David Pollack isn’t wondering whether Oklahoma’s defense can make plays. He’s already convinced.
After a 2024 season that ended at 6-7 and a first year in the SEC that exposed plenty of flaws, the Sooners answered with a 10-3 run in 2025 and a return to the College Football Playoff for the first time since 2019. The biggest reason for that leap was what happened on the defensive side, where Oklahoma finished in the top 10 nationally in several categories and landed at No. 5 in overall defensive efficiency.
Brent Venables had a lot to do with that. The Oklahoma head coach, long known as one of college football’s premier defensive minds, stepped back into the role of play-caller in a season that felt pivotal for the program.
Venables already built a reputation as a coordinator at Oklahoma and Clemson, where he won three national championships. Last season, his direct hand in the defense was more visible, and the results followed: a more aggressive unit that was also sharper in assignment football, especially in situational defense and red zone efficiency.
That’s why Pollack sees Oklahoma’s defensive production as something you can bank on.
"This unit, the way they play, the way they swarm, the way they're going to play coverage in the back end playing aggressive, these guys are going to make plays," Pollack said on 'See Ball Get Ball with David Pollack.'" They're going to put up numbers at a high level.
They are just going to do that. You count on that from Oklahoma week in and week out."
The bigger test now is whether that standard holds up over a tougher SEC slate. Oklahoma has already shown it can rebound. The next step is proving that last season’s defensive surge wasn’t a flash in the pan.
For the Sooners, the conversation has shifted. It’s no longer about whether they can get back into the national picture.
It’s about whether Venables’ defense can keep delivering elite-level efficiency against the best offenses in the league. If it does, Oklahoma’s rise could look a lot less like a one-year spike and a lot more like something built to last.
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Now the focus is less on what Oklahoma already survived and more on what it can withstand if it wants to push higher. Analysts around the program see Mateers health as the swing factor in whether the Sooners can truly contend for a championship, because the margin between a good season and a special one may come down to how much of their offense he can keep on the field. [Read more 🡒]