Why Oklahoma's Defense is Drastically Better With Redmond, Turner-Yell

“I don't feel like it was much of a drop-off,” Turner-Yell said with more than just a touch of humility. “I just feel like we weren't playing very good at the time. But like you said, we bring the experience. We've seen a lot since we've been here, so I just feel like with us bringing that knowledge into the game, it just helped the defense out a lot.”

“They’re two experienced guys. They’re both seniors,” said cornerback D.J. Graham, who returned from his own one-game absence to help stabilize the secondary last week. “Having them back — to an extent, they were part of the backbone of the defense.”

Having everyone healthy meant a bad day overall for Texas Tech. Grinch will attest: scheme is great, but personnel is better.

“I think it's everything,” Grinch said Saturday night. “I probably saw what you saw in terms of just just the overall feel of it. It felt better.”

Grinch said “more intentional work” in practice led to the same thing in the game.

“There was more better football on display,” he said.

Redmond didn’t start and only played limited snaps as he regains his game fitness. But the defensive line just performed better with him on the field, even though he was in mostly with a rotation of backups. As he gets fitter, he’ll be able to take on more snaps.

“It was hard (being out),” Redmond said. “ … I’ve only played in 20 games since I’ve been here. For the majority of my career, I’ve been out, injured or something has happened to me. It’s been really hard. I don’t want to do anything but be out there with those guys and help them. It hurt me to see them struggle. But they came back.”

Turner-Yell, on the other hand, resumed his starting role at safety against Tech and basically never came out of the game. His experience in the back end of the defense creates more effective communication and less hesitancy, and allows for others in the secondary to play with more confidence. That may have contributed to interceptions from the other two safeties, Pat Fields and Justin Broiles.

“Just being able to over-communicate and just tell guys ‘OK, be alert for this and be alert for that,’ ” Turner-Yell said. “Just having guys be able to be one step ahead of the offense just helped us out a lot.”

Turner-Yell said he tried to work with the secondary while he was injured, but it only amounted to sideline coaching in between defensive series. Talking to them from the sideline during the game — while they’re on the field — was impossible.

“Because it's loud in the stadium,” he said, “and they really can't hear me and things like that. With me being on the field and me being able to keep the energy high and just communicate with the guys, I feel like that plays a huge role.”

Redmond, who missed his freshman season because of blood clots, led the team in quarterback sacks and tackles for loss two years ago and then opted out of last year for health concerns. Now, coming off this week’s open date, he sees the personal challenges ahead but hopes to finish 2021 like he did 2019.

He said his “mind was ready,” but his body was experiencing “hesitancy coming back from a knee injury, especially, and going under the knife or something like that. Just working to get your body back to where it needs to be, where you can move and operate — or used to operate. It wasn’t a lot of hesitation, but being the first game, I was rusty. I know I was. I’m just working to get through it every week.”

Graham said their return last week was noticeable to the rest of the team. Now the 9-0 Sooners feel like they can attack these last three games — and the Big 12 title game — with an almost fully loaded roster.

“We’ve had injuries every single year,” Graham said. “When the guys come back, it’s like a boost. It’s not like,’ OK, now we’re gonna be fine,’ but, ‘Now we’re gonna do people even worse with these guys back.’ I’m happy to have them back and we’re gonna be at full stride.”

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