After being absent from the Oklahoma Sooners' last outing, OU head coach Brent Venables announced during Tuesday's weekly press conference that center and team captain Troy Everett will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury.
"I hate that for him," Venables said. "It's just devastating. Same injury, other knee, that he had a little over a year and a half ago.
"He was having a really great year and just a great leader. He'll have to lead in a different type of way."
Brent Venables announces Troy Everett season-ending injury
Everett, a redshirt senior, started the Sooners' season opener against Illinois State before being the No. 2 behind Jake Maikkula in Week 2 against Michigan. According to Venables, Everett was injured Sept. 9, and then he didn't travel to Philadelphia last week when the Sooners played Temple. Maikkula again started at center against Temple.
This is Everett's third year in Norman since transferring from Appalachian State, where he was a Second-Team Freshman All-American by The Athletic in 2022. He got to OU in 2023 and started four games at left guard.
Everett has 18 starts under his belt, including 12 for the Sooners. He started at center in the Sooners' final seven games of 2024 as the offensive line showed improvement after having a carousel at center early in the season. Everett also missed the first five games last year because of injury.
However, unlike last season, Venables and offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle aren't too concerned about replacing Everett long-term with more depth at the position than in 2024. Maikkula had already taken over the starting job even before Everett's injury.
Maikkula, a redshirt junior, just got to OU this year after transferring from Stanford. After already starting twice for the Sooners, he now has 18 career starts, the same as Everett. He also spent time at guard while at Stanford.
Behind Maikkula on the depth chart is freshman Owen Hollenbeck.
"That's something that we talked about all through camp is that we felt really good about the depth of our O-line room, especially on the interior," Arbuckle said. "Feel great about those guys. Feel great about the work that they've put in. It's awesome to see coach (Bill) Bedenbaugh to develop those guys, especially on the interior positions where they could play.
"I feel really good about them."
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