Tag: Sooners Recruiting

Texas insider flips pick for 5-star offensive tackle from Longhorns to Oklahoma

Texas Longhorns writer flips prediction from UT to the Oklahoma Sooners for five-star offensive tackle.

The Oklahoma Sooners are in the midst of a big-time recruiting battle with their longtime foes, the Texas Longhorns. Five-star offensive tackle [autotag]Michael Fasusi[/autotag] is one of the most coveted players in the 2025 recruiting class, and it appears the Sooners have a leg up on the Horns.

On Wednesday, Brandon Drumm of OUInsider and Rivals released a futurecast projecting the Sooners to be the landing spot for Fasusi. That was the first prediction on Fasusi since April. At that time, Texas had seized momentum in the recruitment, but a strong summer has allowed Oklahoma to push ahead.

Geoffrey Ketchum, who covers the Texas Longhorns for Rivals, flipped his prediction from the Longhorns to the Oklahoma Sooners.

It’s an encouraging sign: Fasusi’s planned commitment date is Aug. 21. The Sooners have a nice group of offensive linemen committed to the class, but adding Fasusi would be monumental to the future of Oklahoma’s offensive line and a huge feather in the cap of Sooners offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh.

Update

Since the original publication, Eric Nahlen, who covers the Texas Longhorns for On3 has flipped his prediction from Texas to Oklahoma.

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Brent Venables on the verge of landing OU’s first top-5 recruiting class since 2010

Brent Venables has a chance to do something that hasn’t been done in more than a decade. Finish with a top-5 recruiting class.

Recruiting is something the Oklahoma Sooners have done very well since Lincoln Riley took over for Bob Stoops in 2017. In the five recruiting cycles Riley was head coach, the Sooners had four top-10 classes with an average 247Sports composite score of 270.77.

After bringing the 2022 class back to eighth in the country following Riley’s departure, Brent Venables is well on his way to getting the Sooners their first top-five recruiting class since 2010.

That class had 30 commits, the highest being safety Tony Jefferson, who is currently with the Baltimore Ravens. Wide receiver Kenny Stills was also in that class.

Bob Stoops had quite the year.

With Oklahoma Football reasserting itself on the recruiting landscape, let’s take a look back at the last five recruiting cycles. All the rankings are taken from 247Sports.com.

One month later: Relax about the Sooners’ 2023 recruiting class

There was never a reason to worry about the Sooners’ 2023 recruiting class. Here’s where Oklahoma stands heading into August.

Thirty-one days ago an article was published on this website. It carried a very simple message: “Relax. The Sooners will be just fine for the 2023 recruiting cycle.”

When that article was published, the Sooners were 35th in 247Sports’ 2023 rankings. Today, they are seventh and have been as high as sixth. 

Simply put, recruiting races aren’t finished in early July — not by a long shot. There’s so much talent in high school football that was and still is uncommitted going into this month. Since landing Samuel Omosigho, Brent Venables’ staff has been on an absolute tear.

The Sooners had nine commits coming into July. Heading into August, they have 18 with many more on the way after this weekend’s Party at the Palace.

The Sooners had 22 commits in the 2022 recruiting cycle. If all five “locks” commit. That’s 23 for 2023. This would not only be good for the highest ranked recruiting class in school history, but perhaps the best in the nation.

It would seem some were incorrect with their assessment of the status of OU’s recruiting.

The Sooners have pretty much solidified back-to-back top-10 recruiting classes with a very good chance to land in the top five for 2023.

Venables wanted to build a foundation? He’s done just that.

Oklahoma has a recruiting footprint across the nation with a noticable affinity for defensive linemen.

Here are the players committed to the Sooners in the 2023 class:

  • Jackson Arnold, 5-star QB
  • Adepoju Adebawore, 4-star Edge
  • Jaquaize Pettaway, 4-star WR
  • Cayden Green, 4-star OT
  • Derrick LeBlanc, 4-star DL
  • Samuel Omosigho, 4-star LB
  • Lewis Carter, 4-star LB
  • Jasiah Wagoner, 4-star CB
  • Daylan Smothers, 4-star RB
  • Kalib Hicks, 4-star RB
  • Keyon Brown, 3-star WR
  • Phil Picciotti, 3-star LB
  • Joshua Bates, 3-star IOL
  • Heath Ozeata, 3-star OT
  • Logan Howland, 3-star OT
  • Erik McCarty, 3-star ATH
  • Kaleb Spencer, 3-star LB
  • Kade McIntyre, 3-star ATH

Seems like a lot of kids want to play for OU.

