Oklahoma Football: Grading the Sooners’ Season So Far
By Chip Rouse
Out of sight, but not out of mind. That is how you might describe the past week for Oklahoma football fans.
Sooner fans were no doubt thankful for the week off so their beloved football team could tend to its physical wounds and hurt pride, but wondering what Sooner team would emerge to fight again on Saturday in OU’s conference opener at TCU.
It has been a surprising start to the 2016 college football season, with four teams that began the season in the nation’s top 10, including Oklahoma, already suffering a loss and three of the four already with a crooked number in the loss column.
As Sooner fans are painfully aware, Oklahoma has opened the season losing two of its first three outings. The only other time that has happened under head coach Bob Stoops’ watch was in 2005. But the Sooners are also the only team in the Associated Press’ preseason top 25 that has played two schools currently ranked in the top 10. Houston is No. 7 in the latest AP poll and Ohio State is ranked No. 2.
With the first three games of 2016 now in the books and Oklahoma about to embark on its journey to defend its 2015 conference crown, I’ve taken the liberty to issue a first-quarter grade report on how the Sooners are tracking so far:
Offense
Point production is down from a year ago, largely because of the quality of the opponents the Sooners have faced over the first three weeks of the season. Despite the tough competition, the OU offense actually has moved the ball fairly well, with quarterback Baker Mayfield leading a passing offense that has averaged right at 300 yards per game, including nine touchdown passes, third best in the Big 12.
The Oklahoma coaches would like to see better numbers for the run game. Rushing yards have been difficult to come by in the nonconference portion of the Sooner schedule. Joe Mixon has had some success, averaging 78 rushing yards per game. Samaje Perine, on the other hand, hasn’t quite gotten untracked. After leading the Big 12 in rushing his freshman season in 2014 and averaging better than 100 yards per game last season, Perine’s production has so far been held to just half of his per-game average a year ago.
Senior Dede Westbrook leads the Oklahoma receivers with 17 catches through three games, but no touchdowns. He has almost twice as many receptions as the next best Sooner. Thirteen different OU receivers have made catches, but only five have caught seven or more.
Finally, Mayfield has been sacked 11 times. That is largely the result of the Sooner quarterback holding on to the ball too long before getting rid of it.
Oklahoma has moved the ball effectively on offense, but it hasn’t been consistent enough and has had trouble sustaining and finishing drives. It will be interesting to see how they fare going up against Big 12 defenses, which aren’t nearly as good as what they have faced so far.
Offensive Grade: B
Defense
The Sooners inability to defend well in pass coverage has been their major weakness in the first three games. Oklahoma ended the 2015 season with arguably the best defensive secondary in the Big 12. Three of those four back-end defenders are back again in 2016, but teams have exploited the Sooners weak link in the cornerback spot vacated by the departure of All-Big 12 selection Zack Sanchez.
Defensive coordinator Mike Stoops has tried a combination of players at the cornerback slot opposite Jordan Thomas, but no one has stepped up as of a week ago to plug leak on that side of Sooner secondary. If that problem doesn’t get fixed soon, Oklahoma is likely to face a lot more trouble down the road.
Oklahoma led the Big 12 in pass defense last season. Through three games this season, OU is giving up 248 passing yards per game. That’s 88th best in the country. In pass defense efficiency in 2016, they rank third worst in the Big 12 through the first quarter of the regular season and are 111th in the country in that category. Enough said.
The Sooner pass rush has to get better. The opposing quarterbacks aren’t being pressured enough and are getting too much time to find their receivers and release the ball without much disruption. Part of this is due to the respect the OU defenders have given the dual-threat quarterbacks they’ve faced because of their ability to take off and run with the ball.
Against Houston, the Sooners were able to shut down the Cougar running game, but they were torched through the air. In the home loss to Ohio State – a very good offensive team, mind you – OU did better defending the Buckeye passing game, although Ohio State did make some big plays through the air, but the Sooners could not stop the run, allowing almost 300 yards on the ground. Interestingly, the Oklahoma defense has allowed just one rushing touchdown in three games.
Ironically, the position that was the Sooners’ biggest concern coming into the new season was at linebacker, where they lost four starters from a year ago. The linebacking corps, though, has played pretty solidly in the first three games.
OU probably is better on the defensive side than it has shown in its first three games, but the breakdowns and alignment issues that we’ve observed so far are real and have to get better if the Sooners are going to contend for a 10th Big 12 championship.
Defensive Grade: D
Special Teams
The Sooner special teams have performed fairly well to open the 2016 season, save perhaps the TD return on the missed field goal against Houston, which was more a poor coaching decision than anything else. Also, the uncharacteristic missed 23-yard field goal attempt by Austin Seibert on the opening drive against Ohio State.
On the plus side, however, Joe Mixon, had an exciting 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against the Buckeyes. The Sooners are averaging 30.5 yards per kickoff return, best in the Big 12.
The Oklahoma kickoff and punt coverage units have been solid.
Seibert has 10 touchbacks in 19 kickoffs, the highest percentage in the conference so far. His 41.8-yard punting average is on par with his mark a year ago.
Seibert is handling all of Oklahoma’s kicking duties this season (kickoffs, punts, field goals and extra points). So far the extra work load has not become an issue, but it will be interesting to see if it takes a toll on his punting and field-goal performance as the season wears on.
Special Teams Grade: B+
Coaching
Whenever a team does not live up to expectations or doesn’t play up to its capability, the accountability always falls on the coaching staff.
The players are the ones who have to execute the plays and the game plan, but it is the coaches who are responsible for getting the right players on the field in the right combination and putting the team in the best position to win through diligent planning and preparation.
Head coach Bob Stoops has accepted full responsibility for Oklahoma’s disappointing start to the 2016 season.
There have been several coaching decisions in the first three games that have been very questionable.
Two that come immediately to mind are the decision in the Houston game to attempt a field goal from a distance longer than the kicker’s career best, and that had a good chance of being returned if it was short (which it was). The Sooners had their bulky FG protection unit on the field and not the coverage team. The end result was perilously predictable: a 100-plus-yard return for a touchdown that put Houston up by nine points and from which Oklahoma never recovered.
The other, occurring in the same game, was the decision to abandon the Oklahoma running game far earlier than it should have, which reduced the effectiveness of a one-dimensional passing attack.
In addition to being outplayed, the Sooners were also outcoached against Houston. In the Ohio State loss, Oklahoma was badly beaten by a better team with better talent, but coaching has a primary role in that as well.
Coaching Staff Grade: C