The Oklahoma Sooners certainly have no shortage of wide receivers on the team. Not a surprise given the recent successes of CeeDee Lamb, Marquise Brown, Sterling Shepard and others. Looking at the spring roster released on Thursday, the Oklahoma offense has 17 wide receivers. In the most recent recruiting class, they added Mario Williams, Cody Jackson and Jalil Farooq. The latter will not join the team until the summer.
How would this impact the No. 2 athlete in the 2021 recruiting class Billy Bowman? According to the spring roster, he is listed as a defensive back, not a wide receiver. For Denton Ryan High School, Bowman played on both sides of the ball as a slot receiver, nickel cornerback and even spent time as their return specialist. He was electric in that role.
The Oklahoma defense lost Tre Brown and Tre Norwood to the NFL draft this past season. The duo combined to play 980 total snaps. Brown missed one game, while Norwood played in all 11. Between the two, there were eight combined interceptions and eight passes defended. That is quite the amount of production to replace in the upcoming season.
The other key player gone from the 2020 Sooners team is Brendan Radley-Hiles, who transferred to Washington following the season. He played the nickel cornerback position, and Oklahoma must replace his production at a vital role. He finished with just one interception but added five total passes defended.
Bowman is likely a player to watch in the spring to see if he can work his way up the depth chart. There will be ample opportunities for him and fellow Texan Latrell McCutchin; both signed with Oklahoma during the early signing period in December. D.J. Graham could be a rising star for Grinch’s defense after making an impact as a freshman.