South Carolina Gamecocks Football

4-star UGA recruiting target moves up commitment date

Four-star in-state safety recruit moves up commitment date after visiting South Carolina

Four-star safety recruit Lagonza Hayward has moved up his commitment date. The talented class of 2025 safety prospect plans to announce his commitment on July 27. He was scheduled to commit in August.

Hayward’s top four schools are Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee. Hayward, who is ranked as the No. 6 safety in the country, is no longer considering Alabama, Florida State and USC.

The four-star safety plays high school football for Toombs County High School in Lyons, Georgia. The 6-foot-1, 200-pound safety is the No. 82 recruit in the nation and the No. 11 player in Georgia. Hayward is a key recruiting target for head coach Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs.

Hayward visited Georgia on May 31. The Toombs County standout also checked out South Carolina. He has official visits with Florida and Tennessee over the next couple of weeks.

Georgia football has been hot in recruiting recently. The Bulldogs have the No. 2 class of 2025 in the SEC. Georgia has four commitments in recent weeks and is building a strong foundation in the 2025 cycle.

Oklahoma Sooners 2024 football schedule

With game times announced, here’s a look at the Oklahoma Sooners full 2024 football schedule.

The Oklahoma Sooners’ full 2024 schedule has been released by the [autotag]SEC[/autotag], which means its time to make those travel arrangements for a full slate of destination games in OU’s first season in the SEC.

In a welcome change from what had been a glaring issue in their final years in the Big 12, the Oklahoma Sooners have only two games scheduled for the early television window. Their home game against South Carolina on Oct. 19 and their road trip to The Grove to face Ole Miss both fall in the early television window with kickoff times slated for 11 a.m. CT or noon. The other 10 games will be late afternoon or prime-time starts for the Sooners.

The SEC and their broadcast partners will utilize flex scheduling for games against Tennessee, Missouri, Alabama and LSU. When the Volunteers return to Norman, it’ll mark the return of national championship-winning quarterback and former offensive coordinator [autotag]Josh Heupel[/autotag]. It will also be Oklahoma’s first SEC conference tilt.

Late-season games against Missouri, Alabama and LSU could have implications for the SEC title game and the College Football Playoff. Each has the potential to be a top-15 matchup.

There’s a potential for Oklahoma to play as many as six night games. Their first two weeks against Temple and Houston are already slated to kick off in the evening.

Oklahoma Sooners 2024 football schedule

Date	Opponent	TV	Time
Aug. 30	Temple	ESPN	6 p.m. CT
Sept. 7	Houston	SEC Network	6:45 p.m. CT
Sept. 14	Tulane	ESPN or ESPN2	2:30 p.m. CT
Sept. 21	Tennessee	TBA	2:30-3:30 or 5-7 p.m.
Sept. 28	at Auburn	TBA	2:30-3:30 p.m. CT
Oct. 5	BYE	WEEK	—
Oct. 12	vs. Texas (Dallas)	ABC or ESPN	2:30 p.m. CT
Oct. 19	South Carolina	TBA	11-Noon CT
Oct. 26	at Ole Miss	TBA	11-Noon CT
Nov. 2	Maine	ESPN+/SECN+	1:30 p.m. CT
Nov. 9	at Missouri	TBA	2:30-3:30 or 5-7 p.m.
Nov. 16	BYE	WEEK	—
Nov. 23	Alabama	TBA	2:30-3:30 or 5-7 p.m.
Nov. 30	at LSU	TBA	2:30-3:30 or 5-7 p.m.
Dec. 7	SEC Championship	TBA	TBA

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New win projections for every SEC team for the 2024 college football season

SEC win projections for the 2024 College Football Season.

2024 will mark a new era of the ever-evolving landscape of college football. The Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns make the move to the SEC and face new challenges.

Though if you hear former Texas tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders talk about it, the SEC won’t be much of a challenge.

After a 2023 season that didn’t see an SEC team in the national championship game, there might be something to it. Georgia didn’t make the playoff and lost to an Alabama team that wasn’t necessarily the best of the Nick Saban era.

