Oklahoma loses veteran linebacker to transfer portal, per report
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Oklahoma saw its 2025 season come to a sudden end with Friday night’s College Football Playoff loss to Alabama, and a few days later it has apparently taken a major hit to its linebacker room for next year.
Sooners linebacker Kobie McKinzie is expected to enter the transfer portal next month, he told On3 on Sunday afternoon. The 6-foot-2, 236-pound junior will have 1 year of eligibility left, wherever he lands for the 2026 season.
McKinzie piled up 84 tackles during his time in Norman, with 2.5 sacks and 4 pass deflections. But he’s apparently decided not to finish what he started at Oklahoma and will head to the transfer portal when it officially opens on Jan. 2. McKinzie had 32 total tackles, 12 of them solo, and 1 sack this fall, when he helped lead the Sooners to a 10-2 regular season and a Playoff berth.
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The reported transfer of McKinzie would be the first shoe to drop since Oklahoma’s first-round Playoff loss. He would be the first OU player to declare for the portal since the season ended, as Brent Venables tries to pick up the pieces from a disappointing end to a strong year.
Oklahoma could be looking at a revamp of the linebacker position with the reported transfer of McKinzie and the likelihood that Kip Lewis will be headed to the NFL Draft.
The Sooners will be hoping to retain Owen Heinecke, who revealed on Friday that he’s waiting to hear from the NCAA about his appeal to be eligible for a 6th season.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
