The linebackers play a key role in any successful Brent Venables defense.
As is the case, it shouldn’t come as any shock that the Sooners got improved play at linebacker as the defense took great steps forward in 2023.
Danny Stutsman emerged as not only a strong leader on the field, but the heartbeat of the entire team off it, and OU’s middle linebacker was perhaps its most important player.
The speech delivered before the Texas game merely served as a soundtrack to another phenomenal season.
Stutsman finished as Oklahoma’s leading tackler with 104 total tackles, registering three quarterback sacks, a team-leading 16.0 tackles for loss, a forced fumble and even a pick six against Tulsa.
Six quarters perfectly illustrated Stutsman’s importance to OU’s defense as a whole.
He landed weird on his ankle just before halftime against Kansas, and was unable to play after the first play of the second half. As a result, the Sooners couldn’t get key stops late in Lawrence, handing Venables’ team its first loss of the year.
2023 Oklahoma Report Cards
- Jan. 9: Offensive line
- Jan. 10: Defensive end
- Jan. 11: Wide receiver
- Jan. 12: Defensive tackle
- Jan. 13: Tight end
- Jan. 14: Linebacker
- Jan. 15: Running back
- Jan. 16: Defensive back
- Jan. 17: Special teams
- Jan. 18: Cornerback
- Jan. 19: Quarterback
- Jan. 20: Coaches
Stutsman was unable to get healthy enough to play in Bedlam the following week, and again OU fell.
The only loss Oklahoma sustained where Stutsman played for four quarters was in the Alamo Bowl against Arizona, where turnovers ultimately did the Sooners in.
Stutsman was a Butkus Award candidate until his injury, which resulted in him missing out on Butkus Award semifinalist or finalist honors.
But Venables’ linebacker room was far from a one-trick pony.
Redshirt freshman Kip Lewis emerged seemly out of nowhere, living up to the “ball magnet” moniker Venables lady on him early in the year.
Despite playing only 358 snaps, which was 238 snaps less than Jaren Kanak who started the year alongside Stutsman per Pro Football Focus, Lewis was second on the team with 66 tackles, adding 3.5 tackles for loss and a fumble recovery.
Lewis’ knack for finding the football was on full display against Texas.
Despite playing sparklingly in the early stages of the game, Lewis was at the heart of the Sooners’ goal line stand that denying Texas from the 1-yard line, a performance strong enough to see him surpass Kanak as OU’s starter late in the year.
Kanak didn’t see his playing time curbed for poor play, either.
Lewis was that good, as Kanak ended the year fourth on the team with 62 tackles, along with 6.0 tackles for loss, two sacks, two passes defended and a forced fumble.
Kanak flashed early, as he was seemingly all over the place in the first half of Oklahoma’s Big 12 opener against Cincinnati.
He combined with Kobie McKinzie to add great depth to the position.
McKinzie, a second-year product from Lubbock, starting to find his footing rotating on the inside midway through the year, and he took on a lot of the load when Stutsman missed time. He finished the year with 22 tackles and a tackle for loss, looking for a much larger role in 2024.
With four strong candidates for playing time on the inside, Dasan McCullough was left to wreak havoc from the cheetah linebacker spot.
A long body with a knack for screaming into the backfield off the edge, McCullough was an eraser if teams tried to spread OU out along the line of scrimmage with swing passes or screens.
He notched 3.5 tackles for loss and 300 tackles on 276 snaps this year, making the transition from defensive end to outside linebacker in his first year in Venables defense in Norman.
All of the depth built last season relegated a pair of true freshman, Lewis Carter and Samuel Omosigho, to mainly special teams duty, but Omosigho did work his way into the cheetah rotation late in the year when injuries mounted.
Both Omosigho and Carter contributed seven tackles and 0.5 tackles for loss, a nice foundation for larger roles in 2024.
And all of those guys are slated to come back next year.
New defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Zac Alley will have plenty of talent and experience to work with in his room this spring, as OU’s linebackers were the most consistent piece of the Sooners’ improved defense, and they’ll set the tone for Oklahoma’s first dance through the Southeastern Conference this fall.
AllSooners LB Grades
- Hoover: B+
- Chapman: A-
- Sweet: C
- Lovelace: A
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