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Oklahoma 2023 Report Cards: Despite the Return of a Familiar Face, OU TEs Came up Short

With little depth, experience or versatility in the Sooners’ tight end room, Joe Jon Finley’s group was never able to make a big impact in 2023.

Randall Sweet

Oklahoma 2023 Report Cards: Despite the Return of a Familiar Face, OU TEs Came up Short
Oklahoma 2023 Report Cards: Despite the Return of a Familiar Face, OU TEs Came up Short /
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In 2023, Oklahoma’s tight ends were one of the most lackluster position groups on the roster.

Despite low expectations, the group underperformed all season and was never able to make a real impact for the Sooners’ offense. With very little experience, almost no depth and some bad luck with injuries, OU’s tight ends were one of program’s the most underwhelming units.

With Dillon Gabriel under center this season, Oklahoma’s offense managed to put up some impressive statistics, but likely would have been more efficient if the Sooners’ had a solid tight end option to turn to.

Even though OU struggled to find a consistent option at the position, Jeff Lebby’s offense called for heavy tight end usage. 

2023 Oklahoma Report Cards

Despite not having a trustworthy pass catcher or blocker amongst the group, Lebby kept a tight end on the field for most of Oklahoma’s offensive snaps, taking a spot away from one of the Sooners’ many talented wide receivers.

For example, in 2023, former OU and South Carolina tight end Austin Stogner played a whopping 709 snaps on offense. Stogner recorded 17 receptions for 196 yards and one touchdown during his redshirt senior season, also finishing with a 56.3 run blocking grade and a 43.2 pass blocking grade, according to Pro Football Focus.

Nic Anderson, the talented redshirt freshman wideout, played more than 150 snaps less than Stogner but still managed to finish the season with 38 catches for 798 yards and 10 touchdowns. Stogner played over 500 more snaps than fellow redshirt freshman receiver Jayden Gibson, who tallied 14 catches for 375 yards and five touchdowns in 2023.

Stogner also played around 650 snaps more than Texas transfer Brenen Thompson, who still managed to record seven catches for 241 yards and two touchdowns.

While the three aforementioned players are obviously not tight ends, keeping Stogner or one of the Sooners’ other tight ends on the field even after they couldn't make a big impact in games prevented some of OU’s other talented offensive players from seeing the field even more.

Stogner was supposed to be Oklahoma’s replacement for versatile tight end Brayden Willis, who was selected in the NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers after notching 39 catches for 514 yards and seven touchdowns as a senior. The former Gamecock, who was teammates with Jalen Hurts at OU in 2019, had the worst season of his career, however, according to PFF.

In 2023, Stogner finished with an overall offensive grade of 52.6, lower than his previous career low of 53.8, which the Prestonwood Christian (TX) product received during his lone season in Columbia.

2023 REPORT CARD - TE
BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN-USA TODAY NETWORK

Not only was Stogner less of a receiving threat than his first time in Norman, but the Sooners’ tight end struggled as a blocker as well.

Finley and company also added former Texas A&M tight end Blake Smith through the transfer portal last offseason. Smith came to the team with two career catches for one yard, making him the only other healthy tight end on the roster who had caught a pass in college coming into 2023.

Smith played a total of 92 snaps this season and finished with a PFF grade of 60.0, notching two catches for 30 yards and a touchdown. After seeing less than 100 snaps as a redshirt junior with the Sooners, Smith elected to enter the transfer portal in early January.

Josh Fanuiel, a former basketball player at Division II Cameron University in Lawton, OK, tallied the third-most snaps of all Oklahoma tight ends this season with 53. While Fanuiel did not record any statistics, 43 of his snaps came in run blocking scenarios.

Listed at 6-foot-3 and 251 pounds, the Houston-area product earned a 53.7 offensive grade during his first season of football since middle school.

Finally, true freshman Kade McIntyre played just 21 snaps in two games this season, finishing with a 71.3 PFF grade. The promising young tight end from Nebraska caught one pass for 26 yards against Arkansas State before suffering an injury that would hold him out until the Sooners’ regular season finale.

If not for his injury, McIntyre would have likely earned more playing time as a true freshman due to his receiving ability.

The position does look upgraded for 2024. 

With Stogner and Smith both gone and Finley now the team’s co-offensive coordinator, OU was able to bring in a pair of talented transfer tight ends in Bauer Sharp from Southeastern Louisiana and Jake Roberts from Baylor. Additionally, coveted 4-star tight end recruit Davon Mitchell arrived on campus as an early enrollee this weekend, and the 6-foot-5 playmaker from Los Alamitos (CA) will likely compete for plenty of snaps as a true freshman.

With McIntyre and Fanuiel set to return next season and the additions of Sharp, Roberts and Mitchell, the Sooners’ tight end group should be significantly more dynamic and much deeper in 2024. With five players who all could earn time on the field, the competition throughout the winter, spring and summer between the group should give Finley and company multiple good options and help add an extra element to the Oklahoma offense that was not there in 2023.

AllSooners TE Grades

  • Hoover: D
  • Chapman: F
  • Sweet: D-
  • Lovelace: F
Published
Randall Sweet
RANDALL SWEET

Randall is a recruiting analyst and staff writer at AllSooners focusing primarily on OU Football and the recruiting trail. Working as a journalist, Randall has covered the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and high school sports across the state. A 2022 University of Oklahoma graduate, Randall hails from Lubbock, TX. While in college, Sweet wrote for the OU Daily in addition to working with Sooner Sports Pad and OU Nightly. Following his time at OU, Sweet served as the Communications Coordinator at Visit Oklahoma City before leaving to join the team at AllSooners. The West Texas native has bylines in the Norman Transcript and is a Staff Writer for Inside the Thunder. Randall holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK. 

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