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Oklahoma

Brent Venables hopeful Gentry Williams will be OK for OU

Bob Przybyloby: Bob Przybylo10/18/25BPrzybylo
Gentry Williams5
OU CB Gentry Williams. (Kevin Jairaj - Imagn Images)

With his history of shoulder issues, you can understand the concern when OU cornerback Gentry Williams injured his shoulder in the first quarter.

Williams was making a track-down tackle to save a touchdown and came down hard. It looked like it could have been a wrist or hand before it was confirmed to be a shoulder.

Williams missed the rest of the game, a contest OU won emphatically 26-7 at South Carolina on Saturday afternoon.

He came out in a sling in the second half, but early reports are positive from head coach Brent Venables.

“Yea, he banged up his shoulder, everything was clear, the x-rays and stuff,” Venables said. “So hopefully it’ll be okay.” 

With Williams out, OU used a cornerback rotation of Eli Bowen, Courtland Guillory and mixed in Devon Jordan and Jacobe Johnson.

It was an up-and-down outing for the group. A couple of pass interference penalties. Ended well, though, with an interception by Johnson in the final minute.

“It was good,” Venables said. “We had a PI, it wasn’t great. A couple of PIs, I’d rather get a PI than catch the ball, though. So we had to clean up some fundamental things. We had the one corner route, we got it on the third and forever I wish I could have a call back and put him in something different. And it was a nice play. But the corners were all top to bottom, I thought it was good. 

“They’re known for creating explosive plays. And that’s kind of, as opposed to being a methodical offense, stay on the field. So we wanted to take away, because they have big play capability, and the way they run the ball, that quarterback, he gets a lot of attention. So it makes you a little more vulnerable. You certainly don’t want him to have balance. The quarterback can throw the ball all over the lot. And so we wanted to really challenge the offensive line and just never let him consistently get his feet set. I think our guys did a nice job of that.” 

Williams missed almost the entire 2024 season with a shoulder injury. He also missed the game at Temple with a lower body injury.

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