NORMAN - Reggie Powers doesn’t sound like a player still trying to figure things out. After a sophomore season that pushed him into the middle of Oklahoma’s biggest games, he says the game has started to slow down - and that’s changing everything.
“Last year, I felt like I knew the defense, but now there's really no second guessing,” Powers said. “I can have the ability to help other people, bring other people up with me, and it's helping me play faster.
It's making me better. It's helping with my preparation and everything like that.”
That growth showed up in the stat sheet, too. After making four tackles mostly on special teams as a freshman, Powers jumped to 31 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, one sack, one pass breakup, one quarterback hurry and a forced fumble in 2025. He spent most of that time at Oklahoma’s Cheetah spot, while also getting exposed to some of the toughest settings on the Sooners’ schedule.
“I don't think you can put a price tag on experience, just getting thrown in the fire,” Oklahoma assistant linebackers coach Wes Goodwin said. “Whether that's on the road at Alabama, Tennessee, playing winning football in those types of environments, you just can't quantify the magnitude of that.”
One of Powers’ biggest moments came at Alabama, where he had four tackles and forced a fumble in Oklahoma’s road win in Tuscaloosa. But the season wasn’t spotless, and Goodwin pointed to both sides of that learning curve.
“He's been thrown in the fire,” Goodwin said. “He's made big plays in those moments and had bad moments in big-time situations. Just that experience, I think, will help him grow into the next level of what we want to see him accomplish here.”
Powers said the difference now comes from being able to anticipate what’s coming.
“Getting more snaps and my preparation, my film watching, that's what helps me play fast,” Powers said. “When I can anticipate and know what the offense is going to do, and just play fast and trust the guys around me, when we're all on the same page, we can ball out.”
That comfort has also made him more useful to Oklahoma’s defense. He’s still working mostly at Cheetah during fall camp, but he’s also taken snaps at strong safety. Because those spots overlap in the scheme, his grasp of one helps him at the other.
“I've been mostly Cheetah, but whenever they need me at strong, I can play strong, too,” Powers said. “Just me knowing the defense, it helps me be able to play both positions.”
Safeties coach Brandon Hall said the Sooners aren’t looking to box him in.
“He takes reps at both,” Hall said. “Because of our third-down packages, where we get four, sometimes even five DBs on the field as far as safeties go, he's a guy that has a lot of different attributes that help him out.
He can play a lot of different positions. I wouldn't pigeonhole him to anything.”
Powers has leaned on Goodwin while working through the details of the Cheetah role, including man coverage, zone coverage and blitzing. Assistant secondary coach Xavier Brewer said that relationship has been a big part of the climb.
“Wes Goodwin does an amazing job with those inside guys,” Brewer said. “He knows his defense inside and out, and Reggie just stays tied to his hip. He's only going to continue to get better in every aspect.”
The belief in Powers has spread to the locker room, too. Michael Boganowski called him dependable and in the right place when the ball finds him.
“He's a ball player,” Boganowski said. “He's going to make plays when they come his way.
He's always going to be in the right spot. With a guy like that, he's somebody you can count on and somebody you love playing with.”
Oklahoma will have plenty of experience around him this fall, with several key contributors back from last season’s College Football Playoff team. That kind of continuity has only sharpened the standard inside the program, and Powers had no trouble stating the goal.
“The best defense in the country, no question,” Powers said. “I know the guys that we have.
I know what we're capable of. As long as everyone does their job, we all play hard and get to the ball, there's no limit on what we can do.”
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