Mike Norvell analyzes Oklahoma's defensive play

On3 imageby:Kaiden Smith12/29/22

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Thursday’s Cheez-It Bowl matchup will feature familiar foes, as Mike Norvel’s Florida State team takes on first-year Oklahoma  head coach Brent Venables. Venables was Clemson‘s defensive coordinator before becoming the Sooners, regularly squaring off against Norvell and Florida State’s offense in the ACC. Heading into the game, Norvell was asked if he noticed any similarities between the Sooners’ defense and Clemson’s defenses of the past.

“This is a defense that’s gonna attack, and they’re gonna bring pressure from all over the field,” Norvell said. “They lead the Big 12 in tackles for loss, I mean they’re going to try to create havoc in what they do, so there are some similarities.”

Venables’ defenses traditionally like to get after the quarterback and apply pressure up front, showing a variety of exotic looks and blitzes to do so. They not only lead the Big 12 in tackles for loss, but sack yardage, backing opponents up 199 yards on 26 sacks this season.

Some of Venables’ schemes and tendencies from Clemson may carry over in the Cheez-It Bowl, but Norvell also understands that the players and personnel of the Sooners are different than that of Clemson’s past teams.

“But kind of similar to the last question we just talked about, this team is unique to itself and as guys fit into it they try to play to the skills and talents of the players they have,” Norvell said.

One player the Seminoles will need to be on is linebacker Danny Stutsman, a sideline-to-sideline player with a nose for the football who led the Big 12 in tackles this season with 118. Defensive lineman like Ethan Downs and Reggie Grimes will also be worth watching out for up front, combining for 9 sacks this season.

“So that’s been our focus of just what we’ve seen or what they’ve done, we know they’re going to attack, we know they’re going to bring pressure, they do a good job schematically and their plans of attack so we’ve got to be ready to adapt and adjust through the course of the game,” Norvell said.

The Sooners may be good at applying pressure and getting in the backfield, but thankfully for the Seminoles, they’ve also been good at giving up yards and points this season. This season Oklahoma has given up 29.6 points per game and 450.5 yards per game, ranking fourth-worst and second-worst in the Big 12 in each respective category.

Norvell’s offense and Venables’ defense will meet once again Thursday at 5:30 p.m. ET in a matchup airing on ESPN.