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While the early signing period saw the Sooners firmly solidify themselves as a top 10 team for recruiting this cycle, Brent Venables realized his work on adding quality personnel to this roster is far from done.
The Sooners are losing quite a few players to graduation and have lost a fair share of to the transfer portal and that’s not considering what might be to come following their bowl game.
Speaking of said transfer portal, it presents the Sooners with a unique opportunity to add some proven college talent that could be ready to contribute immediately
When asked at his early signing period press conference, Venables was asked about the use of the transfer portal to supplement the roster and had this to say:
We are certainly looking at transfer options. We’ve spoken to a few already and trying to vet those guys.The biggest thing is trying to bring value to our locker room. Certainly, meet the needs we have from a functional standpoint where maybe experience lacks or playmaking lacks. It’s very important that we do a
very good job of vetting the types of people we’re bring into that locker room because we’re trying to build a culture, protect the culture, continue to enhance the culture. Starts with making good decisions with those people.
The Sooners have been active over recent years via the portal adding names like Michael Turk, Mike Woods, Key Lawrence, Wanya Morris, and Eric Gray last year. However, that was under a different regime. Venables has spoken his mind about his thoughts on the basis for why the transfer portal exists.
Another nugget from new Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables on the transfer portal. #OU pic.twitter.com/RWlH29QTzF
— Chad Wilson | Football Recruits (@GridironStuds) December 9, 2021
However, it seems like Brent is a proponent of it to a degree and is planning to use it this year as opposed to how things were done at Clemson, who didn’t use it at all.
What are some positions the Sooners could shop for in the portal? Defensive end, wide receiver, quarterback (regardless of Caleb Williams’ decision), running back, cornerback, and offensive line are some of the lighter areas on the team. They could use impact players and depth up and down the roster. The Sooners seemed to have acknowledged at least one of these groups too.
They sent an offer out to Jared Verse, a defensive end who played at the University of Albany last season. Verse is the ninth-ranked player in the transfer portal per 247Sports.
Verse had two offers out of high school, and caught the attention of names like Oklahoma, Florida, USC, Iowa, Syracuse and Purdue after winning the Colonial Athletic Association’s Defensive Rookie of the Year this spring and putting together a heck of a follw-up performance this fall (11.5 TFLs, 9.5 sacks).
More offers will be sure to go out as the bowl season continues to unravel and pass by. It will give Oklahoma multiple chances to assess and see how the transfer portal landscape looks as they look to finalize their roster before starting winter workouts and getting ready for spring.
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