For Oklahoma TE Kaden Helms, Going Back to Nebraska is Almost 'Like a Home Game'
NORMAN — Here’s Kaden Helms, a freshman at Oklahoma, the Sooners’ first player from the state of Nebraska in a generation, and in his second college football game, he’ll be lining up against the Cornhuskers.
In Lincoln.
“For me,” Helms said, “it’s like a home game. Almost.”
Helms is from Bellevue, a suburb on the south edge of Omaha.
“I’m excited, for sure,” he said.
The 6-foot-4, 225-pound Helms was a flex tight end at Bellevue West High School, where as a senior he caught 51 passes for 955 and 11 touchdowns and was named first-team All-State.
The 4-star prospect committed to Oklahoma on July 17, then sat tight through last season.
Helms’ college media debut came Tuesday night after practice and of course included several questions about being recruited by Nebraska, why he chose Oklahoma and what made him stick to that commitment after Lincoln Riley left for USC.
Nebraska and former coach Scott Frost were “pretty involved” in Helms’ recruiting, he said.
“Kind of through the beginning of my recruitment, Helms said. “They were my second offer. Being a local kid, they were recruiting me pretty hard. But I kinda wanted to see different things. Get away from home but not be too far. That’s why I picked Oklahoma. That was a good distance. Then the culture here – I fell in love with it.”
Kaden Helms
Ryan Chapman/SI Sooners
The chaos immediately after Riley bolted was quickly soothed, Helms said, after Brent Venables arrived a week later.
“My first reaction, obviously, I trusted Joe Castiglione,” Helms said. “Whatever decision he was gonna make, I trusted it. I think literally the day after coach Venables got hired, he flew to Nebraska with a couple other coaches and came to my study hall, I think it was, and just told me about themselves, about their values, just kind of their overall idea of where they wanted to go with the program and stuff like that. They had me bring my mom, too, so they could meet her. That was something that was really important to me, just seeing that family aspect that he brought to the table.
“After that talk, I was sold. Especially being the head coach at Oklahoma with all the media and fame that comes with that, he went out of his way to come down the day after he got hired and see me and my family. That was really important.”
Helms didn’t panic when Riley left. There was no need.
Kaden Helms and Joe Jon Finley
Kaden Helms via Twitter
“My big thing was I was really just going to wait to see what would happen,” he said. “I didn’t really want to make any moves until I was sure what was going to happen with the coach. I’m obviously happy I did because we have a great guy in coach Venables. Coach (Joe Jon) Finley was really just telling me that he didn’t know what was going to happen, but he was just telling me to stick to my gut, my values I held strong. If I did that, I’d be good either way. I think it ended up pretty good.”
He missed the Sooners’ opener against UTEP but was in uniform last week against Kent State and got some game action against the Golden Flashes.
“It was surreal,” Helms said. “Night game. My first night game. They got the new LED lights. Everything was up and running. It was fun. Definitely a good moment.”
Kaden Helms
John E. Hoover / AllSooners
He really hopes to get on the field again this week versus the Cornhuskers.
“It’s definitely going to be a surreal moment,” he said. “Growing up, my whole family were big Nebraska fans. I went to some of the games as well. It’s definitely going to be a fun moment to be on the opposite side of that. It’ll be good.”
Players receive four complementary tickets for road games, but Helms said ticket donations from teammates have brought his total as of Tuesday to 24. He’s excited to see the home crowd.
According to OU historian Mike Brooks, Helms is just the 10th Sooner from the state of Nebraska, and the first since offensive guard Ken Jones, who was a two-time All-Big Eight and two-time UPI second-team All-American from 1970-72.
“Man, it feels amazing, I’m not gonna lie,” Helms said. “I was kind of saying it earlier but it really feels like a home game for me. Obviously will have a bunch of family there. At the end of the day, really just focused on the game plan. The number one goal is to win the game. It’s a big moment for me, but winning the game is going to be an even bigger moment.”
