Oklahoma football: Caleb Kelly to possibly redshirt?

Could Oklahoma football be considering a redshirt year for former five-star recruit Caleb Kelly?

Lincoln Riley specifically said he didn’t want headlines saying the Sooners were going to redshirt Caleb Kelly after Oklahoma football beat Iowa State 37-27 last Saturday, but it’s hard not to speculate on the coaching staff’s comments.

So here we are, writing headlines about Caleb Kelly redshirting.

The comments have left many around the Oklahoma program wondering about Kelly’s status. Is this a sign of a problem?

In a way, yes it is a problem, but it’s a good problem to have. After years of forcing true freshmen into service and scouring the junior college ranks for plug-and-play prospects to fill glaring holes at the position, the Sooners appear to have some real, tangible depth at linebacker.

Thanks to the surprise emergence of senior Curtis Bolton (23 tackles, 1.5 sacks through three games), a big step forward for sophomore Kenneth Murray (19 tackles, two sacks) and Mark Jackson’s ability to play the hybrid lineman-linebacker “jack” position, the Sooner defense doesn’t have a place in the starting lineup for the 2017 honorable mention all Big 12 linebacker.

So there are two options. The Sooners could either force him into the rotation or allow Kelly or let him sit, learn and develop, continuing his mental and physical maturation without shedding a year of eligibility.

“We’d hate to waste a year just kind of rotating two guys of that magnitude (Bolton and Kelly),” Mike Stoops told the Norman Transcript. “We feel like Caleb has a huge upside and we want him to develop into the player that we think he can be.”

The Bookie factor

While one can tout linebacker depth as a possible reason for the change, the emergence of Brendan Radley-Hiles has been another.

Bookie’s immense talent and versility has changed the way the Sooners are playing defense, making the nickel position standard on nearly every down so far this year. Couple that with OU playing four men on the line of scrimmage more consistently and you have more of a hybrid 3-3-5 and 4-2-5 scheme than the 3-4 multiple look the Sooners have sported in the past two years. That only leaves two true linebacker spots open with Jackson playing more of a hybrid role.

The redshirt rule and some unfounded wild speculation

Kelly saw action in the first two games of the year (FAU and UCLA). That gives him two more potential games should the Sooners decide to pursue a redshirt. What if Oklahoma decides to hold him out for Big 12 play to run a faster, more nimble five-defensive-back scheme, then still has two games left should the Sooners make the postseason?

One could argue Kelly has played two of his best games against Georgia and Auburn, two SEC schools with more traditional, run-heavy offensive attacks. It seems likely that an SEC team is going to make the playoffs and that the Sooners will probably have to knock one of them off should they want to accomplish their goal of a national championship. What if Oklahoma got to have its cake by playing its best personnel against Big 12 foes and eat it too by getting an extra downhill tackler against a run-heavy offense? (Hey, I warned you about the wild speculation).