Tag: Gavin Sawchuk

Oklahoma football’s official recruiting class after national signing day 2022

A look at the 2022 recruiting class and where each player ranks with the four major recruiting services after national signing day.

The Oklahoma Sooners put together one of the eight best recruiting classes in the country through national signing day. The declarations of the Sooners’ demise was greatly exaggerated as Brent Venables and his staff has breathed new life into a program that had struggled to maintain its top spot in the Big 12 over the last couple of years. That ultimately led to missing the Big 12 title game altogether in 2021.

Unlike other major college programs that experienced a coaching change, the Sooners were able to create positive momentum heading into the spring despite the coaching change.

The Sooners are the only team in the top 10 without a five-star recruit. While it would be nice to land Josh Conerly or Lebbeus Overton in the 2022 cycle, the teams high ranking in the cycle reveals just how good their four and three-star players are.

The Sooners have several incoming freshman that could come in and earn an opportunity right out of the gate. A top eight class is nothing to sneeze at and it speaks to the tremendous talent of the players and the work done by the coaching staff to get the guys on board.

As we continue our look at national signing day, here are where the Sooners 21 incoming freshman rank across the four major recruiting services; 247Sports, On3, Rivals, and ESPN.

Athlon Sports pegs Oklahoma No. 2 in early 2022 Big 12 power rankings

According to Athlon Sports’ early 2022 Big 12 power rankings, the Sooners will very much be back in the hunt of a conference championship.

The 2022 college football season is still a long ways off. Just 216 days away. Or, seven months and four days. Or, 30 weeks and six days. You get the picture.

Still, it’s never too early to start thinking about what the Big 12 conference will look like in 2022 and where the Sooners slot into that picture.

Athlon Sports writer Steven Lassan released his early Big 12 football predictions for 2022 several weeks ago and he has Oklahoma No. 2 in his first power rankings.

Here’s what Lassan wrote about OU.

It’s been a busy offseason in Norman, but new coach Brent Venables has the pieces in place to push for a Big 12 title. Assuming Caleb Williams doesn’t return, UCF transfer Dillon Gabriel should take over the quarterback spot and reunite with his former coach (and coordinator) in Jeff Lebby. The Sooners lost running back Kennedy Brooks and a couple of linemen to the NFL, but Gabriel’s arrival should keep this offense near the top of the conference. Venables was one of the nation’s top defensive signal-callers at Clemson and should make an impact right away on this side of the ball for the Sooners. – Lassan, Athlon Sports.

Lassan had Baylor as his preseason No. 1 in his first Big 12 power rankings. After Oklahoma at No. 2, Lassan listed Oklahoma State No. 3, Texas No. 4, Kansas State No. 5, TCU No. 6, Iowa State No. 7, Texas Tech No. 8, West Virginia No. 9 and Kansas No. 10.

Now that Jaxson Dart has made his decision to transfer to Ole Miss official, Oklahoma knows that its starting quarterback will be UCF transfer Dillon Gabriel.

With 70 passing touchdowns and 8,037 passing yards over the course of his 25 starts with UCF, Gabriel brings a wealth of starting experience to his signal-calling duties in Norman.

Offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby has historically featured his No. 1 wide receivers prominently within his offenses. For example, in 2019 with Gabriel directing his offense at UCF, wide receiver Gabriel Davis caught 72 receptions for 1,241 receiving yards and hauled in 12 touchdown grabs.

In 2020 at Ole Miss, wide receiver Elijah Moore reeled in 86 grabs for 1,193 receiving yards and caught eight touchdowns. Then, in 2021, Ole Miss wide receiver Dontario Drummond recorded 76 receptions for 1,028 receiving yards and snagged eight touchdown grabs.

There’s probably a happy medium to be found where receptions are dispersed a little more evenly. At Ole Miss, Moore and Drummond had 59 and 50 more receptions than the next-closest wide receiver, respectively. It wasn’t nearly as drastic in 2019 at UCF, where Davis’ 72 receptions were closely followed by Marlon Williams’ 51 grabs and Tre Nixon’s 49 catches.

It’s safe to say Lebby and Gabriel have their No. 1 target at OU in wide receiver Marvin Mims, though. Mims has been the Sooners’ leading receiver each of the past two seasons with 610 receiving yards in 2020 and 705 receiving yards in 2021.

