NORMAN — There have certainly been developments in Owen Heinecke’s battle with the NCAA.

But for Brent Venables, the Sooners have to push forward as if Heinecke won’t be back in 2026.

Heinecke has officially filed an injunction against the NCAA for another year of eligibility, with a special hearing scheduled for April 16. The veteran linebacker has been on campus for OU’s spring practices, which began on Wednesday.

The Sooners would obviously love to have Heinecke back, but obviously there is still a long way to go. Venables said he’ll support Heinecke with whatever he decides.

“I’m not going to really deal in the hypotheticals,” Venables said. “We know what kind of caliber of player he is. For me, I’m just telling him, you gotta let your spirit take you to whatever door that is, if that’s the NFL, if that’s back to Oklahoma. Obviously, if he wants to come here — I still think even if he got the injunction, he’s still got to make a decision. ‘I’m going to follow through with it.’

“But right now, it’s not an option, because he doesn’t have the green light to be able to come back to college. Don’t want to really put a whole lot more into it than that. But he’s a great player, great leader. It kind of goes without saying.”

Here’s a few other notes from the Sooners’ media availability on Thursday:

Venables on the QB2 battle

“Right now, Whitt [Newbauer] was running out there with the two’s. He’s done a nice job. As we know, Whitt started his freshman year at Mercer, had a really successful year. Learned our offense a year ago in a backup role and has progressed. Has had two really good days, knows what to do. Has been really excellent when it comes to distributing the ball, making decisions, taking care of the ball, keeping us out of harm’s way through the first couple of days. Done a really nice job. He’s a good athlete. Stands tall in the pocket. Playing with a lot of confidence.

Bowe [Bentley], all he’s done is just gotten better and better, through not just the first couple of days, but over the last several weeks. And where he was in OTAs a week ago, if he was standing right here right now, he’d say, man, I was swimming those first couple of days in OTAs, which are just like mini-practices, and you kind of go through your base install, to where he is today. He had an amazing throw, right on time. I’m not gassing him or saying anything, he just climbed the pocket, really firm, really delivered the ball well. Has done some really good things. He’s got great arm talent. Natural instincts. He knows how to throw guys open, super-coachable, great self awareness. He’s in the building all the time, so he’s done a nice job.”

Venables on Elijah Thomas, Manny Choice in Year 2

“[Elijah Thomas] has done a really good job. All things considered, he played both ways in high school, maybe wasn’t technically savvy on how to play receiver, how to get open, understanding coverages and route conversions, things like that. He’s in a much better place than he was a year ago.

“Manny Choice has been excellent through the first few days. Just another offseason. He was one of our best scout players a year ago. We played him at the end of the year because he would just really progress rapidly just as an overall athlete and aggressiveness. He’s a really big-bodied guy that’s really explosive. So we’ve got him on special teams at the end of the year and that helped create some momentum going into this year. Had a great offseason. Expect some really big things from Manny as well.

Injury updates

Venables mentioned Tory Blaylock, David Stone and Jayden Jackson will miss most or all of spring practices. Trell Harris also a clean-up procedure that will keep him out for a couple of weeks.