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Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Five takeaways from Oklahoma's updated roster ahead of fall camp
The Oklahoma Sooners released an updated roster for the 2025 season this week ahead of fall camp. With six weeks remaining until Week 1, when OU will take on Illinois State out of the Football Championship Subdivision, the potential exists for minor things to change. However, for the most part, OU's current roster is the one it will take into a pivotal 2025 campaign, one that is crucial for the program's future and the future of coach Brent Venables. The Sooners went 6-7 in Venables' third year at the helm in 2024. That included a 2-6 record in the Southeastern Conference in Year 1 in the new league. Obviously, that isn't close to being good enough at a program used to playing for conference and national championships. Needless to say, things needed to change in a major way. New general manager Jim Nagy is putting his fingerprints on the program with new front office hires, and coaching staff changes have occurred at key spots since late November. That doesn't even get into the roster changes during the offseason. So today, we'll take a closer look at the five biggest takeaways from Oklahoma's updated roster heading into fall camp for the 2025 season. 1. Roster turnover At the close of the regular season last year, Oklahoma had 127 players on the roster. It lost 61 of them to the transfer portal, the NFL draft, the end of eligibility or walk-on departures. The Sooners added 45 players via high school recruiting, the transfer portal or walk-ons. They returned 66 players from the '24 squad. That leaves them with 111 players in July. Oklahoma has 54 offensive players, 50 defensive players and seven special teams players. The lower overall number is due to changes to the rules regarding how many players each team can have on its roster. Some players are being grandfathered in due to the recent House settlement, which will eventually create a roster limit of 105 players. Even in today's tumultuous world of college football, where name, image and likeness licensing and the transfer portal induced changes run rampant, that's pretty heavy turnover for the Sooners. But that turnover may not be a bad thing. An overall record under .500 again in 2024 and a .250 winning percentage in the SEC is a far cry from the standard that has been set in Norman. There's plenty of new blood, and that's a good thing. Another big-picture indicator of OU's roster churn: Only one player remains on the 2025 roster that was on Lincoln Riley's final roster in 2021. That's veteran reserve wide receiver Major Melson, a sixth-year senior this year. This is truly a Brent Venables team in every way now. 2. Spring additions The Sooners had an eventful spring, as there are plenty of new faces on the roster that weren't a part of spring ball in Norman. Offensively, the Sooners added running back Jaydn Ott, offensive lineman Jake Maikkula, wide receiver Jer'Michael Carter and quarterback Whitt Newbauer. Ott is the headliner of that group. Defensively, OU brought in defensive lineman Siolaa Lolohea and linebacker Reed DeQuasie via the transfer portal. The Sooners also added some late enrollees in defensive lineman C.J. Nickson and linebackers Marcus James, Elgee Webster and Barrett Travis. Additionally, Oklahoma signed former UTSA kicker Tate Sandell, who has a chance to start right away at the position. However, the Sooners also lost pieces this spring. Tight end Davon Mitchell, defensive backs Mykel Patterson-McDonald and Peter Schuh, running backs Sam Franklin and Gavin Sawchuk, and offensive lineman Josh Aisosa entered the transfer portal. Defensive back Jocelyn Malaska initially entered the spring portal but withdrew and remains on the OU roster. Oklahoma reshuffled its depth pieces at quarterback. Cole Gonzales, who signed with the Sooners in the winter portal window and went through spring ball with OU, reentered the portal in the spring and landed with Pitt. Oklahoma gained a portal commitment from Gavin Frakes, but he never signed with the Sooners and ended up at Northwestern. That leaves John Mateer, Michael Hawkins Jr., Whitt Newbauer and Jett Niu as the four quarterbacks the Sooners bring into the 2025 season. 3. There's the beef Part of Venables' mission when he took over for Riley was to get the defense back on track. But the mission was also to get the Sooners ready for the SEC, a league in which trench warfare is the name of the game. One spot where it's obvious the philosophy has changed is defensive tackle. Charlie S, who covers the Sooners for The Football Brainiacs, illustrated that in a recent post on X (formerly Twitter). Oklahoma's heaviest defensive tackle in 2020, the second-to-last year under Riley and former defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, weighed 297 pounds. In 2025, the Sooners have seven DTs heavier than that, four years into the Venables era. That had to happen or Oklahoma was going to get beaten up physically at the point of attack in the SEC. Furthermore, defensive tackle looks like it'll be one of OU's biggest strengths again in 2025. The group of Jayden Jackson, Damonic Williams, Gracen Halton and David Stone wants to push people around at the line of scrimmage this year. 4. Looking for offensive stars Quarterback John Mateer and running back Jaydn Ott are the two biggest names on OU's revamped offense this year, and both were portal additions. But the portal also hit the Sooners hard when it came to some big offensive names, so Oklahoma is looking for other players to step up in Ben Arbuckle's offense. The Sooners are no strangers to having superstars on offense, especially since 1999. In the last 26 seasons, they've had four Heisman Trophy winners (Jason White, Sam Bradford, Baker Mayfield, and Kyler Murray) and four other players who