At the same time, the Georgia Bulldogs have earned the right to be the favorites in 2024. However, if you look at ESPN data analyst Jake Wimberly’s latest win projections for the inaugural season of the new-look 16-team conference, the Dawgs aren’t the favorite. It’s one of the newcomers.

Here’s a look at the projected win totals for the SEC in 2024.

SEC quarterback rankings ahead of 2024 spring football

Where does Jackson Arnold rank among SEC quarterbacks heading into spring ball?

As the SEC expands to 16 teams in 2024, the conference is stacked at the quarterback position. From former five-star prospects to 2024 Heisman contenders to intriguing transfer additions, there will be some fantastic quarterback play on display this fall in the SEC.

Seven of the last nine Heisman winners have come from Oklahoma and the SEC. Two of those seven were non-quarterbacks, DeVonta Smith and Derrick Henry.

Much of what will determine which teams emerge as SEC title and College Football Playoff contenders will be on the shoulders of the quarterbacks who will lead their team in 2024.

There are some quarterback competitions that need to take place, but here’s our pre-spring ball SEC quarterback rankings.

How do the Oklahoma Sooners compare to SEC teams in ESPN’s SP+ rating?

The Oklahoma Sooners are heading into a new era in the SEC and come in at No. 8 in the preseason SP+ rankings.

The Oklahoma Sooners had a really good season in 2023 as they bounced back from their 6-7 season in 2022 to win 10 games last year. Now, they prepare for a new era of Oklahoma football with the move to the [autotag]SEC[/autotag].

But they aren’t the only change coming to college football in 2024. The landscape as a whole has changed. The [autotag]Pac 12[/autotag] is essentially no more as everyone but Washington State and Oregon State left for the [autotag]Big 10[/autotag] or the [autotag]Big 12[/autotag].

With the new changes and the 2024 recruiting cycle coming to a close, it’s time to look at where Oklahoma ranks in ESPN data analyst Bill Connelly’s SP+ preseason rankings (subscription required).

For those that don’t know, Connelly releases a preseason SP+ ranking every February where he bases his projections on three primary factors weighted by their predictiveness. Those would be returning production, recent recruiting, and recent history.

So, let’s take a look at how Oklahoma stacks up against the rest of the SEC.

Oklahoma Sooners in the top 5 of Josh Pate’s SEC Power Ratings

The Oklahoma Sooners are considered a top five program in the SEC according to Josh Pate.

The Oklahoma Sooners are heading into a new era of college football. Now, there are two mega conferences in college football with the additions the [autotag]SEC[/autotag] and Big 10 are making in 2024.

The Sooners elected to join the SEC, which sort of started this new wave of conference realignment. Much has been made about whether Oklahoma is “SEC ready”? Even after a 10-3 season, that question still looms over the program.

The program is heading in the right direction. They may not be ready to compete for an SEC championship in 2024, but you can tell with how they are recruiting, especially on the defensive side of the ball, they have a vision of what it’ll take to make this team ready for the week in, week out grind of the SEC.

While Oklahoma will be competitive in their inaugural season in 2024, 2025 is the year they’ll be serious title contenders. They’re still a young team and by 2025 a lot of this young talent will be seasoned.

But what about next season? How well can the Sooners do in Year 1? CBSSports’ and the Late Kick Show’s Josh Pate shared his SEC Power Ratings heading into the 2024 season Sunday night. In it, he values a rolling three-year snapshot of on-field performance, talent acquisition, and stability resource pool. Given all of that, he feels the Sooners are the fifth-best SEC program heading into 2024.

That means Oklahoma is probably around an 8-4 or 9-3 team in 2024, which is what I would have them at. And with the 12-team playoff incoming, there’s a possibility that puts them in the College Football Playoff in 2024.

I do think the LSU Tigers are a little overvalued because last year they were so bad defensively and were carried by their offense. Well, gone is Heisman winner Jayden Daniels and their star receiver Malik Nabors. Both are first round picks in 2024.

Here’s a look at how the SEC stacks up, according to Josh Pate.

Reacting to Yahoo Sports’ SEC football stadium rankings

Yahoo was very judicious with its choice of who to leave out. Two teams hail from the SEC East and two from the West.

