Despite all the talent at Oklahoma's skill positions - ranging from Kennedy Brooks, to Trey Sermon, to Rhamondre Stevenson, to Grant Calcaterra (injured), to Jadon Haselwood, to Charleston Rambo and to CeeDee Lamb - it was apparent that Kansas State defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton sees quarterback Jalen Hurts as the head of the snake.

I felt that immediately, too. When asked how Oklahoma stays away from the sacks on the offensive side of the ball, he instantly jumped to how effective Hurts had been this season before giving props to the Sooner offensive line.

Additionally, unprovoked and on more than one occasion, he shared how different Hurts is now as opposed to the player he was at Alabama, which is something I have mentioned and have been blown away by as well. He was a decent runner in Tuscaloosa, but not unstoppable and was more of a game manager when it was time to air it out.

Now, he’s a vastly improved player in both departments. He’s a more explosive runner and has made a ton of teams pay for it. Hurts is Oklahoma’s leading rusher.

Comparably, we knew last week that Hazelton thought it was the skill position players like Jalen Reagor and Darius Anderson that made TCU tick.

This was the most interesting subject of the entire conversation with Hazelton, to me.

It is mainly because this was the first time that Hazelton began to blame some of the issues on the defensive side of the ball on self-inflicted wounds. The cool thing about it was that it was also as an answer to how instrumental it was for K-State to get a defensive stop.

He showed his excitement and joy for some of the achievements that they have been able to accomplish so far this season. However, he started to delve into just how much better they could be on that side of the ball if they addressed more things that they could control themselves.

Not surprisingly, tackling was one of the criticisms he had for his defensive unit, but he also mentioned some schematic flaws, such as not hitting all their run-fits and also a few crippling penalties. As Hazelton noted, they are not close enough to being elite enough as a unit to get away with a bunch of issues that are independent of the opponent.

The Sooners are too explosive, too balanced and just don’t have enough flaws. If you scheme against or try to take one aspect of what they do away, another area will leak, and they’ll just shift their attack to a different explosive weapon.

Oklahoma has an explosive quarterback, explosive running backs, an explosive tight end and explosive receivers. They also have an offensive line that is under the direction of one of the best assistants in the game, Bill Bedenbaugh. He’s a large reason why they have not taken a step back each year that they are forced to replace a high NFL draft pick.

Because of all of this, there’s just too much to eliminate. It’s impossible to eliminate every explosive option they have. Hazelton conceded this notion and admitted that, in ways, you do have to pick your poison.

Not only that, but you do have to guess right quite a bit against the Sooners. You won’t contain their offense or prevent them from lighting up the scoreboard without gambling. You probably also cannot without the coaches scheming their way into a winner during the week, having an elite game-plan and calling one of the best games of their careers.

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