Oklahoma football: Early look-in at Sooners’ offensive line for 2022
By Chip Rouse
Editor’s note: This is the fourth installment in a continuing series previewing and breaking down the Oklahoma football position groups for 2022. Today we feature the offensive line room.
It’s always the skill positions that get the headlines when an offensive unit performs well. The guys upfront in the trenches, the guys the late John Madden used to refer to as the “Big Uglies,” are frequently overlooked and certainly overshadowed as a key contributor in every offense.
Over the past five seasons, Oklahoma has been blessed with some of the best quarterbacks in college football. That in itself will win you a lot of football games, but without a strong offensive line, even the best of quarterbacks will have trouble finding open receivers, and if the guys on the front line aren’t able to open run lanes it will be difficult to generate a consistent ground attack.
Some football X’s and O’s folks believe strongly that offensive line strength is a critical part of every successful offensive unit.
In addition to a head-coaching change and a new coaching staff, the Sooners face a rebuild on the offensive line for 2022. Fortunately, the one thing that isn’t changing in the offensive line is the position coach who oversees the group. Bill Bedenbaugh is in his 10th season as an Oklahoma assistant coach, originally hired by Bob Stoops, and is considered one of the best in the business.
OU loses O-line starters Tyrese Robinson and Marquise Hayes to the NFL Draft, and Erik Swenson graduated and may also be thinking of a future pro career. So, there are holes to fill.
The Sooners do return left tackle Anton Harrison, center Andrew Raym and right guard Chris Murray as starters, however, and they added an experienced offensive lineman in McKade Mettauer, a transfer who played in 23 games over three seasons at Cal, is likely to slide in at the left guard spot.
Redshirt freshman Savion Byrd and redshirt senior Darrell Simpson could compete for the right tackle position along with redshirt junior Marcus Hicks.
OU is also high on a couple of O-line prospects from the 2022 recruiting class: Jacob Sexton and Jake Taylor, who are likely to see quite a bit of action in the 2022 season, probably in a backup role in their first season.
Bedenbaugh has been good in recent seasons in building offensive line depth, and he should have good experience in backup roles in the coming season.
Brey Walker, once rated as a five-star prospect in the 2018 class is back for another season after briefly trying the transfer portal. The Sooners have been hoping for a bigger contribution from Walker for several years. Perhaps this is the year.
Wanya Morris fell short of the Sooners’ expectations when he was selected out of the transfer portal from Tennessee this time a year ago, will play a primary backup role in 2022, and Robert Congel, himself a 2021 transfer from Arizona, filled in at center last season while Raym was out injured.
Other players who will compete for playing time on the offensive line next season are redshirt juniors Marcus Alexander and Marcus Hicks, along with redshirt sophomores Nate Anderson and Cullen Montgomery.
How well the Oklahoma offensive line comes together and is able to communicate with one another will go a long way in determining the Sooners’ success this fall under new head coach Brent Venables and offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby. There may be some growing pains early on, but knowing Bedenbaugh’s history and with the return of strength and conditioning coach Jerry Schmidt, the expectation is this new group will work out just fine.