Oklahoma football: Long, big, athletic are attributes of ideal Sooner secondary

Editors note: This is the seventh in a series of article examining each of the position groups ahead of the 2021 Oklahoma football season.

Oklahoma made three College Football Playoff appearances between 2015 and 2018, despite fielding a defense that was among the worst in college football.

Alex Grinch was brought in as OU’s defensive coordinator prior to the 2019 season, and the Sooner defense has made improvements in both seasons he has been on the job.

Before Grinch arrived on the scene the Oklahoma defense had practically hit rock bottom and was struggling at all three levels, but no more so than in the defensive secondary, where the Sooners were getting beat deep far to often.

And the problems in the secondary wasn’t limited just in coverage and defending passes, but also in tackling breakdowns and not creating turnovers.

Grinch knows a thing or two about coaching college defenses and especially when it comes to the secondary.

He played defense back in college and prior to coming to Oklahoma he coached safeties for three seasons at Missouri, served as defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach for three years at Washington State and, most recently, was co-defensive coordinator and coached the safeties for a 13-1 Ohio State team in 2018.

In his two seasons leading the Oklahoma defense the Sooners have gone from 114th among FBS teams in total defense to 38th after his first season and 29th last season. OU was 129th and dead last in college football in 2018. The Sooners were 83rd is pass defense a year ago, and Grinch and cornerbacks coach Roy Manning know that the back end of the OU defense needs to continue to get better if the Sooners are going to be a legitimate national title contender.

Grinch’s goal since first setting foot on the Oklahoma football practice field has been to transform the Sooner secondary with bigger, stronger and faster, athletic bodies. And you’ve no doubt heard Grinch’s use of the term “Speed-D,” referring to the ability of the defense to move with speed, agility and aggressiveness and react quickly to the ball.

It’s all about getting bigger, stronger, athletic in the secondary

The Sooner defensive coordinator also points out the big, strong and fast are not exclusive qualities to the defensive backfield. Those are characteristics that every quality defense should possess, but it is extremely difficult to get all three.

The formula of previous defensive coordinators at Oklahoma was more about getting smaller defensive backs who were fast and athletic.

Having speed and athleticism at the back end of the defense may have worked for a while (the fastest guys on the team were typically in the secondary), but as college receivers became taller, stronger and longer in terms of arm length, the mismatches with smaller defenders became more problematic. And when the taller receivers can match the speed and athleticism of the guys in pass coverage, you are flirting with big-time defensive breakdowns.

The Sooner secondary loses three players with starting experience from last year’s Big 12 Championship team — cornerbacks Tre Brown and Tre Norwood and former five-star defensive back Braden Radley-Hiles — but the returning group, along with a several highly talented recruits (Latrell McCutchin, Jordan Mukes and Joshua Eaton) and  and a talented Tennessee transfer (Key Lawrence) mixed in, should be even better and certainly deeper than a year ago.

The rebuild to add length and strength, combined with athleticism, in the defensive secondary has become strikingly apparent in the last two Oklahoma recruiting cycles under Grinch. And this coming season could be when we really start to see the payoff in the back end.

What will the Sooner defensive secondary look like in 2021?

The Oklahoma defensive backs for the coming season still includes players that will see quite a bit of action who are under 6-feet tall. In fact the two projected starting cornerbacks, redshirt sophomore Woodi Washington and sophomore D.J. Graham, are listed at 5-feet, 11 inches, but according to Grinch they both play bigger than their size and are exceptionally athletic.

The last two Oklahoma recruiting classes have included 6-foot, 4-inch Mukes; 6-foot, 3-inch Justin Harrington; 6-foot, 2-inch Eaton; 6-foot, 2-inch Lawrence and Bryson Washington, and 6-foot, 1-inch McCutchin.

Backing up projected cornerback starters Woodi Washington and Graham are junior Jaden Davis, who started six of Oklahoma’s 10 games last season, along with Eaton and McCutchin.  Redshirt freshman Kendall Dennis, who played well in the OU spring game last weekend could also see some time at cornerback this season.

Seniors Pat Fields and Delarrin Turner-Yell are the likely starters at safety (Fields at free safety and Turner-Yell at strong safety). They will be backed up by redshirt junior Harrington, redshirt-freshman Bryson Washington and Mukes, who Grinch’s defensive team in the spring game with six tackles.

With the Sooners likely to play with five defensive backs on a good number of possessions in 2021, Key Lawrence, the sophomore transfer who played at both safety and cornerback for Tennessee, will likely be the starter at nickelback, with redshirt sophomore Jeremiah Criddell and redshirt-senior Justin Broiles also vying for playing time as part of the defensive back depth chart.

Any way you look at it, the 2021 group of Oklahoma defensive backs is probably the deepest and most talented it has been since Lincoln Riley became head coach in 2017. There’s no question that is true in the time Grinch has been responsible for the Sooner defense.