Inside Tyler Guyton's 'surreal' path to OU football, likely first-round pick in NFL Draft

NORMAN — Before the start of his senior year of high school, a teenaged Tyler Guyton had a mature but ambitious question for his father.

“If you could go back to your senior year, what would you do differently?” Guyton asked.

Alvin recollected his memories as a football player and came up with an answer that had left him with regret over the years. He had strayed away from the game by his senior year, something he didn’t want to see Tyler do.

Tyler was a dual-sport athlete already, playing basketball at Manor High School in Texas and dabbling in baseball, before taking his father’s advice and joining the football team for his senior year. In his first game, he lined up on the defensive line and finished with seven sacks. After four games, collegiate offers started piling in. The rest is history.

Following one season of high school football and just 15 career collegiate starts across four seasons at TCU and OU, Tyler is a projected first-round pick Thursday night in the NFL Draft. After signing in college as a defensive lineman, switching positions to tight end and eventually finding a home on the Sooners’ offensive line in 2023, Guyton is projected to go No. 22 overall as an offensive tackle in ESPN’s latest mock draft released Wednesday.

“It's weird because a lot of people have said over the years he could be an NFL talent but he never really bought into it,” Alvin told The Oklahoman. “He came to the University of Oklahoma just looking to get a chance to get on the field and to finish his education, and an opportunity to get on the field turned into a lot more than he could ever dream with him being in the position he's in. He's still trying to wrap his mind around it, it’s still surreal.

“It’ll be even more surreal once they call his name, but it's reality and it's something we’ve got to attack.”

While NFL Draft will be stockpiled with former five- and four-star recruits who have played football most of their lives, Guyton’s path is unique. Most casual fans won’t recognize his name once it’s called this week and will marvel at his rapid rise.

But Alvin will remember the maturity it took for Guyton to make his dreams a reality.

“For me,” Alvin says, ‘it just means that the sacrifice and hard work that he's put in and his brothers and his family put in over the years came to a culmination of success. Hard work pays off, that's what it would say to me in a nutshell.”

More: Final NFL Draft projections for Oklahoma football's Tyler Guyton

Tyler Guyton ‘had every tool to be successful’

Bill Bedenbaugh had never heard of Guyton coming out of high school.

OU's longtime offensive line coach, who has produced multiple NFL Pro Bowlers, coached the Sooners’ 2018 group that won the Joe Moore Award and frequents the state of Texas during recruiting cycles, wouldn’t have. Guyton was a three-star defensive line prospect who signed with TCU.

It wasn’t until Gary Patterson reportedly resigned from his post as the Horned Frogs’ head coach during the 2021 season that Guyton appeared on Bedenbaugh’s radar. Once Guyton entered the NCAA transfer portal, Bedenbaugh watched his tape and received a vote of confidence from Jarett Anderson, the former TCU offensive line coach and a friend.

“You could just see this big athletic guy that had a ton of talent,” Bedenbaugh told The Oklahoman. “And he had all the traits and the tools to be a really good tackle if he was willing to put in the time. And obviously, with the transfer portal, everything happens quickly and you don't totally know what's going to happen, especially when you don't have a previous relationship. But he had every tool to be successful.”

Once Guyton entered the portal, it was like he had a chance to do-over his high school recruitment. Due to his swift rise as a collegiate prospect, Guyton’s only visit as a high schooler was to TCU and he longed for a more thorough recruitment process.

More: Oklahoma's Tyler Guyton picked by Dallas Cowboys at No. 29 overall in NFL draft 2024

But Tyler's mind kept returning to a random trip that occurred in March 2019.

He had tagged along on his brother’s visit to Randall University, a Christian school less than 10 miles north of OU’s campus. The Guyton family couldn’t pass up a quick drive through Heisman Park.

“I liked that place. It seems like they do a lot of winning there,” Guyton recalled to Alvin a couple of years later once he entered the portal.

Once he committed to Bedenbaugh and the Sooners and arrived on campus in Norman, Guyton was green and had a lot of work ahead of him to improve. But he did all the things, as Bedenbaugh likes to say.

On Saturdays during the offseason it wouldn’t be uncommon for Guyton to phone Bedenbaugh to meet him at the facility to get some work in. The two's relationship blossomed from there.