Still, he only caught 37 and 32 receptions in those two seasons, so look for those numbers to radically climb upwards. The return of wide receiver Theo Wease and the potential emergence of wide receiver Jalil Farooq should have the Sooners’ receiving stable in good hands.

OU brought in Cal transfer McKade Mettauer who had 28 career starts at right guard to help offset the losses of Marquis Hayes and Tyrese Robinson up front along Oklahoma’s offensive line. It figures that he’ll be helping pave the way for either Eric Gray or Marcus Major at running back. The Sooners also signed a pair of four-star running backs in Jovantae Barnes and Gavin Sawchuk.

Oklahoma’s offensive skill talent surrounding Gabriel should be one of its strengths heading into 2022.

Defensively, Oklahoma is replacing six starters. OU added experience along its defensive line via the transfer portal in Tulane transfer Jeffery Johnson and Hawaii transfer Jonah Laulu. That pair combined for 77 tackles and 6.5 sacks in 2021.

The Sooners also bring back defensive tackle Jalen Redmond who is ready for a starring role. In just eight games in 2021, Redmond finished with eight tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks. He’s registered 21.5 tackles for loss and 10 sacks in his Oklahoma career.

OU got good news when linebacker DaShaun White announced his plans to return. White has made 36 career starts at Oklahoma and recorded 169 tackles, 13.5 tackles for loss and five sacks.

On the back end, Oklahoma returns probable starters D.J. Graham and Woodi Washington at cornerback and Key Lawrence figures to start at one of the two vacated safety positions. The Sooners also added a trio of defensive backs from the transfer portal in Wyoming transfer C.J. Coldon, North Carolina transfer Trey Morrison and Louisville transfer Kani Walker.

In short, there’s a lot to be decided between now and the start of the 2022 season in terms of who will start for Oklahoma, especially defensively. OU used the transfer portal to effectively position itself to withstand NFL Draft and outgoing transfer portal departures. The Sooners are as good a candidate as anybody else to capture the 2022 Big 12 Championship in head coach Brent Venables’ first season at the helm.

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Bleacher Report uses one word to describe the Oklahoma Sooners in 2022: Resetting

With the turnover the Oklahoma Sooners experienced this offseason, Bleacher Report described the 2022 Oklahoma Sooners as “resetting.”

Every team experiences turnover every season in college football. This year, the Sooners not only lost key players on both sides of the ball, they had a major shift in coaching personalities and philosophies.

In a sense, the culture is shifting at Oklahoma to fit the personality of its new head coach Brent Venables.

Over at Bleacher Report, David Kenyon picked one word for each of the top 25 teams. For Oklahoma, the word he chose is “resetting.”

Brent Venables replaced now-USC coach Lincoln Riley. As of this writing, the Sooners have 10 outgoing — including star quarterback Caleb Williams — and nine incoming transfers. The 2022 recruiting class didn’t fall apart, but a handful of blue-chip prospects decommitted after Riley’s departure. What we expected to see at OU has changed dramatically; the offseason will be a much-needed time to reassess the wild two-month stretch in Norman. – Kenyon, Bleacher Report

Oklahoma looks to be in good shape ahead of national signing day and spring practice. At the same time, the coaching change has left people thinking Oklahoma’s in a situation where it needs to take stock of where it is. While the Sooners have experienced losses, they’ve had contingency plans for just about every one of them.

The Sooners are in a much better place than a lot of people want to give them credit for. Technically it’s a reset as they turned over all of the defensive coaching staff and brought in a new offensive coordinator. Despite the loss of Williams, the Sooners feel pretty good about where their offense is heading, especially with the returns of Theo Wease and Marvin Mims.

Sure they lost Kennedy Brooks to the draft, but they have two incoming freshman, Jovantae Barnes and Gavin Sawchuk, who look as if they could be immediate contributors this fall. Combined with the return of Eric Gray and Marcus Major, and the Sooners running back situation is in a good place.

They’re projected to bring back three-fifths of their starting offensive line. Replacing Marquis Hayes and Tyrese Robinson’s experience will not be easy, but they have talent that’s been waiting for an opportunity, and they brought in a couple of offensive linemen through the transfer portal.

