Tag: Robert Spears-Jennings

Oklahoma Sooners defensive backs in for a battle in spring ball

If the Oklahoma Sooners secondary can find more consistency, the defense will take another big step in 2024.

Last year, by and large, was a solid year for Oklahoma’s defensive backs. If there’s a knock against them, it was their inconsistency.

[autotag]Billy Bowman[/autotag] was a bright spot for the Sooner. He recorded 63 tackles, six interceptions, three pick-sixes, four pass breakups, and three tackles for loss last year and should have been an All-American.

Elsewhere, guys made plays but struggled to string together the caliber of performances that Bowman had.

There were moments when [autotag]Gentry Williams[/autotag] was excellent but never sustained his level of play due to a shoulder injury he dealt with for most of the year. His inability to stay on the field had a negative impact on the defense.

[autotag]Kendel Dolby[/autotag] had moments, in particular at cheetah. So did [autotag]Woodi Washington[/autotag]. Former five-star freshman [autotag]Peyton Bowen[/autotag] also flashed at moments but lacked consistency.

So what have we learned? Talent won’t be an issue in 2024. Consistency is the name of the game. And as the Sooners get deeper into spring practice and summer preparations for the season, we’ll be on the lookout for more consistency.

According to reports, coaches have Washington working at cornerback, nickel corner, safety, and cheetah. San Diego State transfer [autotag]Dez Malone[/autotag] is working to acclimate himself, giving Oklahoma length and another veteran option out at corner. He tallied 90 tackles, three for loss, one sack, four interceptions, and 12 pass breakups from 2022-2023.

In-house, the Sooners need leaps from multiple guys. [autotag]Reggie Pearson[/autotag] is gone, and [autotag]Key Lawrence[/autotag] transferred to Ole Miss. Pair that with the need for depth at all secondary spots, and things will get interesting. Billy Bowman and Peyton Bowen are likely your starting safeties but don’t be surprised if Robert Spears-Jennings gets significant playing time at safety as well.

Spears-Jennings is looking to take a big step forward in year three. He feels like a guy we could see much of when Oklahoma goes into three safety looks. After that, Oklahoma will depend on youth. Four-star freshmen Reggie Powers and Jaydan Hardy will likely have to contribute somehow.

Woodi figures to be a starter somewhere on this defense, and barring health issues, Williams is a starting corner, too.

At cornerback, [autotag]Makari Vickers[/autotag], [autotag]Jasiah Wagoner[/autotag], and [autotag]Jacobe Johnson[/autotag] offer a lot of talent and saw time on the field last year. If they come along, Oklahoma’s depth would be outstanding.

Who is the cheetah? [autotag]Justin Harrington[/autotag] is recovering from the injury he suffered early season against SMU and isn’t participating in spring practices. [autotag]Dasan McCullough[/autotag] is working full-time as a linebacker right now.

[autotag]Kendel Dolby[/autotag] is an option, and sophomore now sees reps at the versatile spot too. Maybe four-star prospect [autotag]Michael Boganowski[/autotag] will join the mix as he finds a positional home.

Ultimately, there are a ton of question marks about Oklahoma’s secondary heading into the spring. There’s good potential, but a lack of experience on the depth chart. It’s a group that has to get more consistent for the Sooners to contend in the SEC.

Cornerbacks coach [autotag]Jay Valai[/autotag] and safety coach [autotag]Brandon Hall[/autotag] have their work cut out for them as the Sooners prepare for 2024.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Bryant on Twitter @thatmanbryant.

5 positions where the Oklahoma Sooners are better than they were a year ago

Every year there is roster turnover, but where are the Sooners better? Here are five positions Oklahoma’s better than they were a year ago.

Every offseason teams around college football have to deal with a significant amount of turnover to their roster. That’s been the case for the Sooners each season of the Brent Venables era.

No position group was hit harder than the offensive line. They lost the five guys that were starters for the majority of the season. Though they’ve been able to retool the lineup with transfer portal additions, it will be months before we know if those additions will work out.

Elsewhere, however, the Sooners look to be in really good shape, especially when you compare it to how several positions looked this time last year.

Here are five position groups that look better compared to where they were a year ago.

2023 Position Review and Recruiting Outlook: Defensive backs battle through injuries

The defensive back room was hit by injuries all season long but battled through it to have a solid season.

The Oklahoma Sooners’ defensive back room had one of the strangest seasons among the position groups. When they were healthy, they were really pretty good, but when they weren’t healthy, they really struggled.

