Oklahoma linebacker Owen Heinecke doesn't want the Sooners' 34-24 loss to Alabama in the first round of the College Football Playoff on Friday night to be his final game wearing crimson and cream.
OU labeled Heinecke as a redshirt junior this season, but his college journey began as a lacrosse player at Ohio State, where he appeared in just three games in 2021. Despite playing just three seasons of football at OU, the NCAA is counting those three lacrosse games at OSU as a year of eligibility toward Heinecke, making 2025 his final year of college athletics. However, after a breakout season, Heinecke is now in the midst of an appeal process to the NCAA for another year of eligibility, but the possibility is looking bleak.
Owen Heinecke fighting for one more year with Sooners
Heinecke emerged as a big-time playmaker for the Sooners this season as a former preferred walk-on who grew up rooting for the Sooners as a Tulsa native with an uncle who was part of a national championship with OU in 2000. Heinecke decided to take the risk and go back to football, so transferred to OU in 2022 and didn't play at all that first year. He then just contributed mostly on special teams in 2023 and '24.
This season, though, Heinecke totaled 74 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, three sacks and forced a fumble in 13 games while making four starts and even competing in multiple games with a club on his hand.
Now, Heinecke is desperate for just one more season at OU. There's always a chance he gets a shot in the NFL after shining in the SEC, but in a day of college football with NIL and guys like Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia wanting a seventh year to make another buck, Heinecke would be a Sooner for free and is using what makes college sports special as his argument for one more season after a wild road to this point.
"I hope the NCAA will see that I'm not just another football player who's wanting a bunch of NIL money," Heinecke said. "I'm someone who cares about the university and stuck his time out at the same place and is just starting to reap the rewards and is just wanting another year to go at it."