NORMAN, Okla. — After a truly wild two months, the dust appears to finally be settling around Oklahoma football.
For now, at least.
The spring semester began on Jan. 18 and so far, the Sooners added nine players from the transfer portal. Oklahoma coach Brent Venables and his staff are still waiting on decisions from a pair of USC transfers — quarterback Jaxson Dart and tight end Michael Trigg — and in this new world of college football, there could always be more transfers both before and after spring football. Remember, Arkansas wide receiver Mike Woods didn’t transfer to Oklahoma until a week after he caught a touchdown in the Razorbacks’ 2021 spring game.
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Here is The Athletic’s best educated guess at a pre-spring offensive depth chart. Look out for defensive depth chart projections in the coming days.
Note: * denotes “super senior,” a player classified as a senior in 2021 who will play an extra year via the NCAA’s blanket waiver for COVID-19.
Quarterback
Starter: Dillon Gabriel, RJr.
Backup: Nick Evers, Fr.
Other scholarship QBs: Micah Bowens, RSo.
Just two months ago, Oklahoma was in an amazing spot when it came to quarterbacks. For several months in 2021, the Sooners had two five-stars — Spencer Rattler and Caleb Williams — on the roster, plus a commitment from 2023 five-star Malachi Nelson.
We all know what happened next. Lincoln Riley left for USC. Rattler — supplanted by Williams as the starter in October — transferred to South Carolina. Williams remained with the Sooners through the Alamo Bowl, but then entered the transfer portal. He hasn’t announced his future school yet, but all signs point to his reuniting with Riley in Los Angeles.
Nelson, from Los Alamitos (Calif.) High, flipped his commitment from Oklahoma to USC.
But Oklahoma has recovered quite nicely, all things considered. New coach Brent Venables hired Jeff Lebby as offensive coordinator, giving the Sooners one of the brightest young OCs in college football who himself already has a strong track record of developing quarterbacks.
One of those quarterbacks Lebby helped develop? Gabriel, who played for Lebby as a UCF freshman. Gabriel originally committed to UCLA out of the transfer portal, but flipped to Oklahoma on the same day Williams entered the portal. Gabriel threw for 8,041 yards, 70 touchdowns and only 14 interceptions as a three-year starter at UCF, also scoring eight touchdowns on the ground.
Oklahoma coaches might not be done adding to this group, as they’ve pursued multiple transfer QBs in addition to Gabriel. Florida State transfer Chubba Purdy visited but instead chose Nebraska. Dart — a top-100 recruit in 2021 who started three games as a true freshman last season — is still deciding between Oklahoma and Ole Miss. If Dart chooses the Rebels, expect Venables and Lebby to continue monitoring the portal, as there will surely be more signal-callers weighing their options in the coming months.
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Bowens, a Las Vegas native, transferred to OU from Penn State last offseason but didn’t appear in any 2021 games.
Riley hadn’t planned to take a quarterback in the 2022 class, but Lebby quickly snagged a commitment from four-star Nick Evers of Flower Mound, Texas. Evers is the No. 10-ranked QB in the 2022 class, according to the 247Sports Composite, and is already enrolled and on campus for the spring semester.
Running back
Starter: Eric Gray, Sr.
Backup: Marcus Major, RJr.
Other scholarship RBs: Gavin Sawchuk, Fr.; Jovantae Barnes, Fr.
Kennedy Brooks is one of the most important pieces Oklahoma must replace in 2022. A three-time 1,000-yard rusher, Brooks is off to the NFL after one of the more prolific RB careers in Sooners football history.
Gray is set to return after what was — given his preseason expectations — a relatively disappointing first season in crimson and cream. The Tennessee transfer rushed for 412 yards, recorded 229 receiving yards and scored four touchdowns. He was considered one of the most prized transfer portal targets last offseason and he will likely begin the season as the starter. He played his best game as a Sooner in the Alamo Bowl, rushing for 82 yards and catching five passes.
Major has shown flashes in limited opportunities over the last couple years. He’s rushed for 298 career yards and three touchdowns.
The Sooners also signed two four-star backs in Sawchuck and Barnes, the No. 5- and No. 10-ranked running backs for 2022, respectively. Yours truly is on the record predicting that Sawchuk will ultimately lead the 2022 Sooners in rushing yardage.
Wide receivers
Starters: Marvin Mims, Jr.; Theo Wease, RJr.; Drake Stoops, RSr.
Backups: Cody Jackson, RFr.; Trevon West, Jr.; Jalil Farooq, So.
Other scholarship WRs: Brian Darby, Jr.; Nicholas Anderson, Fr.; Jayden Gibson, Fr.
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The Sooners’ wide receiver group has taken a series of hits over the last year. Riley’s staff at one point last summer had three top-100 receivers committed for 2022, but all three of those players wound up decommitting, even before Riley’s departure for USC. Then in the last few months, former five-star Jadon Haselwood transferred to Arkansas and Mario Williams — a top-50 signee in 2021 who recorded 380 yards and four touchdowns as a freshman — followed Riley to USC.
