Oklahoma
Five Sooners Who Need to Have a Big Summer for Oklahoma
Oklahoma closed the book on spring football in April, but that doesn’t mean the development process goes on ice throughout the summer.
The next few months are crucial as OU’s strength coaches get another chance to shape the team while the players work with each other to continue to build chemistry.
With no post-spring transfer portal window this season, every program across the country must look internally this summer to increase depth on the roster instead of to other rosters across the country.
Here are five Sooners who could raise Oklahoma’s ceiling this fall with a productive summer leading up to fall camp.
DT Nigel Smith
David Stone and Jayden Jackson are going to be Todd Bates’ go-to guys at defensive tackle, but their absence in the spring allowed for players like Nigel Smith to get crucial reps throughout spring football.
Smith, a converted defensive end hoping to have a breakout season at defensive tackle, was perhaps the biggest beneficiary.
Injuries kept Smith from pushing for a spot in the rotation last year, but without Damonic Williams, Gracen Halton and Markus Strong, Smith projects to be one of the first names called upon behind Stone and Jackson.
Oklahoma coach Brent Venables praised the “maturity” of OU’s defensive tackles, but Smith needs to build on the momentum from the spring to achieve his potential this fall.
WR Trell Harris
Virginia transfer Trell Harris was one of the Sooners’ big offseason additions from the transfer portal.
Harris underwent a cleanup procedure right before spring practice, however, which held him out of OU’s practices and the Spring Game.
Quarterback John Mateer said Harris was always around, doing everything he could to learn the offense and build chemistry with his new quarterback in team meetings and from the sideline, but the summer will offer Harris the chance to get back out on the field and catch passes from Mateer, even if the duo is just battling air.
Harris will have an uphill battle to fight.
Last spring, Mateer had ample time to get on the same page with fellow transfer Isaiah Sategna, which led to Sategna emerging as Mateer’s favorite target and enjoying a career year.
Harris is eager to prove that his 2025 campaign was no fluke, so he’ll want to hit the ground running in fall camp with Sategna, Parker Livingstone and the rest of Mateer’s targets.
LB James Nesta
Owen Heinecke’s victory over the NCAA means the Sooners have three experienced linebackers — Kip Lewis, Heinecke and Michigan transfer Cole Sullivan — but James Nesta’s development will be important for both 2026 and beyond.
Lewis and Heinecke are entering their final seasons in Norman. Venables and inside linebackers coach Nate Dreiling will want to develop the next wave of linebackers, and it’s a position that the Sooners have been willing to play a large rotation in the past seasons.
Nesta played in 13 contests last year, totaling four tackles, and like Smith, he was able to take a majority of the snaps in practice this spring with Heineicke awaiting the ruling in his injunction and Lewis playing the role of additional coach while younger players got to spur their development in practice.
The third year in Venables’ defense has been a season where the light bulb has come on for many players, and Nesta coming on strong with a big summer and fall camp would only bolster OU’s options at the heart of its defense.
TE Jack Van Dorselaer
Like Nesta, tight end Jack Van Dorselaer is a player whose development could be important for 2026 and beyond.
General manager Jim Nagy, Venables and offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle completely overhauled Oklahoma’s tight end room over the offseason.
Florida veteran Hayden Hansen was brought in, as was Colorado State redshirt senior Rocky Beers, to work under new tight ends coach Jason Witten.
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OU also added Van Dorselaer, who earned a role in Tennessee’s offense last year as a freshman.
Spring offered a clean slate for all, with the trio getting adjusted to a new school, a new offense, and a new position coach, but Van Dorselaer believes he can offer the Sooners much more than the five catches for 23 yards and one score that he gave the Vols in the passing game in 2025.
The summer will offer Van Dorselaer more opportunity to dive further into the playbook and set himself up for a productive season that he can build on in 2027 and beyond as the Sooners’ veteran presence at tight end.
DB Jeremiah Newcombe
Jeremiah Newcombe is another Sooner who felt ready to contribute in 2025, but was forced to rehab an injury.
Now, Newcombe will be relied upon to help Reggie Powers provide depth at cheetah.
Newcombe practiced throughout the spring with a blue non-contact jersey out of an abundance of caution, but the summer will provide a chance for Newcombe to get fully back into the swing of things so that when fall camp rolls around, he can play with the physicality that is demanded of every piece in a Venables defense.
The Sooners need Newcombe to play a real role, too.
Kendal Daniels is now an Atlanta Falcon, and while Powers is an experienced replacement, Venables will be looking to a handful of new players to mix and match with Powers to replace Daniels’ snaps.
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Height/Weight: 6-foot-3, 215 pounds
Hometown/High School: Washington, OK (Washington H.S.)
Ranking: ★★★★ (92 Rivals — No. 123 player overall)
Notable Offers: Kansas State, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, and Utah
Not very often Penn State goes into Oklahoma and gets a prospect, let alone one that is a four-star that the Sooners very much wanted. Fortunately for Matt Campbell and the Nittany Lions here, the familial relationship paid off, as Case’s brother, Cooper, is a rising redshirt sophomore tight end at Penn State. Doesn’t take a lot of dot connecting to imagine how much that played a part in Case deciding on the Nittany Lions. Still, given the ebbs and flows of the recruiting cycle, not sure you can take any recruitment for granted. So despite the connections Penn State had here, getting a top 10 kid from Oklahoma that the Sooners wanted is a big victory for the new staff in recruiting cycle #1.
Beyond on who his brother is, there’s a reason Case was maybe *the* top linebacker target for Penn State this cycle. This kid is an absolute beast. Tremendous linebacker frame at 6-foot-3, 215 pounds that will allow him to play up to 240 pounds easy, Alexander is what you think of when you imagine the modern day middle linebacker. He has the speed and fluidity to drop back into coverage, but has the physicality and bruteness to win in tight. The first play on his highlight film is his giving a Spinebuster to a poor opponent that rivals that of Arn Anderson’s Spinebuster on The Undertaker at WrestleMania 18.
