The Oklahoma Sooners 2024 recruiting class was one of the best in the country that cycle and arguably the best in the Brent Venables era. One of the big recruiting wins was four-star tight end Davon Mitchell. Mitchell was a five-star prospect in the 2025 recruiting class before reclassifying to 2024 and joining the Sooners.
The Sooners were hoping for Mitchell to be the answer at tight end in 2025, but he's going to be looking for a new home. According to Parker Thune of OUInsider and Hayes Fawcett of On3, Mitchell is no longer with the team and is entering the transfer portal.
Mitchell was a highly coveted prospect that had offers from a number of Power Four programs, including USC, Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Colorado, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio State, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech.
When Oklahoma released its roster for the spring, Mitchell was listed at 275 pounds. Mitchell didn't get any playing time for the Sooners in 2024, even as the season was lost and the Sooners couldn't find any answers in the passing game.
"When Davon got here, Davon will be the first to tell you it took him a little while to transition," Venables said of Mitchell last fall." I’ve been in a locker room for a long time, so I kind of know what this looks like. But having great focus wasn’t something that he had in the spring when he first got here. And [it was] just timeliness, showing up with the right clothes on, being on time, turning in assignments, just all the stuff that a lot of young kids do when they go to college. Nothing malicious. Great young man, but he couldn’t get out of his own way. And he’s decided to lock in [and] focus here since school started. He’s been down on the scout team with us, and everything has been completely and totally different."
The former blue-chip prospect turned some things around during the season to help out on the scout team, but still couldn't break into the gameday lineup.
"And with a lot of help and support both from home and then him taking a good, hard look at himself, he’s done a really nice job," Venables continued. "He’s been a scout team player of the week. And so he may have an opportunity to be a part of what’s going on. But for him, he’d be the first one to tell you he was a non-factor all of fall camp. He was a non-factor all of summer. He’s been a non-factor in spring ball. He’s a non-factor in winter conditioning only because of all the things I’m talking about... But like I said, everything is — he’s flipped the switch. He’s been getting after it. He’s been accountable. And he’s been a scout team player of the week. And he’s been a dude — you know, the dude that we know he can be. And hopefully he’ll continue to be."
The Oklahoma Sooners brought in three transfer tight ends this offseason in Will Huggins, John Locke, and Carson Kent. The Sooners also added Trynae Washington through the 2025 recruiting class. Jaren Kanak made the move from linebacker to tight end to try to make the most out of his final season in Norman.
With a significant need at tight end, there was little to no buzz about Mitchell. The Sooners have been in search of a game-changing tight end since the departures of Jeremiah Hall in 2021 and Brayden Willis in 2022. Mitchell was supposed to be the answer. The expectations were high, and unfortunately, he won't live up to them at Oklahoma.
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