Through Good Times and Bad, Oklahoma LB Danny Stutsman Has Forged a Permanent Legacy

He almost left the Sooners after his freshman year, and he wanted to leave after last season, but Stutsman stuck it out and now goes into Senior Night this week with "no regrets."

Oklahoma linebacker Danny Stutsman / SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Oklahoma linebacker Danny Stutsman has become a rarity. He’s actually the exception to the rule. 

Play four years. Don’t transfer. Don’t follow when your coach leaves. Play for the new guy. Get better. Make All-American. Become an iconic player at your original school. Play your way into the NFL Draft.

Sounds simple enough.

But Stutsman will accomplish all those things and more — including getting to go through Senior Night festivities at the school he originally signed with — because he reacted with patience and prudence in the days following Lincoln Riley’s departure.

“I think I have no regrets with how my career has gone,” Stutsman said. “Every time I step on that field, I leave it all out there.” 

The 6-foot-2, 241-pound Stutsman probably doesn’t know it and he likely wouldn’t agree, but he’s been the poster child for how the Oklahoma program coalesced for Brent Venables after Riley bolted to USC. Stutsman became the face of a new era of OU football, one where the defense stands tall and plays with pride and goes toe-to-toe with all comers. 

And it’s all because of his decisions in the aftermath of Riley’s dark exit — and the exit of then-defensive coordinator Alex Grinch and several others hours after a bitter loss at Oklahoma State to end the 2021 regular season.

Stutsman was just finishing his freshman year after a stellar high school career at Foundation Academy in Windermere, FL,  near Orlando, when his new world was turned upside down.

Stutsman had wrecked his left elbow and missed three games that year, but he immediately showed great promise, with a team-leading eight tackles in his second college game, four stops and a half-sack against Texas, four more tackles and a forced fumble against Texas Tech, three tackles and a half sack at Baylor (where his dad played) and seven tackles in the Alamo Bowl victory over Oregon. He finished his freshman season with 38 tackles, 21 solo, one sack and two forced fumbles.

But as Stutsman and his teammates tried to make sense of the Sooners’ shocking loss in Stillwater in the season finale, rumors began to trickle out. Then, the next morning, the Switzer Center was filled with wide eyes and ashen faces. By the time Riley showed up to an unscheduled team meeting that afternoon — one also attended by athletic director Joe Castiglione and Hall of Fame coach Bob Stoops — everyone knew.

Riley was gone.

Stutsman immediately called his dad.

“Well, looks like I'm going to USC,” Danny told him. 

It seemed that Grinch was leaving, too, and several other assistants would likely be joining the exodus. Stutsman assumed that his close relationship with then-linebackers coach Brian Odom would lead him to Southern Cal as well.

“That's where our relationship is really strong,” Steve Stutsman told Sooners On SI. “I said, ‘Hang on, bud. Let's just start thinking about this thing.’ ”

Steve Stutsman played college football at Baylor. His wife Susy played college basketball for the Bears. Danny’s older sister Sabrina played college softball at Florida State. So Steve reminded his young son that the intricacies of playing college sports can be extremely difficult to navigate.

“I know it's a knee-jerk reaction,” Steve said, “but he's always been wanting to listen to all the facts and make a decision off of what's in his best interest — and that's pretty much what happened. 

“You know, we just told him, ‘Hey, if Venables is coming back, that's going to be great. If you're playing defense, he's going to get this thing going. And linebackers … you know, you want to stick with this thing.’ And that's what he did.” 

Venables did come back to OU after winning two national championships as defensive coordinator at Clemson, and he did fix the Oklahoma defense, and Stutsman has been the avant garde of this new OU football — a program built on defense, rather than Heisman quarterbacks and flashy offensive numbers.

Of course, Stutsman didn’t sign up to have a losing record his senior year. But that’s what he and his teammates are facing as they go into the final two weeks of the season at 5-5. They’re two-touchdown underdogs this week in the home finale against Alabama, and they’ll likely be double-digit underdogs next week at LSU, meaning the Sooners could very well finish 5-7.

Of course, they could come off their bye week and shock the world this week and beat ‘Bama, and go into hostile territory next week and beat a struggling LSU team, and finish 7-5 and go to a fun bowl game. It’s college football. Stranger things have happened. 

