NORMAN — For Oklahoma’s defense to reach its potential in 2025, the health of cornerback Gentry Williams needs to be at the top of the checklist.

Williams, a fourth-year junior from Tulsa, has seemingly limitless potential when he’s on the field and healthy.

But Williams has missed time due to injury in each of his three seasons as a Sooner, including 11 games last year after his recurring shoulder dislocation limited him to just two games.

Williams might be the Sooners’ fastest player, and at 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds, he has an adequate frame to compete in the SEC. What makes him stand out, however, are his uncanny reaction time and his long arms, allowing him to stick with receivers and make plays on the football.

Williams has played in just 24 games in his career, however, with just 12 starts. He’s at a place now where he needs to play in games and develop the kind of instincts through experience that can elevate him to elite status.

Williams’ reps in spring practice this month have been restricted — he’s been withheld from contact whenever possible — but he’s back on the field after multiple surgeries in back-to-back years.

“I feel really good,” Williams said Tuesday after practice. “You know, every day is a new challenge. But I feel amazing. I’m grateful for this opportunity. I feel great and I’m ready for the season when it comes.”

When Brent Venables got the Oklahoma job in December 2021, literally the first recruit he saw after getting off the plane in Norman was Williams. As the former defensive coordinator at Clemson, Venables knew of Williams’ reputation as a dynamic and versatile talent. Williams had committed to OU two months earlier, so keeping a player this good in-state was certainly one priority. Re-engaging the community and the culture at Tulsa Washington was another.

Williams was the top high school recruit in Oklahoma in that 2022 class, and he was the No. 11 cornerback in the country despite coming off a knee injury his junior year. 

Williams said he’s felt that love from Venables during the last three years, as well as from cornerbacks coach Jay Valai and the rest of the defensive staff. Being Venables’ very first recruiting priority made an impact on him.

“Yeah, we’ve had conversations about that,” Williams said. “He talks about my Booker T days, about me playing every position, quarterback — everything but corner, basically. So we joke about that. But (I’ve) been grateful to have him and Coach Valai — basically the whole defensive staff has been here since I’ve been here. So that’s been amazing.”

Williams played in 12 games as a true freshman but miss the bowl game. He made 10 starts as a sophomore in 2023, but missed three games with the shoulder. He had it repaired last winter, but then hurt it again in the season opener last year. He tried to come back the following week but fell on it on the first play of the game and was lost for the season after just 18 total snaps.

Williams played 399 total snaps in 2023, including 329 as a wide corner, per Pro Football Focus. He got in for 250 snaps in 2022, mostly on special teams but also got 54 of his 59 defensive snaps at wide corner.

In his 2023 season as a full-time and healthy corner, Williams was thrown at 39 times and opposing receivers caught 26 passes (66.7 percent) for 286 yards (11.0 yards per catch with just one touchdown.

Iowa State hit him for a 67-yard TD, but he also had an interception that game — one of three on the season. He gave up just two other receptions of 20 yards or more all season.

Williams knows he needs to be better at the art of tackling — he missed 11 tackles during his 2023 season, or 26.8 percent, per PFF — but that’s a hard thing to work on with a trick shoulder. 

One thing Williams knows for sure is that he doesn’t want to sit out again this year. He struggled with missing so much time last year until he realized he could contribute by being the best teammate he could be.

“Obviously it’s tough,” he said, “but it’s a team sport and I still wanted to be there for my guys. Like RJ (Robert Spears-Jennings), he had an excellent season. Gracen Halton had an excellent season. So taking what I went through and my struggles, but let somebody else understand that they had great seasons, and living through them and seeing them shine, man, it made it a lot better for me going through those tough times.”

He’s leaned heavily on Spears-Jennings, his best friend from Tulsa and a fellow freshman DB in the 2022 class.

“That’s my brother,” Williams said. “Words can’t even explain how thankful I am on and off the field. Man, he’s been there for me throughout everything in my life. He’s been there every step of the way. So when I had that surgery and I came back to the house — I had the surgery in Tulsa — and when I came back, he was just screaming, ‘G-Dub! G-Dub!’ So it was like a moment we had. Seeing his success this (past) year was amazing. It felt like I had success. So it was great.”

