The Pieces on Oklahoma’s Offensive Line are in Place, Now It’s About Building on 2025

NORMAN — Everything starts up front in football. If you control the trenches on both sides, you control the game.

Brent Venables' Oklahoma Sooners have built their defensive line to a point where exceptional play from year-to-year is now expected. Be still, your heart, OU observer from the late-2010s.

Under Venables, the offensive line is still a work in progress, though it’s no longer in full wait-and-see mode. Oklahoma has reason for optimism, but it would prefer the line to be a strength, not a question mark. Currently, the Sooners live somewhere in the middle, but trending upwards.

There's a different energy surrounding the line. Much of that rests on the massive shoulders of former freshmen turned experienced sophomores, with some savvy veterans retained and added via the transfer portal. No more will the line have to spend spring ball conjuring up combinations and chemistry; they're focusing on righting the wrongs of last year and improving.

"I'd say us being coordinated with each other, coming to every single play, and then it comes out to the field and we see it becoming easier for every single one of us," Michael Fasusi said. "I'd say that in the time that we've put in, the time that I've put in, everything's starting to show up better, even easier.

"And I'm like, man, it feels like magic, but it's just work," he added.

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Fasusi, along with Eddy Pierre-Louis and Ryan Fodje, is carrying the lessons of a 2025 season that threw them into the fire — and coming out stronger for it. Jake Maikkula's return coupled with the addition of Arkansas starter E'Marion Harris give the line hope that they can reach a different level.

It's already showing up in competitive spring practices.

"We have a pretty talented group," Danny Okoye said. "Guys like Fasusi and Eddy, they’ve taken further progressions in their game. Coach (Bill) Bedenbaugh is doing things differently this year. I am just seeing an all-around overall betterment of the team.

"The tiny things are what kept us away from a championship run last year, we’re trying to fix it," he added.

Okoye, who these linemen will go head‑to‑head with every day leading up to the Sooners’ matchup with UTEP, has seen steady progress. Venables emphasizes mastering small details, and Okoye has commended their focus on doing just that.

Ultimately, OU hopes that some of the headaches of playing three freshmen on the line last season will lead to more success in 2026. Pierre-Louis’ has already noticed the upward trend.

"It’s been really good because now we already have a correlation," Pierre-Louis said. "Now we’re all together and we’re bringing in a lot of other guys as well like E’Marion, and now we got Noah Best, Deacon Schmitt, those younger guys coming in. That’s the thing that we got to do to reach that next step, that next level to where we want to be at."

An offensive line as a strength will trickle down to a much improved rushing attack, which in turn helps John Mateer's life at quarterback. It all starts up front.

At least this offseason, the Sooners know they have something to work with instead of trying to find it.

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