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Oklahoma Football cracks top 10 in 247Sports team recruiting rankings

The Oklahoma Sooners move inside the top 10 in 247Sports team recruiting rankings.

The month of July has been a good one so far for Brent Venables and the Oklahoma Football program. After being ranked as low as 38th in 247Sports’ 2023 team recruiting rankings, Oklahoma cracked the top ten with the commitment of Lewis Carter, ahead of Alabama and just behind Miami.

This is less than a year after Bob Stoops, Brent Venables, and the coaching staff brought OU’s 2022 recruiting class back from the depths all to way to eighth in the country. Venables and his staff have laid a very solid foundation for OU Football’s future in the meatgrinder that is the SEC.

Led by Denton Guyer’s Jackson Arnold, who just earned his fifth star from 247Sports, the Sooners have assembled a wide variety of talent with big names at runningback, wide receiver, linebacker and more.

The only Big 12 team ahead of OU in the rankings is fifth-ranked Texas. Also in the top 20 are Baylor and Texas Tech at 13th and 16th respectively.

Here’s the full top 25:

  1. Ohio State
  2. Notre Dame
  3. Penn State
  4. Clemson
  5. Texas
  6. Georgia
  7. Tennessee
  8. LSU
  9. Miami
  10. Oklahoma
  11. Alabama
  12. Arkansas
  13. Baylor
  14. Cincinnati
  15. Louisville
  16. Texas Tech
  17. USC
  18. Washington
  19. Northwestern
  20. Iowa
  21. Oregon
  22. Florida
  23. West Virginia
  24. North Carolina
  25. Michigan State

Of the nine teams that are ahead of OU in these rankings, three of them are in the SEC. OU being this high in the rankings at this stage is a very encouraging sign that the Sooners will be able to go toe-to-toe with SEC schools.

OU has 2023 commits from all over, including Texas, Florida, and Missouri. Getting recruits in SEC territory is vital for the onfield success of this program whenever the move to the SEC does happen.

Keep an eye on the recruiting rankings. As we’ve seen the last few weeks, they can change very quickly. It’s only July.

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.

Where Oklahoma and the Big 12 rank in FBS 10-tier rankings

Recently ESPN broke down all 130 FBS football programs into a 10 tier list. Are the Oklahoma Sooners worthy of tier 1 of college football?

There will be a fair amount of chatter surrounding Oklahoma football in the coming weeks and months. The Sooners are just days away from wrapping up the 2021 recruiting cycle with the Feb. 3 National Signing Day almost upon us. As important as the recruiting class is the number of players who are also transferring in. Most recently, they have landed three transfers from the University of Tennessee alone.

It would be fair to say that Lincoln Riley isn’t likely done just yet. The losses of Creed Humphrey, Ronnie Perkins, Rhamondre Stevenson, Tre Brown, and Adrian Ealy aren’t small ones. The Sooners staff might need to get creative in how they replace them. All of that will be worked out in due time.

One of the annual traditions of the offseason is power rankings, preseason rankings, and even breaking college football into tiers. ESPN recently broke down the FBS schools into a 10-tier ranking. Sooners Wire breaks down where the Big 12 schools are ranked and where is Oklahoma?

Georgia football among top schools for 4-star WR

The Georgia Bulldogs are among the top schools for four-star wide receiver Malcolm Johnson

The Georgia Bulldogs are among the top schools for four-star wide receiver Malcolm Johnson. Johnson plays high school football at St. Stephens & St. Agnes in Maryland.

Johnson, who is a member of the class of 2021, released his top schools via Twitter:

Johnson, who is projected to attend Oklahoma, puts Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Georgia, Texas, Maryland, Florida, and USC. Does this mean that Malcolm “Jet” Johnson won’t end up as an Oklahoma Sooner?

Johnson would be a great addition to UGA’s recruiting class. Kirby Smart and Georgia just secured another commitment.

Johnson caught seven touchdowns passes last season. In the process, he hauled in over 800 receiving yards. Johnson may have an even bigger junior season.

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