COLUMN: Why This is Such a Huge Season for Oklahoma LB Jaren Kanak

Kanak is still relatively new at the position, and after losing his starting job last season, he'll need to be patient and efficient when his opportunities come in 2024.

Oklahoma linebacker Jaren Kanak / BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY

Of all of Oklahoma’s players, the upcoming football season might weigh the most on linebacker Jaren Kanak.

What Brent Venables and new linebackers coach Zac Alley have planned for Kanak this season is unknown — and certainly could evolve over the course of the fall.

It’s not necessarily a make-or-break season for Kanak, but it’s a big one.

Kanak, a 6-foot-2, 223-pound junior from Hays, KS, started the first nine games of the 2023 season at middle linebacker after moving over from the weak side as a freshman. It was just his second year to play the position, and he was taking over arguably the most important spot on the defense.

He was good — at times, very good — but he also experienced some moments on the other end of the spectrum. Probably too many moments.

Venables said last year Kanak had “been an offensive player his whole life,” so there was an expected transition from high school quarterback to college linebacker. But last year, switching from weakside linebacker to middle — receiving and making the calls before each play, asserting himself, leading by example — was not easy for him.

Eventually, inconsistency got the better of Kanak, and undersized but overprotective Kip Lewis took over at the outside spot while Stutsman returned from an ankle injury and assumed the middle ‘backer position.

By all accounts, Kanak had another good spring and has taken important steps this offseason to become even more comfortable in Venables’ defense and get himself back on the field.

“Jaren, we all know he has the speed,” Stutsman said at SEC Media Days. “He has all the physical stuff it takes. He’s taken that mental side to the next level.”

Kanak ran track in high school and put up some startlingly fast times. But there have been plays where that elite speed has actually cost him as he’s occasionally overrun tackle opportunities and leaves runners an open cutback lane.

Pro Football Focus uses a grading system that is based on efficiency for a given play, and during his freshman season, Kanak posted a grade of 68.0 — considered quite good for his age and experience level.

But last year’s PFF grade dropped to 50.0 — not good by any measure. Four of his games scored at 44 or lower.

After playing 139 defensive snaps in 2022, Kanak played 596 last year, so the probability of an efficiency drop figures to be higher. But Kanak’s drop-off wasn’t just a product of advanced analytics. Venables saw it, too, and that’s why Lewis got more and more playing time down the stretch.

Oklahoma's LB starters in 2023 /

In his first eight games, Kanak averaged 60 defensive snaps per game. In his final five, he averaged just 24.2. With Lewis playing more and Stutsman hobbled, Kobie McKinzie’s snaps also went up late in the season, from 8.1 snaps per game to 27.3.

Lewis, who played only four defensive snaps as a true freshman and took a redshirt, found himself more and more involved in the game plan last year, from an average of 11.7 over his first seven games to 46.3 over the final six. Lewis finished his second season with 358 total defensive snaps.

So it would track that with Stutsman back for his senior year (and a likely All-America and Butkus Award campaign in his future), and with the work load and productivity of Lewis and McKinzie increasing dramatically over the second half of 2023, Kanak’s role — at least for the early stages of this season — would be to stay ready as a backup at both positions.

Kanak was second on the team last year with 18 missed tackles (safety Billy Bowman had 22 on nearly 200 more snaps), a figure that ranked tied for 15th in the nation among Power 5 linebackers. Only two of those 15 played fewer snaps than Kanak, and his miss percentage ranked fifth among that group.

Kanak has supreme athletic talent, and his work ethic is unsurpassed. The more he plays the position, the better he’ll continue to get. It is, as Venables likes to say, a developmental game.

“There’s no guy that works harder than Jaren Kanak,” Stutsman said. “Every single day, he comes in, first guy in, last guy out. He’s doing whatever studying it takes. As soon as the week starts, me and him are up there Monday morning, knocking it all out to get a head start. He’s just always on top of it.”

Behind Stutsman (104), Lewis (66) and Bowman (63), Kanak was fourth on the team last year with 62 tackles. He also had 2.0 tackles for loss, forced a fumble, broke up two passes and was third on the team with five quarterback hurries.

The game has already slowed down for him, and it will continue to do so as he studies under a new defensive coordinator and position coach. Already a fan favorite, Sooner Nation will love Kanak even more as he continues to learn the nuances of the game, paces himself, finishes his angles to the ball carrier, wraps up and gets them to the ground.

If Kanak is patient and continues to grow into the position, his ceiling will be high over these next two years.