Oklahoma Spring Review: Tight Ends Led By a Familiar Face
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.
Tight End
Oklahoma’s tight end group was beat up over the course of spring ball, making it difficult to get a real picture of the room’s potential.
Transfers will certainly help in 2023, but Brayden Willis left big shoes to fill.
The seventh-round NFL Draft pick totaled 514 yards and seven touchdowns a season ago, filling in wherever needed on Oklahoma’s offense. His production and leadership will be hard to replace, but the Sooners will try to do so with a veteran and a committee of youngsters.
For More Spring Reviews
- Offensive Line Needs Numbers and Some Good Luck
- LBs Performed Well, But It's Clear More Depth is Needed
- RBs Had Some Setbacks, Some Growth
- Defensive Line Could Now be a Strength
- Depth at Safety Could Be a Point of Strength
- Wide Receiver Could be a Make or Break Position
- Corners Possess Combination of Experience and Youth
“It's very hard,” tight ends coach Joe Jon Finley said this spring. “It's very hard. It helps having a guy like (Austin) Stogner. He’s a very similar type of player. They're both veterans. They know football. So you're not having to teach them the little details of inside zone or pass protection or whatever it is. They can step out there. They know how to play the game. They know how to play the techniques. Again, it’s just adjusting to the new offense. The way we call it and especially the tempo that we got.”
Stogner is back in Norman after spending a season at South Carolina, and will be the leader of Finley’s room. The 6-foot-6 receiving threat had the best season of his college career with the Sooners in 2020, totaling 422 yards and three touchdowns before an injury. He was a key part of Oklahoma’s offense and looked to be next in line of the team’s NFL tight ends.
Now back in Norman, Stogner used this spring to boost his stock and help the Sooners out in a big way.
“(It’s going) really good,” Finley said this spring. “(He’s) extremely intelligent. And he knows football. So it’s easy for a guy like him. It’s now just what we do we call it. He’s run every single play that you can run in football. So now he’s just learning the names, getting the signals and really adjusting to the tempo at which we play because that’s new for him.”
Stogner expressed how thankful he was to be back in Norman and how he knew he wanted to play for Oklahoma again. The Sooners were smart to welcome him back with open arms.
“Just overall attitude. He's just thankful to be here," Finley said. "I think going out there (to South Carolina) and coming back, he's an Oklahoma guy. He’s always loved Oklahoma and so going out there made him realize how much he actually did love it. So he's glad to be back and he's a big-time leader for my group especially and then for the offense as well.
In addition to Stogner’s arrival, the Sooners also added an unconventional tight end in Josh Fanuiel. The 6-foot-5, 240-pound Fanuiel played basketball at Division II Cameron University in Lawton, OK, and transferred in to bolster Oklahoma’s depth at tight end. Finley seemed very excited about his development and potential all spring.
“It's kind of like Antonio Gates,” Finley said. “He's got every tool that you could possibly have. I told him after I watched him in winter workouts, he's got the size and he's got the fight. You get in there and do all those competitions and he's fighting his butt off.
“And so I told him and you can play in the NFL if you get serious about this and learn the techniques because catching the ball, running routes, he's very, very natural, very smooth, very loose in the hips. And so he's done a great job with that.”
Blake Smith was another veteran add from the transfer portal, making the switch from Texas A&M this spring. He played in just six games over two years for the Aggies, but has been waiting for a chance to break out.
Smith was one of the members banged up this spring, but caught a touchdown in Oklahoma's spring game with a hard cast on his hand.
“I mean, Coach (Jeff) Lebby, he was at Ole Miss when I was at A&M,” Smith said, “so I really got to watch that game and just see how he utilized his offense and utilized the tight ends. That was something I wanted to be a part of.”
To round out the room, Oklahoma’s talented youngsters will be looking for ways to break onto the field. Both Kaden Helms and Jason Llewellyn were highly touted recruits that the Sooners were very excited to land. Neither found much playing time a season ago, but both figure to be athletic pass catchers that can truly spread the field out. Their injuries this spring bear watching in the future, however, especially Helms.
The Sooners will need Stogner to stay healthy and progress this summer to feel good about the tight end room next season. If his health holds up, though, it should be an easy transition from Willis and he’ll be another big target for Dillon Gabriel.
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