And through the difficult times, Williams also leaned on Venables and Valai.

“You know, Coach Venables, he’s been on my side throughout everything,” Williams said. “I do applaud him. I’m thankful to him that he’s gonna continue to give me this opportunity to be out here and play with the team. That’s the biggest thing, I want to continue to play with them. And he’s been a very great support system, him and Coach Valai have been very supportive, and I appreciate that. I really do.”

And of course, Williams has leaned most of all on his family for their support.

“Amazing. That’s my rock,” he said. “I do it for them. That’s the reason I’m still out here (and) keep going, my dad and my mom and my little sister. Everybody. Words can not explain how grateful I am, and I will keep going for them.”

Williams will take it slow the rest of this spring and probably throughout summer workouts, and he may even stay somewhat cautious when training camp rolls around in August. 

But come September, Williams will be all in, full contact and full throttle. That’s the only way this game can be played.

“Just stay true to who I am,” he said, “trusting God, trusting Coach Valai, trusting Coach Venables and trusting my teammates that I’m gonna be who I am and show them every day. You know, I gotta prove to them and gain their trust every single day. That’s just what I want to do. I’ve been through things, but God has got a plan for me and I’m gonna keep going.”

Oklahoma State Cowboys wrestler Wyatt Hendrickson dished on what it meant for his sport that President Donald Trump was in attendance for the national championship over the weekend.

Hendrickson pulled off an historic upset in the 285-pound division over Minnesota’s Gable Steveson. He did it in front of the president and billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk. He appeared on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” and said there was no added pressure for him and the president being in attendance was a testament to how popular wrestling has become.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

“I think I’ve got enough grasp on the sport that I’m able to kind of take myself out of the situation and wrestle for myself, my family, and my team,” he said. “If you asked me that five years ago, I would have been out there freaking out like ‘Oh my gosh, my boss is watching me’ but I was just really blessed to go out there and wrestle freely so it was a pretty exciting moment when after that match I walked over there and showed him my respect because that’s my boss, man. 

“The Commander-in-Chief, President Trump, just the fact that he was there supporting the great sport of wrestling is just an attribute to how awesome a sport this is and it’s growing and I think a lot of people that originally wouldn’t have watched the sport are now maybe looking into it like ‘Oh, what’s going on here.’”

OKLAHOMA STATE’S WYATT HENDRICKSON SALUTES TRUMP AFTER SHOCKING NCAA WIN, OPENS UP ABOUT AIR FORCE CAREER

Oklahoma State’s Wyatt Hendrickson celebrates after defeating Minnesota’s Gable Steveson during a 285-pound match in the finals at the NCAA wrestling championship, Saturday, March 22, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Hendrickson added that he didn’t realize Musk was also going to be in Philadelphia to watch the matches with Trump until he went over to pay his respects to the president.

“One thing I didn’t know, I didn’t know that Elon Musk was there. So that was a surprise, as soon as I went back I was shaking his hand I was like, ‘Oh, what’s up Elon? Good to see you here, too’ so that kind of caught me off guard. That’s pretty cool.”

Hendrickson is a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force.

He had elaborated on his pursuit of a military career earlier in the week on “America’s Newsroom.”

“When I was looking at wrestling in college, I wanted to look at more than just that, what my career is going to look like,” he said. “And I kind of realized I’ve always been super-patriotic, and I have a heart to serve. And so, you know, the Air Force Academy was a pretty easy pick for me. And it’s because of the Air Force, I’m able to be at grad school wrestling at Oklahoma State University.”

Oklahoma State’s Wyatt Hendrickson reacts after defeating Minnesota’s Gable Steveson during a 285-pound match in the finals at the NCAA wrestling championship, Saturday, March 22, 2025, in Philadelphia.  (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“So, I mean, the opportunities in the Air Force are just limitless. And so this is just part of the steppingstone. I’ll be able to wrestle for a couple of years. I’ll now be able to transition into my job and, you know, be able to serve this great country to the best of my ability.”

