BOULDER, Colo. — Alonzo Dotson has been getting lessons on playing defensive line his whole life. It’s part of his family’s culture. His grandfather, Alphonse, played in the NFL and his uncle, Santana, won a Super Bowl with Green Bay.
He’s been like a sponge, soaking up the football advice they’ve doled out over the years. But lately, that advice is getting less and less relevant.
“I have to tell them, ‘Teams don’t just run the ball anymore,’” Dotson said. “We’ve got these zone reads, a little bit of option, throw-back passes; all kinds of crazy stuff. Relating back to these old guys is kind of complicated.”
Dotson isn’t in the minority when it comes to the complexity of playing defense nowadays.
Each season, the game becomes more complex. The offensive innovations over the last decade left defenses struggling to keep pace.
Take a look at the Big 12 Conference. Teams are scoring points at a rapid rate. Nine Big 12 teams are averaging over 30 points a game and the same number are averaging over 400 yards of total offense a game.
Some of the credit goes to weak non-conference schedules.
But some of it also goes to the complex spread offenses run throughout the league. Each season there are more options to defend. It may have started when Mike Leach brought the four- and five-wide receiver sets to the conference when he was OU’s offensive coordinator in 1999. But the systems have mutated throughout the conference as each offensive coordinator has added his own wrinkles.
“Those guys are like mad scientists drawing up stuff on the blackboard,” Sooner defensive backs coach Bobby Jack Wright said.
Staying up is tough.
OU defensive coordinator Brent Venables recalls his last season at Kansas State in 1998 as a starting point. The Wildcats had one of the best defenses in college football that season. But they only ran two coverages.
“We ran man defense about 90 percent of the time and we saw four-wide (receiver) personnel maybe 5 percent of the time,” he said. “Our change up was cover three (zone defense); that was it.”
OU will probably run four times that many coverages just today.
“Times have changed to say the least,” Venables said.
They have had to.
The wide array of formations and different sets of personnel are designed to get receivers and running backs the ball in open space. But they’re also employed to drive defenses nuts. The more alignments, the harder it is to line up against.
“It’s a thinking man’s game and there’s so much more stuff than there was even five years ago,” Venables said.
That will be obvious at 12:30 p.m. today when the third-ranked Sooners (4-0) take on Colorado (2-2) at Folsom Field. Buffaloes coach Dan Hawkins is one of those “mad scientists” that drives defensive coordinators batty.
Remember the confusion and deception Boise State used to top the Sooners in last year’s Fiesta Bowl? It was Hawkins’ offensive system the Broncos employed.
How do you defend it all?
There are no easy answers.
But the starting point is well known.
“You have to have skills guys that are smart. That’s the perfect antidote,” Venables said.
Defense was once about raw emotion and beating the man in front of you and making a tackle. It still is, but it’s also about reading keys and reacting to what those keys are telling.
“Coaches around here do a good job of breaking it down and making it as simple as it can be,” Dotson said. “We focus on a couple of keys and don’t get caught up in all the mess going on the backfield. Just focus on a couple keys and that allows you to play faster.”
That will be the key for OU’s defense today and the rest of the season. Colorado is one of many offenses the Sooners will see that will be difficult to stop.
“It is still them trying to run the ball, trying to throw the ball and us doing what we are supposed to do to stop them,” cornerback Marcus Walker said. “When you get down to the end, you can’t invent anything new.”
But offensive coordinators will keep trying. And defenses will be trying to keep up.
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com
OU Sports
New ball game
- OU Sports
-
-
It’s a recipe for success
Oklahoma softball coach Patty Gasso was answering questions Saturday after her Sooners clinched another return to the Women’s College World Series when, without really meaning to, she began to make it clear her job has, sort of, become ...
-
Tigers deny Sooners’ Big 12 title hopes
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma wanted to win its first Big 12 tournament in 16 years on Sunday. Missouri needed to win it to get in the NCAA Tournament. Need topped desire at Bricktown Ballpark....
-
Sooners make winning look easy
As Oklahoma’s players locked arms around the pitching circle, coming together for what passed as a celebration following Saturday’s 7-1 NCAA Super Regional-clinching victory over Arizona, three gloves remained near second base....
-
There are no easy outs in the lineup
Looking for a gameplan to stop Oklahoma? Well, one may or may not be available, but walking two of the first three Sooners you face certainly isn’t part of it. Just ask Arizona’s Kenzie Fowler....
-
Sooners will play for Big 12 championship
OKLAHOMA CITY, — It’s been 16 years since Oklahoma won the Big 12 tournament. It’s closer now than its ever been to ending the streak. The Sooners rolled through Baylor, 7-2, on Saturday at Bricktown Ballpark to advance to the tournament’s ...
-
Sooners send five more to nationals
AUSTIN, Texas — Oklahoma track and field teams had five more individuals qualify for the NCAA Championship on Saturday evening at the NCAA West Preliminary. The men’s 4x100-meter relay team also advanced to the national semifinals....
-
OU sophomore Jao-Javanil wins NCAA golf title
FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Oklahoma’s Chirapat Jao-Javanil made Oklahoma golf history Friday, becoming the first Sooner, man or woman, to win an individual NCAA national championship....
-
Pitching staff is exactly where Golloway wants it to be
When the Big 12 tournament began, Oklahoma felt like it had the pitching staff to make a deep run. Dillon Overton, Jordan John, Jonathan Gray and Damien Magnifico gave them four quality starters and a closer — Steven Okert — capable of ...
-
Sooners shut out Wildcats, need one more win for WCWS entry
Oklahoma might have scored more runs, not committed an error and starting pitcher Keilani Ricketts could have been just a little more efficient along the way....
-
Sooners send 4 more to NCAAs
AUSTIN, Texas – Oklahoma’s track and field teams added four individuals to the list of Sooners advancing to the NCAA championship Friday at the NCAA West Preliminary. In addition to the four new qualifiers, Brittany Borman advanced to the ...
- More OU Sports Headlines
-
It’s a recipe for success
