A month ago, Bob Stoops revealed that redshirt freshman defensive tackle Du’Vonta Lampkin and redshirt sophomore offensive tackle Dwayne Orso-Bacchus are in the midst of serving six-game suspensions. According to the Oklahoma head coach, the twin suspensions stemmed from last season’s Orange Bowl playoff game; what specific incident in or around the CFP semifinal that triggered the punitive measures was and is decidedly unclear.
With the Sooners preparing for Game 7 this Saturday, the school confirmed that both players have been reinstated and will be available to play against Texas Tech. The suspensions cost the linemen playing time against Houston, Louisiana-Monroe, Ohio State, TCU, Texas and Kansas State.
The return of Lampkin in particular will be a welcome one as defensive linemen Matt Dimon and Charles Walker will be missing their fourth and third straight game, respectively, because of injury.
Orso-Bacchus played in six games in 2015 as a defensive lineman, ultimately moving to the other side the line late last year. He was a three-star 2014 signee.
Lampkin, meanwhile, was a signee as part of rival Texas’ 2015 recruiting class, but couldn’t enroll at UT because of a foreign language requirement. Charlie Strong, though, wouldn’t give Lampkin a release from his scholarship — the UT head coach “[didn’t] want to set [the] precedent that recruits can fail [a] course and go elsewhere” — leading Lampkin to appeal the decision.
In August of last year, Lampkin announced that he would be enrolling at OU. The three-star recruit took a redshirt as a true freshman.