Brayden Willis was back in Arlington, Texas, for a holiday weightlifting session when he pulled Bob Wager aside to talk.

The Oklahoma tight end and his former James Martin High School coach had been gathering information about Willis’ NFL draft prospects following his senior season, which saw him throw some devastating blocks but not light up the stat sheet.

A fifth year in Norman was possible for Willis, and while elevating his pro stock was a major factor in any decision to return, so was the opportunity to provide stability for a Sooners program stunned by the departure of head coach Lincoln Riley and multiple assistants and players for Southern California.

“He said, ‘Coach, really the thing that's driving this is, the program has been shaken up,’” Wager said. “‘It's been really good to me, I love it there, and I’ve got some teammates that are hurting right now. And I think I’ve put myself in a position where I could bring a lot of benefit from a leadership standpoint.’ And I said, ‘I think that's an awesome idea, and I think you ought to go for it.’”

Few would have predicted how Willis’ final season at Oklahoma would bear out when he chose to return. The Sooners have struggled to a 6-5 record, three of their losses coming by one possession after they failed to capitalize in critical moments.

Through it all, Willis has maintained his unselfish desire to leave OU with a strong foundation for the future. Before Bedlam on Saturday, he was the last to emerge from the southeast tunnel to receive his senior night recognition, smiling as he stood next to first-year head coach Brent Venables. He was also one of three players to receive the Don Key Award, which honors the Sooners’ strongest leaders each season.

Willis is one of few veterans who remembers the sheer determination he and other Sooners possessed during the program’s run of six-straight Big 12 Championships and three College Football Playoff appearances in the past decade. Sitting in a recent team leadership council meeting, he said as much to his younger teammates.

“This isn’t OU, OK? Like I don’t want y’all to sit here and see the kind of season that we’re having, the struggles that we’re going (through), and be like, ‘Oh, this is just the school that I came to. No, this isn’t OU,” Willis recently recounted on The Podcast on the Prairie with his former teammate, Jeremiah Hall. “It’s hard to look at silver linings in things like this, especially since we put so much emphasis on this and we put our lives into this. We pour our heart and soul into everything, into the season.

“To first be able to win, first you have to learn how to not lose. And so being able to see some of the mistakes that we’ve made this year, I think going forward, those mistakes won’t be made.”

Willis’ improvement as a player has been one of few bright spots amid the tumult. While remaining a menacing blocker, the year after he tallied 177 yards and two touchdowns, he has emerged as a receiving threat with 25 catches for 347 yards and five touchdowns. He’s also averaging 13.9 yards per catch, which ranks first in the Big 12 and eighth nationally among tight ends.

But his journey has been marked by development beyond his stats, particularly on a young and inexperienced roster where he has often appeared to be a man among boys this season. “He is Oklahoma football” in offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby’s eyes, an “alpha” who “stands for everything you want” to Venables and “a guy that can change a locker room” to the NFL scouts now interested in the 6-foot-4 Arlington native.

“He has just grown so much just as a person and as a leader,” said Rhonda Reddic, Willis’ mother. “And even though this season is not turning out how we thought it would turn out or how he thought it would turn out, there's been lots of adversity, but it has been really a proud parent moment to sit back and look at how much he's evolved and grown from the adversity.

“It's bittersweet, because it's like, ‘Wow, this losing thing is not fun,’ but to see how he is responding to it, and how he's growing not just as a player, but just as a man, it's been pretty inspiring.”

‘It was never about him’

Nobody was leaving until Willis could “roach” someone.

As a sophomore at James Martin, Willis moved from wide receiver to tight end and made varsity, but was struggling to position his hands and block correctly. One day at practice, the Warriors were forced to do up-downs every time he missed a block.

Older players’ frustrations and coaches threats’ escalated until Willis finally brought his opponent to the ground, squashing him like a cockroach. The blocking prowess he has now shown at Oklahoma, which has earned him the nickname “Weight Room Willie,” took off from there.

“Seemed like every other week he was just roaching linemen,” said Russell Reddic, Willis’ father. Willis even took his junior pictures, which Rhonda declined to purchase, in the “roach” T-shirt the team made.

Willis’ improvement as a tight end went hand in hand with his natural maturation as a leader. Wager said Willis treated the scout team players the same as the starters, the freshmen coaches the same as the varsity. He always did right, and over time, that provided him the platform to hold others accountable as a captain.

