Redshirt senior linebacker Kip Lewis returns to lead OU's defense with intensity.
Lewis, along with redshirt senior linebacker Owen Heinecke, forms the backbone of a group that ranked No. 6 in the nation last year. Now, the Sooners are looking to take another step forward after losing in the first round of the College Football Playoff in 2025.
Lewis is confident they will be even sharper.
"We are the best defense in the country," Lewis said after practice Monday. "We are going to prove that every week."
Lewis is not losing the attitude that has driven them to defensive success in past years. He has been known to raise the intensity throughout the team to push others to rise above their comfort levels, something junior defensive lineman Nigel Smith has been impressed by.
"There (were) times last season where — you know how he is — in the huddle, he's walking around (and) strutting around, and I'm looking, like, 'Dang, this guy, what is he doing? " Smith said. "He's just so intense. ... He loves this game, and it really shows."
It will be a tough road for Lewis and the OU defense in 2026, as it faces the No. 2 toughest schedule in the nation. But an improvement on defense would match a trend in the Brent Venables era. The Sooner defense has been ranked 19 in 2024, 67 in 2023 and 123 in 2022 since Venables joined the program in 2022. The top-10 ranking in 2025 accompanies the first time Venables has served as defensive coordinator since he was in the role at Clemson in 2012-21. He helped the Tigers lead the nation in scoring defense in 2018 for the first time in program history.
Lewis is unequivocally a part of OU's growth on defense and recognizes the leap the Sooners have made on that end while he has been in Norman.
"(We're) light years (ahead)," Lewis said. "That just is how it is whenever you bring in a new system, a new culture into an organization like Oklahoma. Everything four years ago, we're not making the same mistakes."
Venables, Lewis and Heinecke have a new linebacker in the system in 2026, junior Cole Sullivan from Michigan. He recorded 44 tackles last year and has made a quick impression in Norman with how he has adapted to Venables' defense.
"You could throw a kitchen sink at him; I guess he would catch it," Lewis said. "He's been picking it up pretty easily. He doesn't have too much that he messes up on twice, only one mistake. ... He's been responding very, very well."
As returners mature, and as newcomers fit in, they have one goal: be the best. And Lewis is not letting them lose sight of that.
"Everybody's attacking the day," Lewis said. "I mostly just challenge the guys to bring the intensity and bring the game day efforts as much as they can. That's the only way we're going to get better. They've been answering the challenge."
