Oklahoma Coach Brent Venables Gives Injury Updates on Eli Bowen, Others

Oklahoma will be without one of its top defensive players to begin fall camp.

Sooners coach Brent Venables announced that cornerback Eli Bowen will be out to begin fall camp, which begins on Thursday. Bowen missed the majority of spring ball, due to a leg injury that he suffered during the offseason.

“He won’t be available to start camp,” Venables said.

Bowen was a breakout star for the Sooners in 2024 as a true freshman.

He played in 11 games for OU, starting each of the last seven games at cornerback. Bowen ended his first year of college football with 30 tackles, 24 solo tackles, two tackles for loss, an interception and four pass breakups.

Bowen, the younger brother of Oklahoma safety Peyton Bowen, had OU’s highest Pro Football Focus (PFF) overall grade — 80.5 — of any Sooner defender in 2024. He played on 510 defensive snaps last year, 404 of which came at corner.

Bowen earned ESPN Freshman All-American honors for his stellar first season.

Venables, though, did give a positive injury update about two offensive lineman.

The coach revealed that guard Heath Ozaeta and tackle Logan Howland are both “back and healthy.”

Venables said that the two offensive linemen both underwent offseason shoulder surgeries. But the coach expects them to be reliable options on the line, saying that they both had “great summers.”

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Ozaeta, a redshirt freshman last year, played in 12 of Oklahoma’s 13 games in 2024, ending the season as OU’s starting left guard. The 6-5, 311-pound guard played 630 offensive snaps, logging PFF grades of 52.4 and 69 on run-blocking and pass-blocking assignments, respectively.

Howland, entering his redshirt sophomore year, logged 502 offensive snaps in 2024, posting an overall PFF grade of 66.5. He allowed only one sack — against Ole Miss — on 270 pass-block setups.

Venables also revealed that nothing has changed with wide receiver Javonnie Gibson’s rehabilitation process.

Gibson, a transfer wideout from Arkansas-Pine Bluff, suffered a broken leg during spring ball.

At SEC Media Days in Atlanta on July 16, Venables revealed that Gibson was “back but not 100% yet.” The coach also said that Gibson was out of the boot that he wore after the injury and participating in warmups and non-contact drills.

Two weeks later, Gibson’s status is the same.

“He’s on the same timetable that he was on before,” Venables said.

Oklahoma begins fall camp on Thursday. The Sooners open the regular season on Saturday, Aug. 30, when they host Illinois State.