Oklahoma Sooners just found a way to add an experienced defender to their roster in the perfect way after beating UTEP
The Oklahoma Sooners have one of the best defenses in the country, and it may only get better after adding former Wisconsin CB D’Yoni Hill.
The Oklahoma Sooners opened the 2026 season with a dominant 51-0 win over UTEP on Friday, but Brent Venables and his staff have no plans to slow down when it comes to roster building.
Oklahoma already added former Boise State defensive tackle Braxton Fely to the roster days before the opener, and now the Sooners are stacking even more depth in the secondary through the transfer portal. George Stoia of Soonerscoop reported the news first. Former Wisconsin and Miami cornerback D’Yoni Hill plans to transfer to Oklahoma.
Hill has played a lot of quality football across his college career. He has appeared in 43 games, racking up 128 career tackles, five career tackles for loss, one career interception, and 11 career pass deflections.
He started at Marshall in 2022 and 2023, transferred to Miami in 2024, where he earned a starting role on a strong Hurricanes team, then played at Wisconsin in 2025. Hill appeared in only nine games with the Badgers but put together a productive season with 39 tackles and three tackles for loss.
Hill joins a loaded Oklahoma secondary
The Sooners don’t technically need a cornerback. They have Courtland Guillory, who played great against UTEP on Friday, along with his backup Trystan Haynes. Jacobe Johnson is a backup who could start on a handful of SEC teams. Eli Bowen is one of the better cornerbacks in the conference, and Dakoda Fields arrived from Oregon to add even more talent to the room.
That said, Venables does not care about filling needs. He wants to build a championship roster, and he knows the way to do that is through elite defense. He is going to stack depth on depth on depth at every position possible. The moves with Braxton Fely and former Arkansas defensive tackle Danny Saili were just the beginning.
Hill fits perfectly into that philosophy. He’s a high-IQ player who has operated in multiple defensive systems throughout his career. As soon as he can get the playbook down, he will likely play a significant number of snaps because of all the quality football he’s played.
And the defense could use these guys. The Sooners’ defense looked dominant on the scoreboard, but the shutout deserves some context. UTEP missed three field goals and fumbled in scoring position. It could have easily been 51-12 at the very least. Venables said after the game that it felt like a 41-40 game. UTEP’s backup running back had multiple explosive plays, ran the ball well, and escaped the pocket effectively a few times.
Adding players like Hill only makes this defense better. Venables and director of player personnel Jim Nagy are putting in work, and the message is clear: just because the season is underway doesn’t mean they can’t keep improving the roster.
