Oklahoma LB Konnor Near's Challenges Include 'A Lot to Learn,' But He Has 'Been Fantastic'

Although "football is football," Near is taking on bigger, faster opponents and a complex defensive scheme, and is doing it with "a lot of eyes" on him at all times.

NORMAN — Konnor Near has been applauded by most anyone who’s coached him or played alongside him for being a cerebral player, an instinctive player, a player with a high football IQ.

But in just his second practice with the Oklahoma Sooners, it was evident how complex Brent Venables’ defense is when the coach pulled aside his transfer linebacker for a prolonged verbal issuance.

“It's a new scheme,” Near said last week, “and there's a lot of different things to learn.”

That wasn’t a bailout statement. The Sooners’ transfer from Ferris State seems to have the right attitude about the step up he made from Division II to Oklahoma.

“It's just another locker room,” he said, “and it’s just playing football. So it's just about attacking every single day and taking the best chance that you can get at every opportunity. Trying to get the best out of it.”

Near isn’t too small (he's 6-foot-2, 236 pounds) or too slow (he made honorable mention D2 All-American last year as a sophomore) or bad at tackling (he had 66 stops in 2022, which ranked 15th in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference). 

His greatest challenge right now is entirely within the confines of the playbook and Venables’ terminology.

Among other duties at practice, Near gets the calls from Venables or defensive coordinator Ted Roof and has to relay to his teammates the defensive scheme for that particular play.

“He understands football,” Venables said, “and now it’s the verbiage, and now it’s the tempo, and now it’s with different guys. Sometimes he’s out there with the older guys; sometimes he’s out there with the young guys. So, when he’s out there with a young guy, he better be right.”

Like Near said, picking up Venables’ scheme — and putting it down for his teammates between plays — is a lot to learn.

“It's just a lot to take in in a short amount of time,” he said. “I came here early June, and obviously, like two months until camp started. So it's just every day, the kind of thing I'm trying to work on is in the back of my head and continuing to go. In comparison, it's a little bit more. There's more variables, and we do different things than what I'm used to. So it's been fun to learn. Like, I haven’t been challenged in a while. And as far as that goes, like, I mastered what I had before. Now it's fun to have a challenge. Something new every day.”

Does playing the last two years in Division II mean he has a lot of catching up to do?

“I don't know how to put the barometer on it,” Venables said. “Just get the basics down. Every game we're going to have things we game plan for. We talked about that in several meetings and certainly we did again this morning. There's a certain DNA every single week that you're going to have to recalibrate and kind of start over in some ways. But let's get the basics down.”

“He was a two-time (national champion and) All-American and team captain from where he came from,” Roof said. “He’s been very successful. Great leader. Maturity, experience and a good blend. He’s done a great job of fitting in, as have all the transfers. At the same time, our guys have done a great job of making him feel welcome. It’s been a good transition.”

It may have been easier than Near expected. While he acknowledged several times at last week’s media day that “it’s just ball,” he may not have fully realized that until a recent trip from Big Rapids to East Lansing.

“I actually went to the Michigan State Pro Day to watch my roommate, and I was looking around — they had the whole team there and stuff like that. And I was just kind of like looking around — this was before I entered the portal — and I was like, ‘Dang, what's going on here? … I can (do this). It's just ball.”

Of course, Near faces another type of transition when the Sooners put the pads on and when the regular season starts.

“Football is football,” Roof said. “Once the ball is snapped, now, it goes faster at some places than others. And the guys that are trying to block you sometimes are bigger than they are at other places. But it is football and, at the same time, just the acclimation of getting used to the speed of the game.”

Near agrees with Roof — an extent.

“I’d say that overall, yes,” he said. “Like the height, the top 5-10 percent of what I've been playing against that you get towards the end of the (Division II) playoffs, they're almost just as big, almost just as fast as the average at this level. But definitely, the lower half — that other 90 — does. I've seen it. I've been around it for some games, when I’d only played in the first quarter because we were killing them by 30 points already.”

There’s another transition Near must navigate: fan interest. When he won a national championship at Ferris State last year, the Bulldogs had one home game with more than 10,000 fans — against rival Grand Valley State, which packed in 12,661. The biggest crowd Ferris State saw in the playoffs last year was 13,001 — also against Grand Valley State, this time on the road at Allendale, MI.

A grand total of 71,120 fans watched 15 Ferris State games last season as the Bulldogs repeated as national champs.

A total of 75,360 fans turned out for Venables' first spring scrimmage in 2022.

“I don't know if I'd say it’s a challenge,” Near said, “but one of the most eye-opening things was just the amount of eyes that’s on you at all times. Whether it's here like with you (media) guys or whether it's on social media or it's with Coach Smitty (Jerry Schmidt) and the eight (coaches) that are in the gym working out with 30 athletes, you know? So everywhere there's a lot of eyes.

“And it's not a bad thing. It's just something that I wasn't necessarily prepped for or expected. And it's cool. It’s nice. It's just another reassurance to make sure you're doing everything right — and it's not like it's all criticism. A lot of it's like, helping-you-out kind of things.”

Ultimately, that’s just another stepping stone on the path that Near chose when he left the comfort of Division II football just 89 miles from his hometown to broaden his mind and his football experience to however far it will take him.

“There's more resources and more opportunities at a place like this, and everybody that's there would agree with me,” Near said. “I have nothing but love for all those guys and the coaching staff there."

“He's another guy that's poured everything he has into that,” Roof said, “and it's been a really good transition as far as earning respect from his teammates, again, because of the way he works and the type of guy he is.”

“He’s been fantastic,” Venables said. “He shows up every day like a guy that’s played a lot of ball, knows how to compete and responds and those things. He’s got a lot to learn, but he’s been working at it since May.”

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