were Heisman finalists, but didn't win the award (Josh Heupel, Adrian Peterson, Dede Westbrook, and Jalen Hurts). Additionally, Oklahoma has had plenty of other All-America and all-conference players who helped put points on the board in bunches. But the 2025 Sooners are still searching for their standouts on the offensive side of the ball next to their new backfield tandem. Behind Ott, the Sooners would love to get a breakout season from one of their homegrown running backs like Jovantae Barnes, Xavier Robinson or Taylor Tatum. None will be expected to carry the load, but a backup to take some of the load off the Cal transfer would certainly help. When it comes to pass-catchers, wide receiver Deion Burks is a guy to watch if he can stay healthy. The same goes for Jayden Gibson and Javonnie Gibson, who could unlock the offense if they perform well. Jer'Michael Carter's addition in the spring gives OU another big body who could make some noise in the red zone. At tight end, the Sooners would love Will Huggins or Carson Kent to give the offense a reliable option there. Along the offensive line, Troy Everett and Derek Simmons are veterans for Bill Bedenbaugh to lean on at center and right tackle, but there are plenty of intriguing options at all five positions for the veteran coach. OU's backfield duo figures to be great this year. But it'll need help to get the job done. 5. Time to shine for '22 class Last year on defense, it was Oklahoma's standouts from the 2021 recruiting class that led the way. The trio of Danny Stutsman, Billy Bowman Jr. and Ethan Downs were the big name leaders for Venables heading into the SEC. With those players off to the NFL, the buck has been passed to the remaining members of the 2022 recruiting class, Venables' first as a coach. Most of the key players remaining are defensive stalwarts, but the Sooners do return running back Jovantae Barnes, wide receiver Jayden Gibson, tight ends Kaden Helms and Jaren Kanak and offensive linemen Jacob Sexton and Jake Taylor. But with all that production and leadership lost defensively, it's time for Venables' 2022 class to take the reins. Defensive linemen Gracen Halton and R Mason Thomas, linebackers Kip Lewis and Kobie McKinzie and defensive backs Robert Spears-Jennings and Gentry Williams look like they're up to the task; each decided to stay in Norman this offseason. Once upon a time, Oklahoma was built on punishing, nasty defenses. The Sooners are getting back to that under Venables, who hopes he's made the right moves to get the offense back up to snuff heading into a very important 2025 season. Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, formerly Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes and opinions. You can also follow Aaron on X @Aaron_Gelvin. This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Five takeaways from Sooners latest roster updates
USA Today
19-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
College football writer thinks new Oklahoma Sooners GM will be a home run
The Oklahoma Sooners made a very big hire this offseason when they brought in Jim Nagy as their new general manager. Nagy previously ran the Senior Bowl, but he's got plenty of experience in NFL circles and was a huge get for OU. Oklahoma needed a new general manager and a new direction when it came to player evaluation and player acquisition. Nagy offers both, as the Sooners have altered the way they view high school recruiting, NIL and the transfer portal in the months that Nagy has been on staff. The new GM has also shifted Oklahoma's front office model, making plenty of new hires this offseason. It was a bold move for the Sooners, but one that the program and its fan base are hoping will work out. After six straight conference titles and four College Football Playoff trips from 2015 to 2020, OU has fallen behind in the four years since, as the portal and name, image, and likeness have changed the game more than Oklahoma thought they would. The Sooners haven't played for a conference championship in the last four years, went through a coaching change, and haven't gotten all that close to the CFP. Nagy has been hired to fix all of that on the player acquisition side of things where Oklahoma has slipped behind the pack. He's also going to be managing the new revenue-sharing era of college football in the near future. Brad Crawford, who covers college football for CBS Sports, believes the Sooners nailed it with the Nagy hire and that things will pan out in a positive way for Oklahoma. He made one bold prediction for each SEC team this week and believes that Nagy will be tabbed as the conference's best offseason hire. How often does someone in an off-the-field role take center stage in the SEC? The general manager position is rapidly gaining importance in college football. We're likely to see that evolution accelerate this season, thanks in part to the success already shown by Oklahoma with the arrival of Jim Nagy. He brings nearly two decades of personnel and scouting experience to Norman, drawn from the NFL and his time as executive director of the Senior Bowl. Most importantly, Nagy is coach Brent Venables' designated talent evaluator -- tasked with managing the roster and identifying the right personnel fits for what Oklahoma wants to build on both sides of the ball. - Brad Crawford, CBS Sports. Nagy's talent evaluation skills and roster management will be put to the test in Norman. It's been a rocky stretch at OU over the past few seasons, but the Sooners swung for the fences with multiple moves this offseason, one of the biggest being the Nagy hire. College football has changed so drastically in the first half of the 2020s. It's no secret that things have slipped at bit at Oklahoma. Bring in Jim Nagy is OU's big move to make sure that they can get back to the top. Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Aaron on X @Aaron_Gelvin.
