Oklahoma football: Sooners defense in Top 5 in important stop-rate metric

When was the last time an Oklahoma football defense ranked in the top-five nationally in any means or measure?

Let me save you the trouble of venturing a guess. It’s been a long, long while.

Through four games in 2023, Oklahoma ranks as the fourth-best out of 131 FBS teams in defensive stop rate, which is the percentage of a defensive team’s drives that result in punts, turnovers or turnovers on downs. This particular measurement is a much more accurate and meaningful means of determining a team’s defensive efficiency or effectiveness than the more traditional measure of total yards allowed per game (total defense) or points per game.

"“(Brent) Venables has the Sooners’ defense playing so much better in Year 2,” writes Max Olsen of The Athletic in an article about college football’s stop-rate rankings for 2023.“They finished No. 72 in stop rate at the end of their 6-7 season (2022) and look seriously improved at all three levels of the defense through four games.”"

The common denominator in this dramatic improvement by the Oklahoma defense this season is clearly Brent Venables.

Whether or not Oklahoma ends up in the top-10 nationally at the end of the season in the critically important stop-rate metric — and after having completed the gauntlet of the Big 12 conference schedule — it doesn’t change the fact that this year’s Sooner defense is well on the path to becoming relevant once again after multiple seasons of well-below-standard defensive performance.

Over the last six seasons, Oklahoma’s average stop-rate ranking is 74.3 with a stop rate of 62.5 percent and 2.40 points allowed per drive. By contrast, over the same six-year span, Clemson’s average ranking in the same category is 6.0 with a stop-rate average of 79.5 percent and under 1.00 per drive. In two of those years, Clemson finished No. 1 in the country in stop-rate percentage.

Venables was the defensive coordinator at Clemson in five of those six seasons. Although he wasn’t at Clemson in 2022, the defensive players he had recruited were still there.

Although many OU fans and members of the media were quick to point the finger at Venables for the Sooners’ poor defensive play last season. it appears Oklahoma may have turned that corner this season with more discipline and aggressiveness, clearly more depth and another year in Venables’ complex defensive system.

Note: All data is courtesy of TruMedia and Pro Football Focus.

Here are the top-10 FBS teams in stop-rate percentage through 4 games

                                                             G                Drives                 Stop Rate                Pts/Drive

1. Penn State                             3                   36                        88.9                            0.78
2. Duke                                        3                   35                        88.6                            0.70
3. Michigan                                4                   41                        87.8                            0.56
4. Oklahoma                              4                   49                        85.7                            0.69
5. Ohio State                             3                   34                        85.3                            0.79
6. Ohio                                        4                   46                        84.8                            0.80
7. UCLA                                      3                   38                        84.2                            0.79
8. Georgia                                 3                   37                        83.8                            1.03
9. Utah                                      3                   37                        83.8                             0.84
10. Fresno State                       3                   34                        82.4                            1.12