Column: Who's to Blame for Oklahoma's Debacle With David Stone? There's Plenty to Go Around

If college football has taught us anything over these last five years, it’s that literally no one is in charge.

That sad, pathetic point was underscored on Friday night when Oklahoma freshman David Stone reportedly entered the transfer portal.

Excuse me, but where are the adults in this situation? Why did Stone enter the portal? Why did Brent Venables let him? Who’s in charge at Oklahoma?

And how did a 5-star defensive tackle — arguably the most valuable position in all of college football — who grew up in Oklahoma City rooting for the Sooners suddenly decide to enter the portal before starting his sophomore year of college?

Stone battled injury last year and still played in all 13 games. He wasn’t great — six tackles, two TFLs, one sack — but he was young. And, by all accounts — from Venables and from Stone himself — he got better during winter workouts and spring practice.

He got bigger, he got stronger, he got more explosive. He also got more mature.

At least that’s what everybody said — again, Venables and Stone included.

Stone said just two weeks ago that he had matured to the point where his off-field issues no longer affected his football.

“I let a lot of things outside of football affect the way I was carrying myself,” Stone said in a media interview on April 1. “But regardless of all that, I've done better. I've grown as a man.”

Well, that’s now an ill-timed punchline for a very bad joke.

For Stone’s part, it’s very much the same as his Twitter post from 2022, when he assured his followers and anyone else who cared that NIL would not sway his decision about where to play his college football and that he could not be “bought.”

NIL will not be the reason I go to a school to play FOOTBALL. So do not make the assumption again that I can be “bought”.
— David “Stoney” Stone Jr. (@iamdavidstonejr) September 29, 2022

In both cases, Stone said one thing — with a high measure of conviction, for what it’s worth — and then did the exact opposite. By now, Stone is old enough to know that a real man is true to his word, that really, he is only as good as his word.

So who’s to blame for college football’s latest descent into idiocy? Who bears the burden this time for blindly following a lawless sport deeper into its own morass — a morass that has utterly ruined a once-beautiful game and turned legions of devoted fans against the sport they used to love?

Everyone.

Everyone is to blame. Everyone involved should recognize their part in creating the shame of this debacle — and they should do everything in their power to fix it.

Let’s dive in:

David Stone

Stone played just 94 defensive snaps in 2024, according to Pro Football Focus. He was largely buried behind the three-man rotation of TCU transfer Damonic Williams, fellow freshman and IMG alumnus Jayden Jackson and stellar backup Gracen Halton.

Stone’s best chance for immediate advancement this year may have been if Williams left for the NFL. But Williams wisely stayed. So Stone went about doing what anyone in his situation needs to do: he got better.

Stone immersed himself in Jerry Schmidt’s winter workouts and grew from 295 pounds to 313 — at 18 pounds, it was the biggest gain of anyone on the team. And it was good weight, too, lean muscle. In person, Stone looks leaner and more athletic now than he did when he arrived from high school. Think about how hard that must have been for Stone to accomplish, and think about how good everyone felt when he did it.

“A lot of people don't know, but like, when it comes to the weight room, I was never really a weight room guy,” Stone said. “But I love working hard, and so when I got with Schmitty this season, it was like — man, it was a jump. He was pushing me every day, and a lot of my maxes went up a plate or two.

“So it's like that jump helped me put on this weight, and then we're running and I'm still moving good, fluidly and things like that. So now I love it. I love the extra weight I got. Like, I'm holding blocks better, and I'm still rushing the passer at an elite level.”

So Stone did the work. He got better. And Stone’s snaps on the field increased this spring as well. With Williams heading into his senior year and Jackson out due to shoulder surgery, the frontline reps in spring belonged to Halton and Stone, and Stone seemed happy about it.

💔
— Jayden Jackson (@JaydenJackson65) April 19, 2025

“I’ve been killing it this spring,” Stone said. “Winter workouts was a fun time for me. I'm up like 15-20, pounds, moving better than ever. So those things, you know, making those small improvements, and you know, all over. It's been a big part of my game so far.”

So why, then did Stone enter the portal? Well, read on. …

Stone’s family

Program insiders have told me that it’s not Stone pushing to leave, but his family.

They’ve been insistent that he maximize his monetary value ever since he became a priority recruit. And that’s great advice. Good parenting. Who could say otherwise?

But, are they leaching off their young provider? Has David Stone and his NIL money become a walking ATM for his family and close friends?

Well, that’s between them. Family matters should stay behind closed doors.

Which means even if it’s true, it’s simply no one else’s business.

But if it is true, the near-universal response is that it’s pretty unconscionable. At some point (and we’ve definitely reached that point here), mom and dad need to step away from their son’s financial affairs, or simply retain the services of a licensed, certified professional sports agent and/or attorney who will make sure every decision is in their son’s best interest, and no one else's.

