Why Oklahoma is Moving Freshman Isaiah Autry-Dent Up to Help With the O-Line

The Sooners have continued to have multiple injuries across the front, and that has compounded shaky play on the offensive line all season.

Oklahoma offensive lineman Isaiah Autry-Dent and Sooners head coach Brent Venables / Isaiah Autry-Dent via Twitter/X

Youth is finally being served on the Oklahoma offensive line.

Due to compounding injuries and ongoing blocking woes, true freshman tackle Isaiah Autry-Dent will move over from the OU scout team this week as the Sooners continue to look for answers.

“We’re going to bring Isaiah Autry up and see what he can do,” head coach Brent Venables said Monday night during his weekly coach’s show. “And then we're just going to keep working hard to getting better.”

The Sooners gave up nine quarterback sacks in a 35-9 loss to South Carolina, and last weekend gave up 10 sacks in a 26-14 loss at Ole Miss.

Venables clarified that three of those plays that were counted as sacks probably shouldn’t have been by the Ole Miss stat crew. Two were running plays by Jackson Arnold, and one was a 1-yard loss on a double-pass to tight end Bauer Sharp where he chose the option of running it instead of throwing it. 

Still, Venables had some very choice words for the OU offensive play on Saturday at Mississippi.

“It's unacceptable,” he said. “Below the standard.”

At his weekly press conference last week, Venables discussed the possibility of adding true freshman Eddy Pierre-Louis to the mix, and said the coaching staff was weighing the options about playing him or redshirting him.

Either way, Venables said things have to improve this season — and they did on Saturday, as OU compiled an SEC season-high 329 yards of total offense, scored two touchdowns in the first half for the first time in conference play and had four offensive possessions of 60 yards or more.

But in the fourth quarter, with the Sooners down two touchdowns and having play catch-up, the vaunted Ole Miss defensive front pinned its ears back and sacked Arnold six times on the Sooners’ final three drives.

“We’ve got to find ways to help them and try to keep them out of those situations,” Venables said. “You know, some of the seven-step (drops), you stay out of third and extra long that can potentially help you.

OU went into the Ole Miss game shorthanded as starting right tackle Jake Taylor was scratched and couldn’t make the trip due to injury.

And when starting left tackle Jacob Sexton went down twice with separate leg injuries and ultimately couldn’t return, redshirt freshman Logan Howland was called on to fill in and gave up a handful of sacks.

Venables said Saturday the extent of Sexton’s injury isn’t known yet, and Taylor’s availability will apparently remain in question. 

With Taylor out, Michael Tarquin switched from left tackle to right, so depending how how Autry-Dent performs in practice, or how Howland continues to progress, it’s possible Tarquin could switch back at some point. Autry-Dent is a 6-foot-6, 303-pound true freshman from Fulton, MS. He was a consensus 3-star recruit at Itawamba Agricultural High School.

“Mike Tarquin has done a nice job,” Venables said. “He's been really pretty good, you know? But some of the young guys are just not playing with great confidence right now, and and so they're getting baptized a little bit. They're going against some really good players, too. And so, again, you got to find ways to try to help them and improve them. 

“Really believe in the guys as far as what their futures look like right now,” Venables said. “And we're not playing great there.

“And so we'll find ways to spend a little bit more time on some of those fundamentals. … We'll try to give them some help with with Isaiah coming over there as well, bring him up (to the two-deep).”