How Oklahoma LBs Coach Nate Dreiling’s ‘Belief’ Has Impacted Sooners’ Defense

NORMAN — Oklahoma’s linebacker room comes into the 2026 season in a good position, and Nate Dreiling is a key reason why.

Dreiling joined the Sooners’ staff as the inside linebackers coach prior to the 2025 fall. He and outside linebackers coach Wes Goodwin oversaw a position group that was productive week in and week out, featuring star players like Owen Heinecke, Kip Lewis, Sammy Omosigho and Kobie McKinzie.

The linebacker room looks much different heading into 2026, as Omosigho and McKinzie both transferred out and OU signed former Michigan standout Cole Sullivan from the transfer portal.

But despite the different player personnel, Dreiling’s impact hasn’t changed.

“He wants us all to be Butkus Award winners one day,” Sullivan said. “Best is the standard.”

Dreiling is a young coach, as he graduated from Pittsburg State in 2013. But his knowledge and experience has outweighed his youth so far during his coaching career.

The inside linebackers coach previously held defensive coordinator duties at Utah State, New Mexico State and Pittsburg State. He also spent time on the defensive coaching staffs at Oregon and Kansas.

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After spending the 2024 season as Utah State’s defensive coordinator, he accepted the same position at Arkansas State, a Sun Belt Conference member that has reached bowl eligibility in 11 of the last 14 seasons.

Instead, Dreiling chose to join coach Brent Venables’ defensive staff at Oklahoma.

And while Sullivan has only been at Oklahoma for three months, Dreiling and Venables’ knowledge has allowed the linebacker to adapt to his new program quickly.

“It’s exactly what I expected,” Sullivan said. “Their knowledge of the game is incredible. (I’m) just trying to put what they know into my brain and just trying to absorb that and be a sponge every day and just trying to take as much of that as I can in.”

Specifically, Sullivan noted that Dreiling has lofty expectations for each of the inside linebackers he coaches.

“Holding everybody to a high standard is the first thing,” Dreiling said. “He's gonna get on you when you do wrong.”

Dreiling’s high standards, though, aren’t rooted in disbelief. According to James Nesta, a redshirt sophomore linebacker, Dreiling believes that OU’s linebacker room can be one of the nation’s best in 2026.

Cleveland County’s District Court granted Heinecke’s injunction against the NCAA on Thursday, meaning that he gets to play one more year for the Sooners. Lewis and Sullivan are proven playmakers at the Power Four level, and backups like Nesta, Marcus James and Taylor Heim could see larger roles in the fall.

Dreiling knows how good the Sooners’ linebackers can be in 2026 — and he works every day to get the best out of each of them.

“Coach Dreiling is the best coach I’ve ever had,” Nesta said. “He has complete belief in me, and that helps me so much as a player, just knowing that he has belief in me on and off the field.”

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