Coach Speak: Oklahoma Allowing Certain Position Battles to Rage Into 2023 Season

NORMAN — Game week has arrived in Norman, ushering in the first set of Monday press conferences for Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby and defensive coordinator Ted Roof.

Though the Sooners didn’t drop an official depth chart — that’s expected to come Tuesday — there was still plenty to cover as position battles have raged on throughout fall camp.

Brent Venables’ second season in charge will officially kick off on Saturday at 11 a.m., but OU has worked all offseason to lay the groundwork for what the Sooners hope will be a bounce-back year in 2023.

Rotation Coming to the Trenches

There has been great optimism surrounding OU’s offensive line in fall camp, but don’t expect the final determination on the five up front for Bill Bedenbaugh on Saturday.

Walter Rouse, Savion Byrd, Andrew Raym, McKade Mettauer and Tyler Guyton feels like the safe bet for the offensive line left to right, but Lebby said position battles have raged all throughout camp.

“We’ve got a little bit of competition we’re still working through as we move forward throughout the week,” he said on Monday. “You’ll see multiple guys playing for sure. But we feel good about where we’re at this year.”

Oklahoma has to replace both of last year’s starting tackles in Anton Harrison and Wanya Morris, as well as Chris Murray on the interior.

OU may have struck gold in the transfer portal with Rouse, however.

The redshirt senior started 39 games at left tackle for the Stanford Cardinal, adding key experience to the unit even if those snaps didn’t come donning the Crimson and Cream.

“If you look at it, there’s guys that maybe haven’t played a ton of ball here but they’ve played a whole bunch of ball,” Lebby said. “Whether it’s Walter (Rouse). McKade (Mettauer) obviously coming back as a starter. He had all those starts prior to being here. (Andrew) Raym has all the starts that he has. You look at guys like Tyler (Guyton) and Savion (Byrd) and Troy (Everett) having all the starts that he had last year.

“We feel good about where we’re at. Again, excited about the opportunity Saturday.”

Sorting the Secondary

Another place where the position battles will rage into the season is in OU’s secondary.

Cornerback Woodi Washington and safety Billy Bowman are the two returners with clear roles headed into 2023, but everything else is up in the air.

True freshman additions in Peyton Bowen, Jasaiah Wagoner and Makari Vickers made noise in both the spring and fall, as well as junior college transfer Kendel Dolby.

They’ll continue to battle with returner Gentry Williams at corner as well as Key Lawrence and Texas Tech transfer Reggie Pearson at safety into Saturday’s contest against the Arkansas State Red Wolves.

“It’s been very competitive and that’s a situation that will continue to be competitive,” Roof said. “We still have position battles going on through this week, which is a great thing to continue to have competitive depth like that.”

Early in 2022, the Sooners used plenty of bodies on the back end, allowing that rotation to sort itself out as Big 12 play go going. It appears there will be a repeat of that strategy early in 2023.

Staying in the Sooner State

The Sooners have made a number of high-profile recruiting additions over the past couple of weeks.

Oklahoma hasn’t had to travel too far for a number of those wins, however.

Elite defensive tackle David Stone now plays on the East Coast for IMG Academy, but he started his high school career at Del City High School.

Andy Bass, an all-purpose weapon for Heritage Hall High School, also picked OU over Kansas State and Syracuse last week.

The recruiting wins fit into a philosophy Venables has implemented since returning to Norman centered around rebuilding strong relationships amongst high school coaches in the Sooner State.

“Coach V day one when he got here, he talked about being inside-out,” Lebby said. “And understanding what our footprint is and who we are. Making sure that we go get the best players from the state. It’s been a huge focus for us.

“.. I feel great about guys loving Oklahoma, those guys understanding what it means to put that interlocking OU on. So we want to be inside-out.”

While it’s not a novel concept, leaving a pathway for local talent to excel in Norman is important to Venables’ coaching staff.

“I think if you ask anybody, any coach that coaches college football, they all want to own their own state,” Roof said. “It starts with that, and certainly Coach Venables’ philosophy here is that. So, I think that it’s going well, and it’ll continue to go well and get better.”

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