Players who will define OU's season: Robert Spears-Jennings
Editor’s note: With Oklahoma’s 2025-26 season just a few weeks away, OUInsider will examine the players who will have the biggest impact on the outcome. This article centers around safety Robert Spears-Jennings, the eighth player to be featured in this series.
There will be a lot on Robert Spears-Jennings’ shoulders in 2025.
For one, the Sooners need the Tulsa native to replicate his production from a year ago and then take another step forward. Two, the Sooners need someone to emerge as a leader with the departures of safety Billy Bowman and linebacker Danny Stutsman.
Spears-Jennings is the ideal replacement for Bowman. He not only plays the same position, but he had a breakout junior season and was one of the biggest bright spots on the entire team. It’s not surprising that he joined John Mateer and R Mason Thomas as the Sooners’ player representatives at SEC Media Days last week.
The coaches have challenged him to be more of a leader heading into his senior season.
“(Strength and conditioning coach Jerry Schmidt, safeties coach Brandon Hall and head coach Brent Venables), they advised me to be more vocal,” Spears-Jennings said during SEC Media Days. “So from the winter all the way to now, I’m with Coach Schmidty’s rack, so he has me running everything. So from med ball tosses to runs, if somebody does something wrong, I get in trouble if I don’t get on them.
“So that’s kind of helped me be a better leader as well, because at some point in time, you grow tired of getting cussed out for somebody else’s mistakes.”
The Sooners really need him to assert himself this fall, both on and off the field.
Here’s the outlook this fall on Spears-Jennings:
2024 STATS
Tackles: 66
Tackles for loss: 5
Sacks: 2.5
Interceptions: 1
Forced fumbles: 4
2025 OUTLOOK
Spears-Jennings was arguably the breakout star through the first half of 2024. His real breakout game came in Week 4 against Tennessee, when he had a career-high 13 tackles and also forced a fumble against Nico lamaleava. He finished second on the team in tackles and third in sacks.
The biggest leap for Spears-Jennings was his playing time. After playing 315 total snaps through his first two seasons, he logged 599 snaps in 2024 — the third most on the defense. He started all but two games and logged at least 34 snaps in 11 games.
Assuming he stays healthy, his snap count is only going to increase this fall. Outside of Peyton Bowen — who has had his struggles with injuries — the safety room is largely filled with talented-but-unproven underclassmen like Michael Boganowski and Jayden Hardy. Spears-Jennings is an easy bet to finish north of 600 snaps in 2024
The advanced stats were really impressive for Spears-Jennings, too. He had the highest run-defense grade on the team (93.1) and also graded out really well in tackling (80.4), pass rush (82.8) and overall defense (78.7).
But there’s two areas where he can improve. His coverage grade was 62.8, per Pro Football Focus’ admittedly wonky tracking data. He was the primary defender on 22 passes and gave up 16 receptions for 235 yards and a touchdown.
The main area, however, is overall consistency. His on-field production fell off a bit as the season went on — 40 of his 66 tackles came in the first six weeks of the season, along with three of his four forced fumbles.
That’s been a primary focus for Spears-Jennings during the offseason.
“I’ve worked on being very consistent, just being the same guy every day,” Spears-Jennings said. “That was my problem last year. I started off high and left stuff get to me. Like this year, I’m just trying to say level headed and keep the main thing, the main thing, which is win games and have fun with my brothers and then our team, I feel like we’re moving the right way.
“We’re not where we were, but we’re not where we want to be as well. I thought we’re just going forward and rising up.”
If Spears-Jennings can show that extra bit of growth and be the consistent leader he’s striving to be, he has the potential to be the most productive player on the entire defense. He has potential to land on an All-SEC team at the end of the year.
The Sooners need it.
OUINSIDER PLAYER SERIES
RB Jaydn Ott
LB Kip Lewis
WR Deion Burks
DB Eli Bowen
DB Robert Spears-Jennings
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