Kamden Mantooth caps wild week by leading Mustang to 6A baseball title
It was a wild week for Kamden Mantooth, who helped Mustang beat Edmond Santa Fe 5-4 for the 6A baseball title. After being forced to sit in the semifinals due to an ejection in the quarterfinals, he pitched 5 2/3 innings Saturday.
Joe Patterson was hoping it would be different this time.
The Mustang baseball coach is no stranger to state championship games.
But as Mustang headed into its Class 6A title matchup against Edmond Santa Fe in May, a state championship victory remained a goal that hadn’t been fulfilled for Patterson as a player or head coach.
“That was all together — playing and coaching — my (sixth) state championship game, and I was 0-5,” Patterson said.
Patterson can now revise that record to 1-5 as the Broncos beat defending champion Edmond Santa Fe 5-4 at ONEOK Field in Tulsa.
An unforgettable day for Patterson.
An unforgettable season.
After leading Mustang to its third title and a 39-6 record while playing a brutally difficult schedule, Patterson is The Oklahoman’s 2026 All-State Coach of the Year.
“It was one of those years where it felt like I wasn’t working the whole year,” Patterson said. “Just a special group and everybody involved did such an amazing job and the players got along and the senior leadership was just unbelievable.”
A year after going 19-16 and falling at regionals, this season was vastly different for Patterson as Mustang dominated from beginning to end.
The Broncos won 11 of their first 12 games and ended the season the exact same way, claiming victories in 11 of their last 12 matchups.
They thrived in tight games, going 12-3 in matchups decided by two or fewer runs.
“We lost a bunch of close games last year,” Patterson said. “We didn’t have as great a season as we wanted, so we talked about trying to change the team morale and change the culture just a little bit in the fall, and we really focused on that. Just trying to make the place a more positive place for the kids and emphasize them having a little bit more fun but still working.”
Born and raised in Duncan, Patterson’s love of baseball and sports in general go back to those days.
His dad, Bill, was Duncan’s head football coach from 1997-2003 before accepting an assistant position at Owasso and serving as the Rams’ head coach from 2007-2016.
A standout in football and baseball in high school, Joe Patterson was at Duncan as a freshman and sophomore before spending his final two years at Owasso and then playing college baseball from 2007-2010. He went to Oral Roberts for one year, Seminole State for a season and Texas A&M for his final two.
Patterson was named the national junior college player of the year at Seminole State and had a successful stint at Texas A&M, hitting .362 with 21 homers and 100 RBIs with the Aggies.
He’s been at Mustang since the summer of 2019 after coaching at Westmoore.
Former OU shortstop Brandon Zaragoza played for Patterson during his senior year at Westmoore and was a Mustang assistant for the last four seasons before recently being named Westmoore’s new head coach.
Patterson has had a huge impact on Zaragoza, who will take what he’s learned from his former coach into his new gig.
“He just brought pure joy to the game for me, especially with just his ability to, one, obviously coach the game, but two, to allow his players to go out there and perform,” Zaragoza said. “The coolest thing about Pat was his ability to just pick up on player knowledge. Just kind of knowing what he has in terms of personnel and then of course his ability to just game plan, strategize, just get his guys ready to play.”
Patterson always wanted to coach at a one-high school town like Mustang.
He has his wish now, and Zaragoza says it’s a well-oiled machine.
“That’s kind of how I describe it a lot to people,” Zaragoza said. “Just a well-oiled machine in terms of just the coaches that are over there and the attention to detail and the preparation. There’s no loose ends at Mustang. And given how big the school is, you can always get kind of lost in personnel or all that stuff, but just the way that Mustang operates, it’s top tier.”
Mustang didn’t necessarily have big names this season like some teams in the state, but the Broncos had several guys who shined.
Outfielder and Northern Oklahoma College-Enid signee Nate Sutton hit .449 with 15 homers and 70 RBIs.
Fellow senior Kamden Mantooth was second on the team with a .442 batting average. A shortstop, Mantooth started at pitcher in the title game and held Edmond Santa Fe to eight hits and four runs — three earned — over 5 2/3 innings.
“It means everything for us,” Mantooth said after the championship win. “We’ve been working for this since we were in seventh grade. We’ve been working for this, and we finally achieved our goal that we wanted.”
For Patterson, it’ll forever be a special moment as he had his 6-year-old son with him in the dugout and his dad watching from the stands.
Patterson had lost two title games as a player at Owasso and three as a head coach — two at Westmoore and one at Mustang.
The outcome was different this time, and it was well worth the wait.
“It was just a feeling of relief and happiness,” Patterson said.
Nick Sardis covers high school sports for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Nick? He can be reached at nsardis@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @nicksardis. Sign up for The Varsity Club newsletter to access more high school coverage. Support Nick’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
Crews responded to a fireworks stand after it caught fire in Broken Arrow Saturday night.
Authorities urged people to avoid E. Kanosha Street near S. 236th E. Avenue as the road is closed and fireworks could spread in the area due to the fire.
Broken Arrow Fire Department released a statement confirming no injuries were sustained as a result of the explosions or fire.
Fire crews quickly controlled the fire in about 20 minutes according to Broken Arrow Fire Department.
The initial cause of the fire is under investigation.
Viewer Leslie Maxey, who lives close to the fireworks stand, sent in video of the ongoing fire.
“We were putting our daughter to bed with a book when we heard an explosion that was gradually getting louder and louder,” Maxey said.
This is a developing story.
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