How Oklahoma Freshman TE Ryder Mix Developed While Rehabbing ACL Injury

NORMAN — Enrolling early was the best thing for Ryder Mix’s recovery.

Mix is a tight end who signed with Oklahoma as part of its 2026 recruiting class. The Little Elm, TX, native tore his ACL as a senior at Lone Star High School, and he has been sidelined ever since.

Mix underwent physical therapy late in the fall as he finished his high school classes. But once he arrived in Norman, Mix saw immediate progression.

“I got here, and it’s just a night-and-day difference,” Mix said in March. “The whole training staff, they’re elite.”

Mix suffered his injury in October 2025, less than two months before he signed his national letter of intent with Oklahoma. As a result, the newcomer missed the entirety of spring ball. Mix, though, said in March that he expected to be fully cleared by the summer.

The assistance from OU’s training staff has allowed him to keep his chin up while preparing for his first season at the collegiate level.

“I feel really good,” Mix said. “It was supposed to be nine months; now it looks like seven months.”

As a prospect, Mix was a consensus 3-star prospect. The 6-2, 235-pound tight end caught six touchdown passes as a high school junior in 2024 and chose the Sooners over offers from Ohio State and Texas A&M, in addition to several other Power Four programs.

Mix’s resilience over the last several months is no surprise to OU general manager Jim Nagy. On Early Signing Day in December, Nagy described Mix as “Texas-tough.”

“We love his toughness,” Nagy said. “He’s what we’re all about.”

Though sidelined, Mix didn’t let the Sooners’ winter and spring seasons go to waste.

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Mix said that learning from newly hired tight ends coach Jason Witten was valuable and helped him quickly adjust to his new program.

He also saw the value in learning from veterans in OU’s tight ends room, including Rocky Beers and Hayden Hansen, both of whom transferred to Oklahoma in January. Mix is one of two freshman tight ends on OU’s roster, along with Tyler Ruxer, and Tennessee transfer Jack Van Dorselaer will be a sophomore in the fall.

With so much youth in the position group, Mix said that Hansen and Beers’ veteran presences have helped the tight end room become more cohesive.

“It’s a pretty new tight end room,” Mix said. “They’ve taken all of their college knowledge that I don’t have… and they’ve kind of helped us with little things. It’s been really helpful.”

Barring any setbacks, Mix will be ready to compete for playing time by the start of fall camp. Between Beers, Hansen and Van Dorselaer, the Sooners have plenty of depth and experience at tight end, which could mean that Mix and Ruxer don’t see much action during their first years.

But after one semester in Norman, Mix believes that Oklahoma’s offense will soon become explosive — and he expects to be a major contributor to that, along with his fellow tight ends.

“We’re creating a real offensive weapon,” Mix said. “Sky’s the limit for the offense we have right now. We can do anything we want. Once we get all our stuff going and we just do it, it’s going to be awesome.”

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