Oklahoma’s first depth-chart puzzle of the season starts right in the middle of the offensive line, where the Sooners are headed into Friday night’s opener against UTEP with their third center option.
Caleb Nitta is expected to get the call for No. 10 Oklahoma at 7 p.m.
CT on SEC Network+, with Jake Maikkula and Ryan Fodje both expected to be out for at least Week 1. That leaves the Western Kentucky transfer in line to anchor the line in a spot that has already taken a beating during camp.
Maikkula, who started 10 games at center last season after coming over from Stanford, went down with a knee injury early in fall camp during Oklahoma’s first preseason scrimmage. Brent Venables has called it a “short-term” issue, and sources told Sooners Illustrated that Maikkula has recently returned to practice. Still, the expectation is that he won’t be pushed back for the opener.
Fodje had stepped into the vacancy and earned the starting nod on Oklahoma’s season-opening depth chart Monday morning, but he was then hurt during practice that evening and is also expected to miss Friday’s game. The freshman started six games last season - four at right tackle and two at right guard - before the latest setback.
So the job falls to Nitta, a 6-foot-2, 302-pound lineman who has 10 career starts at center, including nine last season at Western Kentucky. One of those starts came in a mid-November road game against LSU, a game Nitta has pointed to as proof he could handle SEC-level competition. He arrived at Oklahoma in January through the transfer portal and brought the Sooners some much-needed experience and depth at center.
“Caleb, he's a mature guy, a really smart guy,” Venables said Wednesday morning during his appearance on the SEC coaches teleconference. “He's got a great toughness, got a great edge to him.
He's really competitive. He's a very confident guy and somebody that's really done a good job of developing trust and relationships with both the staff and his teammates.”
Even with the shuffle, the situation doesn’t match the mess Oklahoma dealt with two years ago, when the Sooners were forced onto their fourth center option after the opener because of injuries to Troy Everett, Branson Hickman and Geirean Hatchett. Joshua Bates, now at SMU, ended up there in that stretch.
Quarterback John Mateer said Sunday evening he’s comfortable with whoever snaps the ball on Friday.
“Most of the time the snaps are pretty universal when you get back there,” Mateer said Sunday evening. “There's some different speeds and a different spot, different spin maybe, but it's all the same.
Really, under center is the only thing you got to just teach. Quarterbacks put their hands in different spots.
It's all, again, the same, but it's a little different, and the pressure and the feel and stuff. But we're doing a great job.”
There’s also movement on the defensive side with Arkansas transfer Danny Saili, whose path to Oklahoma only opened after a July court ruling appeared to give him a fifth year of eligibility. The 6-foot-1, 280-pound defensive tackle had been in the portal since January, but he joined Oklahoma in August and has been practicing with the team. He is now listed on the Sooners’ official roster in the Week 1 game notes.
His game status is a different matter. Saili’s eligibility remains unresolved after the Aug. 21 stay granted to the NCAA by the U.S.
Court of Appeals’ Tenth Circuit, which paused the class-wide preliminary injunction in the Wisne v. NCAA case.
That ruling had granted an extra year of eligibility to all Class of 2022 athletes. Because Saili was not publicly named in a separate lawsuit or covered by another known injunction, he is not eligible to play in games for now.
He can still work with the team, and Oklahoma has seen enough to like. Saili played in 11 games last season at Arkansas and finished with 10 tackles, including 2.5 for a loss, plus eight total pressures, according to Pro Football Focus. He was listed at 319 pounds then, but has since dropped close to 40 pounds.
Defensive tackle David Stone said Saili has looked “night and day” since arriving in early August, and Venables said the same kind of progress has stood out to him.
“He's done a good job,” Venables said. “He knows how to play D-tackle.
That jumped out at you right away. His fundamentals, his precision, his quickness-he really picked up things really well, remarkably well.
I was incredibly surprised. But yeah, he's been added to the roster, and he's currently practicing.”
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Thomas arrived as a highly rated recruit and drew attention during fall camp, but his freshman year has brought only limited snaps at receiver so far. The opener now offers the Sooners a clearer read on where he stands, and on whether the promise he flashed in camp can start showing up when the lights come on for real. [Read more 🡒]