soonerdudes

From sideline to sideline, a Crimson Curtain has descended across the field.

Late last night ESPN blogger Tim Griffin put up some posts about the Sooner D that will give you the excitement jitters like you haven’t had since you were 9 years old on Christmas Eve.

Tim’s first post, “Sooners see tight battle for DE,” backs up everything The Buck has said about Jeremy Beal: ”Oklahoma defensive ends coach Jackie Shipp said that Beal is the only player who assured himself of a starting position after the first week of preseason practice.

Expect to see this man in the opposing teams backfield all year long.

“It’s still really a battle for the first three guys,” Shipp said. “Frank is coming on and playing well and R.J. is stepping out. But Jeremy Beal is standing out well…..Austin and Frank are still competing for the starting job,” Shipp said. “The competition is really stiff for us.”

As a Sooner fan, those words are music to your ears. Regardless of who gains the opposite starting spot from Jeremy, our second rotation will be just as strong as the starters. How does it make you feel knowing that our second rotation of DEs, and the entire DL for that matter is good enough to start at any other of the 118 D-1 schools?

Tim then posts a second late night post about our up-and-coming safeties, “New OU safeties thriving in starting roles.” I know that we know nothing until we see the Sooners on the field, but Tim brought some comfort and confidence in what many analysts believe is the Sooners biggest weakness.

Dom Franks, who I believe will be the best corner in football this year, said of the new safeties, “We don’t consider Q a new guy…he’s been back there three or four years and knows our system. He’s also started for us for a few games and we didn’t miss a beat…It would make you afraid to jump a lot of routes, but knowing you have a veteran guy like Q or Proctor lets you play a little differently…they’ve been in the system and we know they can play. A lot of fans might not know if they play, but we know it. We trust them. It gives me or Brian confidence to take a chance and jump a route. Having them makes it a lot easier for our corners.”

After all, they shouldn’t consider Q a new guy, as Tim so gently reminded us when he brought up Q’s decleating of Jeremy Maclin in the Big XII Championship game last December:

Boom. Roasted.

With all this pre-season hype surrounding the D, I really can’t wait to answer the question: “How good is this Oklahoma defense?” Could this be one of the best D-units in OU history? Out producing the defenses of the Selmon brothers’, the Casillas’s, the Boz’s, the William’s, the Calmus’s?

It has its potential, Dom Franks is on the Jim Thorpe Award watch list, McCoy is on the Outland and Lombardi list and a guarantee to be on Bednarik list released later today, Beal and English are on the Hendricks list, and the list will expand next week when the Nagurski and Butkus lists are released.

Brent Venables has the tools in place. A returning D-line that recorded 42 sacks last year, tied for third in the FBS. A healthy Ryan Reynolds, who, if he can stay healthy will be on the stage as a finalist for the Butkus award, playing along side LB phenom Travis Lewis. And two shut down corners, playing with a safety that can lay the wood. While watching Sam and his offensive machine is fun, I’m excited to get back to the Sooners of the beginning of the Stoops era.

Tenacious defense.