Brent Venables biggest question facing the Oklahoma Sooners

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The Oklahoma Sooners enter spring ball looking to build off of a 10-2 regular season and College Football Playoff appearance in 2025. It's a new challenge this year as Oklahoma welcomes a number of new faces on the roster and the coaching staff to improve upon their first-round playoff exit.

One of the challenges is retooling the roster and development. Oklahoma lost a key number of players on offense and defense, and the Sooners' depth is going to be tested in 2026.

For Venables, that's the biggest question entering the spring.

"You look and compare apples to apples there, got a little more experience coming back on offense," Venables said. "But the challenge is even on the offensive side… the bottom of both sides of the ball, and how quickly can we, can we raise that floor? I think that's going to be ultimately what defines this football team, and I'm anxious to see that. You know, how fast can we bridge that gap? How quickly can we get these guys to play closer to a one, even if they don't become, ultimately, a one? How quickly can we get our twos to play more like ones?"

Venables said last year, coming out of the Summer, Oklahoma's second-teamers were playing a lot more like first-team players. If there was a gap, it was minuscule. This year, that's not the case. And of course not.

Losing Gracen Halton, R Mason Thomas, Damonic Williams, and Marvin Jones, Jr. to the NFL would put a dent in any defensive line's depth chart, even one that features the returns of Taylor Wien, Jayden Jackson, and David Stone.

But where Oklahoma's depth might be lacking on defense, it's been made up for on the offensive side of the ball, where the Sooners bring back more returning starts than Venables' defense.

Development is the name of the game. Oklahoma has to be better than they were last year, in particular, on offense where they finished 79th in the nation in scoring. But that development has to take place along the defensive line where there's an expectation that P.J. Adebawore and Danny Okoye will need to play significant roles. Or at linebacker, where the losses of Sammy Omosigho, Kobie McKinze, and Owen Heinecke mean James Nesta, Taylor Heim, and Marcus James need to step up and prove ready to be a part of the rotation.

The Sooners hope a lot of those depth questions are answered this spring. Venables was pleased with the work the team did in the offseason workout program, but now it's time to take it to the practice field and begin the process of building on the foundation of success the Sooners had in 2025.

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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Depth a key question facing the Oklahoma Sooners in 2026

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