OU-Texas: One big thing
Joshua Eaton
Ty Russell / OU Athletics
Change is never easy. But in Oklahoma’s secondary, it might be time.
The Sooner defensive backs have struggled across the board this season. With the exception of safety Delarrin Turner-Yell, almost every member of the OU secondary has come up short.
Whether it was penalties, missed tackles, coverage errors or dropped interceptions from senior Tre Brown or junior Bookie Radley-Hiles or junior Pat Fields, the bad plays have piled up in the program’s first back-to-back conference losses since the pre-Bob Stoops days.
“It’s unacceptable,” defensive coordinator Alex Grinch said. “You don’t talk to them … like it’s their first start. You don’t talk to them that way of, ‘Hang in there, bud,’ and ‘Welcome to college football.’ You’ve played on big-time stages, you’ve played a lot of football. To not execute on a high level is obviously disappointing.”
Last week OU’s vertically challenged defensive backs faced an Iowa State receiver corps that averaged 6-foot-4. This week the Sooners are in Dallas for the annual showdown with Texas, whose receiver two-deep looks like a Big East basketball roster: 6-4, 6-3, 6-0, 6-1, 6-2, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 and 6-6.
The Longhorns (2-1) are one of two ranked teams left in the Big 12 and, as usual, boast the highest-ranked collection of recruiting talent.
Not that giving a bunch of freshmen their first major college football action in the Cotton Bowl against Texas is ever a great idea. But that may be the next move for the Sooner coaching staff.
“You turn the finger back on yourself as a coach,” Grinch said, “and say, ‘Where did I fail? Where did I miss? What was the symptom that I missed during the previous week in practice? What did I miss that night that would lend itself to having a poor performance?’
“When it is older guys, it’s different. It’s completely different. But also because it’s older guys, you try to find some semblance of perspective because of the body of work. And you say they’ve been in the moment. They’ve performed at a certain level at times, they’ve executed these calls and these responsibilities.
“I could show you them having success, whether it’s in the run game or the pass game, tackling as mentioned, and so you always have to use that. They need to use that. They need to draw from those experiences. In the end, no. There’s a completely different level of evaluation based on an older player versus a younger player.”
Lincoln Riley said this week that he thinks “we’re getting close” to having more freshmen available for duty after COVID knocked out a lot of them the first three weeks of the season.
“There’s honestly a number of guys at a number of positions that you hoped would be able to help you by now, and I think in a normal year would be helping us by now,” Riley said. “Some of those guys, like you said, knocked out with COVID for 10, 14, 28 days, and that, combined with the offseason being a little different and those guys that were here in the spring missing all of spring ball, I mean, there’s just — the development of those guys has been different.
“And so there’s certainly a lot of talent there. We’re pushing like crazy to get those guys ready to play. Because you’ve got to take that talent and still gotta run the calls and execute and go do it. And so I certainly think we’re getting closer and those guys are getting better, and giving us more and more reason to want to put them on the field.”
Some changes already have begun to manifest. Last week at Iowa State, sophomore Jaden Davis was replaced briefly in the first half by Woodi Washington and more extensively in the second half (Brown was briefly subbed for junior Tre Norwood).
But Oklahoma’s future in the defensive backfield is in the class of 2020, and that means 6-foot-2 safety Bryson Washington, and 6-2 cornerback Joshua Eaton, and 5-11 corners D.J. Graham and Kendall Dennis.
Eaton even teased the fan base this week on Twitter.
If Grinch, who coaches safeties, and cornerbacks coach Roy Manning decide to go with the youth movement, the fan base would be wise to exercise patience.
Freshmen are going to play like freshmen. And freshmen making their college debut against Texas — well, that could get ugly.
But those changes might be just what this team needs to turn this season around.
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