Berry Tramel: Kendel Dolby & OU defense shine, which is a good thing because OU offense struggles (2024)

NORMAN — Kendel Dolby broke up Forrest Brock’s short pass by popping Temple tailback

Joquez Smith as the ball arrived in the first quarter. Dolby sent the pigskin twirling away from Smith.

But neither Dolby’s play, nor his day, was over.

Still engaged physically with Smith, Dolby reached up and batted the ball toward teammate Kani Walker, who was honing in on the action and more than happy to spear an interception, setting up an OU field goal.

Quite the play. One of the more unusual in recent Sooner annals.

Yes, it was Temple. Yes, it was inconsequential, considering the Sooners won 51-3; take away Dolby’s basketball-style play, and OU might have won by just 45 points.

But the Sooner defense did to Temple what a strong defense should do: limited the Owls to 13 first downs and 3.2 yards per play, while never letting Temple closer to paydirt than the Sooner 19-yard line.

And a dominating defense is exactly what OU needs as it begins this Southeastern Conference era, considering the offense is a total work in progress.

The Sooners didn’t so much as NOT block Temple; they just didn’t block Temple the way anSEC team ought to block Temple. Jackson Arnold didn’t so much as have a bad game as he didn’t carve up the Owls like one of the better SEC (or Big 12, for that matter) quarterbacks should.

We kept saying all off-season that for the first time in probably 14 years, the Sooners had a defense better than its offense, and now you know what we’re talking about.

Maybe Bill Bedenbaugh can turn his offensive line into something Sooner Nation can stand to live with, but Brent Venables’ defense looked far ahead of the offense Friday night on Owen Field.

Dolby was a big part of that. OU’s cornerback-turned-cheetah, a player with defensive back physical traits but given linebacker geography and freedom, showed why he’s been an August camp star. Dolby zipped in for a second-quarter sack of Brock and showed the versatility Venables likes from the hybrids he puts at cheetah.

Walker’s interception was one of SIX takeaways for the OU defense.

Dolby looks like a potential star, and you never can have enough of those. Linebacker Danny Stutsman, safety Billy Bowman, perhaps Dolby. Venables is starting to stack playmakers on defense.

Temple was not much of a threat. Brock is a junior-college transfer whose arm never really threatened the Sooner defense, and if the Owls have difference-makers on offense, OU didn’t let them out of their cocoon.

The opposition slowly will get better. Temple, Houston, Tulane, then Tennessee lights the cauldron, all at Owen Field on successive weekends. The Volunteers will be nothing like Temple.

Which means that offense must get better, no matter how good Dolby and his comrades become.

If you didn’t know the SEC era was here, you knew it in pregame, when the Pride of Oklahoma marched out with its flag corps carrying banners of the other 15 SEC schools. Yep, Vanderbilt’s flag, South Carolina’s flag, Kentucky’s flag. They all blew in the Oklahoma wind.

We’ll get accustomed to it. And perhaps we’ll get accustomed to a Sooner football team in which the defense trumps the offense. Keep ‘em coming, Kendel Dolby. Those kinds of plays are going to be much-needed.

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