They also would show games where they were dominant but had several games where they struggled in coverage. The inconsistency in availability created an inconsistent performance.

The other part was the come-and-go nature of the pass rush. There were games where the pass rush created a lot of pressure and games where they applied very little.

The defensive back group struggled in zone coverage often throughout the season.

But let’s take a look at how the position did this season and what’s to come in the future at the position.

5 positions the Oklahoma Sooners should target via the transfer portal

With the transfer portal set to open up next week, what position groups could the Sooners target for some help?

With just one game left to put a bow on the 2023 season, Oklahoma’s vision has widened a bit to prepare for 2024. 2024 is a significant year in the history of Oklahoma football as the Sooners will be moving to the SEC along with the Texas Longhorns.

Oklahoma’s 2023 season is a success after a dismal 2022 campaign where they won just six games. The Sooners have already won 10 games and have shown a lot of growth on and off the field.

Looking at the roster heading into the new calendar year, it’s easy to see that while Oklahoma got better, they will have some holes they must address immediately.

And that’s where the transfer portal comes in.

Oklahoma could lose significant pieces on the offensive and defensive lines and at quarterback. They could also add talent to the secondary and the linebacker unit.

This year, they benefitted from the transfer portal by landing Walter Rouse from Stanford, a rock-solid left tackle who routinely posted some of the best pass-blocking grades on the team, per Pro Football Focus. Da’Jon Terry was a foundational piece of a defense that took a step forward.

Other names like Andrel Anthony, Dasan McCullough, and Reggie Pearson made immediate impacts in their first year with the Sooners.

The transfer portal doesn’t officially open until Dec. 4, but players nationwide have begun announcing their plans to enter the portal.

Here’s a look at five positions the Sooners could target in the transfer portal.

Bedlam Stock Report: Sooners 2022 signees making an impact

Taking a look at what’s trending up or down right now in Oklahoma’s program following their lost to Oklahoma State.

Oklahoma is in a tailspin. If things don’t improve quickly, they could begin to resemble the 2022 team that started fast but fell apart against some of the better teams in the Big 12.

There are still three games for the Sooners. They can go out and finish on a high note. While slim, Oklahoma still has a chance to make the Big 12 title game. They would need some help, but they’re not completely eliminated from the conference championship game.

In the interim, it’s all about improving as a team and letting the rest fall into place.

It’s time for this week’s stock report as we look at how things are trending up and down for the Oklahoma football team.[anyclip-media thumbnail=”undefined” playlistId=”undefined” content=”dW5kZWZpbmVk”][/anyclip-media]

Report Card: Offense’s dysfunction dooms Sooners chance to end Bedlam on top

Grading the Oklahoma Sooners by position group in their loss to Oklahoma State.

If Saturday was the last time Bedlam is played, the Oklahoma Sooners will always regret how things went in their final game against their in-state rivals. The Sooners will walk away from this game knowing they have dominated this series. There’s no debating that the Sooners have owned the Cowboys. But on Saturday, Oklahoma had the chance to put one final bow on this lopsided series, and they didn’t get it done.

Oklahoma State came out swinging, and the Sooners responded. But the most common theme was Oklahoma’s offense stalling on four different possessions once they got to the Oklahoma State side of the field. Most notably on the Sooners’ final drive of the game.

Defensively, Oklahoma played well enough to win. After getting bullied early, the defense found its footing and locked in the remainder of the contest.

In the end, the dysfunction and mistakes on offense put Oklahoma in a near-impossible spot. When it mattered most, they couldn’t rectify their own mistakes.

Oklahoma will move on and turn their attention to West Virginia. Before that, it’s time to pass out grades for Oklahoma’s performance against Mike Gundy’s Oklahoma State Cowboys.

‘Not as good as I know it can be’: Billy Bowman looks to take his game to ‘another level’

Billy Bowman is one of the few players on this defense that has flashed All-American type of potential. It’s now time for him to put it all together.

It’s been an up-and-down career so far for former four-star safety [autotag]Billy Bowman[/autotag]. During his freshman year, he was thrown to the wolves being asked to play multiple positions. There were flashes, but he suffered from being a man without a home.

Bowman’s sophomore year was much better. He finished with 60 tackles and three interceptions and really looked solid in the secondary playing safety full-time. But it wasn’t a perfect season for Bowman.

He told reporters after looking back at the film, there are a few things he wants to get better at.

