The Football Brainiacs

Spring Is in the Air, and Oklahoma Smells Blood

Spring practice opens with a new energy, a recruiting class that keeps climbing, and a national NIL conversation that refuses to settle down. The Sooners are building something, and the rest of the SEC should be paying attention.

 

There is a particular kind of restlessness that settles over Norman in early March. The clocks have jumped forward. The calendar says spring. And for Oklahoma football, the season that was and the season that could be start to collide in the most productive way possible.

Spring practice opens tomorrow, and by the time the Sooners take the field for their first of 15 sessions spread across 34 days, there will be more than football to evaluate. Coaches learning each other’s rhythms. Position rooms redefining themselves. A program riding a wave of recruiting energy that has not been this loud in years. Nineteen commitments for the 2027 class. Five pledges in three days. If the 10 win season was the proof of concept, this spring is where the blueprint starts to take shape.

The weekend belonged to the 2027 class. Jameson Roberts, a quarterback out of Saraland, Alabama, committed on Friday. Jalen Scott, a safety also from Alabama, followed. Tyson Ross, an interior offensive lineman from Kansas. Seneca Driver, a 6 foot 6 tight end out of Kentucky and Jason Witten’s first freshman commit. And Graydon Howell, a homegrown athlete from Broken Bow, Oklahoma. Five prospects. Three days. Nineteen total before April.

“I can’t remember the time we had five dudes commit like in three days,” Rob said. Brad noted that landing two commits out of Alabama was a sign of something deeper. “That wasn’t a thing 10 years ago. We never got commits out of Alabama. Saban had that locked down and no one can touch it.” The fact that Oklahoma is now plucking talent from the state Saban once guarded like a vault says something about where this program stands nationally.

The class is ranked number one as of this week. The offensive tackle group is shaping up to be the best on paper. The defensive skill positions are deep with linebackers and a safety in Scott. And the early quarterback commitment in Roberts gives the class a gravitational pull that could attract more talent over the summer. “This is what you want to see,” Brad said. “Stacking classes and all the momentum from the playoff run is just spilling over.”

But spring is not just about the future. This is a side of the ball that experienced real turnover, and the 15 practices over 34 days present a schedule that looks more like a coaches’ retreat than a training camp. “I think this spring is more important for the coaches than it is for the players,” Rob said. “The spring session is more about the coaches building that continuity and that synergy amongst offense and defensive staff.” Kevin Wilson’s evolving role, Deland McCullough at running back, LaMar Morgan in the cornerback room, and Jason Witten at tight end all need time to find cohesion.

Among position groups, the tight end room might be the most transformed. Rob made his case for Rocky Beers as the starter over Hayden Hansen, pushing back on PFF grades that paint Beers as average. “Some of the games where it was bad I was like, he didn’t really have a bad game. So it’s kind of like that just doesn’t make sense.” Oklahoma ran the ball four or more times in a row only six times all season. This is a pass first system, and in that system, you want a tight end who can threaten downfield. “Out of the two of them, Hayden Hansen, Rocky, he’s the better eligible.” Beers has wiggle, explosion, and can change direction. Add Trynae Washington at 270 pounds as the fourth option, and the room is suddenly a legitimate weapon.

The wide receiver room is the most interesting test case for whether Oklahoma’s offense can take the leap everyone expects. “Can our receivers be competitive in man coverage?” Rob asked. “You watch how Alabama played us in the playoffs, you watch how Georgia plays, they play physical on the outside. They want to beat you up. It’s a fight. It’s a street fight.” Oklahoma had one of the worst contested catch percentages in college football last year. That has to change. The good news is depth. Parker Livingstone, who Texas inexplicably let walk, and Trell Harris from Virginia bring versatility and spacing knowledge. Behind them, Venables specifically called out freshman Jashier Rogers, saying “he appears to be a freak.”

On defense, the conversation was honest without being grim. Oklahoma’s defense last year was championship caliber. The havoc rate, the late game possession wins, the ability to smother opponents in crucial moments. But R Mason Thomas, Gracen Halton, and Dominic Williams are gone, and they accounted for a significant share of the pressure that made it all work.

“I don’t want to take away anything from that defense and say that this coming year we’re going to be better, because I don’t think we’re going to be better,” Rob said. “I think we’ll either be slightly down, but not much. Plenty good enough to go win a championship.” The edge room is the swing position. Taylor Wein needs to avoid a sophomore slump. PJ Adebawore has Clowney level physical tools but has not harnessed them with consistency. Danny Okoye could be the key. “He’s built like a Greek god,” Brad said. “The stuff he does in the weight room is insane.” At linebacker, the pairing of Kip Lewis and Cole Sullivan could be special. Venables compared Sullivan to Danny Stutsman’s frame but with added athleticism. “A ball of muscle” at around 240 pounds. And at cheetah, Reggie Powers steps in for Kendall Daniels. Venables said Powers has been waiting his turn and is “chomping at the bit.” He projects more like the Kendall Dolby model from 2023, and if his coverage skills are on that level, the defense will be just fine.

