Roster building in college football has become an offseason reset button, but Oklahoma’s 2026 defense looks like something older-school fans would recognize right away. It’s built on retention, development, and a whole lot of continuity - exactly the formula Brent Venables has been pushing.
The projected starting 11 on that side of the ball doesn’t include a single traditional transfer portal addition. The only exception is Owen Heinecke, who began at Ohio State as a lacrosse player before walking on at Oklahoma, which makes him feel more like a homegrown piece than a portal pickup. Everyone else in that group came up through the Sooners’ program.
That projected unit is listed as Taylor Wein at DE, David Stone at DT, Jayden Jackson at NT, Adepoju Adebawore or Danny Okoye at DE, Kip Lewis at WLB, Owen Heinecke at MLB, Reggie Powers at Cheetah, Eli Bowen at CB, Peyton Bowen at S, Michael Boganowski at S, and Courtland Guillory at CB.
Guillory is the only one in that starting group with fewer than three years at Oklahoma, and he already flashed like a star as a true freshman, earning freshman All-American honors at cornerback. The rest of the projected starters have at least three years in the program, and several - Peyton Bowen, Lewis, Heinecke, Adebawore, and Wien - are in their fourth year or beyond.
That kind of stability matters, and Oklahoma’s depth chart shows it.
Even behind the starters, the Sooners aren’t leaning heavily on portal help. On the next 11 defenders, only four transfers are in position to see the field: Cole Sullivan, Kenny Ozowalu, Bishop Thomas, and Dakoda Fields.
The offense tells a different story.
Only four players recruited by Venables and his staff out of high school are projected to start in Week 1 on that side of the ball, a reflection of how much Oklahoma had to rebuild after injuries and portal losses hit the unit hard. The projected offensive starters are Michael Fasusi at LT, Eddy Pierre-Louis at LG, Jake Maikkula at C, Heath Ozaeta or Ryan Fodje at RG, E’Marion Harris at RT, Hayden Hansen or Rocky Beers at TE, Parker Livingstone at WR, Trell Harris at WR, Isaiah Sategna at WR, Xavier Robinson or Tory Blaylock at RB, and John Mateer at QB.
The Sooners had no choice but to attack the portal on offense over the last two years. That side of the ball was battered by injury in 2024 and then lost a lot of depth after the 6-7 season, so the staff had to patch things together quickly instead of waiting for the long game to play out. The defense, by contrast, showed real signs of growth while the offense went from one step forward in 2023 to two steps back in 2024.
Mateer’s thumb injury also would have changed the picture in 2025, but the larger point remains: Oklahoma’s offense has leaned much more on outside additions than its defense has.
Still, there are homegrown pieces in place on offense too. Fasusi, Pierre-Louis, Ozaeta, Fodje, and the running backs all fit the priority Oklahoma wants to build around. The gap is just bigger on that side of the ball than it is on defense.
That’s the blueprint Venables and Nagy are chasing: a roster that eventually looks like the defense does now, with more players developed inside the program and fewer moving parts from year to year. For now, though, Oklahoma has found a strong balance by recruiting well and using the portal where it was necessary.
In Other News...
Brent Venables Just Earned National Respect For Oklahomas Bigger Rebuild
Brent Venables keeps getting evaluated through the usual Oklahoma lens, but this latest nod points to something bigger than wins and losses. He was placed on the Dodd Trophy preseason watch list for the 2026 season, a reminder that the award is built around scholarship, leadership and integrity as much as on-field results, and that his work in Norman has been noticed well beyond the box score.
For Oklahoma, it also fits the broader rebuild Venables has been pushing since taking over, with player development and leadership at the center of the message. The Sooners have had only one head coach take home the award before, Bob Stoops in 2003, so any mention of Venables in that conversation says plenty about how his program is being viewed as he keeps trying to reshape the culture. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma Is Already Facing A Huge 2028 Fall Visit Test
With Oklahomas 2027 class sitting at 27 commitments heading toward Early Signing Day, the Sooners are already shifting some attention to the next wave and trying to get ahead of the 2028 board. Quarterback Trey Tagliaferri is in place as the programs first 2028 commit, but the bigger early challenge is figuring out which blue-chip defenders and other priority prospects will be willing to make Norman a regular stop as their recruiting cycle ramps up.
That makes the fall visit calendar a meaningful early test for the staff, especially with players like Keoni Snipes already on the radar and in-state prospect Kamieon Compton-Nero drawing plenty of outside attention as well. Oklahoma has offers out to several of the top names it wants to keep close, and the Sooners will be looking to turn that early interest into real gameday traffic before the 2028 race gets crowded. [Read more 🡒]
Sooners Land Another Massive Recruiting Boost From In-State Commit
Gabriel Osborne Jr. keeps adding to an already eye-catching start for Oklahomas 2027 class. The Mustang cornerback, who committed to the Sooners on June 1, has now been bumped to five-star status in the latest Rivals 300 rankings and sits at No. 21 nationally, a rise that only sharpens the profile of a class that already looks loaded with top-end talent.
For Oklahoma, the bigger picture is hard to miss. Osborne joins offensive lineman Cooper Hackett and tight end Seneca Driver as five-star headliners in a 2027 group that Rivals has at No. 6 nationally with 27 commits, and the Sooners beat out heavyweights such as Miami, Alabama, Ohio State and Michigan to land him. The only real question now is how much more the class can climb if the momentum keeps building. [Read more 🡒]