Oklahoma’s linebacker room looked shaky in the spring, but it didn’t stay that way for long.
The Sooners had already lost two important pieces through the transfer portal in Kobie McKinzie, who went to Northwestern, and Sammy Omosigho, who landed at UCLA. Then came another hit: 2025 breakout star Owen Heinecke was thought to be out of eligibility, and starting Cheetah linebacker Kendal Daniels was headed to the NFL. For a moment, the group looked thin on experience as 2026 approached.
That changed quickly. Oklahoma kept Kip Lewis for his final season and brought in ex-Michigan linebacker Cole Sullivan through the portal. Then, right before the spring game, Heinecke received an injunction against the NCAA, opening the door for a sixth year of eligibility.
The result is a dramatic turnaround for a position that had been a question mark in the spring. Now, the Sooners could have one of the stronger linebacker units in the country as they enter Year 5 under Brent Venables.
That makes the 2026 schedule even more interesting, because Oklahoma will spend the fall seeing plenty of quality linebackers on the other sideline too.
With that in mind, it’s time to sort through the Sooners’ opponents and rank the best linebackers they’re likely to face this season. It’s not an exact science, especially with about nine weeks left before the regular season begins, but the picks are based on the best guess and the most logical choice for each team’s top linebacker.
This ranking is part of an ongoing positional series on Oklahoma’s 2026 regular-season slate. Previous entries looked at the quarterbacks, running backs, tight ends, offensive linemen and defensive linemen on the Sooners’ schedule.
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Oklahomas 2025 defense did enough to change the conversation around the program, and the turnaround was hard to miss. With Brent Venables back calling the unit, the Sooners looked more aggressive and more disciplined, finishing among the nations best in several defensive categories and helping push the team into the College Football Playoff.
The praise has only raised the next question, though, because doing it once and doing it through an entire SEC schedule are very different tasks. Analyst David Pollack has been bullish on what Oklahoma has built, but the real test now is whether that same swarming identity can hold up when the weekly grind gets heavier and the margin for error gets thinner. [Read more 🡒]
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Now the focus is less on what Oklahoma already survived and more on what it can withstand if it wants to push higher. Analysts around the program see Mateers health as the swing factor in whether the Sooners can truly contend for a championship, because the margin between a good season and a special one may come down to how much of their offense he can keep on the field. [Read more 🡒]