5 positions the Oklahoma Sooners should target via the transfer portal
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.
Whether you want to put the offensive line as 1A or 1B, hitting the transfer portal for both sides of the trenches is most important to Oklahoma.
We’ll start on the offensive side, though, for now. For the second season in a row, Oklahoma will lose its starting tackles.
Walter Rouse, a transfer portal addition from Stanford, was only a one-year rental. He improved his draft stock and will use the final game and the winter to prepare himself for the NFL.
Tyler Guyton was on NFL radars before the season began and was considered a top-50 prospect. He performed admirably this season and is still trending to be a top 50 or 75 prospect. There’s no reason to believe he will come back.
Andrew Raym could also leave and thought about it briefly last offseason. Guard McKade Mettauer, who still has a COVID year remaining, could conceivably come back, but for the sake of this, we’ll assume he doesn’t. That leaves true freshman Cayden Green as the lone returnee after he took the left guard job and never gave it back.
That’s four spots open on the offensive line heading into the SEC.
Jacob Sexton, the team’s first tackle right off the bench, is an impressive sophomore who got better with more reps. Sexton started the last three games of the season and will take over one of the tackle spots.
Troy Everett, Nate Anderson, or Josh Bates could take over at center.
At right guard, Savion Byrd or Jake Taylor could battle it out in the offseason.
That still leaves a tackle spot open. And what about depth off the bench? With such a clear need, Oklahoma can land a tackle and maybe an interior offensive lineman from the portal, should they pursue it.
Kicking was an issue this year. Let’s be frank about that. It simply was not good enough.
Zach Schmit currently sits at 70 percent for the season. This comes on the heels of him finishing at just 67 percent last year in his first full year as the placekicker.
Those percentages aren’t good enough and he couldn’t be relied upon to hit from 30 to 49 as the season wore on.
That’s a significant issue.
Whether they pull a kicker from the portal or not, Oklahoma should at least consider the possibility and look at what kickers become available.
About The Author
Leave a Reply