Because this is surely not the road Stone himself wants to travel. On this road, there is no truly happy ending. Stone grew up a Sooner and chose the Sooners. He chose head coach Brent Venables and defensive line coach Todd Bates. He chose to play alongside his “brother,” the immensely talented and precociously grounded Jayden Jackson. He chose the financial opportunity and the road for professional and personal growth that OU offered — both he and his family.

But Stone is an adult — legally and otherwise — and if he’s getting (and taking) financial advice this bad, then that’s ultimately on him. This becomes his primrose path. Not his parents, not his friends. Fair or not, he’s the one person who will be either reviled or revered by a large and loud fan base for decades to come.

And if Stone wants off this path he’s chosen, he’s going to have to be the one to assert control of his own situation.

Who else shares the blame here? …

Jim Nagy

Insiders say this is where a good bit of the blame lies, at least from within OU’s camp.

On a radio interview during the Crimson Combine event OU held at the stadium last weekend, Nagy famously said of the Nico Iamaleava-Tennessee collision, “This can’t happen here.”

And then, less than a week later, it happened here.

Nagy is the Sooners’ new general manager. He’s supposed to be an upgrade from OU’s first attempt at a GM, Curtis Lofton, the beloved former All-American who held the position for about a year before he left to take a job in the ministry and OU eventually hired Nagy.

Nagy’s hire was a step in the right direction for Oklahoma, who finally — four years after the transfer portal and Name, Image and Likeness changed the very nature of college football, and four years after knowing OU would be taking on the big boys in the SEC starting in 2024 — got serious about managing team personnel.

But not like this.

One source said that as the Sooners have tried to get a handle on the mechanics of paying for a roster — basically figuring it out as they go — Nagy and, by extension, the OU coaching staff, asked Stone to essentially take a pay cut in 2025.

What?

Listen, restructuring and reallocating is one thing. If OU has only x-amount of dollars for a roster, and the market for defensive linemen is y-amount, and the pay scale for a backup defensive lineman is z-amount, then there’s a surface-level sensibility to what’s happening.

Stone only played 94 snaps last year. OU didn’t get a good initial return on its investment.

But you can’t claim to be a serious college football program if you’re demanding that a 5-star defensive tackle who isn’t even finished with his freshman year yet take a pay cut.

That’s not how the stock market works. And it’s certainly not how college football players work. History shows that the market will rebound, and that college football players will develop with time. Like Venables always says, this is a developmental game.

Stone didn’t have a good first year, to be sure.

But he had a better first year than Venables, who was paid $7 million in 2022, according to his original contract.

Venables went 6-7 in his first season, OU’s first losing record in 25 years, and he wasn’t asked to take a pay cut. Instead, Venables got another year at $7 million, then got things going and won 10 games and got a big raise and a big extension the next year — an albatross that now hangs around Oklahoma’s neck in the form of a grotesque $43 million buyout.

Much respect to Nagy for taking a hard stance on Stone’s lack of production. He needs to be better. But last year was last year.

While it may be difficult for any of us to judge because we’ve never been a college football GM, neither has Nagy. This time last year he was looking for guys who just want to play in the Senior Bowl.

This is not the way to start your tenure. This, as Nagy himself said, “can’t happen here.”

Relationships matter. Stone’s relationship with Venables, his relationship with Bates, his relationship with Jayden Jackson — those all matter.

And they need to matter to OU more than some random line item Nagy and his staff have conjured up to be able to afford a backup defensive tackle.

But Nagy is just one part of Oklahoma’s camp. …

Brent Venables

This whole thing could go away right now if Venables and Stone go into a room and air out their true feelings.

Venables makes the final call on which players are on his roster.

It’s Nagy’s job to figure out what to pay them.

Venables talks all the time about this game being relational, not transactional. He actually tends to drone on and on about it as if it’s some tenet of his belief system, a cornerstone of his very foundation.

So what is Venables really about?

Let’s face it, this is a seminal moment for OU football. But it’s really a touchstone for Venables and his long, decorated career as a college football coach and all those important lessons he learned from Hall of Famers like Bill Snyder and Bob Stoops and Dabo Swinney.

This is an opportunity for Venables to show the Oklahoma fan base who he is and why, if he has yet another rotten season in 2025, he’s worth their grace and should come back in 2026.

All the emotion and sacrifice and personal investment that Venables and his staff put into developing a relationship with young David Stone, all the time and effort and resources they put into landing him as a recruit, and all the film and practice and games and money and sweat equity they’ve put into him since he arrived on campus — and you’re just going to let it all go based on a few dollars?

Nothing is more transactional than that. For Venables, it’s time to put up or shut up.

But there’s one person who can overrule even Venables and make this right. …

Joe Castiglione

Oklahoma came into the SEC way behind the curve. This is one way the Sooners’ athletic director can fix that.

You’re going to let a 5-star d-tackle from Oklahoma City walk? Just like that?

