Oklahoma football: What we learned from spring practice

Oklahoma football concluded spring football practice this week, returning to offseason workouts until fall camp begins.

For a team that went into the spring with several questions, the Sooners were able to come out with a few answers. Before practice began in March, Stormin in Norman wrote a piece outlining the major issues Oklahoma football faced entering the spring. Now that things have concluded, we are going to look back and see what answers we got over the past few weeks.

Offensive line shakeup

The Sooners entered the spring looking for four new starters up front, plus someone who could take over the center role for the time being with an injury holding Creed Humphrey out. While the lineup isn’t written in pen or anything, it would appear Oklahoma football has at least established something resembling a hierarchy entering the summer.

It’s a bit of a surprise to see Brey Walker settling in at guard as his 6-foot-6, 338-pound frame seems to scream tackle, but he seems to be fitting in just fine on the interior and appears to be fighting with Marquis Hays for the right guard job. Tyrese Robinson  could be the guy at right guard.  Finley Felix and Michael Thompson appear to be battling at left tackle right now, while redshirt sophomore David Swaby is nipping on the heels of Adrian Ealy at right tackle.

What does this all mean? Not much at this point. I still feel like guys like Felix and Walker could move around on the line in fall camp. A guy like Michael Thompson is still very raw after recently converting from the defensive line, but he appears to have the skills necessary to start sooner rather than later. Also keep an eye out for grad transfer R. J. Proctor, who is going to try and unseat someone for a starting job. Depth at center is still a bit of a concern, but expect all of the backup guards to be learning the spot in case something happens to Humphrey in fall. Offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh often tinkers with his lineup well into the season until he finds the right mixture for success so the book is far from closed, but we are certainly further along in the process than we were back in March.

Old faces in new places

We already mentioned Michael Thompson, who appears to be on track to become a contributor this year and could still play guard or tackle. As for many of the other names moving around the biggest surprise might be Brayden Willis. The former tight end might be making a name for himself as an h-back, though we didn’t see a lot of him in the spring game. The other h-back, Jeramiah Hall, showed that he might be usable in some short-yardage situations with a few punishing runs in the spring game.

Unfortunately an injury may have changed the path for DaShaun White, who was pushing for playing time at middle linebacker before Caleb Kelly had to undergo surgery that will keep him out into the season. We heard Tre Norwood is working some at the nickel position and pushing Brendan Radley-Hiles for some playing time. Ronnie Perkins appears to be settling in as more of a true defensive end than his hybrid linebacker position from last season.

We will probably see some more moving around as we get into the season. The Sooners still don’t have the kind of depth they would like on defense so just one injury could be enough to cause a domino effect to the lineup with players starting at one spot and playing backup at another.