Hayden Hansen was not always a tight end.
The 6-foot-8 Weatherford, Texas native has been a bright spot for a struggling OU offense through three games, but initially, he needed a push to find his position.
Hansen was a talented quarterback when he joined Weatherford High School, but as his high school coach Billy Mathis remembers, college coaches, including former OU head coach Lincoln Riley, suggested that he move to tight end heading into his junior year.
“There were a couple that came in … and said, ‘Hey, if this guy puts his hand in the dirt, he'll go do whatever he wants to do,’” Mathis said. “I'm almost 100% sure it was Lincoln Riley at the time.”
Mathis also saw tight end as a better fit for Hansen. At roughly 270 pounds, Hansen is a giant compared to most football players, especially those at skilled positions. Hansen immediately bought into the vision.
“In the weight room, he's just a man amongst boys, … I'm like, ‘Yeah … he's going to end up playing tight end for us,’” Mathis said. “That type of selflessness that he had as a player then, … he's like, ‘Coach, I'll do whatever you think I need to do to make this team the best. That's what I'll do.’”
The switch was seamless, but Hansen still had to learn to play with a different mentality. As a tight end, he no longer had the view of a quarterback and, instead, prepared himself for battle.
“We (used) him a lot as an inline tight end, just getting down there and saying, 'Hey, you're about to go to freaking war down here for a possible four quarters, down here in the trenches.’ And man, this is where games are won and lost,” Mathis said. “As a quarterback, you see everything in front of you. … As a tight end who's down there blocking, a lot of times, you don't see all the action back there in the backfield of what's happening. You got to trust that everything … behind you is going perfect.”
That confidence eventually became Hansen’s core.
“That probably was the toughest deal because he was used to running the show all the time, seeing it all there in front, then it wasn't,” Mathis said. “Then it just became more and more natural, and it became more and more (easy) for him to get down there and trust.”
Hansen transitioned to tight end during his junior year of high school and earned first-team all-district 3-6A honors his senior year.
He never backed down.
“It didn't matter who we were playing; he stepped up and played great, …” said Aubrey Sims, Hansen’s head coach during his senior year. “We played some of the best 6A schools in the DFW area, and I don't think any of them ever got the best of him.”
He shined through being a do-it-all, selfless player for Weatherford, the same attitude he had when initially switching positions.
“It didn't matter what he was doing — blocking, running routes, getting out there, coming around on end-arounds, handing the ball off to him,” Mathis said. “He could do it all.”
‘Always looking for an opportunity’
The attention continued for Hansen, which landed him in the Southeastern Conference as a freshman. At Florida, he quickly faced another challenge: proving he belonged in arguably the best conference in the nation.
Hansen’s first year in Gainesville kept him humble, as he did not play. He did not let that affect his mindset, though.
“He was always looking for an opportunity,” Mathis said. “He always wanted to be available, and that was his stance. … ‘I might not be the man right now, but, I'm an ankle sprain away from possibly being the man, so I got to stay sharp. I got to stay ready, and I got to be available.’”
It did not take long for Hansen to earn a higher role as a Gator. He played in all of Florida’s games his second year, including nine starts, and started every game of his last two seasons in Gainesville.
The experience and leadership he built up in Gainesville booked him a ticket to Norman. OU was in need of an offensive leader after ranking No. 79 in the nation in points per game in 2025.
“I think he started like 34, 35 games in this league, has a lot of experience (and) has a lot of great size to him,” offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle said. “And the cool thing about Hayden is (that) he's a great leader.”
Hansen has absorbed the knowledge of tight end coach Jason Witten, who is in his first year coaching the Sooners. Witten played in the NFL for 17 years, and Hansen feels honored to learn from him.
“That guy is the most intense man I've ever met in my life,” Hansen said. “He's like an encyclopedia of endless football knowledge, and he gets a little heated. Yeah, he's sitting back watching. He's like, ‘Huh, what would I do on this play?’ And if you don't do it how he would do it, he's going to hold you to that Hall of Fame standard. … That's why this tight end room has taken so many strides. I've never had a coach hold me to a Hall of Fame standard like that because they just don't know. Like, you don't play for 17 years in the NFL. My game's just night and day from when I got here.”
Hansen did promise physicality when he arrived, though, and he has already put that on display in a Sooner jersey.
“It's a huge reason why I was brought here,” Hansen said in August. “I take a lot of pride in that, and … in the tight end room, I mean, we really attacked that. … We had to move people back, not just sideways.”
He broke several tackles to score a touchdown against the Lobos, one of only two Sooner scores in the game, prompting his former coaches to celebrate.
“It blew up our coaches’ group text pretty fast, …” Mathis said. “We were so excited for him, so proud to see the big man get out there and catch the ball and go look like an absolute stud, breaking all those tackles and going and doing what he's brought there to do.”
Fans continue to doubt OU’s offense, though, with the Sooners ranking No. 102 in points per game through three games of 2026.
OU is a one-sided team, like in the days under Riley. Only now, the Sooners are defined by defense and fatigued by offense.
However, even with No. 2 Georgia directly ahead, Hansen is not giving up in the fight.
“You got to be like a boxer,” Mathis said. “You just got to keep jabbing, jabbing, jabbing ‘til you find that open, and then you throw that big uppercut to go knock them out. That's the mentality he has. ‘Hey, we may be the underdog. That means nothing.’”
This story was edited by Charlie DiVincenzo. Avery Shaw, Kylie Caldwell, Tori Pham and Larkin Bock copy edited this story.
