Here are Oklahoma's Most Important Training Camp Battles

If Oklahoma is going to bounce back in 2025 — if Brent Venables is going to finally turn the Sooners around and make a playoff chase or a surge in the SEC standings — then this could be a most important training camp in Norman.

Practice begins Thursday, and for OU and Venables to have a strong season, the team is going to need to identify legitimate starters and big-time playmakers at three positions in particular.

To be clear, the Sooners don’t just need to find starters at these positions. They need to find stars — guys who can land a spot on the All-SEC team at the end of the season.

These three position battles will be under the microscope when the calendar turns to August:

Wide Receiver

One thing matters most: Deion Burks absolutely must stay healthy. He didn’t last year (neither did anyone else) and the OU passing game created no confidence, no depth downfield, no separation and no big plays.

In a perfect world, Burks stays healthy in August, plays in all 12 games and catches 85 passes. But college football is seldom perfect.

That’s why wideouts coach Emmett Jones went digging for so many transfer portal guys — from outposts like Arkansas-Pine Bluff (Javonnie Gibson), McNeese State (Jer’Michael Carter) and Southern Illinois (Keontez Lewis). He also brought in Isaiah Sategna from Arkansas and Josiah Martin from Cal. At least two of those guys should hit, right?

Maybe. Gibson is coming off a broken leg, so that could linger. Carter and Lewis are x-factors going from the FCS to the SEC (although Lewis previously played at UCLA and Wisconsin). Sategna’s strength, like Burks, seems to be as a smallish slot receiver. Martin didn’t play much at Cal last year.

Zion Kearney, Zion Ragins and Ivan Carreon were true freshmen last season and don’t bring back a whole lot of experience. So true freshmen Manny Choice and Elijah Thomas could get some notice, as they did make noise in spring practice.

So who is it? Who emerges and catches 45 passes for the Sooners this year? Or, if Burks can’t stay in the lineup, who really steps up and catches 60?

That’s easy.

Whoever quarterback John Mateer builds the best rapport with during this camp. Will it be Sategna as the Sooner passing game rebuilds from the inside out? Or does Gibson get healthy soon enough that he can develop into Mateer’s big play guy on the outside?

Or, after all that roster upheaval, is it walk-on Jacob Jordan who emerges again to lead the group?

And, 12 months removed from his original injury and five months removed from what Venables called a “setback” in spring, when could junior Jayden Gibson finally get back in action? One tip: don’t look for him at all this August.

Offensive Tackle

Oklahoma shattered the school record and ranked 134th and dead last in the nation last season with 50 quarterback sacks allowed, and ranked 133rd in tackles for loss allowed.

Without exploring all five positions across Bill Bedenbaugh’s offensive line, we’ll limit this one to edge protection. Jackson Arnold and Michael Hawkins had little chance last year because pass blocking was so bad.

The Sooners will be better in 2025 — but will they be good enough to hold up against some of college football’s most feared edge rushers?

Start at right tackle, where FCS transfer Derek Simmons and senior Jake Taylor are expected to compete. Simmons (1,579) has more career snaps than Taylor (257), but they were all with Western Carolina or Abilene Christian.

Taylor won the job last year but battled injuries all season, played in just four games and logged only 169 snaps. Is Simmons an upgrade? Or could the runner-up at left tackle slide over and improve the right side? Or could one of the youngsters, like Isaiah Dent or Michael Fasusi, suddenly rise up in camp?

On the left side, Jacob Sexton is a senior who won the job last year — but then had to shift into left guard as injuries mounted across the o-line? When Sexton himself was hurt, third-year sophomore Logan Howland stepped up and replaced him —and ultimately upgraded the position because he was able to stay healthy for the second half of the season.

Sexton was elevated to starter for the Cheez-It Bowl back in 2022, but only played one snap before succumbing to a knee injury. He then logged 410 snaps in 2023 and 510 last year and was a productive blocker.

Howland redshirted in 2023 and got only four snaps, then stepped in last year and played 502 snaps, per Pro Football Focus.

Howland had an early problem setting up in pass protection, but he quickly fixed it and allowed just one sack in 270 pass blocking plays.

Against this schedule, with so many elite pass rushers, Mateer can’t afford to have to run for his life (or worse) on every play. He’ll need to stay upright so he can confidently throw the ball to whichever receivers emerge.

Cheetah Linebacker

Venables and his linebacker coaches, Nate Dreiling and Wes Goodwin, will lean on versatility for this spot.

Off the top, there are three ways the race could go — and it could be as simple as situational effectiveness.

Kendel Dolby (5-11, 194) was a Junior College All-America cornerback, and he stood out there in 2023. But in 2024, he shifted to the hybrid cheetah spot — but was lost for the season in Week 3 with a severely injured ankle. That thing may still be tender this preseason, so Dolby might not be a front-line candidate until a bit later in the season, and he might be more in a corner role when he does come back, subbing in for passing situations.

Oklahoma State transfer Kendal Daniels (6-5, 242) is a physical beast at the position, and he has vast experience (2,398 snaps at safety, linebacker and edge rusher in Stillwater the last three years). But he’s still learning the nuances of Venables’ defense, and he’s doing it at possibly the most complicated and mentally demanding position.

Meanwhile, Venables’ most experienced, most physical candidate for the cheetah spot — junior Sammy Omosigho — played most of his 301 snaps there last year and, at 6-1, 235, could be the ideal middle ground between the two KDs. Omosigho worked more inside during spring, but don’t be surprised if he slides back outside in August just to assess what the Sooners have available.

Youth could be served at cheetah this camp as well. Sophomores Reggie Powers and Michael Boganowski flashed there a bit last year and had some snaps in the spring. Coaches feel both are ultra-talented and will find a spot on the field somewhere in 2025.