“When he first got here, I was constantly on him,” Bedenbaugh said. “But I had to be. He didn't have a ton of confidence and had to build his confidence, but also beyond that, I really had to make him understand what it takes to be a great player. He didn't really know, and again, that's not anybody's fault. It's not his fault. He came here at 19 years old, a young kid, and a lot of guys are like that.

More: OU football adds Jermayne Lole, Louisville defensive lineman, via transfer portal

'Especially guys that had never played the position.'

While Alvin has always believed in his son’s abilities, he says Tyler’s decision to enroll at OU and play for Bedenbaugh is the “epicenter” for his success.

“He got with the right guy to pick up on the right fundamentals and stuff like that,” Alvin said. “As far as playing O-line, him coming to Oklahoma has just been a godsend.”

Offensive line is one of the hardest positions to learn in football. Add the fact Guyton was first introduced to the position less than three years ago at TCU and then had to learn an entirely new scheme once he transferred to Oklahoma.

He appeared in 10 games and made five starts at tackle for OU in 2022 before breaking out in 2023. He earned an All-Big 12 honorable mention honor in nine starts at right tackle where he didn’t allow a sack.

“He’d never really (played offensive line),” Bedenbaugh said. “And it's really hard, even for guys that have played it all their life. So after his first year and just getting used to me and how I coach, this last year he really took off and did the things necessary to put himself in this position. And he's still got, in my mind, a ton of growth, just because he started 14 games and really has only played O-line for about three years of his life.

“But I really believe that he's going to continue to improve and get better and continue to mature and learn how to be an offensive lineman, and all the things that it takes to be a really good one.”

More: Why Jackson Arnold, Deion Burks could be dynamic duo for OU football in 2024

‘Took off from there’

Playing on the offensive line started to click for Guyton following OU’s 2022 Cheez-It Bowl bout with Florida State.

With the Sooners facing multiple opt outs, Guyton’s blocking assignment for most of the game was Seminoles defensive end Jared Verse, also a projected first-round pick in the year’s draft. Guyton held his own, getting into Verse’s head and limiting his impact.

“I have to give them credit, No. 60 their right tackle (Guyton), that’s a guy,” Verse said on The Transfer Portal CFB YouTube show. “Honestly, he’s the best tackle I played against (in 2022). That’s a bold statement but I’m going to have to stand by it, too. That guy was a dog, but he kept locking me up, giving me different looks — it was something I’d never seen before.”

Guyton’s mindset shifted after the bowl game. He finally believed in himself and knew where he belonged.

“That gave him confidence,” Bedenbaugh said. “I think it just took off from there and I think he realized at that point. I don't know if he really knew before then as much as I would tell him how good he was and that he could be and that he could have a career playing offensive line. Everything with him changed after that, just the time he put in studying and working.”

Bedenbaugh is someone who knows if a player has what it takes to play at the next level. The list of players who learned how to play offensive line and developed their skills under him at Oklahoma is astounding.

Active players in the NFL Bedenbaugh coached at OU include Cincinnati's Orlando Brown Jr. and Cody Ford, Jacksonville's Anton Harrison, Kansas City’s Creed Humphrey and Wanya Morris, and Denver's Ben Powers.

Guyton is certainly the least experienced among those names, but Bedenbaugh says he might be the most talented.

Guyton is seen by most draft experts as a “low floor, high-ceiling” prospect. Based on his combine results, his production score ranked sixth among offensive tackles in the draft class, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats.

Oklahoma has become home for Tyler and he’s talked with Alvin about living in the state in the offseason during his career. It’s safe to say Tyler wouldn’t take back his two seasons working with Bedenbaugh, or asking his father that question before his senior year.

“With that talent and the commitment that I feel like he's willing to put in and the time,” Bedenbaugh said, “I just know what he can do with size, athleticism, bend, foot quickness and just all those things.

“When he really learns and understands the position, it can be scary how good he can be.”

More: Everything you need to know about the 2024 NFL Draft

NFL Draft

FIRST ROUND: 7 p.m. Thursday in Detroit (ABC, ESPN, NFL Network)

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: How OU's Tyler Guyton became projected first-round pick in NFL Draft