Jake Trotter
Staff Writer
NORMAN — Three games.
Three wins.
Three bad offenses.
So far,
Oklahoma's defense has manhandled North Texas, Miami and Utah State — offenses ranked among the worst in college football this and last season, offenses that don't sharpen a defense.
With Texas just three weeks away in a make-or-break showdown, OU's talented defense needs to be sharp.
Friday, the Sooner defense will see how it stacks up against a better offense when OU travels to
Tulsa to face the
Golden Hurricane's high-powered attack.
Late Saturday night,
Tulsa made a stout
Brigham Young defense look porous as the
Golden Hurricane racked up 595 yards in a 55-47 victory.
Last week, OU defensive coordinator
Brent Venables raved about
Tulsa's no-huddle, hurry-up scheme brought in by former Arkansas coordinator
Gus Malzahn.
And that offense, behind senior quarterback
Paul Smith, carved up the Cougars, who had the 10th-best defense last year and held Arizona to just a touchdown in the opener.
Tulsa is scoring 45 points a game running a scheme, shared by the Longhorns, that relies on operating both the run and pass out of the shotgun.
OU needs to capitalize off playing against a competent offense to hone its defense for Texas.
The
Sooners' first three opponents and Colorado — OU's opponent after
Tulsa — are lousy offensively.
North Texas scored 31 points against Southern Methodist, but ranked 115th in the country in scoring last year and against OU somehow made Utah State look like
Warren Moon's Houston Oilers.
That's impressive, because the Aggies finished 117th in offense last season and are ranked just 116th this year.
And as good as Miami's defense is, the offense has been horrible of late.
Last year, the Hurricanes ranked 87th in scoring, but only because Miami scored a combined 86 points against
Florida A&M and Florida International.
Without those totals, Miami would've ranked 108th.
Miami might be worse, too, this year, managing just 23 points this time against FIU.
Colorado can't score either, putting up just six points at home Saturday in a loss to Florida State.
Texas may be struggling but the Longhorns still have pop, scoring 30 points a game.
OU's first three games don't mean much. The
Tulsa tune-up will serve as the benchmark for how dominant this Sooner defense can be.