Oklahoma Sooners OC Ben Arbuckle powerfully made it clear just how much the team needs center Jake Maikkula
The Oklahoma Sooners will need center Jake Maikkula at some point during this season, and Ben Arbuckle just proved why.
The Oklahoma Sooners have a few injury situations coming up this week. Sure, the Michigan Wolverines don’t look the best and should have lost to Western Michigan. But this is still a game that could prove to be tough for Oklahoma. They need all hands on deck.
Unfortunately, they likely won’t have all hands on deck. And if they do, those hands on deck won’t all be at full health. Then again, now that the season is in full swing, there really won’t be another time the players are 100%. Regardless, they need more players back healthy than center Jake Maikkula. And offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle broke that down a bit in a powerful way.
“You can’t put a value on what Jake Maikkula means to this football team, the offense, and the confidence of his teammates,” Arbuckle told reporters earlier this week. “John Mateer, yeah, he’s a kid who has earned the respect of everyone in the locker room because of how he shows up and works. Even when he was dinged up. You can’t put a value on the person and teammate that he is.”
Now, transfer portal acquisition Caleb Nitta and true freshman Noah Best did great against UTEP. In fact, what they did at center was amazing. However, that cannot be sustainable, especially when the Sooners get deep into SEC play. They will undoubtedly need Maikkula. He’s a force in the run game, and he was amazing in the pass game last season. When he got injured in fall camp, it felt like the fan base went up in flames. Losing Maikkula could have really hurt this team’s chances in 2026. Luckily, the injury was nothing serious.
Sooners could at least get Ryan Fodje and Michael Fasusi back vs. Michigan
The Sooners could enter Week 2 without starting center Jake Maikkula, starting left tackle Michael Fasusi, and starting guard Ryan Fodje.
“We’ll get them going this week,” Venables said on his coaches show regarding Maikkula and Fodje.
Now, that doesn’t mean they will both be available to play every snap on Saturday against the Wolverines. In fact, that doesn’t mean they will be able to play at all. The Sooners could need both of them in Week 2. But if they can’t play good football because of their injury, they don’t need to be on the field. What does that mean? Well, in the last game, Fasusi played 17 snaps.
In one of them, he used both of his arms. Every snap after that, he used just one arm, and the other one stayed at his side the entire game. He was in pain, and it affected the way he played. That cannot happen against Michigan, because they are going to be out for blood.
