Former Oklahoma Football head coach Bob Stoops identifies a game-changing offensive weapon for Oklahoma: a dominant tight end corps poised to exploit defensive weaknesses and redefine the Sooners' attack
NORMAN, Okla. - Former Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops was on hand for last Saturday’s spring game and didn’t hold back when KREF asked him what stood out most.
His answer was immediate and emphatic: the tight ends.
“Well you know the tight ends, they’re a big deal. When you not just have one on the field, but then you put two on the field, it changes the dynamic for the defense, big time,” Stoops told the station.
“You start to capture the edges of the defense, or you know if those guys can block, and if you, you know, you have a lot of different run game schemes when you have tight ends involved, and yeah that was noticeable.”
It wasn’t just nostalgia talking.
Stoops, who built some of his best Oklahoma offenses around multiple-tight-end packages, saw the same blueprint taking shape again in Norman.
The numbers backed him up. Rocky Beers caught four passes for 65 yards, while Hayden Hansen added three receptions for 34 yards. Jack Van Dorselaer rounded out the group, giving the Sooners three viable options who can both catch and block.
Stoops kept rolling with his analysis. “And it changes how the defense, you know the personnel they have. They may be weak at outside backer, and now you got a chance to take advantage of that, and or people that have a harder time than, you know five DBs, a lot of people like to play in the nickel defense with the lighter smaller guys outside. And now all of a sudden you got a 255-260 pound tight end in his face. That changes things for them. So it gives you a lot of different options, the tight ends.”
The Sooners’ tight end room is now under the direction of future Hall of Famer Jason Witten. The former Dallas Cowboys star spent 16 NFL seasons proving exactly what Stoops described, how a physical, versatile tight end can dictate matchups.
Witten’s hands-on teaching has already shown up in the spring game reps, where the group looked comfortable in both pass-catching and run-blocking roles.
Stoops knows the formula works because he lived it. His most productive years featured the dynamic duo of Jermaine Gresham and Joe Jon Finley. That pairing gave Oklahoma the ability to run inside zone behind extra blockers or flood the seam with two athletic targets.
Defenses couldn’t stay in their base fronts without getting gashed on the ground, yet they couldn’t go nickel without inviting a 250-plus-pound mismatch on the edge.
The same concept has dominated the NFL for years. The New England Patriots turned Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez into a matchup nightmare that helped compete at a high-level.
Today, the Baltimore Ravens lean on Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely to control the middle of the field, while the Kansas City Chiefs keep defenses guessing with Travis Kelce and Noah Gray.
In each case, two-tight-end sets force coordinators into uncomfortable personnel decisions, the exact dynamic Stoops spotted in Norman last Saturday.
For Oklahoma, the timing feels right.
Spring games are about evaluation, not final judgments, but the early returns on the tight ends were hard to miss.
Beers and Hansen combined for seven catches and nearly 100 yards while showing the blocking toughness Witten demands. Van Dorselaer adds depth that keeps the rotation fresh.
Stoops wasn’t just offering polite praise. He was diagnosing a strategic edge.
When a 260-pound tight end lines up in 12 personnel, the defense suddenly has to choose between leaving an outside linebacker on an island or pulling a safety down and weakening the secondary.
That single adjustment opens run lanes, creates one-on-one coverage for receivers, and forces coordinators to spend all week game-planning around a position many teams treat as secondary.
Stoops knows what he's talking about. He built a program that won with physical, scheme-diverse offenses, and he sees the ingredients for that same identity returning.
With Witten guiding a talented trio and offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle clearly open to two-tight-end packages, Oklahoma has a chance to make the position a featured weapon again.
What stood out to Bob Stoops last Saturday wasn’t a single big play or flashy highlight. It was a group of tight ends who, in his words, are “a big deal”—and the way they can force defenses to play a different game entirely.