From day one when Alex Grinch arrived in the early part of 2019 as the new Oklahoma football defensive coordinator, takeaways have been a primary point of emphasis.
In the 2018 season, a year before Grinch became part of the Sooner coaching staff, Oklahoma was credited with 11 total takeaways. He wanted to see a measurable improvement in that area in 2019, emphasizing that the primary objective of defensive football is to get the ball back for the offense and that forcing turnovers was the surest way to get the job done.
The OU defensive coordinator wanted the Sooners to play with more speed on defense and more aggressively in plays on the ball. Speed-D was definitely part of the Sooner defense last season and was a big factor in the major improvement in passing yards allowed per game and total defensive yards given up.
“It’s not always a luck thing or a chance thing. It’s about creating more opportunities for teams to turn it over. And then when they do, to take advantage.” — Head coach Lincoln Riley
The Oklahoma defensive unit did play more aggressively in the 2019 season, but the takeaways just didn’t materialize as Grinch had hoped. He was hoping the Sooners would double the number of takeaways from 11 to 24 in 2019. He has shown through mathematical analysis and years of observation that 24 takeaways in a season is equivalent to nine wins, regardless of what the offense does.
For two years in a row, the Oklahoma defense has only produced 11 total takeaways. Last season that ranked 121st in the nation.
“That’s an alarming stat, and it’s on me,” Grinch told reporters in March right before the NCAA cancelled all spring sports activities because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “You lose a lot of credibility as a coach if you stand in front of your guys and stand in front of the team and stand in front of the unit and say, ‘We’re going to get takeaways,” and make major emphasis of it and then you don’t get them.”
The takeaways simply didn’t come last season, but it wasn’t as if the Oklahoma defenders weren’t in position to force plenty of additional turnovers. Takeaways, like the football itself, are unpredictable and can take a lot of funny bounces. Grinch and his defensive coaches are hoping things will bounce more in OU’s favor in the coming season.
Since the 2000 season. NCAA Division 1 national championship teams have averaged 30.9 takeaways per season, according to a research study by The Athletic. Oklahoma created 33 takeaways that season, fifth best in the country. Oh, and it also helped result in a national championship.
And that wasn’t just a one-year phenomenon for the Sooners. They averaged 34.3 takeaways over the next three seasons (2001-2003).
The Sooners have 22 takeaways in the last two seasons combined.
But creating and capitalizing from defensive takeaways isn’t just a chance thing or hoping the ball will somehow bounce your way.
“Yes, granted, some games, some years, you just have more balls that find their way to you,” head coach Lincoln Riley told Jason Kersey of The Athletic in July.
“It’s not always a luck thing or a chance thing. It’s about creating more opportunities to turn it over. Then when they do, to take advantage.”
In recent seasons, a height advantage by taller receivers has worked against shorter and smaller Sooner defensive backs, especially in going after 50-50 jump balls. This has led to fewer interceptions that might otherwise have been possible.
Grinch has begun corrective measures in that area, recruiting taller, longer defensive backs. Three of the four DBs recruited in OU’s incoming 2020 class are 6-foot, 1-inch or taller, and the three defensive backs committed so far for 2021 are all taller than six foot.
“You have an opportunity on every single snap to get the ball,” Grinch told R.J. Young of 247Sports last season. “The ball doesn’t know it’s supposed to stay in the running backs hands. It doesn’t know it’s supposed to go from the quarterback to the receiver.
“I’ve said this before, but I’ll keep saying it because it’s true. If the ball doesn’t know, we don’t know. So why aren’t we getting it? Why aren’t we finding ways to get the ball out?”
Expect that to be OU’s focal point on defense again this season in Year 2 under the Grinch Plan. It’s worked before in other places Grinch has been, and it’s worked before for the Sooners, as well
Something tells me that intersection is very close.