What role will Gracen Halton fill for OU football team? Sooners' DL need reps, leadership
NORMAN — Gracen Halton has played a lot of football the past two seasons under head coach Brent Venables at OU.
During spring practice and ahead of the 2024 season, the Sooners’ defensive line has several inexperienced, but talented players in the fold. Following Jacob Lacey’s retirement due to blood clots, Halton, the junior defensive lineman, and Da’Jon Terry have been forced to step into larger leadership roles.
Halton appeared in 11 games as a backup defensive tackle last season and recorded 11 tackles, including three and a half for loss and one quarterback hurry. He is expected to contribute even more in the fall.
“(I want to) play more,” Halton chuckled when asked for his self-expectations. “Yeah, play more. Be on the field more.”
Halton’s imposing start to the spring should be a welcome sight to Oklahoma fans.
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He’s held his weight against his colossal offensive line teammates in practice and should put on more weight for the SEC in the fall after another summer with strength and conditioning coach Jerry Schmidt. During Wednesday’s practice, he won several “W” drill reps, a one on one pass protection exercise.
“It's been great, man,” Halton said Wednesday of his spring. “Just trying to get better every day. That's really what it is. Trying to get 1% better every day. Coaching up the young guys that's in here and coaching up myself. But knowing that I have to be that leader in the room, knowing that I've been here before, I've done this before, so just trying to get better every day.”
The Sooners will not only need more from Halton statistically, which comes with more playing time, but he’ll be an older voice for younger players in the locker room. Blue-chip freshmen Jayden Jackson and David Stone will play a significant role in OU’s future in the SEC, but will look to veterans like Halton, Davon Sears and Terry for how to approach their process.
Halton and Terry — a fifth-year veteran who decided to return for another season and played in all 13 games in 2023 — have balanced each other well this offseason.
“(It’s) just confidence,” Halton said. “We know what to do. If I don't know one thing, I come to him, if he don't know one thing, he comes to me and we'll be on the same page, and just trying to get the younger guys on the same page as us.”
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Halton signed with Oklahoma out of high school as a defensive end but has played a majority of his snaps in college as a defensive tackle. Halton said he enjoys the physicality of playing inside.
“Oh, (I’m) really comfortable,” Halton said of the transition from playing end to tackle. “Confident, that's the word. It's my third year here so I should know what I'm doing, what I'm not doing, what I'm doing wrong, what I'm doing right.”
“I love it. (It's) physical, dog.”
With OU’s move to the SEC beginning with the upcoming season, there’s been much discussion about preparing for the physicality, especially in the trenches, throughout the conference. It’s not a secret the Sooners will be forced to play a more physical brand of football if they want to compete among the sport’s best.
For Halton, he’s not interested in talking. He’s confident in his physicality inside and he’s tasked himself this spring with showing up to practice everyday and doing the little things correctly.
“I would just say just get better every day,” Halton said of his outlook for the remainder of the offseason. “And just block rec, that's one thing, getting ready with my block rec. It's gonna be more physical in the SEC, so I gotta be more physical (on) the block.
“Not much talk. It's football. Football's football. We gon' bring that aggressiveness.”
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU football defensive line needs Gracen Halton to fill leadership role
