NORMAN — J.J. Hester’s patience has been tested at Oklahoma. 

The Tulsa native transferred back to the Sooner State after two years at Missouri, but has spent the better part of two years on the training table rehabbing foot injuries at OU. 

Injuries prevented Hester from building on his 12 catches for 225 yards and two scores in his redshirt freshman season at Missouri, but the time might finally be right for the 6-foot-4 receiver to make his mark for the Sooners. 

“The only thing that’s held J.J. back is some injuries in his past,” OU coach Brent Venables said after practice on Tuesday. “He’s fought through that… He had a broken foot twice.”

Suddenly, Hester will have the opportunity to carve out a role in Emmett Jones’ receiver rotation. 

Jayden Gibson’s season unfortunately came to an end with an injury he sustained in training camp, opening up a bundle of touches that the third-year player was expected to get this fall. 

Andrel Anthony, OU’s breakout star from the first half of the 2023 season, is still working back from the knee injury that cost him the back half of the season, leaving Deion Burks, Jalil Farooq and Nic Anderson as the proven commodities on the outside for quarterback Jackson Arnold. 

Finally back and healthy, Hester’s speed and large frame has him in position for a role in the offense when the Sooners kick off on Aug. 30 against Temple. 

“I’m feeling 100 percent,” Hester said on Tuesday. “You know, it took me a while to get back to this, but overall it’s been going great, and I’m just blessed to get back on the field.”

Hester said he finally started to feel like his old self as spring football closed down a few months ago, which was cathartic after battling through the rehabilitation process. 

“It took a toll on me, definitely, just the mental side of it,” Hester said. “Just coming in here, wanting to help the offense play and then getting injured, that was definitely unexpected. I just stayed close with family, friends and kept God close, and I was able to battle back and come back.”

Gibson, who is listed at 6-5, would have been a matchup nightmare for opposing secondaries. 

Hester feels he’s built similarly, and that he’s a great option to slide in and post similar issues. 

“[I’m] a big, physical, downfield threat with speed,” Hester said. “Able to use my body in multiple ways and just, you know, put the defense in a bind.”

The guys who go up against Hester every day in practice agree with the wide receiver’s assessment of his skillset. 

“I’ve seen that ‘918 JJ’ that I’ve known since high school,” Oklahoma safety Robert Spears-Jennings said on Tuesday. “He is showing himself and back into his groove and showing everybody why he should be fighting for that starting spot.”

Venables is excited about Hester’s all-around game, as he thinks he can impact the game in multiple ways. 

“He’s been fantastic,” Venables said. “He’s long, he’s really fast, he’s got a tremendous catch radius, he plays tough, blocks well and then he’s an excellent special teams player. 

“So, again, his growth and development is exactly other than the injuries is exactly what we thought we could potentially get out of him. So he’s going to have a real role for us.”

Losing Gibson was a blow, but Hester is ready to slot in and take his opportunity this fall. 

“I’m looking forward to making a big impact,” Hester said. “You know, when one man goes down, the next is up. That’s what our coach preaches a lot, and he has everybody ready to go if anybody goes down.”

During a time in college football when some programs have seven-year veterans at quarterback, the Sooners will be led by a sophomore with one full game of experience. 

Jackson Arnold will be QB1 for Oklahoma this upcoming season. He started OU’s bowl game against Arizona and threw a pass in just four games last season, completing 44-of-69 with four touchdowns. He also threw three interceptions — all of which came in that lone start against Arizona. 

And as he endures his own learning experiences of playing through a full Division I football schedule for the first time, Arnold will also guide the program into its own unknown, as OU enters its first season in the SEC. 

“After that Arizona game, there was a lot of maturing and a lot of growing up that I had to do,” Arnold said at SEC Media Days. “Stepping into that QB1 role, I had to be a real leader for us, for our team, and just stepping into that role, I know I need to mature as a person, as a player too. And the person that I am now and the player that I am now has improved drastically from where I was in that bowl game.” 

Although Arnold will eventually learn from experience throughout OU’s season, his teammates are trying to prepare their young quarterback before the Sooners even take the field in their season opener against Temple on Friday, Aug. 30. Help for the rookie quarterback has come through advice from those who already have that experience Arnold will soon gain, or as simple as trying to make sure Arnold has as much time as possible to make decisions from the pocket. 

