Senior defensive back Robert Spears-Jennings has waited for this moment.
Spears-Jennings was under Billy Bowman Jr.’s shadow for the past three seasons but now finds himself as the sole leader in the defensive back room entering the year. As a result, he was voted as a team captain for the 2025 season during the first time head coach Brent Venables has had season-long captains in his tenure at OU.
“It’s a blessing that all the guys believe in me and want me to lead them,” Spears-Jennings said.
Four of OU’s seven team captains – Spears-Jennings, senior defensive lineman Gracen Halton, senior defensive lineman R Mason Thomas and redshirt junior linebacker Kip Lewis – are entering a fourth season with the program after a dry few years. It has been a rocky road over the past four years for the class of 2022. It has worked with two defensive coordinators and contains a combined record of 22-17 with zero bowl wins and zero conference championships.
However, in a world where it’s never been easier to leave a school, OU has seen a rare form of continuity on defense over the last four seasons. Seven of the 11 freshmen defensive players OU signed in the class of 2022 have stayed with the Sooners and have turned other opportunities down to remain in Norman.
Brent Venables just said on his radio show that R Mason Thomas got offered seven figures to leave Oklahoma over the offseason. #Sooners
— Mason Young (@Mason_Young_0) August 26, 2025
With their loyalty, they are now captains and are excited about the opportunity to elevate a defense that was inside the top 20 in total defense a season ago to one of the best in the country in 2025.
“I feel like we all sat down and waited our turn,” Spears-Jennings said. “And when our turn came, we took the opportunity and ran with it. I feel like it’s time to put the whole class and team on display to show what it looks like and stay down until it’s time to come up.”
The captains are taking over the leadership roles and teaching younger players how to handle business as they gear up for the start of the season. For OU, its defense is headlined by experienced players grabbing some starting spots, but young players like freshman cornerback Courtland Guillory and sophomore defensive back Michael Boganowski are starting elsewhere on the initial depth chart.
Between captains and promising young players, and despite expectations always being high in Norman, the defense is reaching for goals that haven’t been reached under Venables.
“I feel like this year should be a top-five year for us because we all know what to do,” Spears-Jennings said. “There’s nobody on our defense that doesn’t know what to do. … We have that gel because we’ve all been with each other for three to four years.”
This story was edited by Joshua McDaniel.
