Everybody who follows Oklahoma football was under the impression that one of the major position needs the team would look to fill utilizing the Transfer Portal was at tight end.
After losing three tight ends between graduation and the Transfer Portal after the 2024 season, including Bauer Sharp, the Sooners' leading receiver last season, Oklahoma added three tight ends out of the Transfer Portal, but none had a resume that appears to be a major upgrade at the position.
Because of all the injuries to the OU wide receiver corps last season, Sharp led the Sooner in 2024 with 42 catches but for just 324 yards and two touchdowns. Sharp was one of five tight ends on the depth chart last season. Only two of the five, Kaden Helms and Kade McIntyre, returned for the 2025 season, however, and between the two of them, they have just four career receptions for 49 total yards.
ESPN recently listed the major concern for each of the top-25 teams in the network's post-spring College Football Power Rankings. For Oklahoma, ranked No. 25, tight end was listed as the Sooners' biggest concern, a contention that the Oklahoma coaching staff strongly refutes.
Brent Venables and his coaches don't believe TE is concern
While who will start at tight end remains a bit of a mystery, head coach Brent Venables, offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and tight ends coach Joe Jon Finley are all confident that things will be just fine in 2025 at the tight end position.
Oklahoma added Will Huggins, who played at Kansas before transferring to Division-II Pittsburg State in Kansas for the 2024 season. The Sooners also brought in Carson Kent from Kennesaw State and John Locke from Louisiana Tech.
The overriding concern stems from the fact that Huggins caught just 22 balls for 394 yards and a touchdown at the Division-II level , and Kent has caught just 32 passes for 182 yards and three touchdowns the past two seasons. Locke has just three receptions in his three-year career.
Oklahoma center Troy Everett has been impressed with what he has seen from the transfer pickups, though. He called the 6-foot-6, 262-pound Huggins a "freaking stud" and noted during spring practice the tight end's size and physicality and ability to make tough catches over the middle. About Kent, Everett said he caught everything thrown to him this spring.
Because of the attrition in the OU tight end room, former Sooner linebacker Jaren Kanak changed over to the offense and converted to tight end. He played offense and caught touchdowns in high school but hasn't caught a ball since that time.
The Sooners also have freshman tight end Trynae Washington, a top-25 recruit nationally in the 2025 class who has the potential over time to be the best at the position on the roster.
New offensive coordinator Arbuckle liked what he saw from the tight end group in spring practice and in summer workouts.
"The tight end group, I would say of any position group, they are the position group that has shown the most improvement over spring ball," Arbuckle said.
Venables joined his offensive coordinator in his praise for the progress being made by the tight end group.
"I really like the group of guys," Venables said at SEC Media Days. "It is a group that looks completely different. How many catches this group have to carry over? Four. There ya go, can only get better."
Venables singled out one player in particular. Kaden Helms was a four-star recruit in Oklahoma's 2022 class, but injuries have kept him off the field for a good portion of the time he has been at OU. Helms stood out in practice this spring and looked like he could be in line for the starting role at tight end come the season opener.
"Kaden Helms has had his best period of performance and being a player," Venables said during SEC Media Days last week in Atlanta. "He's been healthy the last several months. He's really had a good, strong spring, had a great summer, needs a great fall camp so he can reach his potential for why we recruited him and why he came to Oklahoma."
Historically, the tight end position has played an important contributing role in the Oklahoma offense, not just as receivers, but on many offensive snaps as a blocker. Several Sooner tight ends have achieved All-American status. Former OU players Steve Zabel, Keith Jackson, Jermaine Gresham and Mark Andrews come immediately to mind.
Brayden Willis was the last great player to star at tight end for Oklahoma. In his senior season in 2022, Willis caught 39 passes for 514 yards and seven touchdowns. The Sooners would like to see that kind of production again from the tight end position in Arbuckle's Air Raid-style offense.
The past couple of seasons, the productivity out of the tight end position has been below standard and highly disappointing. It was one of several position liabilities that last season led to one of the worst Oklahoma offensive performances in a quarter of a century.
The progress made by the tight end group has given Venables and his staff plenty of optimism for the coming season, but it needs to continue over the next month and into the season.
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