The NFL legend brings a "care first, coach hard" mentality to Norman, prioritizing deep player relationships to revitalize a position room featuring three new transfer portal additions
Jason Witten is getting started in his first year as Oklahoma’s tight ends coach, and the way he’s approaching the job feels pretty straightforward. Build relationships first, set clear standards, then coach the heck out of them.
“I think like anything, you wanna build that relationship with the players. They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
That’s the foundation. Witten wants the guys to know he actually cares before he starts pushing them. It’s a players’ coach mindset, but it doesn’t mean he’s going to take it easy on them.
He explained how he plans to balance both sides. “I think laying out those standards of here's how we're gonna try to play the tight end position. Here's what's important to us. Here's our standards. Here's how I'm going to coach you. But ultimately, that relationship matters. Spent a lot of time with them, get to know one another. I think when players understand that, and they believe that, they'll do anything you want for em, that you want them to do. And also it comes from a place of coaches coaching you hard.”
Care first, then coach hard. Players usually buy in more when they believe the coach has their back. Witten’s done this long enough at the highest level to know that combination works.
Oklahoma has always taken pride in the tight end position. Keith Jackson set a high bar, and guys like Joe Jon Finley, Jermaine Gresham, and Mark Andrews kept that standard going.
In recent years the position hasn’t consistently lived up to that history. Witten’s job is to get it back there using everything he learned during his own career.
This year is a complete reset. Nobody returns from the 2025 roster. The room is made up of three portal additions: Hayden Hansen from Florida, Rocky Beers from Colorado State, and Jack Van Dorselaer from Tennessee. They all bring different sizes and skill sets, and Witten sees that as a positive if they can fill in the gaps.
Witten stated, “Their skill sets are all different. You look at Hayden's body type, compared to Rocky's body type, and then Jack, and we start mixing it in... them being different body types and having different strengths, I think allows you to be more versatile. The emphasis for me coming in here, okay, well here's an area that's not our strength, we've got to close that gap so that it makes sense for us to be in this personnel set.”
Different body types give the offense more options, but only if the weaker areas get cleaned up. Witten’s focus is on raising the floor so the group can be trusted in different personnel packages. That should help John Mateer by giving him more reliable targets and better help in the run game.
The whole approach feels practical. Witten isn’t overcomplicating it. Get to know the players, set the standard for how the position is supposed to be played, then coach them hard from a place of care. If the guys respond to that, the tight end room should look a lot more dependable this fall.
Oklahoma needs more out of the position than they’ve gotten lately. A versatile, physical group that can block and catch would take some pressure off the rest of the offense. Witten’s experience and the way he’s talking about the job give the room a real chance to take a step forward.
He’s not promising instant results. He’s talking about relationships, clear expectations, and closing gaps. That feels like the right way to attack a full rebuild at the position.
If Hansen, Beers, and Van Dorselaer buy into what he’s selling, the tight ends could go from a question mark to a useful piece of the offense in 2026.
