Urban Meyer says Indiana’s defense is better than Oklahoma’s. He’s probably right!

Here’s a quote I didn’t expect to read, this year or ever:

A few weeks ago, Ohio State beat Oklahoma to a pulp, 45-24 on the road. This week, Ohio State plays Indiana, which is 3-1 and looks pretty good under Bob Stoops’ former offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson.

Oklahoma has given up 35 points per game and 6 yards per play. Indiana has given up 22 and 5.1, on average. So far, Urban Meyer’s analysis definitely checks out.

But, one might counter, Oklahoma’s played a better schedule. There’s no shame in giving up lots of points to the likes of Houston (33), Ohio State (45), and TCU (46), while Indiana’s played a weakened Michigan State and varying degrees of cupcake.

Yet the Sooners are ranked 66th in Defensive S&P+. The Hoosiers are ranked 37th. That’s an advanced metric that’s, at this point, 70 percent adjusted for opponent strength, with a 30 percent adjustment based on preseason projections. The Sooners were supposed to have a good defense this year.

My colleague Bill Connelly, who runs the S&P+ model, says that without projections still factored in, Oklahoma would actually rank 81st and Indiana 29th. It’d be worse!

Zoom out a little, and this is shocking. Oklahoma is a national power, and Indiana is definitely not. And even beyond that, IU’s supposed to have a good offense, while its defense has recently been terrible.

Stoops’ brother, Mike, continues to coordinate OU’s defense. Meanwhile, this is first-year Indiana coordinator Tom Allen, who looks like one boss of a defensive coordinator:

If you’ve followed American elections, you probably think this has been an unusual year. Indiana probably having a better defense than Oklahoma is the wildest turn yet.