Big 12 Championship Game: One Big Thing

ARLINGTON, TX — Oklahoma leads the Big 12 Conference in rushing defense. Iowa State running back Breece Hall leads the nation in rushing yards.

In this compelling battle of irresistible force meeting immovable object, the winner likely gets to hold the Big 12 championship on Saturday afternoon at AT&T Stadium.

Hall ranks first in the country with 1,357 yards (6.1 yards per carry), has eight 100-yard games and has been over 90 yards all 10 times out this year with 17 rushing touchdowns. OU’s run defense ranks fourth in the nation, allowing just 88 yards per game and is giving up a league-low 3.0 yards per carry.

Of course, Oklahoma hasn’t always been so immovable in 2020.

Hall shredded the Sooners in their regular-season meeting with 139 yards and two touchdowns. OU’s defense had double-digit missed tackles in Ames, and the 6-1, 215-pound, hard-running, harder-to-knock-over Hall controlled things with 28 rushes.

“We didn’t do a very good job against Hall in the second half,” Lincoln Riley said that night.

“Late late in the game,” said defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, “just an inability to get the ballcarrier on the ground.”

It was a masterful performance by Hall, who's averaging 143 yards from scrimmage and has 29 touchdowns in the 18 games since taking over as the starter during his freshman year in 2019.

“I think what's been really fun to watch,” said Iowa State coach Matt Campbell, “is him continue to mature and almost become a little bit of a craftsman, not just a football player or a football talent, (but) in how he studies the game, how he prepares for the game, how he prepares his body for the game. I think all those little things (show) somebody that's really developing their craft rather than just playing a game.”

Grinch did get it corrected: after yielding a season-worst 141 rushing yards to Texas the following week, OU’s defense gave up 75 to TCU, 134 to Texas Tech, 95 to Kansas, 78 to Oklahoma State and 25 to Baylor. Add to that early efforts against Missouri State (54) and Kansas State (56), and the Sooners’ performance at Jack Trice Stadium 2 1/2 months ago does seem much more out of the ordinary.

In the six games since Hall’s big night, opposing running backs have been moderately successful against Oklahoma’s defense: 99 carries for 463 yards.

Where the Sooners have really stacked up the impressive run defense numbers is in pressuring quarterbacks.

Other than Texas’ Sam Ehlinger (23 carries, 112 yards), enemy quarterbacks have gone absolutely nowhere on the ground, swarmed by wave after wave of OU defenders and combining for (including sacks) minus-29 yards on 74 carries.

The return of defensive end Ronnie Perkins from suspension certainly gives Oklahoma a different look this time around. He wasn’t available in Ames (he made the trip but couldn’t play until three games later at Texas Tech), and his presence has changed how opposing offenses scheme up Grinch’s front.

With extra blocking attention on Perkins — and with Perkins’ infectious attitude lifting his teammates from the field this time, rather than from the sideline — OU should have more success against Hall in the rematch.

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