{"id":396164,"date":"2026-01-08T23:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/396164\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T23:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:54:08","slug":"oklahoma-hiring-dallas-cowboys-legend-jason-witten-as-tight-ends-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/396164\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma hiring Dallas Cowboys legend Jason Witten as tight ends coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Dallas Cowboys tight end and Tennessee<\/a> alum Jason Witten<\/a> is expected to be hired at Oklahoma for its open tight end coaching position, according to Sooner Scoop<\/a>\u2018s Georgia Stoia and On3\u2018s Pete Nakos. This is Witten\u2019s first collegiate head coaching job after five seasons as the head coach at Liberty Christian School<\/a> in Argyle, Texas.<\/p>\n

Witten is a 17-year NFL pro having played his first 16 years in Dallas, which drafted him in the third round of the 2003 NFL Draft out of Tennessee. The 2012 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year was named to 11 Pro Bowls during his NFL career and four All-Pro teams. Witten still owns multiple NFL and Dallas team records, including the league record for most receptions in a single game by a tight end with 18 (against the New York Giants in 2012). He also holds the Cowboys records for career receptions (1,215), career receiving yards (12,977), most games played (255) and most consecutive games started (179). Witten was recently named<\/a> among 15 finalists for the 2026 Pro Football Hall of Fame class on Dec. 30.<\/p>\n

Following his retirement in early 2021, Witten was hired at Liberty Christian, where he\u2019s led the Warriors to a 44-7 record over the past four seasons, including winning Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) state championships in 2023 and 2024. It was an impressive turnaround after Liberty Christian went just 2-8 in Witten\u2019s first season at the helm.<\/p>\n

At Oklahoma, Witten joins a strong staff under fifth-year head coach Brent Venables<\/a>, who parted ways with former tight end coach Joe Jon Finley<\/a> late last week, according to Sooner Scoop<\/a>. The Sooners (10-3) are coming off the program\u2019s fifth College Football Playoff appearance, where No. 8 Oklahoma fell to No. 9 Alabama<\/a>, 34-24, in Norman on Dec. 19.<\/p>\n

Witten signed with Tennessee in 2000 under former coach Phil Fulmer as a defensive end but was quickly moved to tight end midway through his freshman season in Knoxville, where he shone the next two seasons. After hauling in 28 receptions for 293 yards and two touchdowns as a sophomore, Witten had a breakout junior year in which he set school records for a tight end with 39 receptions for 493 yards and five touchdowns, including the game-winning score in a six-overtime victory over Arkansas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After that, it was off to the NFL for Witten. Twenty-four years later, he\u2019s back in the SEC, only this time as a member of the Oklahoma coaching staff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Dallas Cowboys tight end and Tennessee alum Jason Witten is expected to be hired at Oklahoma for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[191554,349,99],"class_list":["post-396164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-jason-witten-00-elizabethton","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}