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Oklahoma Names Team Captains for 2023 Season Opener

On Monday evening, the Sooners announced the five team captains for their Saturday matchup against Arkansas State.

Randall Sweet

Oklahoma Names Team Captains for 2023 Season Opener
Oklahoma Names Team Captains for 2023 Season Opener /
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Oklahoma announced its first batch of team captains on Monday, with a few notable inclusions. 

In his first season in Norman, Brent Venables decided to reveal a new set of team captains every week, giving a large handful of players a feasible goal to work towards on a weekly basis.

With the Sooners' 2023 season kicking off on Saturday, OU announced its week one team captains following practice on Monday evening. 

In Oklahoma's week one contest against Arkansas State; junior defensive back Billy Bowman, redshirt senior wideout Drake Stoops, redshirt senior offensive lineman McKade Mettauer, redshirt senior defensive back Justin Harrington and junior linebacker Danny Stutsman will serve as team captains when the Sooners meet the Red Wolves at Gaylord-Family Memorial Stadium on Sept. 2 at 11 a.m. CT in week one of the college football season. 

Stoops, who is entering his sixth season at OU, has played in 49 games and made 18 starts in his collegiate career. Last season, the slot receiver made 10 starts, catching 39 passes for 393 yards and three touchdowns.

After getting an offseason to workout and train with incumbent starting quarterback Dillon Gabriel, Stoops should be primed for another solid season. Earlier in the summer, Stoops and Gabriel both represented the Sooners at Big 12 Media Days.

The only other offensive team captain in week one is Mettauer, who has started 41 consecutive college football games. In 2022, the former California Golden Bears' offensive lineman was the only Oklahoma offensive lineman to start all 13 contests. 

With Mettauer's wealth of experience as a college football player, it is no surprise that the fifth-year senior was named one of OU's captains for week one.

After an up-and-down career in Norman that saw Harrington briefly leave the team, the former junior college defensive back has been named a team captain for week one. 

How to Watch Oklahoma vs. Arkansas State

"I haven't had a chance to really sit back and take it in," Harrington said after practice on Monday. "That really just shows me how my teammates care about me and what they think about me and what my coaches think about me as well. ... I take it really seriously. As you can see, everyday I'm running around, tapping people on the head, tapping people on the back, encouraging them. They have a bad play, let it go. Everybody has bad plays."

Harrington joined the Sooners in 2020 as a transfer from Bakersfield College, where the 6-foot-3 defensive back spent two seasons. After taking a redshirt year during his first semester in Norman, Harrington played in 17 games over the course of the next two seasons.

If the Raleigh native does crack the starting lineup against Arkansas State, it will mark Harrington's first start since arriving on campus.

Bowman, a fellow defensive back, is one of two juniors to be named a week one captain. 

The third-year player from Denton, TX, was a highly touted recruit coming out of high school and has lived up to the hype thus far. In his first two seasons at Oklahoma, Bowman made 16 starts and played in 22 games.

Last year, the 5-foot-10 safety recorded 60 tackles, five pass breakups, three interceptions, two tackles for loss and one forced fumble.

Stutsman, who joined Stoops, Gabriel and Jonah Lualu at Big 12 Media Days in July, rounds out OU's week one captains. Another third-year player, Stutsman led the Big 12 in tackles last season, racking up 125 stops in 13 games. 

In addition to his gaudy tackle numbers, the Windermere, FL, native also tallied 10.5 tackles for loss, five pass breakups, three sacks and two interceptions. In his two years with the Sooners, Stutsman has played in 23 games and made 13 starts. 

If the speedy linebacker has another solid outing in 2023, it would not be shocking to see the 6-foot-4, 241-pounder hear his name called in the upcoming NFL Draft.

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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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