Oklahoma is Fired up by the Energy and Leadership LB Owen Heinecke Brings to the Team

NORMAN — Just before Oklahoma’s Spring Game got underway on Saturday, the Sooners threw things back to 2025.

50 Cent’s “Many Men”, which was performed live in the College Football Playoff against Alabama, was played right after the team took the field.

This time, it was played to honor the latest Sooner who is “Hard to Kill” — Owen Heinecke.

Big 🅾️@HeineckeOwen pic.twitter.com/3nRizYxq3w
— Oklahoma Football (@OU_Football) April 18, 2026

The linebacker was granted his injunction against the NCAA on Thursday and will now be able to play one final season at Oklahoma.

He did not participate in the Spring Game, after watching on as a bystander at practice throughout the late stages of spring practice, but the locker room was thrilled to get Heinecke officially back in the fold.

“We’re in the quarterback meeting and (offensive analyst) Colt Garrett just goes, ‘Yes!’” OU quarterback John Mateer said. “And I’m sitting there like, ‘What happened?’ ‘We got Owen back.’ We’re all in there smiling, obviously. We go in the locker room, everyone finds out and it’s fun. It’s huge for the team, obviously the leadership, obviously his play, both of those things are going to be huge.”

The defense was even more excited.

“Man, ‘Daddy’s home,’” defensive end Danny Okoye said. “That’s all we were saying.”

Heinecke finished as the Sooners’ second-leading tackler last year, just behind Kip Lewis.

Oklahoma added Michigan transfer Cole Sullivan over the offseason, but even with the return of Lewis, OU was going to be thin without Heinecke.

“You can’t manufacture the experience that he has, the leadership that he has, the playmaking that he has,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said. “Other guys will grow and get better and fill those voids at some point in time, but being able to add that to what we have right now is huge.”

The Sooners pumped a lot of time and effort into bringing along other linebackers this spring, like James Nesta, and Heinecke hopes another year in Norman will help his chances at a pro career in 2027 and beyond. Venables believes Heinecke’s return will help everyone in the linebacker room.

“(Heinecke will) be a big benefactor of coming back, and he’ll grow and improve in a lot of ways. But also he’s a giver, and he’s a doer, and that’s what’ll help elevate us as well on our defense,” Venables said.

“We’re very thin there; I think I’ve said that, so to be able to have him — you throw him back into that group with some younger guys and a guy like Kip and a guy like Cole Sullivan and James Nesta — that’s a good group of guys.”

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Oklahoma lost a handful of loud voices in defensive linemen R Mason Thomas, Gracen Halton and Damonic Williams to graduation, so Okoye is excited to have another returner who has played in big SEC contests to help the 2026 defense maintain their lofty standards.

“Having Owen back is a great blessing. I feel like we needed another leader on the defense,” Okoye said. “Kip’s great, and Owen’s great too, but having that experience and a guy who’s already been leading, especially last year and the run we had, is definitely going to be a great benefit for our defense.

“Even having him on the field today, the energy was just different from before he was not around.”

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