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Oklahoma Players Land on Preseason All-SEC Teams

Senior linebacker Danny Stutsman and senior DB Billy Bowman and transfer wide receiver Deion Burks all received preseason recognition from the league's media.

John E. Hoover

Oklahoma linebacker Danny Stutsman
Oklahoma linebacker Danny Stutsman / Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
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Danny Stutsman gave the SEC fair warning way back in December.

“SEC, see you soon,” Stutsman wrote in a social media video declaring he would return to play his senior year at Oklahoma.

On Friday, the SEC acknowledged his tease.

Stutsman, a linebacker from Windermere, FL, and a three-year starter for the Sooners, was named to the 2024 preseason All-SEC football First Team.

Safety Billy Bowman was also honored by the league’s media, who cast their votes this week at SEC Media Days in Dallas. Bowman was chosen First Team Preseason All-SEC as well,.

Wide receiver Deion Burks, who shined in the OU spring game after transferring from Purdue, was chosen to the Third Team preseason All-SEC team. Burks led the Boilermakers last season with 47 receptions for 629 yards and seven touchdowns. In the Red/White Game in April, Burks caught five passes for 174 yards and two long touchdowns.

The Inkster, MI, product played in 30 games and made 13 starts over his three years at Purdue, racking up 804 yards and seven touchdowns on 63 receptions.

Stutsman's announcement came only days after Bowman turned to social media to reveal he was coming back to OU in 2024, also with an SEC tease. In his three years with the Sooners, Bowman has recorded 142 tackles, 11 passes defensed, nine interceptions, seven tackles for loss and two forced fumbles. 

As a junior in 2023, the Denton Ryan (TX) alum tallied six interceptions, three of which he returned for touchdowns. One of Bowman's biggest plays of the year was a miraculous 100-yard pick six against BYU that helped OU take down the Cougars for the first time in program history.

Bowman's three pick sixes and 238 interception-return yards were the most in the nation by an FBS player in 2023.  Bowman also earned first-team All-America recognition from CBS Sports/247Sports. In 35 career games (29 starts), he has compiled 145 tackles, 6.5 TFLs, nine interceptions, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and 11 pass breakups.

Stutsman was previously named preseason First Team All-American by the Walter Camp Football Foundation after collecting 104 tackles, 16 tackles for loss, three sacks, two forced fumbles and an interception return for a touchdown in 2023. 

The 6-foot-4, 241-pound Stutsman proved his value to the Sooners as he missed two games last season — and OU lost them both. He has presided over marked improvement in the Oklahoma defense since his arrival as a true freshman, including a climb from 106th nationally to 44th in rushing defense in 2023.

Stutsman received a “more than favorable” draft grade from then NFL’s College Advisory Committee, his dad told Sooners on SI, and had all but made up his mind after last season to head to the NFL Draft. But ultimately, Stutsman decided one more year under Brent Venables would grow him as a person and as a player, and more importantly allow him to proceed in his career with no regrets.

“At the end of the day, the NFL’s always gonna be there,” Stutsman said Tuesday. “But having my senior year at such a great university that’s given me so much — more than I could ever think.”

Stutsman was Third Team AP All-America after his junior season. As a sophomore, he led the Big 12 and ranked in the top five nationally with 125 tackles. in 35 career games (25 starts), he compiled 267 tackles, 28.0 TFLs, 7.0 sacks, three interceptions four forced fumbles and eight pass breakups.

He spent hours with Venables going over his decision. But once he made the call to come back for 2024 and play his final season in the SEC, he’s been focused on getting at least one percent better every day.

“Obviously with Coach V and me coming back, we had a plan going into it, what I needed to improve upon,” he said.

Now, Stutsman is grateful to play one last college campaign against the conference he grew up in — none of whom offered him, he said, except Texas A&M.

“Especially growing up, being from Florida, you grow up around UF, that’s just an amazing opportunity,” Stutsman said. “It’s always talked about as one of the greatest conferences, which I definitely agree with that. I’m blessed to have the opportunity to to finally kind of give it a go.”

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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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