And maybe Stutsman looks around and sees that Riley’s Trojans are also 5-5, and that Grinch got fired last year, and realizes the grass isn't always greener and understands that things worked out pretty good for him in Norman after all.

Odom never did rejoin Riley in LA. Instead, he stayed on to coach the Alamo Bowl and coordinate the defense, and the Sooners won and Stutsman played great. Steve Stutsman remembers having a conversation with Odom that night in Stillwater and Odom expressing such excitement about Danny’s exceedingly bright future at OU.

“And literally, the next day, I think we all got the news,” Steve said. “And I'll tell you what, nobody was more shocked (than Odom). And I think this is not anything surprising. There's probably only a handful of people that knew that Lincoln was leaving — three or four guys that were closest to him. But Coach Odom had no clue, so he immediately called me the next day and apologized.”

Stutsman moved on, of course, making the fateful decision to stick with his original commitment and play it out as a Sooner. He reiterates that he has no regrets.

“I’ve had so many great experiences,” he said. “The highest of the highest, the lowest of the lowest.”

“You know what? It's been a journey to its fullest,” Steve Stutsman said. “It's everything I ever imagined. Dropped him off as a little skinny kid from from a small school in Florida, and you know, four years later, he grew up into a man that, not only can his parents can be proud of, but he's somebody that society can be proud of. You know, he cares about everybody. He wants to do right by others. You know, it's everything you could ask for.”

Instead of quitting, instead of chasing his coach, instead of changing his mind, Stutsman doubled down with Venables and stayed at Oklahoma. The “little skinny kid” from Florida became a three-year starter in Crimson and Cream, led the Big 12 Conference with 125 tackles as a sophomore, was named second-team All-American and first-team All-Big 12 with 104 tackles as a junior, and is a leading contender for the Butkus Award, first-team All-SEC and even more All-America accolades with 96 tackles and counting as a senior.

Last week at Missouri, after a career-high 19 tackles, Stutsman passed Kevin Murphy for 10th place on OU’s career tackles list. Stutsman now has 363, and could jump into the top eight with his usual numbers against Alabama and LSU.

“He’s a war daddy,” said first-year defensive coordinator Zac Alley. “I mean, he goes after it every play (with) everything he has, and has an incredible instinct for the ball, behind the ball, and just finds ways to make plays.”

OU career tackles / OU stats

The Sooners’ career tackles chart reads like a who’s who among OU linebackers, but Stutsman is one of just three players in the top 10 who played against contemporary (passing) offenses. The rest of them stayed mainly in the box, played football in a phone booth and followed the fullback.

Steve Stutsman said his son got a “more than favorable” grade as an underclassman exploring early entry into last year’s NFL Draft. He concluded after the Alamo Bowl loss to Arizona that his time at OU was done and that he was NFL-bound. He even told Venables so. 

But another conversation with his dad made him look at things through a different lens. He realized that, sure, he could go to the NFL and probably get drafted somewhere on the second or possibly third day. But returning to Norman to play one more season under Venables and  learning how to play the position even better and further cementing his legacy at OU became more appealing than scuffling to get a foothold in the NFL.

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

Of course, Stutsman’s legacy goes well beyond just making tackles or even winning games. Remember when he donated $50,000 of his own NIL earnings to Oklahoma’s walk-ons — a donation that was matched by a national restaurant chain? That’s a real legacy.

Now — especially now, as he surveys the Sooners’ current disappointing season and reflects on that week in December 2021 and thinks back on putting off his NFL future and remembers the warm feeling of his gift to the walk-ons — Stutsman can appreciate his place in OU history.

“Whether you're working or whatever you're doing, you want to leave a legacy there,” Steve Stutsman said. “And it's very important to him, when he walks away from OU, that no one could ever say that he didn't leave it all on the field. And, you know, that shows. He's never been about stats, but he prides himself in what he does. And he'll tell you, he's still trying. There’s still a lot of things he can get better at. But, yeah, he just takes a lot of pride, a lot of heart when he when he's on that field.”

