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Oklahoma Names Captains for 2024 Season Opener

After the Sooners revealed their depth chart for Friday's home game against Temple, they then announced which four players will lead the team out of the gates.

John E. Hoover

Oklahoma football players
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Three of Oklahoma’s best leaders have been known for a while now.

But a fourth one — a newcomer to the program — joined those three as team captains for Friday’s season opener against Temple.

Linebacker Danny Stutsman, safety Billy Bowman and quarterback Jackson Arnold were joined Sunday night by tight end Bauer Sharp as captains for Friday night’s game.

Sharp, who began his career on the FCS level at Southeastern Louisiana as a quarterback, transferred to OU in January and has spoken with his actions as he was immediately revealed as one of the top playmakers in the passing game. His stock has only risen during preseason camp, both among his coaches as well as his teammates.

“Bauer, when it’s all said and done, he never got  banged up, hurt, missed anything since January, and since the moment he got here, he has just raised up the passion, the energy, the intensity,” coach Brent Venables said Sunday on his weekly coaches show. “Incredibly competitive. Everybody on that team loves Bauer Sharp. He made that group better, along with Jake Roberts and Kaden (Helms). But Bauer makes everybody better.

“He chose to move his locker right next to Jackson. Bauer’s a former quarterback. He’s a little bit older guy, a couple years left. But he’s got a little more experience than Jackson does, and he wanted to move over there by his quarterback. I just thought that was so mature. He has made so many people around him (better) — which I think that’s what a great player does. If he can reproduce — all the great things that he has, if he can reproduce that in his space — and not everybody’s capable of doing that. But he has since he’s been here. But that drew a real loud celebration when we announced him. All of ‘em did, but especially him.”

“I continue to say this, that I have a chip on my shoulder in everything that I do, from what I come from,” Sharp said. in a post-practice interview last week “I had one offer coming out of high school to play quarterback. So I have a lot to earn, a lot to prove. I’ll continue to say that each and every day.”

“Whatever's best for the team and the offense.”

Stutsman, a senior from Windermere, FL, and Bowman, a senior from Denton, TX, are three-year starters on Venables’ defense. Stutsman has led the Sooners each of the last two seasons in total tackles, and Bowman led the nation with three interception returns for touchdowns. Both have landed on multiple preseason award watch lists including Stutsman on the Butkus Award as the nation's top linebacker and Bowman on the Thorpe Award as the nation's top defensive back.

Arnold, a sophomore from Denton, TX, is a first-year starter at the quarterback position. The former 5-star recruit, was thrown into action at BYU last season and helped lead the Sooners to a tense victory, and then threw for 361 yards and two touchdowns in the Alamo Bowl loss to Arizona.

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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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