Four-star defensive line target of the Oklahoma Sooners, Xadavien Sims, committed to Oregon on Saturday.
Oklahoma and Oregon have been doing battle for recruits quite often lately. In the latest round of head-to-head matches on the recruiting trail, the Oregon Ducks prevailed.
Four-star defensive lineman and one of the top players in Oklahoma, Xadavien Sims, committed to Oregon over Oklahoma, TCU, Vanderbilt, and Michigan State. The announcement came live at the C4Sports facility where he and there to Texarkana prospects train, including 2025 QB commit Kevin Sperry. Sims is a consensus four-star prospect and is the No. 121 overall prospect, according to 247Sports.
While it was initially thought that this battle would be an Oklahoma and Michigan State battle, Oregon entered the fray and made up significant ground. Dan Lanning’s time as the defensive coordinator at Georgia has helped give him and the Oregon defensive staff a significant boost amongst defensive recruits.
And yet, while Michigan State owned 100 percent of the crystal balls for Sims earlier this week on 247Sports, the tide shifted quickly in Oregon’s favor. A few Oklahoma predictions came in, and they seemed to be the prevailing choice but a mid-week crystal ball from national director of recruiting Steve Wiltfong, signaled that the Oregon smoke was more than just smoke.
Oregon was the last Power Five school to offer him in the winter, but they hit the ground running to catch up to Oklahoma and Michigan State. Sims’ commitment will sting for the Sooners. They’ve now lost one of the best players in the state to an out-of-state school in consecutive years. Four-star EDGE Bai Jobe committed and signed with Michigan State last year.
However, it won’t discourage the Sooners as they are still heavily in the mix for four or five other talented defensive linemen for the 2024 recruiting cycle. At the moment, they’re the favorites to land two of the best prospects in the nation, five-star defensive linemen David Stone and Williams Nwaneri. Oklahoma’s also heavily in the mix for four-star defensive linemen Joseph Jonah-Ajonye and Nigel Smith.
This is the third major recruiting battle the Sooners and the Ducks have had in the last two cycles. Oklahoma won out in the Peyton Bowen sweepstakes, flipping the five-star safety after Bowen flipped his commitment from Notre Dame to Oregon. The Ducks pulled off the flip of four-star wide receiver prospect Ashton Cozart.
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