The Oklahoma Sooners have had a history of players playing multiple sports. The most notable one, of course, is [autotag]Kyler Murray[/autotag], who played football and baseball.
Murray became the first player drafted in the first round of both the [autotag]NFL[/autotag] and [autotag]MLB[/autotag] draft. He ultimately decided on a football career. In the [autotag]2024 recruiting class[/autotag], the Sooners have two more who are set to play both sports. [autotag]James Nesta[/autotag] will play linebacker for the football team and will pitch for the baseball team. [autotag]Taylor Tatum[/autotag] will play running back and then, most likely, in the outfield.
But this wouldn’t work if it wasn’t for the plan in place that [autotag]Skip Johnson[/autotag] has. He’s been through it with Murray and knows how to make this work. It was his plan that both Nesta and Tatum have talked about as to why they chose Oklahoma.
Brent Venables talked about how this plan came to be. “I wouldn’t say it’s as much as me. Skip and the baseball team is willing to do it,” Venables said. “I think the attractiveness of how well our baseball program has done. The history, the tradition, certainly they did a great job of selling those things. I think that attracted them as much as anything. That combination of the excellence of Oklahoma football and what it’s represented and the excellence of baseball. I personally don’t think we would have gotten either one of them had the football been a powerhouse and excellent and had the history and tradition and then the baseball program stunk. I don’t think we would have gotten either one of those guys.”
It’s a testament to how good of a job Johnson has done since taking over. It’s also why Oklahoma has become “2 Sport U.”
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