As OU’s 2025 season ended against Alabama in the first round of the College Football Playoff, questions surrounded the future of the Sooners’ receiving room. Isaiah Sategna’s return for a final season provided one answer after the best year of his collegiate career but another remained: Who would emerge alongside him?
Enter Trell Harris.
Harris, a former Kent State and Virginia wide receiver, entered the transfer portal on Jan. 2 and quickly found his next home, committing to OU just three days later. Through his first four collegiate seasons, the fifth-year from La Grange, Illinois, has totaled nine touchdowns and more than 1,600 receiving yards.
Harris’ arrival at OU came with an obstacle. A cleanup surgery kept him sidelined for the entirety of spring camp and limited him to begin in the fall. Now fully healthy, Harris is relishing every opportunity to get back on the field.
“It's been a minute since I played ball,” Harris said Aug. 30, after not seeing the field since his last snap Dec. 6. at Virginia. “Obviously, I missed out on spring a little bit. So any day I can get out there and just hear the whistles blowing around, I'm happy.”
The Virginia product is set to play a major role in the Sooners’ hopes for offensive success this season. Fifth-year quarterback John Mateer praised Harris’ ability as both a playmaker and a leader since arriving on campus.
“(He’s brought) a lot of leadership … presence,” Mateer said. “He's going to do the right things, and he's going to teach. He's going to be in the right spots and communicate with me, and I appreciate that. He cares so much about this team and (the) opportunity within this team.”
The relationship between Mateer and Harris has been building since Harris arrived in Norman. Though the receiver missed valuable time on the field throughout the spring, he and quarterback have remained on the same wavelength.
“John is definitely one of the closest guys that I have on the team, so I mean we've been spending a lot of time together, …” Harris said. “When I was out in the spring, we were doing a lot of (meetings) after practice, and I would tell him what I was thinking, and he would tell me what he was thinking. … It was easy to get inside each other's brains.”
Mateer echoed Harris’ sentiment, emphasizing that with many newcomers in the receiver room, building relationships outside of practice has been important.
“The relationship off the field matters a lot because you get to know them and you gain the trust in who they are as people, and I think that's super important for everybody,” Mateer said on Aug. 21.
Harris has also leaned on the entire receiving corps, returning and new alike, to help ease the transition.
“I'd say all of them (helped),” Harris said. “When I first got here, we always meet together. … If I had any question, it was pretty much a race to see who was going to answer first.”
Along with Harris, the Sooners added junior Texas transfer Parker Livingstone and junior Washington State transfer Mackenzie Alleyne. With three experienced newcomers entering the receiving room, leadership will be at a premium — an area where one of Harris’ former Kent State teammates says he thrives.
Former Kent State and current Roosevelt University wide receiver Dash Dorsey grew up in the Chicago area with Harris, following a similar path to Kent State and the Golden Flashes’ receiving room. When Dorsey took his official visit during his senior year of high school, Harris was there to take him under his wing.
“We both played on the same 7v7 team growing up so seeing a familiar face in an unknown area (Kent) made us click,” Dorsey wrote to the OU Daily. “By the time I got to Kent State in January we already had a connection.”
Dorsey wrote that Harris showed him the ins and outs of what it takes to play at the collegiate level.
“He mentioned things to watch what to do and what not to do as a college football player,” Dorsey wrote. “I’d see him get extra work in after practice, and I followed him. … To this day I apply that same mentality with how I practice.”
Now, four years older and at a Southeastern Conference school, the stakes for Harris’ leadership are elevated as he looks to guide a new generation of receivers. Sophomores Elijah Thomas and Manny Choice will both look to take a leap in the Sooners’ offense in 2026.
Head coach Brent Venables praised Harris’ leadership on the SEC teleconference call on Wednesday.
“He's a really communicative guy in the locker room, and so he's been a great mentor, …” Venables said. “I think he's brought out the best in his teammates.”
Despite arriving at OU with experience and plenty of success in 2025, Venables said Harris brought no ego with him.
“He's a humble guy, too, for all the success that he's had,” Venables said. “There's no entitlement whatsoever. … It's a big deal.”
Dorsey pointed to Harris’ journey as evidence of the work he has put in. According to Dorsey, Harris did not stumble into success but earned it every step of the way.
“The stuff you see on Saturdays were developed days and weeks previously, …” Dorsey wrote. “He’s earned every right to be where he’s at.”
This story was edited by Joshua McDaniel. Tori Pham and Sophie Hemker copy edited this story.