On defense, the Sooners’ strength looks to be at linebacker where they have as many as six guys that could be contributors in the fall, led by veterans DaShaun White and David Ugwoegbu.

With Woodi Washington, D.J. Graham, and Key Lawrence back, the Sooners are in a good place in the secondary. They’ve added experienced options through the transfer portal that could help mitigate the losses of Delarrin Turner-Yell and Pat Fields at safety.

The big question is who steps up to replace Nik Bonitto, Perrion Winfrey and Isaiah Thomas. Bonitto and Winfrey look like top 60 NFL draft prospects, and Thomas could very well push his way into that. That’s a lot of experience and production heading to the NFL. The Sooners have potential options to fill in in Ethan Downs, Clayton Smith, Reggie Grimes and Marcus Stripling, but at this point it’s simply projection.

The Sooners may be resetting. It happens with every coaching change. But it’s not like they don’t have a talented squad that’s capable of returning them back to the Big 12 championship in the fall.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. Let us know your thoughts, comment on this story below. Join the conversation today.

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Oklahoma ranked No. 17 in ESPN’s ‘Way-Too-Early’ top 25

The Oklahoma Sooners were ranked No. 17 in Mark Schlabach’s “Way-Too-Early” top-25 rankings.

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With Georgia’s 33-18 triumph over Alabama in the College Football Playoff’s national championship game in the books, the college football offseason is officially upon us.

That means it’s time to overindulge on rankings that don’t really matter outside of stirring the collective college football discussion pot.

ESPN’s Mark Schlabach released his “Way-Too-Early college football top 25” and Oklahoma checks in at No. 17.

Schlabach wrote this about the Sooners’ 2022 season outlook.

The Sooners’ transition from former coach Lincoln Riley to Brent Venables might be a lot smoother if quarterback Caleb Williams sticks around. He has entered the transfer portal, although Williams said returning to OU remains an option. The Sooners weren’t taking a chance, however, and grabbed Gabriel, who threw for more than 8,000 yards with 70 touchdowns in three seasons at UCF. Freshman receiver Mario Williams also might transfer. Venables, who has never been a head coach, will have to address heavy losses on the line of scrimmage. Perhaps the team’s six best defenders are departing, along with the leading rusher and three of the top four receivers. The addition of Mettauer, who started 28 games at California, will help ease the losses in the interior offensive line. – Schlabach, ESPN.

Oklahoma has certainly seen its fair share of defections to the 2022 NFL Draft and to the NCAA’s transfer portal. Those departures probably aren’t done yet either as quarterback Caleb Williams and wide receiver Mario Williams have been crystal-balled to wind up at USC.

It’s important to remember that there will also be more additions to the Sooners’ roster between now and the start of the 2022 season, too. Here’s our handy Sooners Wire transfer portal tracker to keep up to date with which players are going where.

Schlabach listed UCF transfer quarterback Dillon Gabriel, Cal offensive lineman transfer McKade Mettauer, Hawaii defensive lineman transfer Jonah La’ulu and Missouri tight end transfer Daniel Parker Jr. among his key additions to Oklahoma.

Several 2022 signees were mentioned by Schlabach as key additions as well: running back Gavin Sawchuk, linebacker Kobie McKinzie and wide receiver Nicholas Anderson.

Schlabach’s “way-too-early” top five looked like this: No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Georgia, No. 4 Texas A&M and No. 5 Michigan.

Oklahoma State was the highest-ranked Big 12 team at No. 9, while Baylor slotted in right ahead of Oklahoma at No. 16.

Two other programs with Oklahoma ties found their way into Schlabach’s top 25. USC was ranked No. 22 and South Carolina snuck in at No. 25.

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Oklahoma Sooners offer 2023 4-star running back Cedric Baxter, announces plans to visit Norman

The Oklahoma Sooners continue their foray into the 2023 recruiting cycle with an offer to one of the top running backs in the 2023 class.

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In modern-day recruiting, no door is ever really closed. With the coaching change, in particular, the Sooners have opened new doors on the national recruiting scene.

Brent Venables, having spent the last decade coaching in and recruiting the Southeast, has marked out new territory for the Oklahoma Sooners coaching staff to sing their teeth into. Jeff Lebby’s experience at UCF and then Ole Miss gives them an offensive guy that has the experience that direction as well.

