Coming off his third straight year as a top-three defensive contributor, redshirt senior linebacker Kip Lewis will once again be in command of the OU defense, which claimed the top spot in the Southeastern Conference in opponent yards and points per game, and was in the top seven nationally in both metrics.
“I love watching Kip play on game day, …” head coach Brent Venables said at spring media day. “(He’s) one of the most disruptive linebackers in all of college football that's invested in this program, … his wisdom and all of his experience is just going to be great.”
Lewis’s partner in disrupting offenses across the country is redshirt senior Owen Heinecke, a player who burst into stardom in 2025 and continued to make headlines after the season was over with his eligibility dispute.
“Owen’s just a guy you want to fight for, and we've got a locker room full of great young men,” general manager Jim Nagy said at spring media day.
Lewis and Heinecke were the Sooners’ most productive defensive players in 2025. Lewis made 76 tackles and wreaked havoc on quarterbacks by picking up four sacks and four pass deflections. Heinecke had similar numbers, recording 74 total tackles, three sacks and four pass deflections.
While OU was able to retain both, it couldn’t hoard all of its wealth at the position as former Sooners Sammy Omosigho and Kobie McKinzie transferred out of Norman following the 2025 season.
OU also saw the departure of former Sooner and now Atlanta Falcons linebacker Kendal Daniels. Daniels was a versatile player for OU that filled Venables’ hybrid linebacker-defensive back role known as the “Cheetah.”
Junior defensive back Reggie Powers III is among the top candidates to slide into the starting “Cheetah” role. His 6-foot, 212-pound frame puts him on the smaller side for the role, considering Daniels was listed at 6 feet, 5 inches and 242 pounds; however, Powers was able to make an impact in 2025 by recording 31 tackles, one sack, one pass deflection and a forced fumble.
As for the traditional linebacker role, a handful of players could see their names in the mix with Lewis and Heinecke in 2026. Redshirt junior Taylor Heim and junior transfer Cole Sullivan look to be the frontrunners to fill Omosigho and McKinzie’s spots.
Heim registered tackles in five games for OU in 2025, including wins against then-No. 4 Alabama and then-No. 22 Missouri, and recorded 12 tackles and half a sack in his outings. Sullivan spent the last two seasons at Michigan, where he was the No. 3 linebacker for the Wolverines. He recorded 44 tackles, two sacks, three interceptions and a forced fumble in 2025, making him a top-five defensive player in Ann Arbor.
“The expectation here is for the linebackers to run the show,” Sullivan said on April 9. “Coach Venables emphasizes that, stresses that to us, so that's definitely important for us to be able to command the defense.”
This story was edited by Joshua McDaniel. Parker Newman and Tori Pham copy edited this story.
