Oklahoma football: Nine Sooners named 2021 All-Big 12 selections

The Oklahoma football team will be absent from the Big 12 championship game on Saturday after six straight seasons, but the Sooners still posted 10 wins and fielded a number of the conference’s best players.

For the first time in quite a few years, no player or coach from Oklahoma received an individual honor, but nine Sooners were named All-Big 12 selections for the 2021 season.

Two Sooners were named to the All-Big 12 First Team: Senior fullback Jeremiah Hall is a first-team selection for the second straight year, and senior punter Michael Turk, who transferred to OU for his senior season, was named the punter on the first team. Turk was also a two-time All-Pac 12 first-team honoree while at Arizona State.

Hall gained 342 total yards from scrimmage this season along with five touchdowns. Turk averaged  51.3 yards per punt this season, with eight of more than 60 yards. His 51.3 average would have led the country had he had enough punts to qualify. (You must average 3.6 punts per game; Turk only averaged 2.8 because Oklahoma did punt that much on offense).

Seven Oklahoma Sooners were named to the All-Big 12 Second Team. Five of the seven were defensive players, which speaks to the improvement made this season by the OU defense.

The five defensive players are: junior LBs Brian Asamoah and Nik Bonitto, senior DTs Isaiah Thomas and Perrion Winfrey and senior S Delarrin Turner-Yell. Senior OL Marquis Hayes and junior kicker Gabe Brkic also made the second team. Brkic was an All-Big 12 First-Team selection a year ago.

Nine other Sooners earned honorable mentions.

Baylor won five individual awards (Defensive Player of the Year, DB Jalen Pitre; Defensive Newcomer of the Year, DL Siaki Ika; Special Teams Player of the Year, Trestan Ebner; and Offensive Lineman of the Year, Connor Galvin). Oklahoma State garnered three individual honors (Offensive Newcomer of the Year, RB Jaylen Warren; Defensive Freshman of the Year, DE Collin Oliver; and Coach of the Year, Mike Gundy).

Oklahoma has won the most individual honors in the 26-year history of the conference (47), Kansas State is second (37).