Open Post | Weekend, May 17th – 19th
Posted on: May 17, 2019
Updates | Princely Umanmielen, Defense & Kendall Milton
– Super K
***As you know, 2020 defensive lineman, Princely Umanmielen dropped his top five, recently. The top five were OU, UT, TAMU, Oregon and LSU.
The Sooners have moved around quite a bit in that top five. At a certain point I would’ve said OU was at or near the top. But as of right now, I believe the ranking is UT, LSU, TAMU, OU, Oregon in that order.
Having said that, this one appears pretty far from over. The last I heard about from Princely and folks around him, he plans on taking his time. Taking his officials, of which one will be Oklahoma, and then making a decision after that sometime in the fall.
Defensively, OU is putting together a great defensive backs class. They’re in a nice spot with some very athletic linebackers. I know there are some concerns about defensive line recruiting which I will address in a separate post. But in general, OU just needs to field a decent defense this fall.
This past year’s defense was just a real low point for Oklahoma’s brand on the defensive side. There’s really no way to sugar coat it. The defense was unacceptably atrocious, soft and as one recruit put it to me, “in a lot of games it looked like they quit”.
That’s the bad news. The good news is, it’s not going to take much to improve on that.
***Latest I have heard on Kendall Milton is that OU is now sitting outside his top four. It sounds like, at the moment, his top four are Alabama, LSU, Georgia and Ohio State.
Milton isn’t set to announce until December. So, I’m not sure it would’ve made much difference, anyway. I find it pretty unlikely that OU will have a spot open by then but we shall see.
In The Trenches | 2020 OT Commit Noah Nelson
– JY
Hey Guys! Coach B and the Sooners got a big-time commit last night from 2020 Offensive Tackle Noah Nelson (Gilbert, AZ) and I wanted to share my thoughts on him!
Love Noah Nelson’s potential. Kids that are 6’7” 6’8” and 295 don’t grow on trees. He definitely is one of the most athletic guys I’ve seen in a long time from a tackle.
While looking at his film, a play specifically stood out to me where he’s trying to set the edge on a stretch play to the left. He goes to hook the defensive end who’s playing out wide, and he ends up overstepping to the outside. For most tackles just getting to that block is tough. To the point that they get whistled for a hold etc, but he just completely gets outside the guy easily.
I can definitely see what Bedenbaugh likes in this guy. The kid has elite feet and athleticism. While he’s raw with his hands and upper body, with some technical instruction, this guy could be a first-round draft choice.
Think of a guy with Lane Johnson’s athleticism and Orlando Brown’s length. While he may not play at 340 as O did, 325 isn’t out of the question. With the talent that Bedenbaugh has stockpiled, he’ll be able to come in, redshirt, develop, and then become a special player.
All the tools are definitely there.
Quick Hitter | Sooners Offer 2020 LB Edgerrin Cooper
– Charlie S
*** Earlier this week, the Sooners extended an offer to 2020 linebacker Edgerrin Cooper out of Covington, Louisianna.
Cooper is 6’1.5″ 195 lbs and he currently holds around a dozen offers which include offers from the likes of Mississippi State, Oklahoma State, Louisville, and Memphis.
I caught up with Edgerrin and he let me know that this is a relatively new relationship between him and OU and he is very excited to have received the offer.
I asked him who on the OU staff was recruiting him and he told me that both linebacker coach Brian Odom and defensive coordinator Alex Grinch have been in touch with him.
Cooper also mentioned that he plans on getting up to visit Norman ‘As soon as possible”.
A quick look at his film and it is pretty easy to see that he really likes playing downhill, shows good quickness, and does not shy away from contact. All important ingredients in Grinch’s scheme.
I will check in with Edgerrin regularly and keep you up to date on a visit should it be scheduled.
Updates | Jeffrey Persi & Brian Branch
– Super K
A couple evening notes here…
***OU is on a bit of a roll right now at the offensive line position. I caught up with 2020 Cali offensive lineman, Jeffrey Persi who you will recall took an unofficial visit to Oklahoma back in March/April.
Persi does hold an Oklahoma offer.
Persi said that he plans on making a decision before the season. Said, “I’m hoping to have it done by July”. So a decision is around the corner.
The interesting thing is, it doesn’t seem as though OU is pushing for an OV just yet.
“I have an OV planned for June 21st to Michigan, but other than that I’m pretty comfortable that I’ve seen enough to make a decision”.
This led me to ask if that was his first or second visit to Michigan. If it’s his second then that would, in my mind, indicate the Wolverines are perhaps in a better spot than others.
His answer was noteworthy…
”At the end of my unofficial visit Coach Harbaugh asked if I would be willing to come back for an OV on that date. So, I agreed. I’ve not been asked or invited to an OV back to Oklahoma so I’m just trying to work with what I have”.
I interpret this one of three ways…
*One, OU feels very good about where they stand with other recruits or…
*They feel Persi is a pure tackle and with the other two guys they have committed, they may need guys they feel are better suited inside or…
*They plan on inviting him for an OV and simply haven’t yet.
***Also, worth noting that it’s looking like OU may have dodged a bullet on Brian Branch. Branch picked up a Georgia offer and if I were betting man, I’d wager he will flip.
