Jake Maikkula returns to OU football after infection ruined ending of last season
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Jake Maikkula was a mainstay on OU’s 2025 offensive line — until a serious health scare sidelined him for the rest of the promising season.
Maikkula, Oklahoma football’s starting center, is returning to the Sooners after an unfortunate early ending to a successful year last season. He missed the regular-season finale against LSU and the College Football Playoff game against Alabama due to an infection that required him to be in the hospital for a few days.
Now that he’s over that odd, but serious injury, Maikkula is ready to continue to be OU’s leader on the line in 2026.
“It was really good to be back out here with the guys,” Maikkula said in April during a spring practice. “I thought we had good energy. A lot of things to clean up but we’ll get rolling on that.
It was a lengthy process for Maikkula to return to the field after his unknown infection in November.
He spent a couple days in the hospital and got out of football shape, something that forced him to miss the CFP game at home.
His absence shuffled the OU offensive line a little bit, but he’s made tons of progress since December, getting back to a place physically and mentally to be in charge of snapping the ball to his quarterback.
“That took a bit with the infection that I had,” Maikkula said about his body. “I lost some weight, had to put that back on, but our staff did an incredible job of taking care of me, getting me right with nutrition and the weight room. So that was really helpful.”
Maikkula made tremendous progress before the Alabama game, but was ultimately ruled out, but he was close to a return. Now that he’s fully healthy, Maikkula is reaping the benefits of a full spring and summer in Norman.
He transferred from Stanford to Oklahoma before 2025 in the final spring transfer cycle, which forced him to miss out on a full offseason in Norman.
He’s finally receiving a full offseason with OU’s staff, something that’s a boost for his senior year this season.
“It’s great. Spring’s really helpful,” Maikkula said. “I transferred in here and didn’t have a spring last year so missed out on a little bit of that development, a little bit of that coaching. So finally getting a whole offseason here, being with Coach (Bedenbaugh) and the guys, it’s really helpful for me.”
With Maikkula returning with a majority of the starting offensive linemen from last year, the unit feels much stronger for 2026.
OU starting quarterback John Mateer believes Maikkula’s molded into one of the biggest leaders for the Sooners this upcoming season.
It goes hand-in-hand for a center to become a leader, especially when the bond between the quarterback and the center is strong.
The relationship between Mateer and Maikkula is strong and something that will fuel the OU offense in 2026.
“I’ve seen him grow a lot into a leadership role,” Mateer said in April. “He’s getting on guys, like telling them it’s not good enough and he’s obviously grown in strength and just getting older. I love being around him.
“We sit right next to each other in meetings and we’re paying attention, but we will nudge each other or smile or laugh and then we hangout, it’s a lot of fun… Like Jeff Saturday and Peyton Manning. They go after each other and it’s the same. It's awesome.”
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