Joe Castiglione has the power to stop it from happening.

Forget the contract that was in place last year, and forget renegotiating. Stone has done his work since then. Listening to him and to Venables, he’s done everything in his power to make the necessary improvements in his game.

Asking him to “take a pay cut” because he couldn’t consistently crack the rotation as a true freshman is frankly asinine and unfair.

OU needs to honor its end of the deal.

That stands, too, if this thing ultimately falls in Stone’s camp. If it’s Stone’s family who are demanding more money, then they need to stand down and honor their end of the original deal.

And that’s where Joe C. comes in.

For the moment, let’s disregard Stone’s lack of playing time in 2024. Let’s disregard what Nagy thinks is the going rate for a rotational 3-technique. Let’s disregard the notion of a meddling mom.

Castiglione knows contracts.

He alone can tell Nagy and Venables, from their end, at least, to just get it done. Let them handle the emotions and the dollars, he will make it all harmonious in the contract.

Now, if it’s true that Stone’s camp is being unreasonable and demanding more money, then they’ll be the ones to blame for blowing up what might have been a legendary career in Crimson and Cream.

(They would be wise to remember that even Gerald McCoy — the last 5-star DT prospect to come out of the 405 — had to redshirt his first year in college football. Didn’t play a single snap, actually, because that’s what redshirting used to mean. Of course, McCoy didn’t pout about not playing; he simply went to work and lived up to his potential and became a two-time All-American and a top-five draft pick and a multimillionaire and an NFL legend.)

Castiglione needs to recognize the gravity of this moment and step in, if it comes to that.

Simply put, this is just another PR nightmare for Oklahoma.

But this isn’t simply going into the SEC when you’re not SEC ready. This isn’t just winning two conference games in your first season in the league. This isn’t just being behind the conference’s power broker schools on facilities and NIL funds and everything else that matters.

This isn’t even 4-star offensive lineman Cayden Green packing his bags DURING spring practice and sneaking away to Missouri.

This is letting a blue-chip recruit, from your own back yard, at a pivotal position in the SEC, walk away from you after just one short year.

Think of the fun that Texas and the rest of the SEC will have with that.

Speaking of Texas: while the Longhorns were actually playing in the SEC Championship Game and going back to the College Football Playoff in their first year as an SEC member, struggling OU went 6-7 and 2-6.

Texas was also dominating their Red River Rival in numerous other sports, from women’s soccer to volleyball to women’s basketball to cross country to track and field to men’s and women’s golf to men’s tennis. Just watch the ESPN video below.

Even softball, long OU’s summertime respite against the relentless Horns, is most certainly yet to be decided, with UT ranking No. 1 for most of the season and their head-to-head series coming up next weekend.

Texas athletics is a beast, a burnt orange monolith looming over their neighbors to the north, blocking out championships like a freeway overpass blocks out the sun.

So Castiglione must take his victories where he can. And the David Stone transfer portal situation is one where he can — no, he must — exercise whatever authority he has to make this un-happen.

The transfer portal isn’t a black hole. It’s not a one-way street. The rules — at least as they are currently written — say that Stone can enter the portal and then change his mind and go back to Oklahoma.

So in the best interest of all parties, here’s what needs to happen.

Stone needs to lovingly tell his family, “Hey. Look at me. I’m David Stone. I got this.”

Stone’s family needs to recognize that young Dave does indeed know what’s best for him — not just in the NIL money-grab of today, but long-term, 40 years into the future, when they’re no longer here to guide him — and let him do what his heart wants.

Nagy needs to understand that in his first big test as OU’s general manager, he took a massive misstep, an overreach on which he miscalculated the emotional and financial investment OU had already made in Stone, and acknowledge that a for a player of this caliber, the future is almost always brighter than the past — and then just get out of the way and let Venables and Stone come to their own terms, and make whatever adjustments he needs to make in the ledger to support Stone’s return.

Venables needs to remember that GM or no GM, he’s the face of Oklahoma football. Simply stepping aside because, hey, I'm just an old linebacker coach, or hey, I just want to call the defense — that’s not good enough. OU fans deserve better. And it’s certainly not fair to his coaching staff and the team they all worked so hard to assemble.

Venables wants to be about relationships and not transactions? Here’s his chance to put his money where his mouth is.

And if Nagy and Venables and the Stone camp can’t come to amenable terms, then Castiglione needs to step in and say what Sooner Nation already knows:

This is bigger than just another column on OU’s NIL spreadsheet. This is bigger than 94 snaps, or 18 pounds of muscle, or a few thousand dollars.

If Oklahoma football is ever going to compete in the SEC, it has to start here.

NOTE: A source clarified after publication that Stone's NIL reduction was enacted in December, almost two months before Nagy was hired in February, and that Stone still has one of the team's highest compensation packages. Nagy does have the current authority to make any adjustments.