FORT WORTH, Texas — During Thursday's press conference, Brent Venables established the theme for this year's Armed Forces Bowl.
There's going to be a lot of young guys on the field for the Sooners.
With more than 20 players either entering the portal or opting out of the bowl game against Navy (11 a.m. Friday, ESPN), .the Sooners' roster is a bit depleted. Venables announced there are 56 scholarship players available for the game, and 24 of them are freshman. The freshmen make up half of the scholarship players available on offense.
Playing freshmen isn't unfamiliar for the Sooners. Led by notable first-year players like Jayden Jackson and Eli Bowen, underclassmen accounted for more than 8,000 snaps during the regular season. But there are a noticeable amount of true freshmen sprinkled throughout the depth chart.
"I’ve watched these guys grow up through their opportunity," Venables said. "I’ve watched them fail and learn from it, bounce right back. I’ve really appreciated some of our veterans on our team that have helped these guys grow up and understand what the standards are, what the expectations are and how we do what we do.
"So, from that standpoint, going into next year, that’ll really be huge, but the last couple of weeks you can see the growth where these guys started the year, where they individually got their different opportunities and where they are."
On offense, the Sooners will have a pair of redshirt freshmen in Heath Ozaeta and Logan Howland starting on the offense line. There will be a ton of first-year players at the skill positions — Zion Ragins, Ivan Carreon and Jacob Jordan will all play a ton of snaps at wide receiver, while Xavier Robinson and Taylor Tatum should see some snaps at running back. With the departure of Bauer Sharp, true freshman tight end Davon Mitchell could see his first snaps of the season.
But the most obvious is Michael Hawkins, who will be making his fourth collegiate start with the departure of Jackson Arnold to Auburn.
"I think it's gonna be awesome," OU center Troy Everett said of Hawkins. "Especially right now, he's got to make some things happen. We obviously don't have the team that we had at the beginning of the year. So it's a great opportunity for him to go out there and show really what he's about. All eyes are on him."
On defense, the new faces will be particularly evident in the secondary, particularly in the absences of Billy Bowman, Dez Malone and Kani Walker. Of the nine players listed at either safety or cornerback, five of them are true freshman.
Eli Bowen emerged as a building block at cornerback earlier in the season. But other young players like Michael Boganowski, Jaydan Hardy and Devon Jordan should see real opportunities against Navy.
"(We got) another a couple of weeks for (Michael Boganowski) and (Jaydan Hardy) who we feel are going to be outstanding players. Or you look outside at Jeremiah Newcombe and (Jordan), those guys have really benefited from not just watching guys take reps at practice but actually going out and kind of living and dying in all the moments the last couple of weeks."
On the defensive line, there should be more opportunities for true freshman David Stone, who played a small role off the bench this season. Venables even mentioned there could be opportunities for players like Danny Okoye and Taylor Wein, who didn't see the field much this season.
Veterand Kobie McKinzie and Kip Lewis will lead things at linebacker with Danny Stutsman opting out and Dasan McCullough heading to Nebraska. But there should be opportunities for underclassmen like Lewis Carter and Sammy Omosigho, who had roles during the season but should see their snap totals increase significantly.
"Lewis and Sammy will forever be my guys," McKinzie said. "They came in under the same type of situation that me and Kip did. They came in together. They’ve had the growing pains together. Sammy has some more reps, a couple of more starts. He’s able to nurture Lewis in a better way. Lewis will be able to take that better from him than a guy like me. I love those guys to death. They have just continuously grown."
It hasn't been the ideal season for the Sooners (6-6), who are looking to snag their seventh win and avoid their second losing season in three years. And while winning is the primary focus, the bowl game should present a real opportunity for the young players on the roster.
Plus, it could be a glimpse at what the future has to offer.
"Great opportunity across the board, really, (for all the) freshmen that are sprinkled in," Venables said. "So the practices have been great. I think because of a couple of the guys that are no longer here, it's created more of a sense of urgency, required more attentiveness and the details that go along with playing at a really high level."
"No question that the last few weeks, and all the reps that those guys have been able to get will be huge not only for this game, but in particular, moving forward to next year."
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