The Oklahoma Sooners took on an aggressive strategy in the NCAA transfer portal this offseason. After going 6-7 overall and 2-6 in the SEC in 2024, OU’s leadership had to make plenty of roster changes to try to get the program back to where it should be.
As the spring transfer portal window came to a close on Friday night, perhaps no team had helped themselves as much as the Sooners. At least that’s what CBS Sports staff writer Richard Johnson thinks, as he included Oklahoma in his article on spring portal winners and losers.
Brent Venables is pulling out all the stops to right the ship of his disappointing early tenure as OU head man. He imported the Washington State offensive brain trust with QB John Mateer and offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle. He retooled his personnel staff with the addition of former Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy, and this spring he added running back Jadyn Ott from Cal. If the Sooners go down this season, they’ll go down swinging. – Johnson, CBS Sports
The new backfield duo of Mateer and Ott has Sooner fans excited for what could be in 2025. Both are upgrades over what OU had a season ago, as is Arbuckle, whose system will provide both players with opportunities to shine.
Despite being in an Air Raid scheme, it takes more than just the quarterback and wide receivers to win, especially in the daunting SEC. Ott’s addition can make Oklahoma more balanced in the first year of a new offense, especially with the Sooners facing questions at nearly every other position aside from QB and RB.
Nagy has already shown his prowess in the player acquisition game, mainly with the signing of Ott, but also with the David Stone drama. Despite Stone entering the portal, Nagy, Venables and the rest of the OU brass convinced him to stay in Norman. That’s as big of a win as the Ott addition.
With the…
Source link : https://soonerswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/sooners/football/2025/04/29/oklahoma-sooners-football-transfer-portal-john-mateer-jaydn-ott/83333901007/
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Publish date : 2025-04-29 15:30:00
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