The real pressure sits squarely on the offense. John Mateer, threw for 1,400 yards in his first five games last year, then 1,400 in his last seven. The broken hand explains some of it. The tape explains the rest. “No one questions his physicality, effort, or any of that,” Brad said. “It’s composure and execution at this point. He needs to be a quarterback.” Venables said Mateer is “on a mission.” “He should be Tom Cruise on Final Reckoning,” Rob said with a laugh. “He’s not going to be that bad again.”

The offensive line has its own questions. The left side, with Michael Fasusi and Eddie Pierre Louis, is as good as it gets. “You want to run the football, that’s the side you run on. Those two guys are mean.” But the center position, the right guard spot, and depth at tackle all need answers. The transfer Caleb Nitta adds beef and a thick neck that Rob was unnervingly passionate about. “Centers have to have a thick neck. He’s got a thick neck.” Deland McCullough’s arrival at running back brings a new philosophy. “He’s a hot hand guy. He’s looking for a bell cow,” Rob said. 

Away from the football facility, the broader Oklahoma athletic machine is humming. Softball, ranked fourth nationally, pushed through a tight 2 to 1 win and is gearing up for SEC play. Baseball is rolling under Skip Johnson. The men’s basketball team stunned Texas in Austin with an overtime win. “The sucker is trying to keep his job again,” Brad said with grudging respect. “He’s not letting us write him off.” And the gymnastics team remains undefeated in SEC play and ranked first nationally.

Then there is the conversation that never ends. The NIL landscape. A roundtable in Washington put the college sports economy back in the spotlight, with Nick Saban, Tiger Woods, and a somehow invited Urban Meyer sitting across from the President. Trump pledged to sign an executive order that would reset the clock to pre NIL days, then immediately acknowledged the lawsuits that would follow. “I’ll fix it, but we’re gonna get sued,” Rob paraphrased, laughing. “Really it’s gonna have to come from Congress or have to come from the players and the programs striking a deal.”

The legislative path runs through the SCORE Act, which would codify the House v. NCAA settlement’s $20.5 million revenue sharing cap into federal law, grant the NCAA an antitrust exemption broader than what Major League Baseball has held for a century, and permanently classify athletes as non employees. In practice, it already collapsed once. House leadership pulled it from the floor in December 2025 after a coalition of Freedom Caucus conservatives, progressive Democrats, and the Congressional Black Caucus killed it before it could reach a vote. The Senate needs sixty votes. Zero Democrats are on board.

The alternative, which Rob advocated with conviction, is simpler but scarier for the institutions. “Just make the players employees. Make them employees and get a collective bargaining agreement just like the NFL, NBA, NHL. Make a deal. But the teams don’t want that because if they go to negotiation, the players are going to get a lot more than 20 million.” He sees the resistance as ego, not strategy. “Stop your ego. Stop the s*** and just end it. Make the deal.”

Booster funded NIL collectives still dominate the college athlete endorsement market. In the 2024 to 2025 cycle they accounted for about 82 percent of the entire $1.675 billion NIL economy. Critics argue that many collectives function as pay for play pipelines, pooling booster money to sign athletes to endorsement deals that closely resemble direct recruiting payments.

The College Sports Commission, which was created by the power conferences to enforce the House settlement, initially attempted to ban collective payments in July 2025. The commission reversed its stance within weeks and allowed collectives to continue operating under new rules. Under the current policy, collectives may still pay athletes, but every deal must serve a legitimate business purpose. The agreement must promote real products or services, be priced at fair market value, and be submitted through a Deloitte managed clearinghouse called NIL Go for review.

By January 2026 the NIL Go system had reviewed more than seventeen thousand deals totaling $127 million. At the same time it rejected 524 deals worth nearly $15 million because they did not meet the required standards. Brad raised a simple question: “Is this actually deterring illegal deals?”

Revenue sharing is flowing overwhelmingly to football and men’s basketball. Fifty different state NIL laws create recruiting advantages and compliance chaos. The system is stuck somewhere between old and new, and every week brings another meeting and another round of people talking past each other. “I just want a deal, man,” Rob said. “I want everyone at the table. Make a deal.” It is the simplest possible position on the most complicated issue in college sports.

Oklahoma opens spring practice tomorrow morning. The coaches will take the field together for the first time with this staff configuration. The 2027 class will keep growing. And somewhere in Washington, lawyers will keep billing hours. But in Norman, the energy is real. A 10 win season built the foundation. A playoff run proved the ceiling exists. And now spring is here, with all its questions, its competition, and its quiet promise that the best might still be ahead.