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Oklahoma Gets More Good News on Defense as Former Transfer DT Announces Return

The Sooners can celebrate the return of another 2024 transfer defensive lineman as the program transitions to the Southeastern Conference.

John E. Hoover

Oklahoma Gets More Good News on Defense as Former Transfer DT Announces Return
Oklahoma Gets More Good News on Defense as Former Transfer DT Announces Return /
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More good news has dropped for Oklahoma.

Jacob Lacey, a senior defensive tackle who transferred to OU last year from Notre Dame, announced on Twitter Friday that he intends to return to Norman in 2024.

Lacey, who arrived last January but was feared might have to retire due to life-threatening blood clots, got his health situation resolved by preseason and became one of the Sooners’ steadiest interior defensive linemen.

He played in 12 games, made 16 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and a quarterback sack, but his impact at noseguard was more profound than tackle stats.

Lacey started the Sooners’ last 11 games and finished with 363 defensive snaps, which led all OU interior defensive linemen. His overall grade from Pro Football Focus was 60.1 for the season, but he graded higher than that seven times, including a season best 82.9 against Tulsa.

Key Oklahoma Defensive Lineman Set to Return in 2024

Lacey was credited with three quarterback hurries as well.

The 6-foot-1, 282-pound Lacey played four seasons at Notre Dame after arriving as a coveted recruit from Warren High School in Bowling Green, KY.

OU got its first good news up front on Thursday as former Tennessee transfer Da'Jon Terry announce he would be back in 2024.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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