The Football Brainiacs

Image of Rashard Lawrence via 247 Sports

Happy Friday!

Josh Smith: As far as we know, 2015 LB Josh Smith will be OU’s lone official visitor this weekend. It can be a little tough to gather information on Smith, because he doesn’t seem to be talking to media at the moment. But we have been able to confirm that Smith will follow up this weekend’s Oklahoma trip with an official visit to Oregon next weekend.

Van Jefferson: We continue to hear good things on this front and, again, at this point we will be surprised if Van ends up anywhere other than OU (regardless of whether his father is or isn’t seriously entertaining the OU WR coaching position). Simply put, OU did a good job of recruiting Jefferson and Lincoln Riley’s offense is an attractive one to play in for wide receivers.

Wide Receiving Speed: Just an interesting note we heard from a source regarding OU’s direction at the wide receiver position. Last year, OU went after bigger guys (Jeff Mead, Dallis Todd, and Mark Andrews). Before that OU was kind of all over the map. Many of you probably saw that earlier this week, Lincoln Riley made his first 2016 WR offer to Baylor commit, Tren’Davian Dickson. We’ve been told that the offensive identity going forward at the wide receiver position is, “speed, speed, and more speed…not 4.5 or 4.6 kids…4.4 or 4.3 kids is the priority.”

A lot of coaches describe Baylor’s offensive threats as, trying to defend ‘four or five track stars.’ Apparently, Riley places the highest priority on speed and going forward you can expect OU to go after the fastest kids they can find. That isn’t to say speed isn’t always a priority for most staffs, but it isn’t always the number one priority. Many staffs look at size, or body control, or some other factor, but OU’s priority going forward is expected to be ‘blazing speed.’

Rashard Lawrence: Yesterday, Jerry Montgomery stopped by to visit one of the top 2016 defensive line prospects, Rashard Lawrence from Louisiana. As many of you know, Lawrence has already taken an unofficial visit to OU. Yesterday, we talked to someone who knows Lawrence well and we were told that, “Rashard absolutely loves loves loves Jerry Montgomery…he doesn’t have the kind of relationship he has with Jerry with anyone on the LSU staff, and he says that himself.” Normally we’d count OU out on Louisiana’s top defensive prospect, but that’s tough to do when coach Montgomery is involved.

Kyler Murray: If you’ve paid any attention in recent days, you know that Texas fans are starting to feel pretty good about their chances with Kyler Murray. And some TAMU fans are starting to freak out a bit. Not much to report on the OU front, but we just wanted to pass on the note that the Sooners are indeed still recruiting Murray. We have been told that Lincoln Riley is in regular contact and is working hard to persuade him. With the primary pitch being that his offense and Norman are the best place for Murray. It seems like a long shot at this point, but we just wanted to pass along the note that we’ve been told Riley hasn’t given up quite yet.

DaiShon Neal: We spoke to recent OU visitor and 2015 DE DaiShon Neal’s mother about their trip to OU this past weekend. She had a glowing report of their time in Norman and their experience with the coaching staff. Neal’s mother said, “We had an outstanding trip to OU…impressed with the coaching staff and the academics that OU has to offer. Coach Stoops is a class act!” We also asked DaiShon’s mother about their interactions with coach Montgomery since he would be Neal’s position coach and she remarked, “Coach Montgomery was awesome. Very genuine in his interactions with us as parents, as well as with DaiShon. He paid attention to details, which were important to us as a family and which were important to DaiShon as a student-athlete. DaiShon vibed well with coach Montgomery.”

According to his mother, Neal has an official visit set up to Nebraska this weekend and has plans to go to Oregon next weekend. We asked Neal’s mother if distance was a factor and apparently Neal’s mother lives in Houston. In fact, DaiShon was raised in Houston and only moved to Nebraska a couple years ago to live with his father so that he could continue to develop his football skills under his father’s tutelage (Neal’s father is a former player). But Neal’s mother said, “OU is the closest school to us (in terms of proximity to Houston) that he is considering.”

– UPDATE (Fri., 11:52 am): Utah State makes the hiring of Josh Heupel official. In addition to an offensive coordinator title, Heupel also carries QB coach & assistant head coach titles in his new position.

– UPDATE Fri., (3:31 pm): One-time OU wide receiver target, Ryan Newsome, has committed to UCLA.

– UPDATE (Fri., 5:28 pm): OU stopped by to see 2016 star LB, Caleb Kelly. Kelly is very high on the Sooners and has already been out to OU for an unofficial visit.

– UPDATE (Fri., 6:49 pm): TFB has learned that OU’s lone expected visitor this weekend, 2015 LB Josh Smith, will now not be in Norman. We’re aware there is a report out there that the visit has been rescheduled for next weekend, but at this time we have been unable to confirm that. We’ll of course continue to update you as information becomes available. But for now it would appear OU will be hosting nobody on one of just two remaining crucial recruiting weekends.

– UPDATE (Sun., 8:31 am): At the time of Louis Brown’s decommitment from Texas, it was thought he could be a potential option for an OU team obviously struggling to recruit the LB position in this 2015 class. However, on Saturday night Brown tweeted that he had committed to Oklahoma State.

– UPDATE (Sun., 8:37 am): Sooners also offered 2016 DT Chris Daniels (Euless, TX) yesterday.

– UPDATE (Sun., 11:35 am): Aware of the report/s out there regarding Van Jefferson and Ole Miss. But according to Jefferson’s own words, they appear to be false (at least for now).

– UPDATE (Sun., 11:50 am): Also just wanted to congratulate Riley Daniel on his commitment to Baylor today. Daniel is an OK Preps kid that TFB was talking about all the way back last summer, JY even did a feature on him talking up his talent. Very happy for the young man.

– UPDATE (Sun., 1:14 pm): Van Jefferson has told TFB that he will discuss things with his family and hopes to announce a decision later tonight or tomorrow.

– UPDATE (Sun., 1:35 pm): We know there has been a lot of speculation about Van Jefferson today and where he will end up. There were false rumors that Jefferson committed to Ole Miss earlier today. This may come as a surprise to some but we still like where Oklahoma stands but we’ll all know his decision pretty soon.

– UPDATE (Sun., 8:55 pm): Van Jefferson has committed to Ole Miss.

– UPDATE (Sun., 8:58 pm): Continuing what is proving to be a less than stellar (to say the least) Sunday evening.

– UPDATE (Sun., 9:12 pm): And not that it matters at this point, but Fotu Leiato has committed to Oregon.