On3 Roundtable: Evaluating Oklahoma’s biggest roster-building concern ahead of SEC move

Oklahoma and Texas will be in the SEC before we know it, but are the Sooners and Longhorns prepared to join the nation’s toughest conference with their ready-made Big 12 rosters?

Sooner Scoop’s Carey Murdock joined Andy Staples on a recent edition of the On3 Roundtable, who revealed which position group he expects to make the biggest leap between now and the conference realignment.

“Defensively, we have just marveled at the number of defensive linemen that have been brought into the program. That’s going to be the biggest change just having guys on the interior that can move people around,” Murdock told Staples. “They’ve sadly fallen pretty far and it’s one of the reasons that the defense has struggled so much.

“I think defensively, they’ll be better. They’ll be more prepared than they were without Brent Venables. It depends if Venables and Jeff Lebby are able to work together. There were so many problems last year with game continuity, clock management and certain decisions. You have to get that worked out this year.”

The Sooners’ 2023 recruiting class is highlighted by Five-Star Plus+ EDGE Adepoju Adebawore, and three other former four-star EDGE recruits joined Venables’ squad via the transfer portal. Dasan McCullough, Trace Ford and Rondell Bothroyd will all suit up for the Sooners this season.

While the defensive line is being built up to be ready for SEC play in 2024, the same can’t be said about the Sooners’ offensive line. Murdock voiced some serious concern when it comes to recruiting blue-chip offensive linemen — something the OU beat writer believes should be prioritized.

“It looks like a lot of the main targets they have has seen them finish second (on their recruiting list),” Murdock said. “Go to the transfer portal, do what you’ve got to do, but that offensive line — just tracking that out — looks to be the biggest concern.”

Incoming transfer OT Walter Rouse is one of the only offensive lineman that Venables brought in that is worth writing home about. Oklahoma failed to sign an OL of any kind higher than a three-star in this past recruiting cycle, and the same can be said about the Sooners’ 2024 class.

There’s no guarantee in finding former star recruits in the transfer portal. Venables either needs to start getting luckier, or put his head down and recruit some of the country’s finest offensive linemen — the way he should have been all along.