Oklahoma Spring Review: LBs Performed Well, But It's Clear More Depth is Needed
With spring practice in the past and the NCAA Transfer Portal spring window now closed, it’s the ideal time to assess the Oklahoma roster heading into summer.
AllSooners has compiled a 10-part series, position by position, reviewing the Sooners’ spring and where that position goes from here.
Linebacker
Junior Danny Stutsman has emerged as the face of the Oklahoma defense. Beyond that, the OU linebacker corps could have a bit of an identity crisis.
In his first full season as a starter, Stutsman led the Sooners — and the Big 12 Conference — with 125 tackles last season. His growth and progress from last September to December was apparent and impressive.
“The effort was there,” Stutsman said, “but I think there’s a lot more technique and a lot more fundamentals that I need to improve upon. Me and Coach Venables are watching film and we're always improving. We know I had an alright season, but there's a lot more I can do.”
But Brent Venables and Ted Roof lost DaShaun White to graduation, and lost David Ugwoegbu to the transfer portal (Houston). Ugwoegbu played in 51 games in his career, with 22 starts. White appeared in 64 games with 49 starts.
Venables knows, you don’t just replace that kind of experience — no matter what the transfer portal brings.
“Our guys have improved fundamentally from where we were a year ago, and our football intelligence has been really good,” Venables said. “Still, we don't have great depth there. But I like the improvement that I've seen top to bottom from that group.”
Venables made that comment before he returned to the portal and brought in Division II All American Konnor Near on May 4. Clearly, Near’s arrival indicates Venables was not content with OU’s personnel coming out of the spring game.
“They looked good today,” he said after the scrimmage on April 22. “ … We gotta be better.”
Sophomore Jaren Kanak is in a better place this year, he said. After playing mostly safety in high school, he transitioned to one of the more complex positions on the field as a true freshman last year, and got lots of quality snaps at the cheetah linebacker position.
Now it seems Kanak has made another transition to inside linebacker, and seems to be making good progress.
For More
Wednesday: Oklahoma Spring Review: RBs Had Some Setbacks, Some Growth
The cheetah position was manned mostly by senior Justin Harrington and sophomore Indiana transfer Dasan McCullough. Both are outrageously athletic, powerful and aggressive, but both are still figuring out the nuances of rushing off the edge, dropping into coverage and reading the usual linebacker keys.
“It definitely puts a physical toll on you,” Harrington said. “With me personally, being that kind of hybrid and knowing I can play the cheetah position or slotting at free safety or strong safety. I've played corner. Just kind of fluctuating with those weights and stuff is kind of difficult, but the coaching staff and Schmitty (strength coach Jerry Schmidt) have helped out with that. It's low stress.”
McCullough would seem to have all the tools to be a star at the position.
“Man, he’s just getting better every day,” Venables said. “And we’ve worked him both outside and then up close to the line of scrimmage. And so, teaching him all the ins and outs of that. He’s been really good. He’s got the right mindset. He’s got the humility and he’s coachable. Very tough-minded. Coach’s kid. And he’s hungry to learn. We’ve been really pleased with his progress.”
“I love how much it moves around,” McCullough said. “You can go from playing in the post to lining up on the edge to playing right in the box at middle, so I like the versatility aspect of it a lot.”
Behind Stutsman, Kanak, Harrington and McCullough, things are perilously thin. That’s why Near was added to the mix at such a late date.
Only Kip Lewis, Kobie McKinzie, Shane Whitter and early enrollee freshman Phil Picciotti were on scholarship as linebackers in the spring. Those four have combined to play in 34 games (26 by Whitter) with 45 career tackles (44 by Whitter) and zero career starts.
More help is on the way next month in true freshmen Lewis Carter and Sammy Omosigho, but their contributions in 2023 will likely be on special teams at best.
“It’s a really hard working group. We’re in a much better position right now than what we were a year ago coming out of the spring game. Just a lot more clarity.”
