Scouting the Sooner spring game
White beat red 84-82 in Oklahoma’s scrimmaged resolution to their spring practices. The final play featured 5-star freshman quarterback Jackson Arnold firing a two-point conversion into the hands of sophomore wideout Jayden Gibson only to see it dropped. The white squad (the defense) was instead awarded the two points, giving them the victory.
[Get Inside Texas Plus for just $29.99 until 8/31/23!]
The strange scoring of the game could lead you to believe the game was a high-scoring affair with the offense marching up and down the field. In fact, Brent Venables’ defense looked much improved while mostly squashing the offense, so long as they didn’t run a wheel route in the red zone. Dillon Gabriel threw three touchdown passes in this game and all three involved coverage busts, two of them involving uncovered wheel routes and another a sucker play where receiver Jalil Farooq pretended to block a screen before free releasing into the end zone for six points.
Scrimmage outcomes are really irrelevant though. What they are is a snapshot into a team’s development and where individual players are in mastering the fundamentals of winning football. So what can Texas learn from their rival’s scrimmage?
The Oklahoma trenches have question marks
The Sooner D-line definitely won their exchanges against the offensive line in this game, but it was mostly fool’s gold.
To begin with, Stanford transfer Walter Rouse who is a shoo-in to win their left tackle job, hasn’t jumped in just yet. Oklahoma had to rely instead on early enrollee freshman Cayden Green. The second team O-line was a patchwork quilt of walk-ons and overmatched underclassmen.
This D-line is pretty small and featured 6-foot-5, 277 pound Jonah Laulu, who was a back-up defensive end last season, as a nose tackle. However, with the smaller and faster line they were able to execute a variety of stunts which troubled the still developing 1st team O-line…
…and obliterated the second team. Will they be better when the lineup shakes out in the fall? Most likely, but they have some real work ahead of them.
When the 1st team O-line was able to block a more static defensive front, things generally went well, but they still had to deal with the issue of the Sooner defense packing the box with extra defenders.
Check out slot receiver Drake Stoops on bottom in this clip:
The alignments from the defense routinely invited 1-on-1 shots to the wideouts or long throws on screens.
Either cornerback here is isolated in press-man coverage and the safeties are fixed in the middle of the field. The defense swallowed up the run game playing with their “cheetahs” (their name for the nickel linebacker) hovering near the box and the safeties playing flat-footed.
How might the smaller D-line fare without the aggressive support from the back end? Unclear. Also, can the back-end hold up in coverage in order to allow this approach against other teams on the schedule? They still have assignment soundness to check off before graduating to playing skilled coverage against topnotch passing attacks.
The perimeter problem
Dillon Gabriel didn’t really make option reads in 2022, at least not consistently or particularly often. The Veer and Shoot offense is supposed to be all about option reads, RPOs and quarterback keepers, but it’s not entirely disastrous if the quarterback doesn’t actually utilize them. The wide spacing of the offense tends to clear the picture pretty easily for the offensive coordinator to create predetermined reads.
When Gabriel was taking a designed shot to Marvin Mims or scrambling, he could be effective, but trying to make accurate throws past his first read was (and apparently is) a struggle. Do the Sooners have anyone who can consistently get open on shot plays for Gabriel to lock onto? He still doesn’t appear to be operating with particularly extensive RPO reads, perhaps he’ll get more run reads this season with a little more depth at quarterback behind him.
If opponents load the box and match up in man coverage outside, can the Sooners move the ball on offense?
Similarly, the Sooners are probably going to need to load the box with their own defense. The defensive tackle depth isn’t there for the 4-2-5 they played in the spring but they are a little better suited than they were in 2022 to play a 3-3-5 Flyover by using Indiana transfer Dasan McCullough as the Sam and veteran safety Justin Harrington behind him as a big nickel. They could emulate the 2022 TCU strategy of playing numbers around the box from the Flyover while playing man and off-man outside…if they have the secondary for it.
Their approach will also resemble that of the 2020 Texas Longhorns, they even have Jay Valai coaching in the secondary. Those Longhorns could not defend the run honestly without playing press quarters and firing the safeties into the run fit. It worked so long as the opponent couldn’t spread and throw or consistently hit play-action. You need a terrific pair of cornerbacks and a highly athletic free safety to make it work.
Oklahoma returns longtime cornerback Woodi Washington, who’s yet to put together a great season, and across from him will be either JUCO transfer Kendel Dolby (who played nickel in JUCO) or one of a few true freshmen (Jasiah Wagoner or Makari Vickers). At free safety it’s Billy Bowman with freshman Peyton Bowen looming as an inevitable addition to the lineup.
In summation
The Sooners made a few additions to their defense which will help them field a competent 3-down Flyover approach, McCullough and Wake Forest transfer Rondell Bothroyd (a 275-pound defensive end). They’re still very young and a few pieces away up front from putting together a great unit.
Offensively the situation is similar. They don’t have the ideal pieces to over stress defenses from the Veer and Shoot, lack depth, and are at least a year (perhaps two) away from Jackson Arnold getting certified to run the offense against Big 12 defenses. They’ll likely improve considerably between now and Week 1 by adding Rouse (and getting Savion Byrd up to 300 pounds and in the starting lineup) and perhaps Brenen Thompson finds it easy to translate his track speed into their offense.
Ultimately this is a team and roster in transition who’s goal will be developing competence and initiating some of the younger stars in time for the SEC move. Contending for another Big 12 Championship would be a surprise luxury.