Yahoo Sports recently ranked all the Southeastern Conference football stadiums from one to 10, excluding the bottom four.

The rankings were chosen based on the SEC as presently constructed, so apologies to fans of the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma, you all will have to wait until August to be included.

Yahoo was very judicious with its choice of who to leave out. Two teams hail from the SEC East and two from the West. Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt were left on the outside looking in.

Therefore, if you’re a fan of Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, Kroger Field, Davis Wade Stadium or FirstBank Stadium, you likely have an axe to grind with Yahoo Sports, not us. For what it’s worth though, they weren’t necessarily wrong.

In descending order, let’s find out where Texas A&M‘s Kyle Field in Aggieland ranks among the best conference in college football.

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Shaun on Twitter: @Shaun_Holkko.

Way too early 2024 SEC Football Power Rankings

The Sooners and Longhorns are making the jump to the SEC in 2024, so where do they land in our way-too-early power rankings?

In 2024, college football will look like nothing we’ve ever seen. Conference realignment did plastic surgery to the game we’ve grown up with.

The Pac-12 is essentially gone as Oregon, USC, Washington, and UCLA move to the Big Ten. The Big 12 added Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah. Stanford and Cal are off to the ACC, along with SMU getting a promotion from the AAC. The SEC is adding Texas and Oklahoma.

The College Football Playoff is expanding to 12 teams, coming off its most competitive four-team version.

All of this is happening in 2024.

It’s a new era of college football. For the SEC, the Sooners and Longhorns are coming off of double-digit win seasons and Texas made the playoff. But how do they stack up against their future SEC counterparts?

Here’s a look at our way-too-early SEC power rankings.

Way-too-early ranking of Oklahoma Football’s 2024 opponents

A way-too-early look at how the Oklahoma Sooners 2024 opponents stack up.

For all but two teams, the 2023 college football season has come to a close. That means it’s time to look ahead to the 2024 season.

After making significant improvements on both sides of the ball in 2023, the Sooners jumped from six to 10 wins in Brent Venables’ second season. But now they move to the SEC and are breaking in new coordinators on both sides of the ball.

Additionally, they’ll have a completely new offensive line from the group that started for the majority of the season and a new starting quarterback after [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] left for Oregon.

Jackson Arnold takes the reins at quarterback for the Sooners. Despite his Alamo Bowl performance, the ceiling is very high for Arnold and the Sooners offense.

But they’ve got a difficult schedule in 2024, in particular when they get to SEC play. But how would you rank their opponents in 2024? Here’s how we ranked them here at Sooners Wire.

What did 247Sports give the Oklahoma Sooners for Christmas this year?

247Sports shared what they’d give each of the top 25 teams in the nation for Christmas, so what did they give the Oklahoma Sooners?

The Oklahoma Sooners went into the final week of 2023 with another top-10 recruiting class and are preparing for their Alamo Bowl matchup with the Arizona Wildcats.

Ahead of the bowl, 247Sports shared what it would give each of the top 25 teams in the nation for Christmas. For the Oklahoma Sooners, it was a more favorable 2024 schedule.

The SEC unveiled its 2024 schedule earlier this month, and it did no favors to conference newcomer Oklahoma, which received one of the most difficult draws in league play. Battles with LSU, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Missouri headline the slate. – Carter Bahns, 247Sports

More: Oklahoma Sooners Full 2024 schedule

The Oklahoma Sooners have five programs on the schedule inside the top 13 of the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll. Texas and Alabama highlight the list as they prepare for the College Football Playoff, but Ole Miss and Missouri have been making moves on the recruiting trail to try to take another step next season. The road trip to LSU at the end of the year will make for an incredibly difficult atmosphere. Throw in Tennessee, which has become one of the better offensive teams under [autotag]Josh Heupel[/autotag]. Oh, and let’s not forget traveling to face Auburn or hosting a South Carolina team with an improving defense. The Sooners have one of the more difficult schedules in the country in 2024.

But that’s to be expected heading into the SEC. The Sooners wouldn’t want it any other way. That was the point of joining the conference. A schedule full of marquee matchups is what the Oklahoma brass was hoping for when they made the move to the SEC.

More: Way too early 2024 schedule prediction

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