Oklahoma has done a lot of damage in the transfer market over the years, but the Sooners have also watched plenty of talent leave Norman and blossom somewhere else. That’s the other side of the portal coin, and it’s a painful one for OU fans.
Caleb Williams is not part of this conversation by design. He followed Lincoln Riley to USC, so there wasn’t really a realistic fight to keep him in Oklahoma.
The list starts with Dillon Gabriel, because the Sooners never quite knew what they had until it was gone. Gabriel arrived from UCF after an unprecedented stretch of quarterbacks who are all now in the NFL, and he became Brent Venables’ first QB1 in 2022.
He was steady that season, then took another step in 2023, throwing for 3,660 yards and 30 touchdowns. He also delivered the last Oklahoma quarterback win over Texas, doing it with a game-winning drive in the Red River Rivalry.
Then Oklahoma moved on too quickly, banking on five-star Jackson Arnold and letting Gabriel head to Oregon in 2024. Sooners fans know how that season went, especially through the air. Gabriel, meanwhile, turned into a Heisman Trophy finalist and helped lead the Ducks to a Big Ten title and the College Football Playoff.
Cayden Green is another one that stings. Oklahoma got a look at him on the offensive line when he played in 12 games and started five as a freshman before transferring to Missouri.
The next season, the Sooners were stuck shuffling bodies all over the line, while Green settled in as a left guard for the Tigers. He later moved to left tackle ahead of 2025 and became a First-Team All-SEC selection.
It’s not hard to picture how much different things could have looked if Green had stayed. He could have anchored the left side with five-star freshman Michael Fasusi, while Febechi Nwaiwu, a Second-Team All-SEC honoree, lined up at guard and Jake Maikkula handled center.
Ryan Fodje could have been at left guard, just as the Sooners wanted. That kind of mix would have given Oklahoma experience, upside and maybe even a fix for its running game problems.
Hollywood Smothers is another transfer OU fans will keep seeing in a painful way, especially with the Red River Rivalry on the calendar. He ended up at NC State after redshirting in 2023 and getting only 11 carries with the Sooners, where he was buried behind Marcus Major, Jovantae Barnes and Gavin Sawchuk. All three of those backs eventually transferred too.
Smothers took off at NC State. He became the RB1 in 2024, then fully broke out last season as a First-Team All-ACC selection after rushing for 939 yards and averaging 5.9 per carry. Oklahoma is in better shape at running back now, but Smothers still fits the list of players the Sooners let get away.
Brenen Thompson is another case where the production came after the exit. After transferring from Texas, he totaled 26 catches for 471 yards and four touchdowns across two seasons in Norman.
He then followed Jeff Lebby to Mississippi State in 2025 and exploded for 1,054 receiving yards, averaging 18.5 yards per catch and scoring six receiving touchdowns. He also added a rushing touchdown.
That jump turned him into a Second-Team All-SEC selection and a fourth-round draft pick. Oklahoma got almost none of that version of Thompson, and it’s easy to wonder what his speed and big-play ability could have done for the Sooners, especially with Isaiah Sategna III at receiver and John Mateer at quarterback.
Theo Wease Jr. rounds out the group, and his story is a reminder that Oklahoma only ever got part of the picture. A five-star recruit, he flashed early, then posted 530 receiving yards and four touchdowns in 2020. Injury wiped out his next season, and his production dipped in 2022 before he transferred to Missouri.
That’s where Wease finally put it all together. He had 682 receiving yards and six touchdowns before a bigger 2024 season, when he caught 60 passes for 884 yards and four scores.
While Wease was putting up career numbers, Oklahoma was struggling to keep receivers healthy, with its top five wideouts missing significant time and J.J. Hester leading the group with 315 yards.
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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 🡒]
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 🡒]