‘A New Opportunity’: After Injury-Riddle Stint at OU, Sexton Ready For Restart at OSU

STILLWATER — Coming out of Deer Creek in Edmond, the recruiting process was a long one for Jacob Sexton.

Sexton finished his high school career as a four-star recruit in the 2022 class. He started getting Division-I offers in 2019 leading up to his commitment to OU in the summer of 2021.

His second recruiting process, when he entered the transfer portal this past offseason, wasn’t so long.

“It was a lot faster than I thought it would be,” said Sexton on Saturday at OSU’s Media Day. “Coming from high school recruiting, where it takes years, whereas here, it takes days. It happened a lot faster than I thought it would, but I was lucky enough that this was my first visit and I knew this is where I wanted to go. So it worked out very well for me.”

Getting on the field as a Sooner wasn’t an issue for Sexton. It was avoiding the injury bug.

Sexton played in 10 games as a true freshman in 2022. He made four starts in 2023, eight starts in 2024 and started last year’s season opener before an injury saw him miss the remainder of the season. Now, he’s in line to start at tackle for the Pokes.

Coming into his first year at a new school, Sexton has trimmed down a bit, according to first-year coach Eric Morris. That’s obviously relative, as Sexton is a gargantuan human, listed at 6-foot-6, 328 pounds. When I shook his hand Saturday, mine disappeared entirely.

“Jacob’s done a great job, especially in the offseason just changing his body,” Morris said. “This is the leanest he’s ever been. He’s gotten heavy at certain points in his career. Both of our tackles – him and (Ashton) Lepo – are just big human beings, 6-6, 6-7, long guy. And both of them kind of have the same story. They’ve played. They’ve battled some injuries, and they just haven’t gotten the results that they’ve wanted, right.

“Sometimes a change of scenery is a good thing for these kids and allows them to mentally reset just because this game is obviously so taxing from a physical standpoint playing up front. And then frustrating I think. When you get into a situation where you’re a starter somewhere and you go through injuries and the frustration of feeling like you can’t perform.”

Morris noted this isn’t the first time he’s had a player coming off a stretch at a school that didn’t go how they wanted. Morris pointed to one of his former quarterbacks as an example.

Chandler Morris (no relation to Eric) started his career at OU in 2020 before spending three seasons at TCU. He played a bit in each of those seasons but never played a full season until he got to Morris and North Texas in 2024, where he threw for 3,774 yards and 31 touchdowns leading to a nice NIL deal at Virginia for his final season where he again played well.

Eric Morris said he still talks to Chandler’s dad all the time, saying his dad often expresses gratitude for restoring Chandler’s love of the game.

“I always tell our kids belief is one of the most powerful drugs in sports,” Eric Morris said. “Belief in themselves, number one, and then carrying it on to your teammates and coaches. So, we’ll have to work through some of that stuff, psychology. I think they have stuff in their heads, some people on our team. That when they’re coming from a negative situation, I gotta do a good job mentoring them to getting the belief back in themselves where they do think when they go out there they can do it at a high level.”

As far as the mental toll of his injuries, Sexton said Saturday that he’s in a good spot.

“I’m doing great,” Sexton said. “I’m doing great. Everything has been really smooth here. I’m focused on staying healthy, doing everything I need to do to get me through the season so that way I don’t have any issues on the field. So, that’s been my biggest thing this offseason.”

In a lot of ways, OSU and Sexton are after the same thing this season in Stillwater.

“Just a new opportunity,” Sexton said. “It was a full restart for everybody here. I feel like that’s something I needed anyway, as a team too. To be able to step in and have that same mindset, I think that’ll be huge for us.”