OU football: Stoops says defenses aren’t without hope

Bob Stoops says defensive back is not the toughest position to play, despite Sooner evidence to the contrary. OU safeties were burned repeatedly in a 45-38 upset loss at Baylor on Saturday. OU cornerbacks were burned repeatedly in a 41-38 loss to Texas Tech on Oct. 22.

“It’s challenging, sure, the way more and more people spread you out, and you see talented and good receivers,” Stoops said Tuesday. “I’m not minimizing it. We still need to be able to cover better than we did.”

But is the Sooner defense too complicated? Are the OU coaches asking too much mentally of their defensive backs, who against Baylor looked confused a good deal of the time?

Stoops said the defense isn’t too complicated and that it’s constantly a consideration, to see how much the Sooners can absorb.

“We constantly do that, assess every week, how much we give ‘em to process and what’s the easiest adjustment,” Stoops said. “To be quite honest, it’s easy to say you just play this. But they (offenses) don’t allow you to do that. Offenses, as simple as you may want to keep it, they don’t let you keep it that way.”

In other words, a spread offense like Baylor will force defenses to make adjustments and offer a variety of looks, else the defense will be quickly outmanned and outmaneuvered.

Stoops also said the spread offenses – which includes his own – don’t necessarily have an unhealthy advantage.

“At times, people spread out and defend it really well,” Stoops said. “We have before. Just depends on the personnel matchup on a particular day. Heck, every year’s different. We played ‘em a year ago (at Waco) and it didn’t look like that. Every year’s different.”