“When I go back and look at it, it’s not as good as I know it can be or I want it to be or my coaches want it to be,” Bowman said. “So, everything from stance to getting in my pedal faster to tackling to tracking angles to football intelligence, knowing where I’ve got to be to knowing what the other person is doing. Everything for me needs to and will go up to another level.”

That’s the level that has a lot of Sooner fans excited. They know if he takes his game to another level, Bowman could be an All-American type of player.

It’s not just Bowman at the safety position that has fans excited. Bowman acknowledged he feels they have one of the deeper positions on the team.

“I would say so,” Bowman said. “A lot of guys like Daeh (McCullough) coming in, Peyton (Bowen) coming in, Reggie (Pearson) coming in, Key Lawrence still being here, myself, Robert Spears-Jennings, so we’ve got a lot of depth in the safety room.”

There is no doubt the ceiling for that safety room is very high. And so are the expectations. The hope is now they can reach that ceiling and become a dominant group. That’s something the [autotag]Oklahoma Sooners[/autotag] haven’t seen in more than a decade.

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Safeties bring the most depth to the Oklahoma Sooners’ roster

Heading into 2023, the safety position arguably has the most depth of any other on the Sooners roster.

Last season the safety position was filled with inexperience. [autotag]Patrick Fields[/autotag] and [autotag]Delarrin Turner-Yell[/autotag] were gone after starting the previous three seasons.

Billy Bowman played some in a rotational role as a true freshman, but it has been a rocky couple of years in Norman. [autotag]Justin Broiles[/autotag] and [autotag]Key Lawrence[/autotag] had experience but were mainly role players.

This upcoming season the safety position arguably has the most depth of any on the Sooners’ roster. Lawrence and Bowman are back. They then added [autotag]Reggie Pearson Jr.[/autotag] who started at Texas Tech.

[autotag]Robert Spears-Jennings[/autotag] is also back this year after playing some as a true freshman last season. He’s been injured this offseason but is expected to be good to go by the start of the regular season.

Then the Sooners added five-star [autotag]Peyton Bowen[/autotag]. If you read our article on the five freshmen who could make an immediate impact, you’ll see why he will factor into the safety room.

All in all, this room is the one with a ton of depth and talent. It could be the best position group on the team. The secondary as a whole could be very good in 2023.

Now, they’ll only be as good as their pass rush allows them to be. If the Sooners don’t get pressure on the quarterback, you could put Deion Sanders back there, and it won’t matter. Given enough time, wide receivers get open.

They have to work together as a team but if they do, this defense should see a ton of improvement in 2023.

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Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Jaron on Twitter @JaronSpor.

Don’t forget about these Oklahoma Sooners for 2023

Though the Oklahoma Sooners have added a lot of talent this offseason, there are several Sooners we shouldn’t overlook for 2023.

The Oklahoma Sooners coaching staff has been hard at work this offseason to retool and upgrade the roster. Through a transfer portal class ESPN ranked No. 4 and a recruiting class ranked No. 4 by 247Sports, the Oklahoma Sooners have brought in a ton of talent to compete for jobs in 2023.

And it’s a roster that needed it, considering they are ninth in the Big 12 in returning production for 2023, and they’re heading to the SEC in 2024.

At the same time, the talent they’re bringing back is young and unproven. In particular, the 2022 recruiting class and transfer portal additions. While they didn’t play a ton last year, they’ve now spent a year with Brent Venables and this coaching staff and will have an opportunity to earn some significant playing time.

Despite the additions, there are several returning Sooners we shouldn’t forget about for 2023.

5 takeaways from Oklahoma’s Cheez-It Bowl depth chart

5 takeaways from the Oklahoma Sooners Cheez-It Bowl depth chart.

Oklahoma will look different when it takes the field against the 13th-ranked Florida State Seminoles on Thursday evening in the Cheez-It Bowl. The Sooners will have some fresh faces in new spots as they look to avoid finishing below .500 for the first time since 1998.

Starters [autotag]Eric Gray[/autotag], [autotag]Anton Harrison[/autotag], [autotag]Wanya Morris[/autotag] and [autotag]Jalen Redmond[/autotag] have opted out of the bowl game to prepare for the NFL draft. That leaves voids on both sides of the ball the Sooners have had three weeks to plan for. What were the results of that planning? Well, we have the answers, as Oklahoma released its depth chart for the game.

With that info out, here are five takeaways from the depth chart below.