When Stutsman was a freshman on the 2021 squad, he didn’t have to look far for defensive mentors. Nik Bonitto, Brian Asamoah, Deshaun White, David Ugwoegbu, Pat Fields, Delarrin Turner-Yell, Isaiah Thomas, Justin Broiles and Caleb Kelly were just a few of the defensive seniors who had experienced OU’s run of six straight Big 12 titles and four College Football Playoff berths. Five of those guys are still playing in the NFL or competing for roster time, and two others are in leadership roles in the OU program. Their guidance during that ’21 season, and in the tribulations right after, left an impact on Stutsman.

“They embraced (and) they recognized a guy who's going to be a true, true teammate and a budding leader,” Steve Stutsman said. “You know, they want to learn from them. And I think he couldn't ask for more than the kind of guys he's had in his locker room that helped nurture him.”

Now it’s Stutsman who’s providing an example for leadership and mentoring OU’s young players. Whether it’s guys who signed a year later, transferred in or are just now experiencing their freshman year, Stutsman has emerged as Oklahoma’s strongest leader.

“I’ve known Danny for a long, long time, probably since I was a junior in high school and it was his senior year,” said junior linebacker Kobie McKinzie. “So I've known Danny for a long time. He's always been a good dude. He's always just been Danny, as people like to say. He's just Danny. That's Danny. He's been a really, really good brother, friend. We'll be at each other's wedding someday. That's truly my brother for life.” 

“I’ve got a huge appreciation for Danny,” said junior linebacker Dasan McCullough. “Since I got here, on my official visit he was my (host). I've been with Danny since the moment I got here. All he's done is led and been a player — he's really like a player's player. He's not someone around the facility that's trying to act like a coach. So we all get along with Danny. Having him back here this year has been huge from a leadership standpoint. Heading into the SEC, we needed a guy like that — just a guy who's been through (things), had that many snaps, an explosive player. All appreciation for Danny and him coming back.”

“That’s not even a leader in my eyes, but an older brother,” said freshman defensive tackle Jayden Jackson. “Takes me in, on and off the field. Consistently tells me I’ve been where he was at one point in time. He shows me all the ropes and shows me everything I need to know as a young dude.”

Four years ago, during the summer of COVID, Stutsman came to Oklahoma at his own family’s expense as part of the Sooner Summit. Organized by 5-star quarterback Caleb Williams and his dad Carl, the summit was a gathering of OU commits and other prospects in Norman. They got together at the Embassy Suites hotel, they met with Riley and the OU staff via virtual meetings, and they assembled on campus for some informal and unofficial tours.

Stutsman was the first prospect to commit to OU during the pandemic. He sat down with Sooners On SI during his trip and expressed what he had been looking for in a school and why Oklahoma stood out.

“I wanted to have a staff I knew was gonna be there all four years,” he said. 

That didn’t happen, of course, but Stutsman persevered and stayed anyway.

And on Saturday night, when the OU seniors are brought to midfield to celebrate their careers, there will be just four players who signed with the Sooners out of high school: Stutsman, safety Billy Bowman, defensive end Ethan Downs and wide receiver Jalil Farooq. (Farooq has missed most of this season due to injury and could take a medical redshirt, meaning he could return next year and put off Senior Day activities until 2025.)

Four, out of 15 freshmen who signed in the 2021 class.

“Yeah, that's it, man,” Steve Stutsman said. “That's, you know, that's what's left.

“It’s the four horsemen, man.”

“Yeah, I know, it's sad,” Danny Stutsman said. “It really goes by fast. Every senior's gonna say that. It's cliche, but it's so true. It's gonna be a little — it's painful coming back here for the last time. 

“Every time out there I just want to give it my all. I’m just the keeper of the jersey, the keeper of the room. … Hopefully I can just leave this team better than I found it.”

Stutsman said every time he comes off the field, whether it’s after a series or after a game, he wants to go right back. Football is fun, and he makes sure of that. That’s why these next two Saturdays are going to be an emotional drain.

“I don’t want to leave the field,” he said. “ … And so, just gonna take advantage of the opportunity and just take it all in one more time.”

And the emotions of Senior Night — his last time to wear the Crimson and Cream in front of Sooner Nation — can be overwhelming for the entire family.

“I tell you what man, he's gonna get his degree, he's gonna have his his teammates for life. He's gonna have all that,” Steve Stutsman said. “He's gonna hopefully be, you know, welcomed back with open arms to a university that he's cared about. So I don't know what else you could ask for, to be honest.”