OU football notepad: Offensive line focused on staying healthy heading into fall camp

arik Masri | Transcript Sports Editor 18 hrs ago ARLINGTON, Tex. — With a group battling through injuries, Oklahoma offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh called on several players to step into bigger or unfamiliar roles at the Sooners’ spring game in April. A valuable experience, but an up-and-down performance that the team will be looking to avoid this season. With three starting spots up for grabs, Oklahoma needs to get its offensive linemen healthy and to stay healthy by the time Sept. 2 rolls around. At Big 12 media days on Thursday, OU head coach Brent Venables said for the most part the offensive line is “right where they need to be” with just over seven weeks left to the start of the season. “I’m really excited about there’s only two starters coming back in McCade and Andrew Raym, two great ones there, great leaders, tremendous football players for us,” Venables said. “But man, this opportunity’s created—losing a couple of guys early to the draft in Wanya and our other tackle, Anton Harrison, have given these guys a great opportunity in Tyler Guyton and Cayden Green, Jake Taylor, and certainly Walter Rouse to compete at tackle.” Rouse, a redshirt-senior transfer from Stanford, missed the spring game due to a shoulder injury from last fall. Venables said he’s been full-go since the end of the spring. Venables said sophomore tackle Jacob Sexton, who went down with an ACL injury during last year’s Cheez-It Bowl, hasn’t had any setbacks and is hoping that he’ll be full-go soon. Lately he’s been able to run and cut, which is a positive sign, but will likely need some time to get up to speed with the rest of the team. “Where we’re at right now, I feel really, really good going into fall camp here in a few weeks,” Venables said. Brown disagrees with Mountaineers’ preseason ranking West Virginia head coach Neal Brown didn’t wait for the question to finally be asked, he addressed the elephant in the room in his opening speech at Big 12 media days. The Mountaineers were picked to finish last in the Big 12 Preseason Poll, which is voted on by media members. They received just 129 points, 73 points behind 13th-placed Cincinnati and over 300 points behind Kansas. “Upset about the media poll,” Brown said. “Definitely do not agree with that. The good thing, the positive is that the media has not been – as far as predicting the Big 12 – has not been successful in recent years, so I think that bodes well for us.” The Mountaineers finished in a three-way tie for seventh in the final Big 12 standings last season at 3-6. Oklahoma and Kansas tied them in the final conference standings, but both made it to a bowl game unlike the Mountaineers, who finished 5-7. Satterfield excited to welcome Sooners to Cincinnati Oklahoma kicks off its final Big 12 conference season on Sept. 23 on the road against newcomer Cincinnati. “Oklahoma coming to Nippert and playing in Cincinnati, that’s going to be an outstanding game, a great atmosphere,” Satterfield said. “One of the best stadiums in the country to host a football game, and one of the harder places to come play.” The last time Oklahoma went on the road to face Cincinnati, the Bearcats hosted the game at Paul Brown Stadium (now called Paycor Stadium), which is the home of the Cincinnati Bengals. Cincinnati plays at the home of the Bengals occasionally, but has done so less often since James Gamble Nippert Memorial Stadium was renovated in 2015. Nippert Stadium is the third-oldest NCAA FBS stadium, dating back to 1901 and has a capacity of 38,088. Tarik Masri is the sports editor for The Transcript covering OU athletics and area sports. You can reach him by emailing tarik@normantranscript.com