Oklahoma football: Sooner Speed-D in a ‘Race to 26’
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma football defensive coordinator Alex Grinch is a man who doesn’t give up easily.
Sooners fans are hoping to see that persistence pay off handsomely this season.
Although the Oklahoma defense made significant defensive improvement in its first season a year ago under Grinch, it was not in the area that the new DC had emphasized the most.
From the very first day he showed up for work at the Switzer Center, Grinch has made a point of how important takeaways were to winning football games and championships. The year before he arrived, the 2018 Sooner defensive unit record a 20-year-low 11 takeaways and were one of the worst teams in the country in that defensive category.
Grinch wanted to see the OU defense double the number of takeaways to 24 in 2019. Based on his own mathematical analysis and empirical observation, Grinch says that at least 24 takeaways is equivalent to nine wins, regardless of what the offense does.
Grinch installed what came to be known as a “Speed-D’ defensive plan. He wanted to see the Sooners leverage their speed on defense and play more aggressively in plays on the ball. That was a formula that he believed would lead to more takeaways, fulfilling the primary objective of a defensive unit: to get the ball back to the offense.
The Sooners did play more aggressively on the defensive end, and it showed up in practically every statistical area except takeaways. For a second straight year, Oklahoma managed just 11 total takeaways in 14 games. That tied for 121st nationally out of 130 Football Bowl Subdivision teams.
The 2020 season marks “Take Two” in Grinch’s defensive game plan to increase the Sooners’ takeaway total, both on a per-game basis and for the season.
The number 26 is the goal the Sooner defenders are shooting for this season, more than double what they’ve been able to accomplish in the last two years combined. Is that a realistic goal? The short answer is yes.
If you look back at historic performance over the past 20 years, the Sooners have equaled or exceeded that total on a number of occasions, especially in the early 2000s, when the Oklahoma defenses were especially good under Bob Stoops and brother Mike.
In 2000, OU’s last national championship season, the Sooner defense was credited with 33 takeaways for the season, and the team finished in the top ten in the country for the next three seasons, with a high of 36 takeaways in 2002.
Junior safety Delarrin Turner-Yell picked off a pass, his first career interception, in the Sooners’ season-opening win over Missouri State. “Right now, it’s a race to 26,” Turner-Yell said to Joey Helmer of 247Sports and other reporters after practice one day last week. “We’re trying to average two or more a game.
“Speed-D is based off of takeaways,” he said. “So we’ve got to be big on that and being able to do your job, but not also (just) do your job, (but) finish at the end of the play and coming down with the ball.”
Last year on defense we were totally focused on leveraging the ball and making the tackle, Turner-Yell said. We need to be able to “exceed doing our job” and get the ball back to our offense, he continued, because in close games “that can really determine a ball game.”
In the first decade of the 2000s, Oklahoma averaged 33.3 takeaways a season. That number has dropped off precipitously over the last 10 seasons, to 18.9.
Based on this year’s goal, the Sooners are already behind schedule. To reach the goal of 26 takeaways, while averaging at least two per game, Oklahoma would need to play 13 games. The only way the team can play 13 games in this shortened college football season is if it reaches the College Football Playoff’s national championship game.
The end justifies the need.
“National championships will always be the talk around here,” Turner-Yell said, because you come here to win championships. It will make it a lot easier if you’re able to get the ball back.”
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