Oklahoma's Jake Maikkula Continuing to Guide Sooners' Young Linemen Despite Injury

NORMAN — With Jake Maikkula sidelined for the time being, the position in the middle of the offensive line is up for grabs.

Maikkula, a center entering his fifth season, suffered a leg injury in practice on Aug. 15 and will be out indefinitely. With the veteran offensive lineman unavailable, Caleb Nitta, Noah Best and Ryan Fodje will compete for the starting center spot.

“It’s an opportunity for everybody,” Nitta said. “(Offensive line coach Bill) Bedenbaugh is going to put the best five out there and the five that give the team the best chance to win.”

Nitta, Best and Fodje have varying levels of experience.

Of those three, Nitta is the most experienced, as he spent two years at Virginia Tech before transferring to Western Kentucky for the 2025 season. Fodje was a true freshman in 2025, while Best will be a true freshman in 2026.

Maikkula has more experience than all of them. He spent his first three college football seasons at Stanford before starting 10 games for the Sooners in 2025.

Despite his on-field absence, Maikkula hasn’t been distant. The fifth-year center has continued to mentor Nitta as he prepares to possibly take a significant role on OU’s offensive line.

“He’s been everything,” Nitta said. “This offense is very similar to the one I played in last year, but it's also very different. It's a whole other level of complexity and calls, and he's been kind of the guy I've leaned on to learn all this and develop.”

Best has continuously received praise from his teammates and coaches leading up to his first college football season. The 6-foot-4, 319-pound offensive lineman from Midlothian, Texas, was only a 3-star recruit, but it appears that he could play a key offensive role in Year 1 at Oklahoma.

Nitta echoed the praises about Best’s development, and he also thinks that Maikkula was influential to his progression.

“Noah came in, and he just worked,” Nitta said. “He was always asking questions, just trying to get better in any way possible, whether it was texting Jake or having extra meetings or doing extra things, extra recovery. He was all in from the start.”

Fodje is a guard by trade, but he is capable of playing elsewhere. Last year, Fodje played nearly 200 snaps at right tackle, and according to OU coach Brent Venables, he has taken plenty of reps at center throughout the offseason.

Whether it’s Nitta, Best or Fodje who lines up in front of quarterback John Mateer in OU’s opener against UTEP on Sept. 4, the Sooners can feel comfortable with what they have — and Maikkula deserves plenty of credit for that.

“It's always a mindset of getting better every single day and doing what you can to help the team,” Nitta said.

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