A quarterback his entire youth career, he went under center again amid his senior season when the Warriors’ starting quarterback was injured in a 27-16 loss to Mansfield. Willis played quarterback for the final drives and was disgusted with the outcome.

“He came in on Saturday morning and said, ‘that'll never happen again,’ Wager said. “And he immersed himself in the quarterback position, and led us the rest of the way.”

After the loss, Martin won six straight games before falling to powerhouse Allen High in the third round of the 6A playoffs. On the year, Willis threw for 586 yards and seven touchdowns and rushed for 572 yards and 16 scores, earning District 4 MVP honors.

“I think that epitomizes his leadership role,” Wager said. “It was never about him. The quarterback position, it could have very well been offensive guard. And if it had been offensive guard, Brayden would have said, ‘That sounds great, I’ll learn that too. Let's go, if that's what it takes to win.’”

Willis was presented with the same situation this season when OU quarterback Dillon Gabriel suffered a concussion during a 55-24 loss to TCU on Oct. 1. The following week, he learned a variety of Wildcat plays the Sooners used against Texas in Gabriel’s absence.

Wager’s phone was blowing up with texts of “here we go again,” from former coaches, teammates and competitors of Willis’ who saw him under center in the Red River Showdown. Russell was fielding messages from friends and family who wanted to see Willis throw the ball again, like when he tossed a 24-yard touchdown pass in the Sooners’ Sept. 17 win over Nebraska.

OU’s 23 wildcat plays (136 yards, 5.9 yards per play, seven first downs) outgained its 32 traditional ones (45 yards, 1.4 yards per play, two first downs) against the Longhorns, but the result was still a 49-0 loss.

Previously, after the Kansas State loss, Rhonda explained to her son that this could be a “rebuilding year” for OU. She didn’t mean it negatively, just that the Sooners’ evolution, like Willis’ as a player and man, requires time and patience. Willis hated the term, but he has slowly come to grips with that reality.

“He'll say he didn’t ask for his last season to play out this way,” Rhonda said. “But I think that he would argue now that he has learned probably the most from this season, and just the experience within this coaching staff, like, he really loves the staff and he thinks that they pour into them as young men and not just players, and that’s important as well.”

‘Can’t fake your care for the team’ 

When Willis came to OU in 2018, now-Philadelphia Eagles tight end Grant Calcaterra was quick to take him under his wing, but also acknowledged that he didn’t want to get injured, because Willis was on his heels.

Hall, OU’s other H-back, was more on edge about Willis, viewing him as a competitor for his spot — “the enemy” even — until the 2020 season changed his perception.

Willis missed the season opener due to COVID-19, then suffered a leg injury and missed five mid-season games. But he still showed up to lift weights and watch video every day, and he was intentionally trying to help his teammates improve even while sidelined.

“You would have never thought that he was down,” Hall said. “He's always been there, not only for the team, but for me personally, as just a guy, like a good friend, a good teammate. … He was still actively participating in the room and being a good teammate. That’s when I knew he was gonna be a good dude man, because I knew that he was a good athlete and a good player, but to see him be unselfish like that was cool, because he helped me out.”

Hall captained the Sooners in his fifth and final season in 2021 and spent part of the NFL preseason with the New York Giants. He and Willis are now best friends, and Hall has received a front-row seat to watch Willis’ farewell tour, which has felt familiar to his own.

Yet, Willis has faced adversity Hall can’t relate to. No OU team Hall played on lost more than twice. When he and Willis played together, they won three Big 12 Championships and went to two College Football Playoff semifinals. At the time, Hall was largely surrounded by other veteran leaders to help him shoulder responsibility.

Now, Willis is leading amid one of the Sooners’ worst seasons since the historic lows of the late 1990s under John Blake, nurturing a roster of green players with a less-than spectacular bowl game on the horizon. Still, he carries on, trying his best to help Venables ensure a foothold for future success.

“You can't fake your care for the team,” Hall said. “You can’t fake the team aspect of it. Because if you are truly a selfish person, that will show. It will show through conversation, it will show through the way people treat you, and ultimately the way the fans and Sooner Nation looks at you.

