All Sooners

Newcomer Profile: Why Oklahoma Two-Sport Star James Nesta ‘Hasn’t Flinched’

Nesta believes he can be a playmaker for the Sooners in Brent Venables' defense, after which his high school scheme was modeled.

Bryce McKinnis

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NORMAN — You don’t have to wait for Oklahoma’s spring game on April 20 to see freshman James Nesta in a Sooners jersey. Instead, you can head over to L. Dale Mitchell Park, where the mid-year enrollee wears No. 58 on Skip Johnson’s pitching staff.

“You've got a young guy like a James Nesta, he's all the way from North Carolina,” Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables said on March 6. "He's participating in both things that we're doing and managing a baseball schedule as a pitcher on the baseball team. I can only imagine what he's going through, learning certainly all the things that we do on football and the things that he needs to do, it's game day every day at baseball right now with them.

“He hasn't flinched. I'm sure he's probably had some moments off the field talking to mom or dad but he's been a stud since he's been with us,” Venables said.

It was always in the cards for Nesta to play both sports. One reason he picked Oklahoma over Miami, UNC and others: the Sooners facilitated his two-sport future. The example of Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray — a former first-round draft pick in the NFL and MLB out of Oklahoma — provided a concrete example of how the university prioritizes dual-sport stars.

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“Every school that I had (recruiting me) was offering the two sports,” Nesta said on spring media day. “The big part of why I would say that was different about OU was coach Skip, coach BV, like, they know how to do it. They know what the schedule looks like, just like with Kyler.”

Nesta sat down with baseball director of operations Ryan Gaines before the start of the spring season.

“He just explained everything to a tee, how it’s going to be done. I really hadn’t heard that from a single college besides here, and that was a big pushing point,” Nesta said.

Nesta will play linebacker for the Sooners on Saturdays. As a prospect, the 6-foot-4, 205-pound 3-star edge was terrorizing quarterbacks for Williams Amos Hough High School (NC) just a few months ago with tremendous speed, punishing physicality and intuitive playmaking. He registered 36 tackles, 11 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks as a senior last fall en route to an 11-2 record and district title.

Co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Zac Alley, himself a North Carolina native, has made the transition from playing prep football to Power 5 football while balancing two sports much easier for Nesta.

“He’s been great. He’s from Charlotte, too. He’s like 15 minutes away from where I’m from, so he’s a really good guy. He’s a genius, like he knows the defenses in-and-out,” Nesta said. “He’s really smart, and he’s really good at explaining things. So he makes things really simple to understand.”

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Nesta is already “soaking in all the information” he can from returning All-Big 12 selection Danny Stutsman. Stutsman was a second-team Walter Camp All-American and third-team AP All-American in 2023 and led the Sooners with 104 tackles and 16.0 tackles for loss.

“Just learning how he goes day-by-day and just, like, how he controls his situation — that’s the guy to learn it from, for sure,” Nesta said.

Nesta played in a high school defense modeled after Venables’ scheme. That familiarity also factored into his decision to play at OU and vice versa.

“I know I can play a role in this defense,” Nesta said. “The linebackers are the playmakers, [Venables] sets it up for.”

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Bryce McKinnis
BRYCE MCKINNIS

Bryce is a contributor for AllSooners and has been featured in several publications, including the Associated Press, the Tulsa World and the Norman Transcript. A Tishomingo native, Bryce’s sports writing career began at 17 years old when he filed his first story for the Daily Ardmoreite. As a student at the University of Central Oklahoma, he worked on several award-winning projects, including The Vista’s coverage of the 2021 UCO cheer hazing scandal. After graduating in 2021, Bryce took his first job covering University of Tulsa and Oral Roberts University sports for the Tulsa World before accepting a role as managing editor of VYPE Magazine in 2022. - UCO Mass Communications/Sports Feature (2019) - UCO Mass Communications/Investigative Reporting (2021) - UCO College of Liberal Arts/Academic presentation, presidential politics and ideology (2021) - OBEA/Multimedia reporting (2021) - Beat Writer, The Tulsa World (2021-2022) - Managing Editor, VYPE Magazine (2022-2023)

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