Even players that they weren’t necessarily in on a week or two ago, now have Oklahoma as a consideration moving forward. And that’s where we land with Cedric Baxter.

Cedric Baxter, a four-star running back out of Edgewater High School in Orlando, Fla. is the latest 2023 recruit to receive an offer from the University of Oklahoma.

What’s interesting about Baxter is that prior to the Oklahoma offer, he had released a top seven list including USC, Alabama, Ohio State, Florida State, Texas, Arkansas, and UCF.

This might be one of the bigger recruiting battles the Sooners will face with the who’s who of college football vying for the No. 1 running back in the 2023 class according to On3 Sports.

Baxter is the No. 4 running back in the country per 247Sports composite rankings and the No. 70 player in the country.

The Oklahoma Sooners will get an opportunity to make their recruiting pitch to Baxter who is set to take a visit to Norman on Jan. 29. Based on what we’ve seen from DeMarco Murray in his time with the Oklahoma Sooners, he’ll get quite the sales pitch from the former player.

Here’s what national recruiting analyst Andrew Ivins of 247Sports had to say about Cedric Baxter.

Played primarily safety and a little wide receiver before settling in as the starting running back at one of Orlando’s top high school programs. Produced right away as a junior averaging just over 8.5 yards per carry while facing stiff competition week in and week out. Owns a bit of an upright running style, but makes it work as he quickly picks a lane and attacks it with a full head of steam. Does a nice job of navigating his way through traffic and will use swift little cuts to get around defenders. More than capable of breaking multiple arms tackles and seems to always be falling forward. – Ivins, 247Sports

Though the Sooners will be bringing in Gavin Sawchuk and Jovantae Barnes as part of the 2022 class, the 2023 class is devoid of running back talent at this point. Given the physical nature of the position, it’s important to keep a healthy dose of talent on the roster at running back and Cedric Baxter’s presence and ability could be a huge key for the Sooners as they look to make their transition into the SEC in a few years.

Cedric Baxter’s Recruiting Profile

Rating

Stars Overall State Position
247Sports 4 41 11 3
Rivals 4 84 15 4
ESPN 4 139 28 7
247 Composite 4 70 13 4
On3 Recruiting 4 44 12 1
On3 Composite 4 61 13 4

Vitals

Hometown Orlando, Fla.
Projected Position Running Back
Height 6-1
Weight 215 lbs

Recruitment

  • Offered on 1/11/22
  • visit scheduled for 1/29/22

Notable Offers

  • Oklahoma
  • USC
  • Alabama
  • UCF
  • Florida State
  • Ohio State
  • Arkansas
  • Texas

Crystal Ball

insert crystal ball embed

Highlights

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Oklahoma ranks inside ESPN’s top-10 recruiting classes after bowl season

ESPN’s Craig Haubert took a look at the nation’s recruiting classes following bowl season and the Sooners check in at No. 10.

One of the most encouraging signs to start the Brent Venables era at Oklahoma has been how the Sooners have been able to hold their 2022 recruiting class together and continue to add to it.

ESPN’s Craig Haubert took a look at the nation’s top 2022 recruiting classes following the conclusion of bowl season.

According to ESPN, the Sooners check in with the country’s No. 10 recruiting class right now.

Here’s what Haubert wrote about Oklahoma’s 2022 class.

The Sooners were competing for a top-five class, but the unexpected departure of Lincoln Riley has set this class back a bit. New hire Brent Venables and his staff, though, have the Sooners climbing back up the rankings and into the top ten. The Sooners have a top-10 running back on board in Sawchuk, a wiry back with a good blend of speed, power and agility. They also added late in the process Jovanate Barnes, out of Las Vegas, the same city former Sooner RB great and their current RB Coach Demarco Murray came out of. The new staff made its first key pickup in ESPN 300 QB Nick Evers, who won positional MVP at the Dallas Under Armour camp this past spring. To protect that offensive talent, they have secured multiple ESPN 300 commitments on the offensive line in OTs Jacob Sexton and Jake Taylor. The defense took a hit with several ESPN 300 front-seven prospects deciding to open up their recruitment, but there is still some strong talent on that side of the ball on board. Robert Spears-Jennings, a top in-state prospect with quick feet, could contribute on either side of the ball with upside as a defensive back. Williams gives them another versatile player; the fluid, speedy in-state prospect is projected to the secondary as well. – Haubert, ESPN.

