Steve Wiltfong details the strength, success of Brent Venables’ recruiting so far at Oklahoma

Steve Wiltfong details the strength, success of Brent Venables’ recruiting so far at Oklahoma


NORMAN, Okla. Not such a very long time in the past, the Sooners weren’t even in the Top 40 of the 247Sports Composite Team Recruiting Rankings and a few individuals on the exterior have been indicating there was concern. Not two months later and, properly, the Sooners have one of the greatest recruiting lessons in the nation.

The 2023 group stands seventh nationally, with a 274.47 level whole and 92.05 common recruit ranking. One extra commit, and Oklahoma would transfer into the Top 5.

That has many individuals fairly impressed. Not the least necessary of these is esteemed 247Sports Director of Recruiting Steve Wiltfong.

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“How about Oklahoma? This is a program that rallied to completed No. 10 in the 247Sports Composite Team Recruiting Rankings after Brent Venables was employed final 12 months, they usually’re at No. 7 right here in the 247Sports Composite Team Recruiting Rankings proper now,” Wiltfong remarked. “And I logged a 247Sports Crystal Ball for them to land speedy Top100 defensive again Makari Vickers, becoming a member of Brandon Drumm, Parker Thune and Andrew Ivins, amongst others. This is a defensive again with 10.7 velocity. He covers lots of floor. He’s a very good tackler, makes lots of performs. You can put him out in protection and he can do issues in that enviornment as properly, only a versatile again finish defender. Oklahoma, they’ve 20 commits proper now. Five are in the Top100. He could be the sixth to affix the fold. I like the manner it is trending as they battle Alabama and Michigan for him. He’s been at nearly each main recruiting weekend that Oklahoma has had in the Brent Venables period. And they simply have positioned themselves extremely properly for Makari Vickers.

“And that’s not it. You know, they’re additionally in a fantastic spot for David Hicks, five-star defensive lineman, No. 1 line of defense recruit in the nation from the Lone Star State, as they battle Texas A&M. I’m beginning to hear increasingly more and extra buzz about Oklahoma and their place for David Hicks. In that recruitment, actually you have got A&M, you bought Oregon, you bought Miami, however Oklahoma appears to have the momentum for David Hicks going into the fall. Tausili Akana, Malachi Coleman, they’re in the Jordan Renaud sweepstakes. They’re in the sweepstakes for Markis Deal, one of the greatest two-way lineman in the nation who’s going to go to Georgia this fall with an official go to. Maybe Oklahoma will get the final official, with Arkansas and TCU and USC already getting official visits from Markis Deal and Texas additionally being a contender there. They’re making an attempt to flip Peyton Bowen from Notre Dame. So is Texas A&M. So, they’re closely concerned with Peyton Bowen. And then Ryan Yaites is one other that they are making an attempt to flip from LSU. Yaites and Bowen are teammates with the jewel of this Oklahoma class, Jackson Arnold, five-star quarterback from the Lone Star State.

“And once you look at Oklahoma and also you sort of examine Brent Venables and his recruiting ceiling to the earlier employees in Lincoln Riley and what they did at Oklahoma, look, Lincoln Riley, you knew you have been going to have the greatest quarterback in the nation arguably commit. You have been going to have dynamic receivers and also you have been going to place collectively a recruiting class that places you in rivalry for the school soccer playoff 12 months in and 12 months out. But much like like Notre Dame and a pair different applications, Oklahoma is searching for one or two additional wins on the again finish. And I feel once you look at the ceiling of Oklahoma recruiting and what a mixture of Brent Venables and Jeff Lebby brings, perhaps Oklahoma can discover that additional winner too, with the manner that they are recruiting proper now, who’s significantly recruiting at a particularly excessive degree on the defensive aspect of the soccer. If they’ll exit and add a man like Makari Vickers and David DJ Hicks to 1 of the most electrical cross rushers in the nation that’s already in the fold, PJ [Adepoju] Adebawore, you recognize, that is a heck of a defensive group. Jacobe Johnson, they’re gonna play him in the secondary, 6-foot-3, 183-pound athlete that I do know that the Oklahoma offensive coaches have been preventing for as properly. But Samuel Omosigho, Colton Vasek, these are entrance seven distinction makers, Lewis Carter.

“Making the move to the SEC—and I talked about this with Texas on previous shows, I love the way Texas is recruiting defensively and on the offensive line as they make the move to the SEC—for Oklahoma, their offensive line has already been one of the best in college football and it will continue to be that with Bill Bedenbaugh holding that room down and guys like Cayden Green committing to Oklahoma, Oklahoma has one of the best offensive line classes in the country right now. Joshua Bates [is] part of that group, the No. 1 center. But defense, and Brent Venables can be the X-factor, the difference maker on the trail in landing a couple of extra guys that maybe can help the Sooners find that extra win or two on the back end that they covet as they try and win their first national championship since Bob Stoops stalked the sideline and recruited elite quarterbacks but also recruited elite defensive players at the same time.”

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That’s fairly a press release on the place issues stand for the Crimson and Cream. And, by the sounds of it, it is solely going to get higher.





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