Sports

Why Oklahoma HC Brent Venables expects more breakouts on the D-line

Oklahoma Sooners On SI · Jul 21, 2026 20:00 · 3 min read

Why Oklahoma HC Brent Venables Expects More Breakouts on the D-line — Oklahoma defensive tackles coach Todd Bates congratulates defensive lineman Trent Wilson after a rep in spring practice. | Carson Field / Sooners On SI

The Sooners saw David Stone and Taylor Wein break out in 2025, and now several others could outperform expectations in 2026.

The Sooners will be without several of their key defensive linemen from the 2025 team in the fall.

R Mason Thomas, Marvin Jones Jr., Gracen Halton and Damonic Williams each played their final college football games on Dec. 19, when OU lost to Alabama in the College Football Playoff.

Even amid the departures, Oklahoma’s starting group on the line should be one of the SEC’s best. Rising juniors David Stone and Jayden Jackson will be the first-string defensive tackles, while Taylor Wein and either Danny Okoye and Adepoju Adebawore will start on the edges.

The group behind them, however, could be more thin. Defensive tackles Nigel Smith II, Trent Wilson and Bishop Thomas and edge rushers Kenny Ozowalu and Wyatt Gilmore are all largely inexperienced in Norman.

But in every season under coach Brent Venables, someone has broken out on the defensive line.

“Every year there's a new storyline when it comes to players emerging, players coming out of nowhere,” Venables said at SEC Media Days in Tampa, FL, on Monday.

Venables used Stone and Wein as the examples of players who broke out in 2025.

Stone, a former 5-star recruit, notched 42 total tackles, 16 solo tackles, eight tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and a pass breakup last year. His breakout came after a rather underwhelming freshman season in which he logged only six tackles.

Stone — now a preseason All-American, per multiple outlets, and OU’s highest-rated player in EA College Football 27 — is widely expected to be one of college football’s most forceful defensive linemen in 2026.

“A year ago at this time David Stone, very highly recruited guy coming out of high school, top guy in the country, stories written about him, might be a bust, things of that nature,” Venables said. “He didn't listen to any of that. He just put his head down and worked and had an outstanding sophomore year.”

Wein recorded only two tackles during his first two seasons in Norman before leading the Sooners with 15 tackles for loss and seven sacks in 2025. He also registered an interception, a forced fumble and 39 total tackles.

Unlike Stone, who came to OU with a 5-star billing, Wein’s breakout truly came out of nowhere.

“Coming into the (2025) summer, he comes to see me, one of the lowest paid guys on our roster… he asked me if he could get some incentives,” Venables said. “I said, ‘Why don't you worry about playing first before we worry about that?’ All he did was become an all SEC player and lead our team — seven sacks, 15 tackles for loss.”

Plenty of the reserves on the defensive line seem like good candidates for 2026 breakouts.

It’s hard to call Adebawore a breakout candidate, as he logged 283 snaps last year and is a former 5-star prospect. But his role should expand significantly in the fall now that Thomas and Jones are out of the picture.

Okoye played on just over 100 snaps last year and appeared in 11 games, and he registered two sacks. He’s another edge rusher who will almost certainly see more playing time in 2026.

Smith and Wilson both played sparingly for OU in 2025, but they both earned rave reviews from their coaches and teammates throughout spring ball. And Ozowalu and Thomas both transferred in after logging productive seasons at Group of Five schools last year.

Venables often describes the SEC as a “line of scrimmage” league. And with so many key pieces from last year’s defensive line no longer in Norman, he underscored how important it is that defensive linemen have regularly been able to break out during his tenure.

“The margins are incredibly small,” Venables said. “I would argue that if you lose the line of scrimmage in any particular game, most of the time you're going to lose the game. Not just if you're going to lose, it's by how much you're going to lose. That’s where it starts for us.”

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