National championships are the measuring stick at Oklahoma, and Brent Venables knows there’s no escaping that reality. After a 10-3 season and the program’s first College Football Playoff berth of the Venables era, the Sooners still came up short of the standard that hangs over Norman.
Now comes the next step, and the 2026 roster is drawing real attention for how much it brings back. By the numbers and by the names on the depth chart, this could be Venables’ most gifted team yet at Oklahoma - maybe the most talented Sooners squad in a decade.
That’s the view George Stoia of SoonerScoops shared on “The Paul Finebaum Show.”
"I think on paper, this is the most talented roster Brent Venables has had in his tenure," Stoia said on 'The Paul Finebaum Show.'
There’s plenty to back up that take. Oklahoma is tied for 12th nationally with 65% of its production returning from last season, and the offense is even more loaded. The Sooners bring back 75% of their offensive talent, which ranks No. 3 in the country.
That group includes starting quarterback John Mateer, four of five starting offensive linemen, leading receiver Isaiah Sategna and the team’s top two rushers, Xavier Robinson and Tory Blaylock. That kind of continuity gives Oklahoma a real foundation on offense before the season even starts.
The defense has its own heavy hitters. Oklahoma returns All-SEC EDGE Taylor Wein, David Stone - who some believe is the best defensive tackle in college football - Jayden Jackson, both starting linebackers and three starting secondary players. That makes for one of the most experienced defensive groups in the SEC.
So the ingredients are there. The question now is whether Venables can turn all that talent and continuity into something bigger.
As Barry Switzer once said, "People don't know what it means to be champions. Oklahoma invented it."
In Other News...
Sooners Fans Still Can't Agree On These Costly Portal Misses
The transfer portal has given Oklahoma plenty to evaluate, and not every swing has landed the way fans hoped. John Mateer still has another year to show what he can become, but the bigger conversation around recent additions has centered on players who arrived with real expectations and never quite matched them on the field.
Dasan McCullough and Jaydn Ott are the names that keep coming up for all the wrong reasons, while Austin Stogners return offered familiarity without a true return to his earlier impact. For a fan base that has watched the Sooners chase roster upgrades through the portal, those misses have become part of the larger debate over how much certainty there really is in this era of college football roster building. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma Fans Still Hate How These Portal Losses Aged
The portal has a way of making old decisions look louder with time, and Oklahoma has plenty of reminders scattered across the sport. Dillon Gabriel settled in at Oregon, Cayden Green found a bigger role at Missouri, Hollywood Smothers has grown into a featured back at NC State, and Brenen Thompson has turned into a real threat at Mississippi State. For Sooners fans, it is less about any one departure than the collective feeling that the roster lost too much talent too fast, with each exit carrying a different kind of what-if.
Theo Wease Jr. adds another layer to that frustration because his time in Norman never quite matched the promise that made him such a coveted recruit. He flashed in 2020 and then left behind the sense that Oklahoma had only begun to tap into what he could do, which is exactly the sort of unfinished business that tends to linger when a program is trying to build around continuity. And while one high-profile name was left out of the discussion for obvious reasons, the broader point remains the same: the Sooners have spent plenty of time watching former players become bigger stories elsewhere. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahomas Offensive Line Faces Its Biggest Test Since The 2024 Mess
Oklahomas offensive line took a real step forward in 2025, especially in pass protection, after the mess that defined the previous year. The run game still lagged behind, but there was enough improvement to give Brent Venables some reason to believe the group could keep building, particularly with the continuity and experience that had started to settle in.
Now the Sooners have to answer their biggest personnel question of the offseason without one of the units most dependable voices. Febechi Nwaiwu is gone, and with him goes a veteran presence Venables viewed as part of the lines leadership backbone, leaving Oklahoma to sort out which returning blocker can fill that glue-guy role as the 2026 season approaches. [Read more 🡒]