Oklahoma football had a lot of questions heading into the offseason following a highly uncharacteristic sub-.500 season to mark Brent Venables’ first as head coach of one of college football’s most successful programs historically.
OU’s disappointing record a year ago was largely the result of having one of the worst defensive performances in the team’s long history. The Sooners’ averaged 32 points a game, but they also gave up 30. They were 122nd out of 131 FBS teams in total defense, 106th in rushing defense and 119th in passing yards allowed.
Although the Sooners struggled at all levels of the defense last season, it all started up front on the defensive line, where the OU defensive linemen were pushed around and outmuscled on a regular basis at the point of attack, which consequently put more pressure on the linebackers and back-end defenders.