Fox News’ Ryan Canfield contributed to this report.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

As Oklahoma has some of the highest average grocery bills in the country in 2024, two bills working their way through the Oklahoma Legislature aim to reduce a 6% markup on groceries that’s been in place since the 1950s.

Senate Bill 638, introduced by Senate Majority Leader Julie Daniels (R-Bartlesville), and House Bill 1024, introduced by Rep. Steve Bashore (R-Miami), both target Oklahoma’s “Unfair Sales Act” of 1949. The law mandates a markup of up to 6% on most grocery store goods – including baby food, some medicines and gasoline – to cover a “proportionate part of the cost of doing business.”

At the time, proponents of the act said that the markups protected small businesses from big box stores like Sam’s Club, Walmart and Target, who could afford to undercut local sellers. 

But today, Daniels and Bashore argue this cost is now prohibitive to business in the state and unnecessary for Oklahoma shoppers to shoulder.

“Oklahoma is one of only seven states with this mandatory markup on retail goods still in place, and it creates an uneven playing field for our consumers and store owners,” Bashore said in a press release. “This legislation should give Oklahomans some inflation relief, and it will give retailers greater discretion over setting their own prices.”  

The business landscape has changed drastically since 1949, Daniels said, and telling businesses how to price their goods is not productive in the modern business landscape. 

“To tell a larger retailer, who has been forced to mark up their goods over the years to protect a smaller retailer, that they are now hamstrung in being able to compete [in this global landscape], that’s just not something our government should be doing,” Daniels said. 

For Daniels, she feels the bill will act almost as a “tax decrease” for consumers without adjusting the tax line. 

“It still protects businesses from predatory pricing and low-cost pricing because we still have that statute on the books,” Daniels said. “It may have been well-intentioned back in 1949, but that’s a long time for us to artificially determine what things should cost in the marketplace.” 

Sam’s Club, Walmart show support for bills in OKC

Since the bill was introduced, Sam’s Club and its owner Walmart have both made an effort to show support for SB 638 by placing stickers with information about the bill in stores and on gas pumps at their locations around Oklahoma City.

When asked to comment on why they support the bill, a Walmart spokesperson said, “Walmart is committed to helping our customers save money and live better. Senate Bill 638 is an approach aimed at providing cost savings to Oklahomans by repealing an outdated 6% markup law. This bill will allow customers the opportunity to save money on essential goods and fuel.”

At Sam’s Club on W Memorial Road, text on the sticker suggests Oklahomans “could pay less for gas” and that it was time to “lower prices and repeal mandatory markups in Oklahoma.”

The stickers include Sam’s Club logos, a QR code to scan for more information, and a statement saying “paid for by Sam’s Club in support of Consumer Action Network.”

According to data provided by ProPublica, the Consumer Action Network, Inc. is registered as a 501(c)(4) corporation, which is a tax-exempt entity focused on social welfare with more flexibility in political lobbying compared to 501(c)(3) charities. According to the organization’s 2023 tax forms, the latest available, officers and directors of CAN include two people who run an East Coast corporate public relations company, one person who worked in public affairs and government relations for Walmart, and a lobbyist.

A political action committee associated with Walmart has reported giving $3,000 to Bashore’s campaign and $4,000 to Daniels’ campaign over the last three years, according to state and federal campaign filings.

What happens next with SB 628, HB 1024?

Daniels and Bashore are co-authors of the others’ bill. Their respective House and Senate measures are similar, but Bashore’s HB 1024 would not eliminate the markup on gasoline.

The legislators haven’t discussed which they’d prefer to get signed over the other if they advance to Gov. Kevin Stitt’s desk for approval. Both bills aim to take effect on Nov. 1 if approved. 

If SB638 is passed, businesses will decide whether to keep the markup at 6%, lower it or even eliminate it. 

“It doesn’t necessarily mean it will be eliminated, but at least the State of Oklahoma will not be putting this artificial floor on what somebody can charge,” Daniels said. 

Daniels said she plans to present the bill before the Senate this week as that is the final time to showcase a bill before it can be passed to the opposite chamber.