Brent Venables delivers first impression of Louisville transfer Kani Walker

Bringing in reinforcements was one of the first things Brent Venables did at Oklahoma. With his 2022 class signees and transfer additions, there are already a lot of new faces in Norman. Former Lousiville cornerback Kani Walker is one of 10 new transfers, and one of the six from other Power 5 programs.

Venables shared a glowing first impression of the former Cardinals defensive back after spring practice this week.

“Kani is doing terrific,” Venables said. “He’s big, he’s really fast and he’s got some great toughness to him. Hadn’t played a whole lot of football, played a little as a true freshman. He’s got a tremendous skill set, very talented and he’s a patient player. One thing young guys usually don’t have is patience so they get in a hurry with everything. To be a great corner you have to have great patience, fundamentals and technique.

“Coach (Jay) Valai is doing a great job with him. Kani’s worked really hard. He’s giving us some competitive depth there. He’s going to make us better. I really like where he is for a young guy who hasn’t played a whole lot of football.”

Walker, a former On3 Consensus three-star recruit out of the Class of 2021, played in just one game for Louisville this past season. He notched a single tackle against Kentucky on Nov. 27.

A Suwanee, Georgia native, Walker prepped at Douglas County High School. The 6-foot-1, 175-pound defender originally committed to Louisville over offers from Maryland, Arkansas, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, NC State, Indiana, Georgia Tech and Boston College, among others. After entering the transfer portal, Walker received interest from Venables on Jan. 12 and he announced his decision just five days later.

Walker is going to compete for time on the field with some Sooners veterans like Woodi Washington and D.J. Graham. New additions like former No. 1 Oklahoma prospect Gentry Williams and former Wyoming starter C.J. Coldon are also on the hunt for playing time at the position in 2022.

Venables updates progress of Oklahoma’s defensive installation

After the Sooners’ spring practice on Wednesday, Venables provided an update on his defensive installation.

“Yeah, as far as the installation, in typical fashion, you lay it out there and you have a pretty aggressive installation pattern on paper. And then you start working, and practicing, and you slow down a little bit. So for all the reasons you can go down, like whether you’re somewhere and you’re returning and you have a foundation set and you have a culture and you have a lot of experience coming back that’s how it always is. Or the flip side is when we’re trying to learn,” Venables said.

“We’ve been watching these guys without their helmets, you know, in T-shirts and shorts for eight weeks and now, you get who’s in what jersey number. I’m calling them by their jersey (number), 26, 29, 1, 77, who are these guys? And so not as fast as you want it to be, installation-wise. But we had an aggressive game plan and they’re just making adjustments as we go in typical fashion.”

On3’s Justin Rudolph contributed to this report.