Lebby and the Sooners pursued wide receivers in the transfer portal, but have yet to land any. Still, the current 2022 group — including the two new freshmen signees, Anderson and Gibson — is talented and includes several playmakers, beginning with Mims. The Sooners’ leading receiver and primary big-play threat the last two seasons, Mims has recorded 1,315 career yards and 14 touchdowns.
Mims was vague about his future plans when asked in the lead-up to the Alamo Bowl, but he never entered the transfer portal and is with the team working out. So unless he has a late change of heart, it seems Mims will stay in the fold, which is excellent news for Oklahoma.
Wease is a former five-star prospect who caught 37 passes for 530 yards and four touchdowns in 2020, but barely played last season because of a preseason injury. He entered the transfer portal after Riley’s departure, but then chose to stay at OU with the new staff and pulled himself out of the portal.
Stoops, a former walk-on and the son of former OU coach Bob Stoops, has 521 career yards and four touchdowns. He’s started eight career games and has proven to be reliable in clutch situations.
West was on the field for 124 snaps last season, which ranked fifth among OU receivers, according to Pro Football Focus data. Jackson, a four-star 2021 signee and alum of the same high school as CeeDee Lamb (Foster High in Richmond, Texas), played in two early-season games last year before an injury.
Farooq, another four-star 2021 signee, might be one of the most interesting receivers to watch moving forward. He played youth football with Caleb Williams and the two dreamed of playing in college together. They got that chance at Oklahoma, with Farooq having his best game of the season in the Alamo Bowl. Farooq, interestingly, hasn’t entered the transfer portal yet. If he stays, it would be a huge boon for the Sooners.
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Anderson and Gibson were both four-star prospects who signed in December. Anderson is the younger brother of former Sooners running back Rodney Anderson.
Tight end
Starter: Brayden Willis, Sr.*
Backup: Daniel Parker Jr., Sr.*
Other scholarship TEs: Kaden Helms, Fr.; Jason Llewellyn, Fr.
The Sooners lost Jeremiah Hall and Austin Stogner to the NFL Draft and South Carolina, respectively. Willis, who has caught 36 passes for 484 yards and six touchdowns in four years, chose to return for a fifth season using the NCAA’s blanket waiver for COVID-19. OU also signed two 2022 tight ends in Helms and Llewellyn, both of whom enrolled in time to participate in spring football.
Still, the Sooners needed depth here and used the transfer portal to shore that up. Parker caught 41 passes for 337 yards and four touchdowns in four seasons at Missouri.
Keep an eye on this position moving forward, as Lebby and tight ends coach Joe Jon Finley clearly still want to bolster this group. They are still awaiting a decision from Trigg, the No. 130 prospect for 2021 who caught seven passes last season for the Trojans.
Offensive line
Starters: RT Savion Byrd, RFr.; RG Chris Murray, Sr.*; C Andrew Raym, So; LG McKade Mettauer, Sr.; LT Anton Harrison, Jr.
Backups: RT Aaryn Parks, RSo.; RG Brey Walker, RSr.; C Robert Congel, RSr.*; LG Jake Taylor, Fr.; LT Wanya Morris, Sr.
Other scholarship OL: Darrell Simpson, RSr.; Marcus Alexander, RJr.; Marcus Hicks, RJr.; Nate Anderson, RSo.; Cullen Montgomery, RSo.; Jacob Sexton, Fr.
Oklahoma’s offensive line was mostly disappointing in 2021, particularly considering all of its returning experience. The Sooners ranked ninth in the Big 12 with 33 sacks allowed — the program’s most since 2015. After rushing for at least 200 yards per game as a team in every season between 2015 and 2019, the Sooners failed to hit that mark for a second consecutive season.
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Bill Bedenbaugh has rightly earned a reputation as one of the nation’s elite O-line coaches, but this will be a critical year in getting things back on track. He has recruited well, but many of the blue-chip prospects he’s signed in recent years haven’t worked their way into the rotation. Walker, for example, was a five-star 2018 signee who has only made two starts in four seasons.
Murray is back for his super senior year. He started every game in 2021. Raym established himself as the Sooners’ starting center and will return, as will Robert Congel, who also started a few games at center in 2021. Congel played both guard positions during the 2019 and 2020 seasons at Arizona, so he could also fill in there in a pinch.
Harrison started all 13 games at left tackle last season. Byrd made two appearances last season but was a top-100 recruit in 2021 and Bedenbaugh is high on his potential.
One interesting lineman to watch is Morris, who started 19 games in two seasons at Tennessee and arrived in Norman last year as seemingly a clear-cut starter. Morris, though, barely played any meaningful snaps in 2021. He has announced that he’s returning to OU, and given his sheer talent, will surely have every opportunity to crack the lineup.
(Top photo of Marvin Mims: David Stacy / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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