How Oklahoma TEs Coach Jason Witten's 'Great Understanding' is Already Helping Team

NORMAN — For Oklahoma’s offense to improve, the tight end room must improve.

The Sooners have failed to get consistent production from their tight ends over the last few seasons. But after the 2025 season, they did plenty to ensure that the position group is much better in 2026.

Oklahoma hired NFL legend Jason Witten as its new tight ends coach in January, replacing Joe Jon Finley. The Sooners also reloaded the player personnel at the spot, adding three tight ends — Rocky Beers, Hayden Hansen and Jack Van Dorselaer — from the transfer portal in addition to the two true freshmen, Ryder Mix and Tyler Ruxer, who signed with OU in January.

A couple months into Witten’s tenure in Norman, OU coach Brent Venables is confident that the right guy is leading his team’s tight ends.

“I think he has a really great understanding of the role of the tight end in both the run and the pass game, how critical it makes both of them go and all the intricacies,” Venables said. “I think his ability to teach from a level of anticipation and articulate that, get the players to understand the other side of the ball as much as what to do, why to do it, how to do it, when to do it and play with anticipation, that's what the best players do.”

Witten spent 17 years in the NFL, primarily playing for the Dallas Cowboys. He made 11 Pro Bowl appearances during his lengthy professional career and logged 74 receiving touchdowns.

His coaching experience, however, is less extensive. Witten spent five seasons as the head coach at Liberty Christian School in Texas prior to accepting the job on OU’s staff.

Even so, Witten’s knowledge and playing experience has already benefitted the Sooners’ offense.

“It’s meant a lot to the team already and to the offense with what he adds,” OU quarterback John Mateer said. “I can only imagine what this thing’s about to turn into, with him chiming in more.”

Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook and X for the latest news.

Jaren Kanak was the only OU tight end who was fairly productive in 2025. Kanak, a converted linebacker, caught 44 passes for 533 yards, but the rest of OU’s tight ends combined for only 81 yards.

OU’s newcomers at the position should add versatility to the offense.

Hansen, who stands 6-8, played nearly 2,000 snaps for Florida over the last three seasons, and 934 of those snaps came in run-blocking situations. Beers, now at his fourth school, caught seven touchdown passes for a middling Colorado State squad in 2025. And Van Dorselaer appeared in 13 games as a true freshman at Tennessee last year.

Through only a few days of spring practice, Mateer is confident that the new-look tight end group will be effective in both passing and running situations.

“The role of a tight end is to do both,” Mateer said. “We brought them here to do that, and they take a lot of pride in it.”

While Oklahoma ultimately reached the College Football Playoff last year, the Sooners’ offense sputtered late in the season, as opponents held the Sooners below 30 points in seven of their final eight games.

Venables believes that regular contributions from OU’s tight ends will help the team’s offense become more consistent — and he is confident that Witten will help them get there.

“He coaches with great passion and energy, and when a coach shows up prepared, detailed and he's really passionate about it,” Venables said. “I think he can really take the players to another level.”