snaps at inside linebacker either alongside or behind Stutsman, but now they’re both fourth-year juniors.

Thomas has started plenty and led the team in sacks last year on other side of the field opposite Downs. But in addition to his QB pressures, now the team will need his leadership as a senior.

McKinzie described his leadership style as “a little bit more aggressive” than what Stutsman’s was — perhaps a bit more stoic. So in that arena, McKinzie’s leadership has grown.

“Danny’s a little bit more of a playing (around) guy,” McKinzie said. “But you got to love it at the same time, too, and so the past couple years have kind of helped me doing that.

“I always considered myself to be a leader. It’d be really remiss of me to say I’m just now all of a sudden doing this, and this is who I’m going to be all of a sudden because he’s no longer here. I’ve been Kobie since I got on campus, and I’ve always been a leadership guy.”

The fact is, Stutsman is just a year older than McKinzie and Lewis. Although Stutsman put them “under his wing” when they arrived as freshmen, McKinzie said, this will actually be their fourth year under Venables. Stutsman only played three.

“We honestly have one more year under our belt than he does (now),” McKinzie said, “so it doesn’t feel weird at all.”

Thomas said the departure of Downs and Da’Jon Terry will be felt, but the nature of the sport is that others, like himself and tackles Damonic Williams and Gracen Halton, grow into those roles.

“We have our different ways of leading,” Thomas said, “but ultimately they're not gonna be like Team 130. But Team 131 has a new leadership and same guys, including me, Dom, G-Baby, all those seniors. But those freshmen coming in are leading, too."

Spears-Jennings said he’s actually been anticipating the day he gets to step up as a team leader, and he’s followed the examples of older players before him — not just Bowman, but past names like Justin Broiles and Key Lawrence.

“Just picking those guys’ brains growing up, I feel like it's motivating me to be the leader I am right now,” he said. “I’m glad Billy didn't leave (for the NFL) last year, because I don't think I was ready to be a leader last year. I tell him that every day we played a game together. We talked every day. So I'd be thanking him because he taught me little bits and pieces: how to study, how to get ready, how to prepare for a game. So just thanking Billy, because Billy helped me get to where I am right now.

“I just put deposits in the bank every day, man. I'm trying to get better with my eyes, try to be more vocal. Just how I was usually all my life, you can ask my parents, I just wasn't a vocal kid, I wouldn't express myself. I just try to lead by example. But now, I'm trying to lead by example and be vocal with it. So try to take young guys on my wing and get them ready to go.”