“He’s a dude,” tight end Jake Roberts said. “He can sling it, for sure. It’s been great working with him. Being a younger guy, too, I feel like I’m able to help him with some of the experience side of things, playing a lot of football. He’s got the talent, obviously, and I just try to help him out when I can, but he’s great. It’s been great working with him.”

This offseason, Roberts transferred to OU with exposure to 49 games in four seasons with now three different programs after joining the Sooners. More over, he started his career at North Texas, where he played under OU offensive coordinator Seth Littrell, who was the Mean Green’s head coach at the time. 

Roberts played under Littrell for three seasons, then left for Baylor when Littrell was fired and went to OU as an offensive analyst. Roberts started 22 games for Littrell after immediately seeing the field as a freshman in 2020, a year in which Arnold was still a sophomore backup down the road at Guyer High School in Denton, TX. 

“That experience, you can tell Jake’s played ball,” Arnold said. “Alongside that, he’s played with Coach Littrell, too. He knows how Coach Littrell operates, what he wants in the offense. So going out and running it and executing those plays that he’s known how to do has been big for us. And even teaching those young guys how those plays are supposed to be run.” 

Like Roberts, offensive lineman Febechi Nwaiwu also eventually followed Littrell from Denton to Norman. Nwaiwu was at UNT for three years before transferring this past offseason. He played for Littrell two of those seasons, however, he redshirted his first year on campus in 2021. Once he got on the field as a redshirt freshman, Nwaiwu was named a second-team Freshman All-American by The Athletic and third-team Freshman All-American by College Football News after starting 12 of 14 games. His production dipped last season with Littrell gone, starting seven games and missing two because of injury. 

“We want all of our quarterbacks to feel like they’ve got all the time in the world, especially Jackson,” Nwaiwu said. “We want him to be back there and be able to set the ball down and take a drink if he has to. We want him to have all of his options available, whoever he wants to throw to. Just give him enough time to punch it in there.” 

So far, Arnold has gotten by with a little help from his friends.

Already during fall camp, OU coach Brent Venables noted Arnold’s improved decision-making and running back Jovantae Barnes praised Arnold’s growth as a leader. 

“Jackson understands better than anybody what goes into being a quarterback of a football team,” Venebles said, “of the locker room, the leader, the face, the responsibilities, the challenges.”

Oklahoma wide receiver Jayden Gibson is expected to miss the 2024 season after suffering a significant knee injury during a fall camp practice last week, Sooners coach Brent Venables confirmed Tuesday afternoon.

Gibson, a junior from Winter Garden, Florida, was viewed as a potential breakout star for Oklahoma in 2024 after he caught 14 passes for 375 yards and five touchdowns as a sophomore last fall. The 6-foot-5 pass catcher injured his knee in practice last Tuesday, and a subsequent MRI revealed damage that will keep Gibson on the sidelines for Oklahoma’s debut SEC campaign this fall.

“You hate that for anybody, the season comes to an end prematurely,” Venables told reporters Tuesday. “But that’s a group that we feel really good about who’s in that group.”

Gibson joined the Sooners in the 2022 class as the No. 274 prospect in the ESPN 300 and No. 36 wide receiver in the nation. He flashed promise for the 2024 season in the late stages of his sophomore year last fall, tallying six catches for 196 yards and three touchdowns over Oklahoma’s final three regular-season games.

Gibson’s injury comes at a position of depth for the Sooners in a unit expected to be led by Purdue transfer Deion Burks. The 5-foot-9 junior caught 47 passes for 629 yards with seven touchdowns for the Boilermakers last fall and headlines a talented group of Oklahoma pass catchers that returns Jalil Farooq (45 catches, 692 yards), Nic Anderson (38 catches, 798 yards, 10 touchdowns), Andrel Anthony (27 catches, 429 yards before a season-ending knee injury) and Brenen Thompson (seven catches, 421 yards) in 2024.

Oklahoma opens Venables’ third season at home against Temple on Aug. 30 as the 16th-ranked team in the Associated Press Preseason Poll.