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 Thursday, September 27, 2001
America's best defense
By Terry Bowden
Special to ABC Sports Online
Bowden's Weekly Chat Show
Right now, Oklahoma has the best defense in America.
It may not be the most talented defense, because when you line up man-to-man beside a defense like Miami, I don't think that would be the case. However, when it comes to what they do between the sidelines, nobody is doing it better than Oklahoma.
|  | | Bob Stoops' defense has scored as many touchdowns (3) as its given up so far this season. |
It all begins with coaching, and the coaching starts at the top. Bob Stoops got to be a head coach for one reason: He was a great defensive coordinator. When his job as an assistant was just doing the Xs and Os, he showed he had the ability to do it as well as anybody in the country. First at Kansas State under Bill Snyder (and that's a whole different story), and then helping Steve Spurrier win a national championship at Florida.
Stoops knows how to run a great defense. He knows how to put in schemes, techniques, fundamentals and a philosophy of how to play defense. You would be surprised, but there are a lot of coaches out there who don't.
Coach Stoops is now doing this through his brother Mike, who is Oklahoma's defensive coordinator. He is making sure that Mike puts a defensive unit on the field that plays exactly the way he would have coached them.
The coaching staff at Oklahoma is very intense. They are mostly young, highly motivated A-types who demand not only a lot of themselves, but from their players. All you have to do is watch the attacking, aggressive style of their defense and the urgency in which they try to make things happen to see what I mean. It's hard to get two or three series into a game without seeing Oklahoma's defense cause a turnover.
Stoops has what I call audacity, which might be his most important attribute. If you look that up in the dictionary, it is defined simply as, "the belief you can accomplish anything." Stoops is a totally positive attitude type guy. And he never lets himself contemplate failure by driving this into his assistant coaches, and through them and to his players, they play almost knowing they are going to succeed. Ultimately, it is this audacity -- this belief they can accomplish anything -- that allows the OU defense to play with total disrespect to the odds.
I know this is beginning to sound philosophical, but I do believe that great football teams -- or in this case, great defenses -- are built upon things that are visceral and intangible in nature.
As my father always told me when I first began to coach, you better look out for players with "it" -- whatever "it" is -- because if you find the players with "it", you can accomplish anything. Well, Oklahoma's defense has "it".
What Kansas State needs to do
After having said all this, let me tell you what Kansas State has to do to beat Oklahoma.
1. Mix up the offense
What Kansas State needs and what Jonathan Beasley couldn't do last year is have Ell Roberson effectively mix the play-action pass with their running attack. If Kansas State has to rely on just the running of Roberson and Josh Scobey, Oklahoma will be able to focus on a one-dimensional attack. But if they can fake the run just enough to get that ball out to Aaron Lockett and Co., then the Wildcats can offset the superior strength of Oklahoma's defense.
2. Soft defensive coverage
Kansas State needs to try to stay in a soft zone coverage as much as possible. Until you get beat, make Nate Hybl throw short passes and tackle Quentin Griffin for short gains. For a changeup, every now and then, mix in a blitz. This is Hybl's fourth game and they have six good receivers and a great running back. If you blitz too much, you are going to give up a lot of big plays. Playing soft zone as much as possible and not allowing any gains over 15 yards will be the best way to keep the Sooners out of the end zone.
Remember, Bill Snyder has shown that he ain't a bad coach either, and he has done it over a longer period of time.
Looking at last year's scores (41-31 and 27-24), if Kansas State can make as much progress between that second game and this one, it might be enough to turn the tide. In fact, if this game was being played in Manhattan instead of Norman, I might have had to take K-State.
Terry Bowden was the head coach at Salem College, Samford University and Auburn University. He is ABC's college football studio analyst and contributes regularly for ABC Sports Online.
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