DE Danny Okoye is Attacking Spring Practice With Urgency Ahead of Year 3 at Oklahoma

NORMAN — Danny Okoye is ready for a bigger role.

The redshirt sophomore played in 11 games last year, totaling six tackles and two sacks, but he’s hoping to become more than just a situational guy in 2026.

“I don’t even think I had a good year last year. This year, I’m just trying to focus on the little things. Making the game slow down and focusing on the details,” Okoye said on Monday.

Okoye’s potential is sky high, something that was quickly identified the moment he stepped on campus, but he feels like he’s finally found the proper approach to take off the field to earn his way onto it this fall.

“You never get results without putting in the work, and that’s kind of how I realized I was kind of holding myself back those first couple of years,” he said. “And really taking my investment to another level, spending time up in the film room with the coaches and really finding out what they really want the scheme to look like, it really helped me make leaps and bounds in my progression.”

Okoye signed with the Sooners as a homeschooled prospect from Tulsa.

The last two years, he’s gotten to watch and grow under defensive ends like Ethan Downs, R Mason Thomas and Taylor Wein.

But with Thomas on his way to this month’s NFL Draft, there are snaps to be earned in 2026.

Though he has three years of eligibility remaining, Okoye is approaching this spring with the urgency of a player entering his final year.

Oklahoma Sooners, Danny Okoye — Oklahoma defensive end Danny Okoye lines up before a snap in spring practice. | Ryan Chapman / Sooners on SI

“Man, time’s a-wasting. Time’s going. I’m really feeling like I just got to maximize on what time I have,” he said.

“… Like they try to say, don’t count your reps but make your reps count. And I’m really just trying to do that in every day of practice that we have. I’m not trying to worry about who gets the most reps here or there, but I just want to produce and make my coaches proud and my teammates proud and show them that I’m going to be there for them when it actually comes crunch time in the fall and the winter.”

OU lost 14.5 tackles for loss in Thomas and Marvin Jones Jr., and 8.5 sacks.

Wein returns to anchor one side of the line, but the competition opposite of him is wide open.

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Adepoju Adebawore is the other veteran who is back alongside Okoye, but otherwise, the younger members of the roster will be pushing to try and get onto the field.

The light bulb has come on for a number of players in their third year in Brent Venables’ defense over the past few years, and Okoye hopes to be the next guy in that line to break out in 2026.

“I’m feeling pretty good. Making leaps and bounds,” Okoye said. “A lot more progress than I thought we would be making. I feel good. Playbook is finally clicking. The game is slowing down.”