The Oklahoma Sooners lost three of their top five wide receivers from the 2021 season. Jadon Haselwood and Mario Williams transferred out and Mike Woods is continuing his career at the professional level.
All’s well though as [autotag]Marvin Mims[/autotag] and [autotag]Theo Wease[/autotag] return for the Sooners. [autotag]Drake Stoops[/autotag] will still play a significant role. [autotag]Jalil Farooq[/autotag] is expected to have a breakout season and [autotag]Cody Jackson[/autotag] will see more opportunities this year.
It doesn’t look the same, but there’s still quite a bit of depth at the wide receiver position. And that doesn’t include true freshmen wideouts [autotag]Nicholas Anderson[/autotag] and [autotag]Jayden Gibson[/autotag] who could be factors in year one, but certainly have bright futures ahead.
“I think Jayden Gibson and Nick Anderson. They’re super talented. You can’t teach athleticism and their build and what they can do,” Sooners quarterback [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] shared with the media on Tuesday.
Their size, Gibson is 6-foot-5 and Anderson is 6-foot-4, is the first thing that stands out about them. And Gabriel’s right, you can’t teach that. But they bring more to the table than just being tall. Both were four-star wide receivers who were once committed to other Power Five schools that the Sooners flipped.
Gibson decommitted from Florida after the Gators moved on from Dan Mullen while Anderson was once headed to Oregon. Both guys are fluid athletes that posses strong route running chops. But even that’s not the thing that stands out most to Dillon Gabriel.
It’s the work ethic.
Gabriel said, “I think they’re super hard working, the way they attack every single day. I think when you’re a freshman, especially early freshman, early enrollee, I think there’s just a lot more challenges than just any typical freshman would go through. First, you know, they should be going to graduation and going to prom and things like that, but they’re here and they made that decision to get ahead and to better themselves. So I’m super proud of them and how they continue to fight every single day. Whether it’s a good or bad day the day before, you know they just continued to attack every single day.”
However the wide receiver snap count is distributed in 2022, the true freshmen early enrollees are turning heads with how they’ve approached their first semester at Oklahoma. That could lead to opportunities in year one, but even if it doesn’t, Jayden Gibson and Nicholas Anderson provide the Sooners with a bright future at wide receiver.
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