14 Comments

  1. Philly Frog

    The non-GMO folks would object to the surfeit of hybrids.

    Also: Overshown can turn and burn with a slot?

  2. Matt

    Camp buzz (take that for what it’s worth) is that Sylvie has overtaken Bookie at nickel and Parker could very well overtake Motley at Corner. Both of those would be a big upgrade in size. Just putting that on your radar.

  3. Matt

    Edit: I realize Parker is only listed as 2 pounds heavier than Motley but Parker plays much bigger and in reality even looks bigger so I’m not sure how accurate those listed weights are anyway.

  4. Clayton Davis

    I know this article is mainly about scheme and personnel, but the biggest initial hurdle for Grinch will be getting his players to actually make tackles after contact. If you watch his Wazzu defenses, they rarely allowed ballcarriers free once they made contact, and they swarmed to the ball.

    If Grinch can make decent improvements there, it’ll improve the OU defense by an order of magnitude even the scheme doesn’t otherwise help.

    • ianaboyd

      His scheme is designed to get guys flowing to the ball that will strike and tackle. It’s surely been a point of emphasis.

      My questions here relate to the practices and culture that Riley is fostering. Will he set up Grinch to get results here or not?

      Also, how long will it take to turn Stoops’ charges into tacklers even if they do work hard and well at it?

      • Philly Frog

        With this being a transition year on multiple fronts, if I were Riley I’d want to focus on a more run-based offense geared towards TOP dominance.

        It would reduce attrition on the defense, surely. And he’s got the QB to do it.

        Goes against his nature a bit, though.

        • Clayton Davis

          I think Riley brought in someone like Grinch precisely so that he can keep going for the jugular with explosiveness on offense. It’s a gamble that a defense can and should produce more takeaways and TFLs to get the ball back for his offense.

          • ianaboyd

            Down the road yeah, but Jalen Hurts at QB puts a governor on all of that. It’s Hurts’ presence that would suggest a move towards trying to control the ball more rather than trying to get to 50 or 60 every week.

            Also if you’re Riley, maybe you want to give your new DC some momentum if you believe in him long term. So you look to keep the scores down a little and play more games in the 20s and 30s. You don’t have the same high gear that you did before but you can start to sell to defensive recruits more and you aren’t worried about offense with all these young OL and Spencer Rattler waiting in the wings to get back to driving in 6th gear in 2020 and beyond.

        • ianaboyd

          That would make sense on a lot of levels and I’ve seen suggestions from Soonersphere that they do so, but it doesn’t maximize the playbook or skill personnel the same way. It could work but it’s not as scary as previous teams and if the D still sucks then they’d just be giving away their dimension of being able to simply outscore teams.

          I don’t like that formula to win the B12 for the Sooners. I think they need to be able to light people up regularly in play-action to win the league.

          • Philly Frog

            Yeah, the bottom line is the question of how many candles they can burn on Grinch’s side of the ball for this season.

            That’s kind of been TCU’s achilles heel for the longest.

            Attrition.

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