Coach Speak: Oklahoma Searching For Answers on Both Sides of the Ball Ahead of Texas
NORMAN — For the second straight week, Oklahoma is searching for answers.
Two days after the Sooners (3-2) got dominated by the No. 17-ranked TCU Horned Frogs 55-24 in Fort Worth, OU turns its attention to the yearly battle with Texas.
Nothing went right for Brent Venables’ team on Saturday, as both the offense and defense had major issues against the Horned Frogs.
Jeff Lebby’s unit was held to a season-low 355 yards of total offense, and had to play the majority of the game without starting quarterback Dillon Gabriel after he left the game and was placed in concussion protocol.
On the other side of the ball, Ted Roof’s defense looked even further off the pace than in OU’s home loss to Kansas State, as the Sooners gave up 668 yards of offense to the Max Duggan-led TCU attack.
There’ll be plenty of work to do on the practice field this week as both Lebby and Roof acknowledged the need to get much better if OU’s fortunes hope to change this weekend in the Cotton Bowl.
No Rushing the Protocols
Gabriel’s timeline for return is up in the air after being placed in concussion protocols, but the Sooners won’t be rushing their starting quarterback onto the field if he isn’t ready.
Debate surrounding head injuries has raged again across football following Tua Tagovailoa’s situation in Miami.
The attention to how Oklahoma handles Gabriel will be naturally heightened, but Lebby said the training staff won’t be doing anything outside of what they normally do for a concussion — just follow the protocol that’s already in place.
“I think everybody here understands that there’s protocol for a reason,” Lebby said, “and making sure that we’re putting in the best position to one, be healthy, and two, give them the resources they need to have a chance to be healthy. So that’s something that’s constantly being talked about as a staff, and our people are doing that right now.”
If Gabriel isn’t healthy, one of Davis Beville, General Booty or Nick Evers will be forced to make their first start at Oklahoma in cauldron of the Cotton Bowl.
Heavy Scheming
Over the last three games, the defense has bounced between three and four defensive linemen.
The three-man front worked wonders in Lincoln, but the OU defense was run off the field against both Kansas State and TCU.
Roof maintained the scheme wasn’t the issue, however.
“I don’t think we’re ill-suited for our scheme,” Roof said. “If we were, we would have done something else. We evaluated our personnel when we got here. This is what we feel fits into our personnel.”
Venables expressed plenty of frustration in Oklahoma’s inability to do the simple things on Saturday, which Roof said wasn’t a schematic issue.
“It’s Year 1 of a new scheme and there’s growing pains that usually accompany that,” Roof said. “But at the same time, the fundamental aspect of it, just the execution. The precision, we’ve gotta continue to go through and work to get better.”
Process Remains Unchanged
The returns have been dreadful the past two weeks, but Roof said the process to improve is still similar to prior weeks of practice.
“We’re addressing everything, just like we do when we win,” Roof said. “When you win, everything is not always perfect, either. You have to go through the same process of correcting the mistakes so you can improve. That’s what we have to do. We understand that.”
OU’s defensive game plan may need to be simplified, as it was through the first three weeks, and that’s something Roof did say the coaching staff could consider.
“When we execute in practice, and then obviously, we didn’t execute very well the other day,” Roof said. “You look at everything. You look at yourself, first. Certainly, we all make mistakes. We have to get those corrected.
“As far as saying – we’re committed to what we do because we have a lot of flexibility within our scheme. We’re going to continue our process of how we game plan, how we install and how we practice and take it to the game field.”
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