Dari Nowkhah and Gene Chizik spent many a fall Saturday talking about Oklahoma. Specifically, the Sooners’ defensive front. The SEC Network co-workers (and friends) each had their own vested interest in the subject. Nowkhah is an Oklahoma graduate and fan, while Chizik was the defensive coordinator for Texas’ 2005 BCS National Championship squad and is the epitome of a defensive tape junkie.

Chizik would often share with Nowkhah a piece of simple, yet telling analysis.

“(He’d say), ‘Dari, they have built a defense to deal with the speed of the Big 12, not to deal with the size up front that they’re gonna have to contest when they play in a Playoff game.’ And he’s so right,” Nowkhah said on The SDS Podcast. “Alex Grinch, their defensive coordinator, recognizes that. And they have recruited guys that look more SEC/Clemson/Ohio State-like guys. Every day that continues, they become a program that’s more like an Alabama when they walk into this league.”

Bingo.

Grinch is the key to Oklahoma’s upside when it arrives in the SEC. He tapped into something that neither of his predecessors could. That is, how to build a defense that can actually play with the big boys.

Yeah, Grinch was there for the 2019 Peach Bowl. That was his first season, and it was a roster full of players he didn’t recruit. Oklahoma wasn’t beating LSU with its defense at full strength, so it didn’t help that Ronnie Perkins, AKA Oklahoma’s best defensive player, was suspended. The fact that starting safety Delarrin Turner-Yell broke his collarbone in practice a week before the game — or that fellow starting defensive back Brendan Radley-Hiles, AKA “Bookie,” was ejected for targeting in the first half — only escalated that.

Ask any SEC fan about their impressions of Oklahoma and they might hark back to that day … or the 2 other losses to SEC teams in the Playoff in the years before that. It’ll be a punchline for Oklahoma when it comes to the SEC. But it also might have been the kick in the pants the Sooners needed to shake things up.

“Getting beat by Georgia, and Alabama and LSU has really woken (Oklahoma) up to this reality that if you want to compete with those programs, you need to start to look more like those programs,” Nowkhah told SDS. “They can’t be 260 or 270 across the offensive front or 280 or 290. They need those 310s, 320s, the occasional 330-pound horse up there. They’re getting them.”

In 2021, Oklahoma signed 3 of the top 12 edge rushers in the country. It’s still early in the 2022 cycle, but Oklahoma’s No. 6 class already has commitments from a trio of front-7 recruits rated 4-stars or better.

Among Power 5 teams last year, with Perkins on the field, Oklahoma was No. 3 in sacks per game and No.  9 in tackles for loss per game. That included a 55-20 Cotton Bowl beatdown of a depleted Florida squad that was fueled by Oklahoma’s 5 quarterback pressures, 4 tackles for loss and 3 interceptions.

That’s the DNA for Grinch’s defense — generate pressure off the edge and get offenses behind the sticks. Oklahoma State was the only Power 5 team who was better on third down than Oklahoma last year. That explains why Oklahoma, who finished No. 29 in scoring defense after allowing an average of 16 points in its final 7 games, had its first top-60 defense since 2015.

And yes, the expectation is that’ll continue again in 2021 even without Perkins. Nik Bonitto is a preseason All-American and fellow edge rusher Isaiah Thomas was a second-team All-Big 12 selection in 2020.

Of course, all those guys will be likely gone by the time Oklahoma joins the SEC, whenever that is. The better question is if Grinch will also have moved on to bigger and better things.

Grinch, who is also the nephew of longtime Mizzou coach Gary Pinkel, is one of the top rising defensive minds in the sport. He’s already paid like a top-flight SEC assistant. He got a 2-year extension after his impressive 2020 season, and last year, his $1.8 million salary ranked No. 6 among FBS assistants (USA Today). Grinch was a major get for Lincoln Riley, who poached the former Ohio State co-defensive coordinator to replace longtime defensive coordinator Mike Stoops. Stoops was fired in the middle of the 2018 season after Texas lit up the Sooners for 48 points in the Red River Rivalry.

There’s a path for Grinch to lead a top-20 defense that helps fuel Oklahoma’s first Playoff victory. If that happens, Grinch could bolt for a head coaching gig before the SEC move, and Riley would have to go back to the drawing board.

Then again, the market hasn’t exactly been kind to top defensive assistants. Of the 16 FBS head coaching vacancies this offseason, only 4 went to defensive-minded coaches (Bret Bielema, Clark Lea, Andy Avalos and Kane Wommack). Bielema and Lea were the only defensive-minded coaches who got Power 5 jobs and they were at … Illinois and Vanderbilt. The market could dictate Grinch’s stay in Norman.

The coaching carousel wasn’t exactly kind to the well-paid defensive coordinators in 2020:

Highest-paid DCs
Post-2020
1. Kevin Steele (Auburn)
Fired
2. Bo Pelini (LSU)
Fired
3. Brent Venables (Clemson)
Raise, extension
4. Mike Elko (A&M)
Retained
5. Todd Grantham (Florida)
Retained
6. Alex Grinch (Oklahoma)
Retained
7. Don Brown (Michigan)
Fired
8. Kerry Coombs (Ohio State)
Retained
9. Barry Odom (Arkansas)
Raise, extension
10. Dan Lanning (Georgia)
Retained

What do you not see in the column on the right? “Left for Power 5 head coaching gig.” It’s no secret that offense is all the rage, and defensive-minded coaches like Grinch who once would’ve been highly coveted for Power 5 head coaching gigs are now becoming more entrenched as assistants.

Think Dave Aranda, who was a Power 5 defensive coordinator for 7 years before finally leaving to become Baylor’s head coach. Or think Mike Elko, who is entering Year 8 as a Power 5 defensive coordinator (and Year 4 at A&M), yet his Power 5 head coaching market as an elite defensive mind has been scarce at best (he took his name out of the running at Kansas this offseason).

It’s possible that Grinch could be to Oklahoma what Brent Venables has been to Clemson. Ironically enough, Venables was Oklahoma’s defensive coordinator until Bob Stoops hired his brother, Mike, to share those duties after the 2011 season. So Venables left and joined Dabo Swinney’s staff at Clemson. The rest is history. Six consecutive Playoff berths, 4 national title appearances with 2 victories later and yes, there’s regret that Oklahoma let him get away. Venables is entering Year 10 as Clemson’s defensive coordinator, and he’ll make $2.5 million as the highest-paid assistant in college football.

If Grinch were to follow in those footsteps and stick around for the start of the transition to the SEC, in a way, it would be Oklahoma righting its defensive wrong from a decade ago. Or he could bounce at season’s end and pursue his first FBS head coaching gig.

Before Grinch can plan that step, his next move consists of something pretty obvious — get Oklahoma’s defense to an SEC level. The Sooners haven’t had consecutive years with a top-30 scoring defense since 2007. The Big 12 hasn’t produced a top-10 scoring defense since TCU in 2014. That was also the last non-Oklahoma team to win the Big 12.

When the Sooners arrive in the SEC, those Big 12 titles will be treated like a college freshman wearing his high school letterman jacket.

Ahead of last year’s Cotton Bowl, Florida linebacker James Houston infamously said that Oklahoma wasn’t on Florida’s level and that “they’re not SEC.” One non-Playoff game win won’t show the SEC that Oklahoma belongs, and neither will Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks. Actually producing a defense who can stay on the field in the SEC will carry more weight than either of those things.

Soon, Grinch could determine just how SEC Oklahoma is.