For many years it was extremely rare for a player at Oklahoma -- as well as many other top teams -- to see the field during his freshman season. There were, of course, exceptions for especially talented first-year players or other unforeseen circumstances that necessitated going deep in the depth chart.
That is clearly not the case in today's college game. A little more than half of Oklahoma's listed 2024 105-man roster was made up of true freshmen (36) and redshirt freshmen (20), and a good number of those true freshmen saw action during the season.
For 2025, the Sooners have 66 players returning from the 2024 season, and they have added 45 newcomers by way of high school recruiting or the Transfer Portal. Twenty-two of those newcomers, or 22% of the total roster, are true freshmen.
45 players are new to Oklahoma's roster
Thirty-two players on Oklahoma's 111-man 2025 roster are redshirt freshmen or sophomores. That means 54 players, or 49% of the total 2025 roster, are underclassmen in eligibility standing. Twenty-one players on the current roster are incoming transfers, including the Sooners' two best offensive weapons in quarterback John Mateer and running back Jaydn Ott.
Transfers represent nearly 20% of the 2025 roster, which now seemingly represents business as usual in the fast-changing world of college football. The fact that 15 of the 21 transfers are offensive players, including five wide receivers, signals where the OU coaching staff was focusing its offseason recruiting efforts.
In 2023, the Sooners welcomed 42 newcomers (excluding walk-ons), and in 2024 the number of newcomers totaled 44. The point being, that virtually every season, the Oklahoma football roster turns over by nearly one-third. And importantly, the Sooners are not alone in this regard.
It's also interesting to examine the roster from a geographic perspective. The 2025 OU football roster features players from 27 different states and the District of Columbia, plus two international players. The largest representation, not surprisingly, is from Texas (32) and Oklahoma (27), with 59 of the 111-man roster hailing from those two states.
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