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
How the balance between Jim Nagy and Brent Venables could produce best version of Oklahoma Sooners yet
How the balance between Jim Nagy and Brent Venables could produce best version of Oklahoma Sooners yet originally appeared on A to Z Sports. As soon as he was introduced as general manager of the Oklahoma Sooners, fans wondered how the balance would work between Jim Nagy and head coach Brent Venables. Advertisement While they have each made remarks about each other's role and how helpful the other has been, we've never really seen either be detailed about the balance. In a recent interview with The Triple Option podcast, Nagy slightly peeled back the curtain on what he is doing to help Venables and his staff. "I'm here, more than anything, to help the coaching staff and help build this roster, and streamline the process. Everyone says, 'They're trying to go to an NFL model.' And yes, my background is in the NFL. I've never worked in college football before, but I think there's some process things that we've brought to Oklahoma that I think are going to help the evaluation process and certainly the valuation process. We've never had to really value players. It's going to be a really fun collaboration. It already has been over the last three months, just getting in the building with the coaches. Certainly been energizing for me. I've been out of a football building for the last seven years, running the Reese's Senior Bowl. So just getting around coaches and players again has been awesome. We're trying to make their jobs easier in places. These college coaches got a lot on their plates… It is going to be a true split structure between Coach Venables and myself. I didn't want to come in here and just blow this thing up, watching tape and maybe not agree with where they were at with some of their assessments on players. We haven't done that.' While this isn't a full job description of what exactly Nagy is doing, there are a few important things that I took notice of. I think having that front office in place to help the staff balance and manage things will take a significant load off of this coaching staff. Behind the scenes of last year's disaster season, the staff had to placate players and focus on roster retention for weeks, time that took away from developing, coaching, and building game plans. Advertisement Obviously, every staff has to do that, but the front office taking over that responsibility (for the most part) frees up the coaches to actually coach moving forward. That last paragraph also stands out. Nagy says he "didn't come in here to blow this thing up", which speaks to the point about aiming for true synergy between him and Venables' staff. With Nagy's NFL background and Venables and co's coaching ability, this could be a massive success for the Oklahoma Sooners if this works out in the long term. It's a unique strategy and therefore risky, but the upside is tremendous. Related: Why evaluating Brent Venables in the upcoming 2025 season might be more complicated than many Oklahoma fans will expect View the original article to see embedded media. This story was originally reported by A to Z Sports on Jul 6, 2025, where it first appeared.
USA Today
02-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Where do the Oklahoma Sooners land in 'College Football 26' team ratings?
After a disappointing 2024 season that saw them go 6-7 overall and 2-6 in SEC play, the Oklahoma Sooners are in serious need of a rebound in 2025. Due to some major changes that have been made at OU since the end of the regular season, many in the college football public are starting to believe in the Sooners. even after a slow start to the offseason . The folks over at EA Sports who make "College Football 26" are among those nationally who are starting to think Oklahoma could bounce back this year. They released their team ratings for the second edition of the beloved game's comeback, and OU made the Top 25. Oklahoma checked in at No. 17 overall on the list. They were also given the 17th-best defense in the game and the 14th-best offense. OU's rating is eighth in the SEC behind Alabama, Texas, Georgia, Texas A&M, LSU, Florida, and Ole Miss. The Sooners also fell two spots below Michigan, who they'll face in Week 2 in Norman. The belief that Oklahoma can be significantly improved this year has much to do with the changes that have occurred since last winter. The Sooners hired a new general manager, Jim Nagy, who is changing the way the program approaches the name, image, and likeness, as well as the transfer portal. He's brought in plenty of new faces to his front office to help OU get back to playing among the big boys of college football. Head coach Brent Venables returns for a fourth season, but he's on the hot seat heading into the fall. He has made some savvy hires since late November and will take full control of the defensive play-calling in 2025. The decisions he's made over the last seven months have given him a chance to keep his job beyond this season, provided that they lead to more victories on the field. Venables' defense loses a significant amount of production, but returns a substantial amount as well. The defensive line will be asked to lead the way when the opposition has the ball, but there are key returners all over the field. One of Venables' most aggressive hires was that of offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle. The young playcaller is tasked with getting OU's offense back on track after it struggled in 2024. Plenty of new faces will need to step up for an offense that saw plenty of players leave the program this winter, but the backfield duo of quarterback John Mateer and running back Jaydn Ott figures to carry a heavy load. The Sooners will play a total of five teams ranked ahead of them in EA Sports' ratings this year. It's part of a daunting schedule that would be tough for even the best teams in the country to navigate. But that's life in the SEC, and no one will feel sorry for Oklahoma once the season begins. EA Sports' "College Football 26" will be released on July 10 and will feature all 136 FBS teams for the 2025 college football season. Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Aaron on X @Aaron_Gelvin.
USA Today
24-06-2025
- Business
- USA Today
The Senior Bowl is making more changes ahead of the next draft cycle
The Senior Bowl is going to look a little different in 2026. The annual all-star game and critical stop on the NFL Draft scouting calendar has a new title sponsor. Panini America has taken over as the title sponsor for the game, which takes place every year in Mobile, Alabama. The trading card company replaces Reese's, who has been the Senior Bowl sponsor for several years. The Senior Bowl changed leadership earlier this offseason as well, with director Jim Nagy moving to the Oklahoma Sooners football program.
