Chess Match: Oklahoma stifles the Alabama run game.
Brent Venables' Oklahoma defense had a vintage performance against one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks in the country, limiting Jalen Milroe to just seven yards on the ground.
Brent Venables' tenure as the head coach for the Oklahoma Sooners has been a relative rollercoaster. The coveted defensive coordinator waited for years for the right job, the Oklahoma job, to come open. When Lincoln Riley bolted to the West Coast and the glamorous streets of Los Angeles, Venables, a son of the prairie, came home.
However, what was once his dream job has sometimes been a nightmare. Riley shocked many by leaving the #10 team in the country that was coming off an 11-2 season. Many around college football had seen the deterioration of the defensive culture under Riley over his five-year tenure. They felt the Venables hire would be the critical missing piece in Oklahoma’s search for another national title.
Instead, the Sooners sputtered to a 6-7 start. Future Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams followed Riley to USC. Embattled backup Spencer Rattler would transfer to South Carolina. The hiring of current Mississippi head coach, Jeff Lebby, would be hired from Ole Miss and bring along transfer quarterback Dillion Gabriel.
In year one, the offense looked like the same powerhouse under Riley. Lebby brought his Kiffin-Briles offense to Norman, which Gabriel ran a version of at Central Florida. Defensively, the Sooners struggled, losing 34-41 to Kansas State, 24-55 to TCU, and 0-49 against Texas, which could be argued was a firable offense as Oklahoma's head coach. There were other losses, seven of them in total, but even in victory, some of the defense's performance was concerning.
Venables has been one of the top defensive minds in college football. However, for a coordinator with a $2 million price tag, the performances in Norman were lacking. The defense needed to get fixed and fast.
Year two was better. Oklahoma’s defense appeared to right the ship. The Sooners won 10 games but couldn’t win at Kansas and Oklahoma State. Defensively, the unit finished 15th in DFEI (think NFL’s DVOA), up from 40 the year prior (BCFToys).
Then there was Arizona's 24-38 defeat in the Aloma Bowl. Norman has high expectations, and moving to the SEC meant Venables and his program needed to step up in a big way. But even before the bowl game, storm clouds reemerged on the horizon.
Jeff Lebby would take the head coaching job at Mississippi State, leaving the program before their bowl game with Arizona. Star quarterback Dillion Gabriel would opt out and eventually hit the transfer portal. Around the program, many felt this was the Sooners’ way of ushering in the Jackson Arnold era, with Venables opting to go with the younger player.
After their 15-24 loss to Tennessee, a game in which Arnold was benched for backup Micheal Hawkins, Gabiriel's exit began to resurface. Arnold had not set the world on fire in his first four games as the full-time starter in Norman. Unprompted in his Tuesday press conference, Venables decided to clear the air:
‘You can't make a guy stay – the guy’s trying to find the next thing, the next chapter for him. I'm sure there was probably some disappointment that he wasn't more highly thought of in the NFL. [He] had an amazing year and is a fantastic quarterback. But there was nobody running nobody off or things like that… I think I've always said that the experienced player can do a little more than sometimes the young guys. But that's neither here nor there. But I did want to make sure we cleared that up.’
But it wasn’t those comments that raised alarm bells. Venables would add:
‘I did not know that at that time that he wasn't going to go to the NFL… I was like, I didn't know I had to fight this fight, you know, I didn't realize that you were even considering coming back…’
The last part stung. With the offense struggling and Arnold benched, many around the program thought this was another egregious error by Venables. Defensive coaches in the modern game have to get the offense right. Otherwise, your tenure will be short-lived. Offensively, the Sooners are well below their standard and hovering in the high 80s in OFEI.
Oklahoma beat Auburn the following week with Hawkins as the starting quarterback. A loss to Texas and another lackluster offensive performance would see Venables return to Arnold. Again, the noise around the program was palpable.
The Sooners would start to spiral. Losses to S. Carolina, Ole Miss, and Missouri followed. Entering their home matchup with Alabama, the team had gone 2-5 in their last seven games, with only a reprieve by playing Maine. Teetering at 5-5, and with the possibility that the Sooners wouldn’t make a bowl game, Venables needed a signature victory to save his job.
The offensive performances in ‘24 have masked the quiet resurgence of the Sooners' defense. Heading into their game with Bama, the defense has climbed into the top ten in DFEI and matched that #10 in EPA/play. A loss to Alabama could trigger a full-on spiral.
Offensively, the Tide lean on quarterback Jalen Milroe’s legs. As the graphic above shows, Alabama transitioned into a QB-run-centric offense leading up to their matchup with the Sooners. This would be a central element in Venables’ game plan against the Tide.
If the Sooners could stop Milore’s ability to run the ball, they would have a legitimate chance of winning the game. Venables wanted to force Milroe to pass the ball as a pure dropback passer. Selling out against the run, especially on early downs, would force Bama into predictable passing situations on 3rd Down.
Venables has always been one of the best pressure coordinators in college football. Give him a predictable down, and he’ll fire off a signature blitz. In their last two SEC matchups, Bama had beaten a ranked Missouri and LSU team behind the legs of Milore. That wouldn’t be the case in Norman.