According to ESPN, running back Gavin Sawchuk is Oklahoma’s top offensive player and defensive back Gentry Williams is the Sooners’ top defensive player in the 2022 class.

Again, it’s been a terrific start for Venables and his staff and Oklahoma ranking inside the nation’s top-10 recruiting classes is an indication of that.

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Oklahoma Sooners land 4-star running back Jovantae Barnes out of Nevada

2022 four-star running back Jovantae Barnes commits to the Oklahoma Sooners.

After a long, long recruiting process and one that we’ve chronicled in detail here at Sooners Wire, Jovantae Barnes is finally a Sooner. Despite the recent coaching change, Barnes was trending in the direction of the Crimson and Cream long before Lincoln Riley’s exodus.

Oklahoma’s biggest threats were USC and Florida State. However, Barnes was not swayed to USC despite Riley’s move. Florida State’s decline probably wasn’t attractive and former FSU offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham took that same job at Oregon.

Barnes’ recruitment was led by the king of Sin City (in the eyes of Sooners fans at least), DeMarco Murray. Murray’s relationship to Barnes, his connection to Nevada, and his NFL success resonated with Barnes.

Barnes brings fresh legs and loads of upside to the Sooners running back group along with fellow four-star and Oklahoma signee Gavin Sawchuk. Barnes shines the brightest running between the tackles and figures to be a beast putting on more muscle after some time with Coach Jerry Schmidt in the offseason.

Barnes’ recruitment has a slight ripple effect long-term on the Sooners’ recruiting efforts in 2023 as well.

Barnes has a close friendship with 2023 commit DeAndre Moore Jr, also a native of Nevada. Both are reportedly really close and both have a great relationship with DeMarco Murray. So much so, Moore took to social media to announce he’d be still committed to Oklahoma despite Lincoln Riley’s departure as long as Murray was coaching at Oklahoma. Adding one of his childhood friends to the team will probably also go a long way of keeping Moore in the fold too.

Recruiting Profile

Rating

Stars Overall State Position
247 4 170 4 15
Rivals 4 108 3 4
ESPN 4 97th 3 7
247 Composite 4 116 3 10

Vitals

Hometown Las Vegas, Nevada
Projected Position RB
Height 6’0
Weight 190

Recruitment

  • Offered on February 3rd, 2020
  • Official visit November 20th, 2021

Offers

  • USC Trojans
  • Florida State Seminoles
  • Alabama Crimson Tide
  • Utah Utes
  • Texas Longhorns
  • Ole Miss Rebels
  • Auburn Tigers
  • Florida Gators
  • Texas A&M Aggies

Crystal Ball

Film

Barnes Senior highlights 

Twitter

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Oklahoma Sooners star running back Kennedy Brooks declares for NFL Draft

After an outstanding season and a career that saw him achieve three 1,000-yard seasons, Kennedy Brooks declared for the 2022 NFL Draft.

After putting on one last memorable performance to end a highly productive season, Kennedy Brooks has decided to end his career at Oklahoma and look forward and begin preparing for the NFL Draft. He posted the following image on his social media pages today a short while ago.

Brooks finishes his Oklahoma career with 3,320 rushing yards, seven yards per carry, and 31 touchdowns for the Sooners. He ran with an effortless style that was incredibly productive.

He put together three 1,000-yard seasons and was the model of consistency for the running back room during his time in Norman. Brooks was a patient runner and his patience and vision more than made up for his perceived lack of speed.

Notably this year, he shouldered a major load, and along with Caleb Williams, helped lead the Sooners to an all-time great comeback win against the Texas Longhorns. The win was punctuated by Brooks using his patented patience and vision before rumbling to the end zone to finish off the Longhorns.

His final game was just mere icing on the cake, named the Valero Alamo Bowl’s Most Outstanding Offensive Player after rushing for 142 yards and three touchdowns on 14 carries (10.1 average) against Oregon Ducks.

