Oklahoma Coach Brent Venables Confirms New Spring Football Injuries

The Sooners have experienced more setbacks at wide receiver, including a significant leg injury for transfer Javonnie Gibson, and could seek relief in the transfer portal.

Oklahoma coach Brent Venables / John E. Hoover / Sooners On SI

NORMAN — Oklahoma coach Brent Venables confirmed on Saturday the bad news for the Sooner offense: transfer wideout receiver Javonnie Gibson suffered a leg injury in practice on Monday and will miss significant time. Venables called it a broken leg.

OU also has injuries to transfer wideouts Keontez Lewis and Isaiah Sategna that have knocked them out for much of this spring. Satenga's injury is a hamstring, while Lewis' is undisclosed. Venables also said defensive back Kendel Dolby remains out of contact situations as he comes back from a fractured and dislocated ankle last fall.

OU dug deep into the transfer portal for game-breaking talent and came away with Gibson (Arkansas-Pine Bluff), Lewis (Southern Illinois via Wisconsin and UCLA) and Sategna (Arkansas), as well as Josiah Martin (Cal). 

After the team’s top five wide receivers missed either all or the majority of the season in 2024 (six wideouts eventually left OU via the transfer portal), it seems the mysterious maladies at the position have continued to spread in 2025.

The bad news for this year began at the start of spring practice when, almost nine months removed from major knee surgery that took him out for all of 2024, Venables revealed that big-play junior Jayden Gibson had suffered a “setback” and would miss all of this spring. Sources have told Sooners On SI that Gibson’s injury might be significant enough to keep him out for the entire 2025 season as well.

Others who were expected to breathe new life into the position this fall but have been hampered by injury for all or most of this spring include senior Deion Burks, sophomores Zion Kearney, Zion Ragins and Ivan Carreon, and redshirt freshman K.J. Daniels. Burks, Carreon and Kearney were seen at Wednesday's open practice session doing full-speed individual work, but Sategna, Lewis and the Gibsons were not in the group.

Oklahoma will likely turn back to the transfer portal to try to address the ongoing personnel deficits, as healthy OU wideouts now consist of Martin, a sophomore who also looked full-speed on Wednesday, incoming freshmen Manny Choice and Elijah Thomas, and walk-ons Jacob Jordan, Major Melson, Eli Merck and Jakeb Snyder.

The 6-foot-3, 205-pound Javonnie Gibson was named second-team All-America on the Associated Press All-FCS team last season after catching 70 passes for 1,215 yards and nine touchdowns for the Golden Lions, averaging 17.4 yards per catch. Gibson had five 100-yard games. In the season opener against Arkansas, he caught two passes for 32 yards.

Gibson is a fourth-year junior with two years of eligibility remaining. A native of Opelousas, LA, he began his college career at Division II Arkansas-Monticello.

The 5-11, 185-pound Sategna was a second-team preseason All-SEC pick by College Football News and Phil Steele Magazine after Steele picked him third-team All-SEC as a return specialist in 2023. He also was named to the coaches’ 2023 Freshman All-SEC Team last year. Sategna caught 37 passes for 491 yards and one touchdown for the Razorbacks last season, averaging 13.3 yards per reception. 

The fourth-year junior has two years of eligibility remaining. Last year Sategna hauled in 15 passes for 129 yards and two TDs. He redshirted in 2022 but still played in four games and caught two passes for 12 yards. His 680 total return yards (punts and kickoffs) are the sixth-most in a single season by any Razorback. In his three seasons as an SEC receiver, the Fayetteville, AR, product has 54 career receptions for 632 yards and three scores.

The 6-foot-2, 185-pound Lewis hails from East St. Louis, IL, where he was a 3-star prospect at East St. Louis High School. For the Salukis last season, Lewis had 49 receptions for 813 yards and five touchdowns, averaging 16.6 yards per catch. 

A fifth-year senior with one year of eligibility remaining, Lewis caught one pass for 12 yards and redshirted in 2023 after catching 20 passes for 313 yards and three TDs as a sophomore in 2022. As a true freshman at UCLA in 2021, Lewis played in 11 games but didn’t log any offensive statistics.

feed