More former Oklahoma Sooners have found new homes via the [autotag]transfer portal[/autotag]. As of Friday night, OU has added seven players in the portal and seen 25 leave Norman to play elsewhere.
[autotag]Jalil Farooq[/autotag], who spent four seasons at Oklahoma, is transferring to Maryland. He was part of the 2021 recruiting class, the final one under former head coach Lincoln Riley. He decided to stay a Sooner when Riley and quarterback Caleb Williams bolted for Southern California, playing for new head coach [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag].
Farooq had productive seasons in 2022 and 2023 and was supposed to have another one in 2024. However, he broke his foot in the season-opener against Temple, and missed all but one game (Missouri) for the rest of the year.
His fellow wide receiver, [autotag]Andrel Anthony[/autotag] hopped in the portal again, after previously playing for the Michigan Wolverines before two seasons in Norman. He was a breakout player for the first half of 2023 before tearing his ACL in the Texas win.
That injury has continued to nag him, as he was only able to play in the Temple game in 2024. He could never get healthy, and he’ll now be moving on.
Anthony will be playing for the Duke Blue Devils, as he’ll try and get back on the field and be the deep threat that he was for a brief handful of games in a Sooners jersey.
Farooq’s move to Maryland and Anthony’s move to Duke are just the latest in a line of pass-catchers leaving OU this offseason. Nic Anderson (LSU), Brenen Thompson (Mississippi State), J.J. Hester (Kentucky) Jaquaize Pettaway (East Carolina) and Bauer Sharp (LSU) have all found new schools as well.
Oklahoma has added Javonnie Gibson (Arkansas Pine-Bluff), Keontez Lewis (Southern Illinois), and Isaiah Sategna (Arkansas) to the roster in an effort to replenish the wide receiver depth chart. They shouldn’t be done, but the returns of Deion Burks and Jayden Gibson will also be a huge help as well.
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