Last Saturday at Oregon, the Sooners were already down 7-0 in the first quarter and the Ducks were knocking at the door again.

Oklahoma co-defensive coordinators Brent Venables and Bobby Jack Wright remember the moment well.

As a record Autzen Stadium crowd of 59,269 screamed like banshees, all they could hear was OU cornerback Marcus Walker screaming to a different tone, but it was music to their ears.

“When things aren’t going great and the guy says, ‘Put me in. I’m you’re guy.’ What more could you ask? That’s what you want,” Venables said.

The Sooners’ 34-33 loss to the Ducks will be remembered for a lot of different things, but it could also go down as the game Walker asserted himself as a mainstay in the Sooner secondary.

It’s something OU has been looking for. Reggie Smith has been dominant at one cornerback. He’s locked down receivers all season.

But the other side has been a revolving door. D.J. Wolfe started 11 games there last season, but lost his job after poor performances against Alabama-Birmingham and Washington.

Lendy Holmes took over in the second quarter against Huskies, but struggled early against the Ducks.

Walker was the only option the Sooners had left. Luckily for them, the junior from Waco, Texas, was literally chomping at the bit to be thrown into the fire.

“Everybody wants to compete,” Walker said. “That was just the competitiveness in me coming out.”

On his first play, he broke up a fade route in the end zone, forcing the Ducks to settle for a field goal. He finished the day with five pass breakups and was solid in every sense of the word.

Wright said Walker gave the Sooners something else.

“He played great,” Wright said. “He was a spark.”

And a spark is something OU’s defense has been looking.

The unit has been plagued by inconsistent play in all three games. The problems have been too vast to peg on one position.