With Brooks departing for the NFL, Eric Gray, and Marcus Major look poised to fight it out all winter, spring, and summer for the right to be the next starting running back at Oklahoma. 2022 four-star running back Gavin Sawchuk will be joining the running back room and there’s a very real chance the room gets one more 2022 running back recruit in the coming months as well to help replenish the bodies and depth in the room.

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How do the Big 12 2022 recruiting classes stack up a couple of days into the early signing period?

Now that the first couple of days of the early signing period has passed, how does the Big 12 stack up in team recruiting rankings?

The early signing period is underway and there are just under two months until national signing day. The Oklahoma Sooners have done a nice job recovering a recruiting class that was in flux after the departure of Lincoln Riley to the USC Trojans.

What was once the 27th ranked recruiting class in college football for 2022, the Sooners have climbed back into the top 10 thanks to the hard work of Bob Stoops, the assistant coaches on the offensive side of the ball, and new hires Brent Venables, Jeff Lebby, and Miguel Chavis.

And the Sooners aren’t done yet. With time for players to sign their letters of intent, Oklahoma can still get commitments from several big-name players. Devon Campbell recently narrowed his list to two schools, with Oklahoma and the Texas Longhorns taking the prominent places for the five-star offensive lineman’s services.

Jaren Kanak, out of Kansas, who remains committed to the Clemson Tigers, has seen crystal ball projections from local and national analysts at 247Sports flip their projections from the Tigers to the Sooners.

With only 16 players committed (Gentry Williams still needs to sign his letter of intent), the Sooners have room to add several more players to this recruiting class.

As the signing period continues, let’s take a look at how the Big 12’s recruiting classes stack up via On3 Recruiting’s and 247Sports’ team rankings for the 2022 recruiting cycle.

Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables’ comments on the Sooners’ 2022 signing class

Oklahoma head football coach Brent Venables met with the media and commented on what the Sooners are adding in their 2022 signing class.

For a coach, each signing class is different and each is special. Oklahoma’s 2022 signing class will be a memorable one for Brent Venables because it’s his first signing class as a head coach.

Venables addressed the media and discussed what he and the Sooners have added in its “#ChampU22” signing class.

“It’s good to be off the road, finally take a deep breath. We’ve covered a lot of miles here over the last seven days in the recruiting trail. Really exciting about the 13 guys that we announced today that signed. We are waiting on a few other young men to announce here in the next 24 hours or so. I feel terrific about the group of young people that we’re bringing in and their families. I think that they represent the values that we also value,” Venables said.

OU signed players from six states with its class of 13. The class is currently comprised of seven offensive players and six defensive players. All 13 are high school players that are joining the program, so there aren’t any transfer additions yet.

Oklahoma signed offensive linemen Jacob Sexton and Jake Taylor, wide receivers Nicholas Anderson and Jayden Gibson, running back Gavin Sawchuk, tight end Jason Llewellyn and quarterback Nick Evers on offense.

Defensively, the Sooners signed defensive linemen Cedric Roberts and Alton Tarber, linebackers Kip Lewis and Kobie McKinzie and defensive backs Robert Spears-Jennings and Jayden Rowe.

“Just a group that again covers every level at every position outside of a specialty position. We’ve had three new additional commitments since we started the week initially recruiting. Just feel terrific about again as much as anything else the type of people that they are. They fit our philosophy and our locker room. The things that we value, they value as well,” Venables said.

Venables didn’t comment on all of the 13 signees specifically, but here’s a look at the comments he made about the four that he did address individually.

Kobie McKinzie, linebacker

Kobie McKinzie is rated as the nation’s No. 13 linebacker and 144th player overall in the 247Sports composite rankings. The four-star out of Lubbock-Cooper High School flipped back to the Sooners recently.

“First of all, Kobie’s just an incredibly bright young guy. Got a lot of life to him, huge personality. He’s a relationship-driven young guy, got a wonderful family, just a terrific story,” Venables said of McKinzie.

Venables indicated that McKinzie will be one of the founding blocks for his defense.

“Just really thankful for him. If you’re going to build a great defense, it starts up the middle, you know, inside, up front and at middle backer and with your safeties. You’ve got to be really strong up that middle. His presence, his size, his strength, his power, his physicality gives us a chance for exactly that,” Venables said.

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