Oklahoma’s defense walked into Saturday with a reputation it had earned the hard way. By the time South Carolina left Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium with a 42-25 win, that strength had become the Sooners’ biggest problem.
The numbers told the story fast. Oklahoma entered the game with the 11th best total defense in FBS and led the nation in first downs allowed per game. South Carolina blew past both markers, piling up 521 yards, 22 first downs and a pile of chunk plays that turned the afternoon into a long chase for Brent Venables’ group.
“We didn’t play clean, tough, physical football like we have on defense all year,” Venables said. “Obviously didn’t count on that happening and put a lot of pressure on every other part of our team. And not playing to our strengths.
The Gamecocks were efficient when they needed to be, going 8 of 14 on third down and converting one of two fourth-down tries. They also hit the Sooners with the kind of explosive plays that can flip a game in a hurry, including touchdown runs of 84 and 79 yards.
It was especially jarring because Oklahoma had not given up more than 200 rushing yards in the regular season since its 2023 trip to BYU. South Carolina broke through that barrier and then some, and the damage wasn’t limited to one phase or one drive.
Venables pointed to the way his defense handled South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers, saying the Sooners were often in position but failed to finish the job.
“I know what we're capable of, and if we're not in position, that's one issue,” Venables said, specifically talking about the defense against Gamecocks quarterback LaNorris Sellers. “But if we are in position, we got to do a better job coaching them up to finish.
We were in position a lot, and so really disappointed. I have to go and watch the tape, see why.
But I didn't feel like we closed space great, didn't thing we took good angles, certainly we did a lot of reaching and came up empty a lot.”
The tackling issues showed up in a handful of painful moments, including South Carolina’s second-half opening drive. On third-and-3, Oklahoma defenders hit running back Jabree Coleman in the backfield, only for Coleman to turn it into 16 yards. A few plays later, on fourth-and-2, he was stopped behind the line again and still managed to grind out 11 yards.
“We knocked 'em backwards a lot, and I think guys just lost ‘em,” Venables said. “Didn’t finish.
Some of it’s their straining, some of it’s we’re knocking backwards and we’re halfway on the blocks still, and they’re doing the job finishing and we’re not doing as a good of a job on the outside in, or top down, or in the second level of assuming the guy is still not tackled. And that happened several times.”
Owen Heinecke didn’t sugarcoat it either.
“We had a good plan but we didn't execute,” Heinecke said. “So we're looking at the result of kind of getting our asses kicked and it's a result of all those little things that we knew were going to be a big deal.
Just not good enough. Not executing.
And it starts with me, so just not good enough.”
The secondary, which had been the best part of the defense, also had trouble holding up when the game got loose. Venables said the Sooners were in position multiple times but played on their heels.
“We're in position several times and played on our heels,” Venables said. “... It's not good football in any way.”
Now Oklahoma has to sort through the mess with four games left: Florida, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Missouri.
“We're a great defense and we didn't do a good enough job of making the plays when they were there,” Heinecke said. “We let them extend plays, we let him get outside the pocket and set up and launch on us. Explosive plays and turnovers are the two biggest parts of the game and we got our asses handed to us in the explosive play department.”
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