In 2024, the Oklahoma Sooners boasted one of their best defenses in years. While it wasn’t the elite unit that head coach Brent Venables and defensive coordinator Zac Alley aimed for, it was still a significant improvement. However, the team’s offense struggled severely, leading to a disappointing 6-6 record for the season, with a 2-6 performance in SEC games. Despite a tough finale against LSU, the defense had an overall strong season.
A key metric illustrating the defense’s performance is the “stop rate,” which measures the percentage of drives that end in a punt, turnover, or turnover on downs. As of the final week of the regular season, the Oklahoma defense ranked 23rd in the nation with a stop rate of 69.7%. While this marked an 11-spot drop from the previous week, partly due to LSU’s offensive success, the Sooners allowed just 1.53 points per drive across the 12 games.
The Texas Longhorns, Oklahoma’s rivals, boasted the highest stop rate in the country and are heading to the SEC Championship Game. Despite the challenges, the work Venables and Alley did to improve the defense was notable, especially given the state of the unit when Venables took over three years ago. However, for Oklahoma to return to the elite level in college football, Venables’ success will depend on the offense. To address this, he hired Ben Arbuckle as the new offensive coordinator, placing his head coaching career in Arbuckle’s hands.