The 2023 regular season has come to a close for the Oklahoma Sooners. So, let’s take a look at where the program is at now compared to a season ago.
Fresh off a 6-7 season in Year 1, many nationally were wondering if the Sooners had the right man to lead them into the best conference in college football, the SEC. The Sooners needed a bounce-back season to show the college football world they were bigger than their previous coach.
The standard for many was to get to 9-3 or 10-2 and show improvements on both sides of the ball. In 2022, the Sooners finished No. 13 in yards per game, No. 42 in passing offense, No. 10 in rushing offense and No. 25 in scoring offense.
In 2023, the Sooners finished No. 4 in yards, No. 6 in passing offense, No. 39 in rushing offense and No. 3 in scoring offense. Safe to say, the offense was much improved in Year 2 over Year 1.
But what about defensively? Defense is where Brent Venables hangs his hat, so how much improvement was made on that side of the ball? In 2022, the defense finished No. 122 in yards per game, No. 119 in passing yards allowed, No. 106 in rushing defense and No. 90 in scoring defense.
In 2023, the Sooners finished No. 80 in yards allowed, No. 99 in passing yards allowed, No. 57 in rushing defense and No. 41 in scoring defense. Again, they were better across the board. Was it as big of a jump as a lot of Sooner fans would have liked? No. But don’t forget how bad this was. That’s a really solid jump from where it was.
But those numbers can be deceiving. Sometimes, you can allow a lot of yards when the game isn’t close, so some people believe the real tell of how good an offense or defense is is how efficient they are. So, let’s compare last year to this year in terms of efficiency.
According to the end-of-the-season SP+ rankings (subscription required), the Sooners finished No. 10 in offense, No. 70 in defense, and No. 20 overall in 2022. In 2023, they finished No. 6 in offense, No. 33 in defense, and No. 13 overall. Again, it’s an improvement across the board.
All in all, the Sooners made a lot of progress in 2023, but they still have a long way to go as the head to the SEC.
The Sooners need game-changers on the defensive line. They have some of those types of guys from the 2023 class and could get more from the 2024 class, but they still have to be developed, which may take a few years. They need some of their younger guys at cornerback to improve and be playmakers.
They also have to get better and more consistent along the offensive line. This season, they were too up and down. The Sooners were really solid in pass blocking but too inconsistent in the run game. They also need a No. 1 wide receiver to take over and take that next step toward elite. Again, guys like Nic Anderson and Jayden Gibson showed signs of being big-time players like that, but they have to get more consistent.
The Sooners will have to do that while also replacing their offensive coordinator as Jeff Lebby is headed to be the head coach for the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
Sooner fans won’t want to hear this, but next year is another year of growth. It’s the first year in a new conference, and most of Oklahoma’s talent is still very young.
It probably won’t be what everyone has grown to expect, but as of right now, the program has made the necessary improvements in year two and are heading in the right direction.
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