OT Michael Fasusi Will Get 'Opportunities to Grow' as Oklahoma Opens Fall Practice

The Sooners are high on the 5-star offensive tackle, but offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle wants the true freshman to continue to build "mental fortitude" over the next month.

2025 OL Michael Fasusi and Bill Bedenbaugh | Michael Fasusi via Twitter/X

NORMAN — The hype train surrounding 5-star offensive tackle Michael Fasusi isn’t slowing down any time soon.

The true freshman made a positive impact throughout spring football, and his teammates and coaches were pleased with his continued efforts throughout the summer. 

“Michael's gonna have a lot of opportunities to grow this fall camp,” Oklahoma offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle said on Wednesday. “… He's an unbelievable athlete, and he's a great kid.”

Last year, a pair of underclassmen in Logan Howland and Heath Ozaeta, were forced into action early due to injuries throughout the offensive line. 

As a whole, the unit struggles, but the Sooners now return a wealth of experience. 

Febechi Nwaiwu started every game at guard a year ago, and paired with Ozaeta and center Troy Everett, there’s plenty of SEC experience on the interior of OU’s offensive line. 

Tackle Jacob Sexton is healthy again to battle with Howland, and Western Carolina transfer Derek Simmons has 27 career starts to his name between his career at both Western Carolina and Abilene Christian. 

Any playing time Fasusi gets this fall will be earned, but Arbuckle is just hoping the talented freshman will continue to build on his foundation throughout fall camp. 

“Whenever you're that young and you step into this college game,” said Arbuckle, “Just getting those reps and building that mental fortitude, especially at the offensive line position, that's the most important thing.

“So the biggest thing for him is going to be the reps that he gets this fall camp and how he maximizes those reps and how he learns from something bad that happened on a play or something good that happened on a play.”

Learning under offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh was a major draw for Fasusi, and offensive analyst Kevin Wilson will also be close by at practice to help develop the 5-star freshman. 

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Fasusi is also getting plenty of help from his teammates. 

Everett is a vocal leader of the group, unafraid to pull young guys out of line in drills to help correct a mistake, and the entire line has made a home in the film room over the summer.

“The offensive line watched more film together this summer than probably any position group in the building,” Arbuckle said. “I don’t know that for a fact, but I feel really confident in saying that. They were up there constantly and just seeing that and watching them because that’s the biggest thing about that position group is being on the same page.

“… Just as much as you want the quarterbacks confident, you want the O-line flying around out there, being on the same page with everything. But I think that comes with the work they’ve put in the last eight months…  That should breed a lot of confidence into them going into that Week 1, Week 2 matchups.”

Continuing to abord all of the lessons through film study and apply those gains to the practice field will be the biggest task for Fasusi as fall practice gets underway on Thursday.

“That's gonna be the biggest thing for him is building up that mental fortitude,” said Arbuckle, “because he's a great kid, he's a great player and he's really talented."