Kip Lewis put together the kind of season that usually gets a linebacker plenty of preseason buzz. Instead, the Oklahoma senior is still waiting for full national respect.
Lewis is back for his redshirt senior year after leading the Sooners in tackles last season, a return that gave Brent Venables and general manager Jim Nagy a major boost. He has become one of Oklahoma’s steadiest defenders, but that didn’t translate everywhere when preseason honors started rolling out.
Phil Steele, the author of Phil Steele's College Football Preview, pegged Lewis as a preseason First Team All-American. The Athletic, though, left him off its preseason All-SEC team entirely.
That omission stands out when you look at what Lewis did a year ago. He finished with a career-high 76 tackles, along with 10.5 tackles for loss and four sacks, all while playing in one of the SEC’s top defenses. He also did it in a system that rotated heavily, with Venables and his staff working to keep the defense fresh.
Lewis didn’t record an interception in 2025, but he had already shown he can swing games in 2024, when he returned picks for touchdowns against Auburn and Alabama.
Nagy made his feelings clear earlier in the offseason on X, formerly Twitter, saying, "Not sure how or why national media is sleeping on @KipLewis9. NFL scouts certainly aren't. #Team132 https://t.co/oUvGnFWEC9"
Lewis wasn’t the only Sooner to get preseason recognition from The Athletic. Oklahoma had several players land on the list, including wide receiver Isaiah Sategna on offense and defensive tackle David Stone on defense as First Team selections.
Sategna was an immediate difference-maker after transferring from Arkansas. He caught 67 passes for 965 yards and eight touchdowns, and he added value on special teams with 24 punt returns for 318 yards, a 13.3-yard average.
Stone also earned First Team honors after posting 42 tackles, eight tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks last season. With Gracen Halton and Damonic Williams both graduated, the junior should have an even bigger role in 2026.
Kicker Tate Sandell, the reigning Lou Groza Award winner, was also named a First Team selection after his standout 2025 season.
Oklahoma did not place any offensive players besides Sategna on the Second Team, but Venables’ defense landed two more names there. Defensive end Taylor Wein broke out last year with 39 tackles, 15 tackles for loss, seven sacks and an interception. His 15 tackles for loss ranked fifth in the SEC in 2025, and his seven sacks tied for eighth in the league.
Junior cornerback Eli Bowen was the other Second Team pick.
The Sooners are set to take part in SEC Media Days on Monday, with Venables joined in Tampa by quarterback John Mateer, Wein and offensive guard Eddy Pierre-Louis.
In Other News...
Sooners Could Be Headed For Another Painful Wave Of Roster Losses
A familiar offseason concern is already starting to take shape around Oklahomas roster, and it has less to do with who the Sooners are adding than who might decide the path forward is elsewhere. A recent look at the post-2026 landscape points to several players whose current roles leave them vulnerable to the transfer portal, the kind of evaluation that has become routine in modern college football but still carries real consequences for depth and development.
Among the names being watched are Daniel Akinkunmi, Ivan Carreon, Whitt Newbauer and Elijah Thomas, each for different reasons tied to playing time and roster fit. Carreons situation is especially notable because he has already gone through a portal decision once before, while Newbauer and Thomas sit in spots where the Sooners future plans could narrow their opportunities even further. For Oklahoma, the bigger question is whether this is just the usual churn or the start of another wave that could leave a few more holes than expected. [Read more 🡒]
Sooners Just Got The SEC Validation Fans Have Been Waiting For
Oklahomas first year in the SEC was a rough introduction, the kind of transition that can make even a blue-blood program look like its learning a new sport on the fly. The Sooners finished 6-7 after leaving the Big 12, and the questions about fit were loud enough to follow them into every discussion about what life in the league would really look like.
ESPN analyst and former Oklahoma star Dusty Dvoracek helped answer one of them by pointing to the programs football culture, saying it matches the SECs year-round obsession with the game. For Sooners fans, that kind of validation matters because it frames the move as more than just a schedule change, and as Oklahoma keeps settling into its new home, the bigger test is whether that cultural fit keeps showing up when the games get even bigger. [Read more 🡒]