Jake Roberts Livin the Dream

[WishBone]

When Jake Roberts hit the transfer portal Jan. 2, it didn’t take long for his phone screen to light up with a familiar name.

It was Seth Littrell, Oklahoma’s new offensive coordinator whom Roberts previously played three seasons for at North Texas from 2020-22. Roberts, naturally, still had Littrell’s contact saved in his phone (“Head Coach Seth Littrell”). Seeing a familiar name instead of a random number was both refreshing and welcoming to Roberts, who was making his second foray into the transfer portal after stops at UNT and Baylor.

Littrell didn’t make some grand recruiting pitch to Roberts, a 6-foot-4 tight end who has 66 career receptions for 772 yards and four touchdowns. Instead, the two simply chopped it up like a pair of old friends.
“It was pretty cool to, you know, hear from him again,” Roberts said last week. “And I just, I knew in my heart what I wanted to do.”
Of course, Littrell didn’t need to sell Roberts on the idea of reuniting with him at Oklahoma for the tight end’s final season. For Roberts, the thought of finishing his career with the Sooners — and with a coach he fundamentally trusted and with whom he had a preexisting relationship — made too much sense.
Roberts, after all, is a native of Norman who grew up in the shadow of Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. As someone who’d already experienced the transfer portal once before — making the move from North Texas to Baylor after the 2022 season, when Littrell was fired by the Mean Green — Roberts knew what he wanted in his next team.
Above all, he wanted a strong relationship and a coaching staff he could trust. Littrell checked that box, not only because Roberts knew him well from their three years together at UNT, but because Roberts knew how Littrell utilized tight ends in his system—and knew he could flourish in that role, because he had done it before. In their last season together at UNT in 2022, Roberts was the Mean Green’s fourth-leading receiver, catching 28 passes for 394 yards and three touchdowns. UNT’s tight ends combined for 62 receptions for 852 yards and eight touchdowns that season, accounting for approximately a quarter of the offense’s production in the passing game.
“I have one year left, and I got to make the most of it,” Roberts said. “You know, I can’t take a chance on anything. I want to do the best I can to make an informed decision. That’s my thinking going into the portal. Then when OU reached out, and I have that prior relationship with Coach Littrell — that familiarity, that trust, it’s there. The rapport has been built over years, and I think that was just the biggest thing for me, just being comfortable.”
It also didn’t hurt that Oklahoma afforded Roberts with an opportunity to return home. He grew up in Norman and was a standout at Norman North High, where he was the No. 64 tight end in the country for the 2020 cycle.
As a kid, Roberts was captivated by the tight ends that came through Oklahoma’s program, but none more than Mark Andrews, the All-Pro tight end for the Baltimore Ravens who was a unanimous All-American for the Sooners and took home the John Mackey Award in 2017.
“He was always one that really, really stuck out to me,” Roberts said. “Just a stud.”
Andrews’ 59-yard go-ahead touchdown reception from Baker Mayfield to beat Texas in the 2017 Red River Rivalry is still ingrained in Roberts’ mind. Even last week, as he sat in the club level of Oklahoma Memorial Stadium — just days away from his first spring practice with the Sooners — Roberts could vividly see Andrews streaking down the sideline of the Cotton Bowl and into the end zone, where he was greeted by Marquise Brown right in front of Texas’ stunned marching band.
“That was a big-time play,” Roberts recalled. “We were going wild (at home).”
It was the type of play Roberts always envisioned himself making in the crimson and cream. As his high school career advanced and his recruitment played out, though, it became apparent to him that playing at Oklahoma wasn’t in the cards — at least not at the time.
He wound up at North Texas, where he played for Littrell before transferring to Baylor last season. Roberts caught 23 passes for 231 yards and a touchdown in his lone season with the Bears and then hit the portal again for his final season of eligibility.
Now things have come full circle for Roberts, back in his hometown and playing for a coach who believed in him way back in 2019. He’s prepared to live out his childhood dream — a “priceless” experience for him and his family — as part of the Sooners’ new-look tight end room, which features two other newcomers in Southeastern Louisiana transfer Bauer Sharp and four-star freshman Davon Mitchell.
“Just to have the opportunity to come back here with familiar faces, it's something I couldn't have drawn up any better,” Roberts said. “…I'm so thankful to be here. You know, it took me a long time, but better late than never.”
From: SoonersIllustrated