Oklahoma WR Andrel Anthony Still Working Toward Return During Fall Camp

The OU wide receiver is still on track with his recovery ahead of the 2024 season.

Oklahoma's Andrel Anthony (5) celebrates a touchdown in the first half during the college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and the Southern Methodist University Mustangs at the Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023. / SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK

NORMAN — Oklahoma’s breakout star from the first half of 2023 is still working his way back. 

Wide receiver Andrel Anthony quickly established himself as Dillon Gabriel’s go-to playmaker to start last year, catching 27 passes for 429 yards and a score through OU’s first six games. 

A bonafide burner, Anthony’s speed saw him blow by opposing secondaries as he averaged 15.9 yards per catch, but he was even more important on third down. 

Gabriel threw to Anthony 10 times on third downs in the first six games. He caught eight of those passes and got past the sticks seven times to keep drives alive. In total, 29.6 percent of Anthony’s receptions came on third down. 

But he sustained a season-ending knee injury in Oklahoma’s 34-30 victory over Texas, putting him on the road to recover from surgery to return in 2024. 

The progress to get back on the field was steady throughout the offseason, and OU coach Brent Venables said he was inching closer to a return at the start of fall camp. 

“He’s been running and he looks good,” Venables said at the start of August. “I don’t think he’s full speed but he’s done one-on-one’s. He’s done a lot. We’ll keep progressing him as well.”

Oklahoma wide receiver Andrel Anthony ahead of a practice during OU's fall camp. /

The Sooners hope he’ll be up and running full speed to tackle the meat of Oklahoma’s brutal SEC schedule, as there should be plenty of depth in the wide receiver room to push OU through the first month of the season. 

Purdue transfer Deion Burks was the big addition of the offseason in the wide receiver room after he caught 47 passes for 629 yards and seven touchdowns last year for the Boilermakers. 

Burks looked as advertised in Oklahoma’s spring game, where he got behind the defense twice for a pair of touchdown receptions. 

Jalil Farooq is back for another year in Norman as well.

He finished 2023 with career-highs in receptions (45) and receiving yards (694) and he found the end zone twice. 

Farooq was especially deadly against Texas where he burned the Longhorns for 130 yards through the air on five catches. 

The receiver who caught the game-winning pass in the Cotton Bowl, Nic Anderson, is primed to build on his redshirt freshman season as well. 

Anderson set a new OU freshman record with 10 touchdown catches, and he closed the 2023 campaign with 798 yards on 38 receptions. 

New co-offensive coordinators Seth Littrell and Joe Jon Finley will rely on that trio to do the heavy lifting for the OU offense in September, especially after Jayden Gibson was lost for the year due to an injury he sustained at practice. 

“You know the guys that have stepped up,” Venables said after confirming Gibson’s injury last week. “Nic, Jalil, Deion Burks, J.J. Hester, Ivan Carreon and Jaquaize Pettaway as well as Zion Kearney. Those guys in particular.”

“… The receiver group, is a group of guys that’ve — a lot of them played a lot of football and have been successful, so we do have some good depth there.”

Quarterback Jackson Arnold isn’t worried about the quality of the weapons he has at his disposal, especially once Anthony is fully back in the fold. 

“It's a deep wide receivers' group,” Arnold said. “Got studs from my left all the way to my right, dudes that can go out and get the ball. Can flat out play, can flat out fly. 

“I’m going to need to rely on those guys this year to go out and make plays for me and at the same time they're gonna need to rely on me and go out and give them a good ball. So I think the world of that group and they're being really competitive right now."

Until Anthony is making plays back on Owen Field, he’s got a strong support system within the team. 

J.J. Hester, who has spent most of the last two seasons battling separate foot injuries, grew even closer with Anthony last year as they both spent plenty of time together getting treatment with OU’s medical team. 

The work to stay mentally engaged while being physically on the shelf is tough, but Hester is proud of how Anthony is handling the adversity ahead of his long-awaited return this fall. 

“I know he is going through a lot and just having to come up here and rehab a lot and everything,” Hester said. “… I know what it takes mentally and physically. So shoutout to Andrel Anthony for coming up here every day and getting his work in.”