Spring training camp opened this week, signaling the unofficial start to the 2026 Oklahoma football season. There are some new faces both on the practice field and among the coaching ranks, as well as some missing pieces from last season's College Football Playoff team.
That's the natural order of spring football on college campuses. It's a time to renew and turn attention to physical and mental preparation for another season and the things necessary for continued growth and improvement. After winter workouts, spring ball presents the first opportunity for the Oklahoma coaching staff to see the bulk of the 2026 players on the field.
Oklahoma is coming off its best season under head coach Brent Venables, who is beginning his fifth season at the helm and 18th overall in Norman counting the 13 years in the early 2000s that he served as an assistant on Bob Stoops' staff. Despite facing one of the country's most difficult schedules last season, the Sooners finished with a 10-2 record and 6-2 in the SEC, which was good enough to earn them a spot in the College Football Playoff for the first time since 2019.
Forty of the 106 players on the 2026 Oklahoma roster are new this season, including 22 incoming freshmen from the Sooners' top-15 recruiting class, along with 18 additions from the Transfer Portal. Of the 40 newcomers, 23 play on the offensive side of the ball, 16 on defense and one on special teams.
While newcomers represent nearly 40% of the OU football roster for next season, there are 66 returning players from last season's team. Although the Sooners experienced collective success last season, there were several players and/or personnel from which more was expected and have the most to prove both in spring practice, as well as in the coming season.
John Mateer transferred to Oklahoma from Washington State on the heels of a 2024 season in which he threw for 3,139 yards and 29 touchdowns and also gained 826 rushing yards along with 15 more touchdowns. The highly touted QB followed his Washington State offensive coordinator, Ben Arbuckle, to OU and, needless to say, much was expected to immediately impact and help revitalize what had become a stagnant Sooner offense that in 2024 ranked 113th out of 134 FBS teams in total offense.
Mateer had a solid debut in a Sooner uniform, averaging over 300 passing yards, along with six touchdown passes, in his first four Oklahoma games. He suffered a broken thumb in Game 4 against Auburn, however, and although he returned two games later, he was never really the same the rest of the season. His passes lacked accuracy and consistency over his final eight games, and his rushing yards fell off considerably after the injury. In retrospect, he was trying to do too much in trying to return to his best self on the field.
In large part because of the way the 2025 season turned out for Mateer, he elected to forego the NFL Draft and return to Oklahoma for another year. Most believe that the injury and playing in a more competitive league in the SEC were prime factors in his falling short of what everyone was expecting from him last season.
The Sooners' starting quarterback definitely has much to prove this season in his final year of college football. And barring another injury and with a few more offensive weapons at his disposal and a year under his belt playing at Oklahoma, he should be able to show what he is truly capable of and improve his NFL Draft stock in the process.
Although they didn't commit to come to Oklahoma at the same time, Ben Arbuckle and John Mateer came to the Sooners as a package deal. Arbuckle, who was Mateer's offensive coordinator at Washington State, accepted an offer from Brent Venables to take over at OU, and a short time thereafter, Mateer announced he was entering the Transfer Portal and ultimately landed at Oklahoma.
Having played under Arbuckle's offensive system for a couple of seasons at Washington State, the belief was the combination of Arbuckle and Mateer would provide an immediate spark and effectiveness to OU's sputtering offensive capability. Although the Sooners were able to manufacture enough offensive production to win 10 games in 2025, it was more the result of an exceptional defensive effort that made all of that possible. The Sooner offense still wasn't anywhere near what it needed to be as part of a championship-level unit. Oklahoma remained far down the list -- 91st nationally in 2025 -- in terms of total offensive production.
OU has made offseason adjustments and additions to improve this deficiency, and much more is expected from Arbuckle and his offensive staff this coming season, starting this spring.
Let's own up to it, the inconsistency, injuries and poor performance of the offensive line the past several years have been as much responsible of Oklahoma's recent offensive decline (who several years ago actually thought we would ever be saying anything like this about an OU offense?) as any one element. It was believed last season, with newcomers Michael Fasusi and Ryan Fodje and redshirt freshman Eddy Pierre-Louis manning three of the five offensive line spots, along with veteran Febechi Nwaiwu, that the Sooner O-line might finally be rounding into the formidable force it had once been.
In 2025, the Sooner O-line personnel did a reasonably good job of pass protection, but this same group was deplorable in run blocking, which was a big reason for Oklahoma's struggles running the football. Over the last three seasons, the Sooners have gone from 35th nationally in rushing offense in 2023, to 76th in 2024 and dropped all the way down to 113th last season, averaging just 118 yards on the ground.
Offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh, considered one of the best offensive line coaches in college football, has some exceptional offensive line talent coming in the next couple of recruiting classes, but for the time being, the Oklahoma offensive line unit still has a lot to prove in 2026
Adepoju Adebawore was a consensus five-star defensive line recruit and top-25 national recruit in Oklahoma's 2023 recruiting class. The Kansas City area native saw action in all 13 games as a freshman, but only in a reserve role. He missed some action his sophomore season due to an injury, but did play in 10 games. He was fully healthy last season, but his playing time was severely restricted because of the depth Oklahoma had at defensive end.
After last season, Adebawore flirted with the idea of transferring, and actually did enter his name in the portal, but only briefly before withdrawing it. He elected instead to return to OU for his senior season. With R Mason Thomas and Marvin Jones Jr. out of eligibility and no longer with the team, Adebawore is expected to compete with freshman Danny Okoye for a starting role as one of the edge rushers.
This could be the year that Adebawore finally breaks through and lives up to the expectations that everyone had for him when he signed with Oklahoma. He has played in 36 games in three seasons with the Sooners, but has never made a start. The opportunity is finally there, and he will be out to prove that he deserved it all along.
However, Adebawore's spring breakout was derailed at least briefly with a lingering injury.
Elijah Thomas impressed a lot of people in spring and fall practice last season as a freshman wide receiver with speed and athleticism and good pass-catching skills. The Sooner coaches loved his breakaway speed that allowed him to blow by slower defenders, but unfortunately, he rarely saw the field on offense. Instead, he saw action in all 13 OU games, but almost exclusively on special teams.
Thomas made just one catch all of last season. Arbuckle chose to go with just five wide receivers -- Isaiah Sategna, Deion Burks, Javonnie Gibson, Keontez Lewis and Jer'Michael Carter -- who caught 172 of the 177 passes caught by OU wide receivers last season. Three of those receivers (Burks. Gibson and Lewis) are no longer with the team. Burks and Lewis graduated, and Gibson elected to transfer.
The Sooners added Parker Livingstone from Texas and Trell Harris from Virginia from the Transfer Portal, but the door is now opened for Thomas to move up on the depth chart and demonstrate the exception skills and talent that had WR coach Emmett Jones and the other OU coaches so excited about Thomas when they signed him.
Thomas' much-too-prove journey this season has to start in spring camp and carry over into the fall.