“I remember Coach Riley telling us, ‘when you prioritize the team, everything else naturally comes into play.’ When you prioritize doing your job for the team, you will have a chance at the NFL, because being a hard working player and a hard working young man naturally leads to more opportunity. And I think (Brayden has) put himself in a good position to do so at the next level.”

Willis’ performance has rarely been directly responsible for the Sooners’ shortcomings. He caught two fourth-quarter touchdown passes in the 41-34 loss to Kansas State. In the 55-24 defeat at TCU, he recorded a 78-yard catch-and-run score. Then he manned the backfield against Texas the following week.

But he was on the hook in OU’s embarrassing 23-20 loss at West Virginia on Nov. 12. His would-be six-yard touchdown catch was wiped out by pass interference because he was one yard past the line of scrimmage on a pick play.

In his podcast afterward, Willis said he was able to use the error as a teaching tool, correcting himself in front of younger teammates, showing them how they would fix a similar error. His ability to lead in that way puts him in rare company.

“I would say that it's unique in the sense that it's not something that every good player does,” Hall said. “But it's not unique in the sense that the great ones do it, like all the greats. (Baker Mayfield) did it, (Cody Ford) did it, Orlando Brown did it, I helped do it a little bit. All the guys that left an impact on OU did those things, and he just wants to be the next guy to help this program and to do those things. … And so I'm hoping it pays off for the young guys, and that they're listening.”

‘This is something I needed’

Rhonda and Russell have never missed a game, and Willis always embraces them over the edge of the stands, win or lose.

This season, they’ve celebrated highs like Willis’ touchdowns in the season opener against UTEP and his first-career 100-yard game against Kansas. They’ve also held together through the lows, like the TCU and Texas games. The wet and chilly West Virginia loss, one day after Willis’ 23rd birthday, was particularly disheartening.

“It's not fun, but we do see he's handling it so well,” Rhonda said. “It was a miserable game in every respect. … It was hard for us, but I think we take comfort in seeing how he is handling it better. He recognizes that there are some things that have to happen. And I think he's finally come to the realization that those things that are going to happen, may very well come after he leaves the program.”

Sitting with Hall last week for their pre-Bedlam podcast, Willis affirmed his understanding.

“I’m not gonna see the fruits of my labor right now,” he said. “I’m not gonna see it this season. But in a couple of years, BV is gonna win that big thing, gonna win that title, and I’m gonna look back and be like ‘I did that. I had a hand in that. I started that. It was my start of that era that allowed that to happen.’”

“It sucks because I never envisioned my senior season going like this. I, quite frankly, thought we was gonna win the natty. I never envisioned it to be anything like this, and I just care so much about this team, this university. I just want to win. But I know that in the future, the fruits of my labor, I’ll be able to reap ’em.”

Willis, having gone through senior night proceedings the year prior, told his teammates the night before he was much more concerned with winning than the farewell festivities. He was also up until 1 a.m. with a stomach bug, but he wasn’t going to be denied.

In the first quarter, he fumbled, giving Oklahoma State the ball on OU’s three-yard line, but nobody dwelled on it. As he plopped down on the bench, Gabriel and wide receiver Marvin Mims were among several teammates who patted him on the back.

After a low hit to his arm dislodged the ball, Willis vowed to hurdle any would-be tackler on his next touch, and did just that on the first play of the next drive. Fleeting as it was, that first quarter, fumble aside, might’ve been the most complete one Willis has been a part of this fall.

Three quarters later, the Sooners celebrated a 28-13 victory that earned them bowl eligibility, which will pay dividends to retaining recruits and developing young talent in the remainder of the season. Furthermore, it may be the first fruits of Willis’ stewardship.

Appropriately, Willis was the first to hoist the Bedlam trophy on the field postgame, feeling immense satisfaction after the program he has now helped heal was ripped apart less than 24 hours after last year’s in-state rivalry loss.

“I continue to give praise to the coaches and Coach Venables for growing me as a man, growing me as a leader,” Willis said. “This is something I needed. I prayed before I made that decision, and I knew this was something that I knew there was something that I needed to grow in terms of my game, and it was the leadership aspect and just some of the things off the field, not even just the playing aspect of it.

“All props to them. I love what they're doing. They're going to continue to win and they're going to produce great men for society while they’re at it.”