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Oklahoma football: Barry Switzer has concerns about Sooners’ move to SEC

By Chip Rouse

Jan 1, 1981; Miami, FL, USA; FILE PHOTO; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Barry Switzer gets a victory ride following their win over the Florida State Seminoles in the 1980 Orange Bowl 18-17. Mandatory Credit: Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 1, 1981; Miami, FL, USA; FILE PHOTO; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Barry Switzer gets a victory ride following their win over the Florida State Seminoles in the 1980 Orange Bowl 18-17. Mandatory Credit: Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports /
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This coming season will serve as a transition year for Oklahoma football as the team and fans take the final lap as a longtime member of the Big 12 and its previous iterations all while making final preparations for the much-anticipated move to the SEC.

The SEC will certainly be a much different environment for the Sooners than what they’ve been used to in the Big 12 and before that in the Big Eight and Big Seven.

Not everyone is all that excited about OU’s impending move to the SEC. Count former head coach and Sooner legacy Barry Switzer among those with concerns.

"“I’m concerned,” Switzer told the Tulsa World in an interview recently. “I know what it will look like. It’ll look like we’re playing Texas every (expletive) week.“You’ve got to be good,” he said. I don’t know if we’re good enough right now.”"

Looking back at this past season and Oklahoma’s 6-7 overall record and just 3-6 against teams from the Big 12, the former head coach is spot on. That’s not good enough to compete at even the mid level of the SEC.

The first area the Sooners must address if they want to be able to contend with the top teams in the SEC is to get much better on defense. In order to do that, Switzer noted, OU needs to recruit and develop defensive talent that looks like Alabama and Georgia.

Brent Venables has shown at Clemson, and even previously at OU, that he knows how to do that. He has a 2013 recruiting class that is top heavy in elite defensive talent and several talented defensive pickups in the transfer portal. That appears to be a strong step in the right direction, but it still has to bear fruit on the field.

The Oklahoma defense finished 122nd in the country last season in total defense, allowing 461 yards per game. That won’t cut it in the SEC, where five teams last season ranked in the top-15 nationally in total offense.

The 2023 season for Oklahoma will be as much about preparing for the move to the SEC as it is about playing its final season as a member of the Big 12.

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