Oklahoma Sooners Football - Reports: Caleb Kelly suffers knee injury

Depth at linebacker was already an issue for the Oklahoma Sooners entering the 2020 season, but the position group appears to have taken another hit. According to reports, OU redshirt senior linebacker Caleb Kelly has suffered a knee injury, and it’s believed to be his ACL. The development was reported Monday morning by The Football Brainiacs and later confirmed by Carey Murdock of SoonerScoop.

Of course, if it is indeed an ACL, this is the second offseason in as many years in which Kelly has suffered this injury. With that in mind, a medical hardship waiver is certainly within the realm of possibility of he chooses to go that route.

Kelly, who was a five-star prospect coming out of Clovis West High School in Fresno, Calif. has experienced plenty of highs and lows since arriving in Norman in 2016. He seemed destined to become a star after a stellar end to his freshman campaign, but his inability to find his niche in the defense seemed to stunt his development over the next couple of seasons.

The hire of Alex Grinch brought renewed hope for Kelly before 2019’s offseason knee injury threw a wrench into things. Somewhat surprisingly, he was able to play in Oklahoma’s final four games of this past season, which allowed him to retain his redshirt. He entered this offseason as a prime candidate for a starting spot at one of the middle linebacker positions and certainly had the opportunity to end his OU career on a high note. He was also named to the preseason Wuerffel Trophy watch list this past month.

Time will tell whether or not he gets a six season (or whether or not he even pursues one), but this is just another terrible blow for a quality human being.