Brent Venables provides adjectives to describe Oklahoma defense

Brent Venables knows what it takes to build a great defense. The first-year Oklahoma football coach spent 23 years as a defensive coordinator for the Sooners and later at Clemson, winning a total of three national titles before taking the head coaching job in Norman this offseason.

Early this season, the Sooners rank 15th in the country in points allowed per game, 37th in total defense and are forcing an average of two turnovers per game. As they prepare to open up Big 12 play against Kansas State on Saturday, Venables did his best to describe what has stood out about his defense through three games.

“Tough, resilient, edgy, hungry, never satisfied,” he said. “I think those would be the best. I love the way we’re developing. Our leadership and our mindset. These guys are super, super hungry and they want you to coach ’em hard. When I say they are literally sitting on the edge of their seat in every meeting, I can’t say it any more clearly and truthfully. When we go to practice, it’s the same thing.

“We coach them really hard and we hold them accountable, but they receive it. We’re still a long ways to go, but we’re making improvement. Steady improvement. That’s what it looks like. That’s what it’s about.”

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The Oklahoma defense is coming off a dominant performance in a 49-14 victory against Nebraska this past week. After allowing the Cornhuskers to score the first touchdown of the game, the Sooners held them scoreless from the 11:19 mark in the first quarter until giving up a garbage-time touchdowns with 3:19 remaining.

OU also forced a fumble and an interception and held quarterback Casey Thompson to just 129 yards passing.

“Today, against an offense that just schematically what they do to you,” Venables said postgame against the Huskers. “They’re very unpredictable. They’ve got good players and structurally they’re very sound. They have the third-best running back in the country rushing yards-wise coming into today. They might’ve had some yards rushing, but at the end of the day they weren’t able to have the balance that they needed to be successful on offense. Our defense came prepared and our coaches were a big part of that as well.”

Brent Venables will hope for similar results from the Oklahoma defense Saturday. The Sooners are set to kick off against K-State 7 p.m. CT in Norman.