Talented freshman duo ready to be the future of the Oklahoma Sooners defense
The Oklahoma Sooners have boasted a terrific defense by most metrics. After a decade of shockingly bad play, the Sooners have one of the best defenses in the country in just their first year in the SEC. However, if they have had one Achilles heel throughout this season, it's been the play of their cornerback […]
The Oklahoma Sooners have boasted a terrific defense by most metrics. After a decade of shockingly bad play, the Sooners have one of the best defenses in the country in just their first year in the SEC.
However, if they have had one Achilles heel throughout this season, it's been the play of their cornerback room. The Sooners have tried more experienced transfers in these spots, rotating in Kani Walker, Dezjohn Malone, and Woodi Washington outside, with mixed results.
In an effort to spark a change in that room, Oklahoma turned to a youth movement against Missouri. The Sooners started two true freshmen at cornerback on Saturday in Eli Bowen and Jacobe Johnson. In my opinion, these two should be the starting tandem moving forward for the Sooners.
Bowen played 70 snaps against the Tigers and was once again superb in coverage. Don't let the prayer of a touchdown fool you, Eli Bowen was disruptive and clean in coverage throughout the whole game.
My favorite play of the day was his effort to slow down Luther Burden on a crucial end-around early in the game.
Despite starting the last five games of the season, Bowen still hasn't given up 100 total yards in coverage this season. The touchdown against Theo Wease was an unfortunate play, given his 5'9 stature working against a 6'2 wide receiver on a ball well out of frame. The rest of his game, though, was impressive enough that I'm convinced he is a future building block for their defense for the next two seasons.
Jacobe Johnson may be a more controversial one, given the inauspicious ending to the game, but it's more important to focus on the larger picture than just one play here.
Johnson is a terrific athlete. It's easy to see on film just why he was able to be such an effective two-way player in high school and why the coaching staff had plans to involve him on offense earlier this season.
He only played a little more than half the snaps that Bowen did, finishing the game with 38 total snaps. Still, his length and athletic ability flashed on those reps. If it weren't for an unfortunate mistake where he slipped on the final drive, we'd be talking more about how encouraging of a game he had. He's a freshman who tripped, it just happened to be on a crucial play that was more an answered prayer than an effective concept.
I think Johnson is too gifted of an athlete to take off the field. I understand the need to rotate cornerbacks and sometimes experience and other factors matter, but he needs the reps. Things are starting to slow down for him in coverage, and he has the tools to be a difference-maker in the secondary. Oklahoma does not have another cornerback who is as gifted an athlete as Johnson is. Let him grow and mature on the field, especially in a season like this one where all seems lost already.
With 2024 feeling more and more like a lost season, the biggest goal for the Oklahoma Sooners right now should be to prepare for the future. It sucks to say, and I'm sure those in the building still believe they can make a bowl game, but it's where we are at right now.
The future of the defense is Eli Bowen and Jacobe Johnson. If those two can continue to build off of their freshmen seasons, I have no doubt that they can become one of the top cornerback duos in the country. That's how confident I am in these two.
Let them start the rest of the season.