When I was at Branch’s school earlier this year, it seemed clear that Georgia would be a tough team to beat. If he flips on Bama then you can rest assured he would’ve flipped on Oklahoma.
Quick Hitters | More On Offensive Line
– Charlie S
Couple of quick notes along the offensive line…
*** 2020 OT Brady Ward (6’7” 320 Mobile, AL) reached out to me and let me know that he will be unofficially visiting Norman at some point in early to mid-June. He is in the process of finalizing his plans and he will know more following this weekend.
Brady is very high on OU and they remain very much in his top group which includes Alabama and LSU. He also reiterated that he is planning on officially visiting Norman for a game in the fall.
*** Virginia Grad Transfer and OU signee RJ Proctor has officially graduated from UVA and he is set to head off to Norman to finish up his college eligibility and pursue his master’s degree.
Proctor (6’4/335) saw the field for all 13 of UVA’s games during the 2018 season. He started five of those, three at right guard, two at left guard. The versatile lineman will be eligible to play immediately in 2019 as a graduate transfer.
One thing of note about the addition of Proctor is that he does have some game experience at center, and OU is in need of a backup for Creed Humphrey.
*** One last note…I reached out to Turner Corcoran (6’6″ 280, Lawrence KS) to see if OU is still in communication with him and he confirmed that they do communicate a bit still at this point.
Corcoran committed to Nebraska back in April as you know but some of you questioned where things were and while I do not see him wavering at all in his commitment, this is a case of Bedenbaugh not closing any doors and continuing to recruit his kind of kids.
Wednesday Evening Updates | Defensive Line
– Super K
***Went by to see 2020 DL, Vernon Broughton. Not much to say here. He pretty much told me the Sooners are out of it.
He wasn’t even willing to commit to the possibility of an official visit.
Now, I know a lot of the scheduling goes through his mom. So, I want to check with her before I said the door is closed definitively. But based on what I heard from Vernon today, it wasn’t very encouraging.
***In terms of defensive line recruiting, in general. I know some of you have noted that it’s going to take a couple of years to get it on track.
I don’t totally agree.
Field a decent defense this year and the defensive line coach is going to have a much easier time.
Though I will say, I think the DB class is going to be awesome and the linebacker class will be small but good, in my opinion.
***2020 DE Noah Arinze (St. Louis, MO) confirmed that he will be in Norman at the beginning of June for an OU unofficial visit.
This will be Arinze’s second visit. You may recall that he visited earlier this year but didn’t walk away with an offer.
Since that visit, he has picked up an offer. So, this return visit seems to be a very good sign.
Grinch recruits his DEs and “Rush” backers similarly. So, basically what I was told is that if you end up gaining weight you move down and put your hand in the dirt. Otherwise, you stand up outside.
Arinze is being projected, I believe, as a hand in the dirt DE.
***Also, I spoke with the mother of Sooners 2020 DL target, Blayne Toll.
I also spoke with his coach. I’ll have a full write up on him but she did tell me that they are set to make a return visit to Oklahoma in June.
The visit will be their official visit. You may recall that Toll took an unofficial visit to Oklahoma a month or two ago.
I actually like Toll quite a bit. If OU can land him, and I think they have a pretty good chance, it’d be a nice win for them.
***Source tells me that coach Grinch really likes 2020 DL, Alfred Collins out of the Austin area. I’m told the OU staff is very high on him.
Obviously, they’re working against some tough odds there since his mother played basketball at Texas.
I’ll be checking to see if he will be back on campus for an official. Last time I dropped by the school it sounded like he wanted to make an early-season decision.
They practice at 6:30 AM so I doubt I’m dragging myself over to Austin for that but perhaps we’ll send CJ over there to get the latest.
Update | Inside Linebacker Numbers
– Super K
In this post I want to give you a sense of what I’m hearing is the plan as far as inside linebacker numbers.
We continue to hear they are going to take one guy. Now, I know that they are targeting guys like Phillip Webb out of Georgia and Antonio Doyle out of St. Louis who might be able to play all the inside linebacker positions.
So, I think how many linebackers they end up actually taking will depend on the commitment order and who it happens to be.
For example, if Brynden Walker (Bishop McGuinness) flips then that’s technically your one inside linebacker. But because guys like Doyle and Webb are so good and so versatile, they’ll continue to recruit those guys as outside guys.
Given how high up Kourt Williams’ list Oklahoma is, it’s hard to imagine they would just stop recruiting him, especially considering just how athletic he is.
So, while sources tell us one inside backer is the magic number. I really just don’t see them not continuing to recruit some of these really talented guys, especially guys who are longer that they can technically recruit as outside guys (R).
On the Brynden Walker front, as I’ve previously noted, he has been to OU a number of times and after his OU offer had mentioned to me he will likely return to campus soon. My guess is it’ll happen sometime in June. We are told that so far there are no visitors expected this weekend.
He’s obviously going to want to keep things fairly quiet given his commitment status but my read on him is that the Sooners would have a very good shot there.
Update | 2020 OL Sedrick Van Pran
– Charlie S
Caught up with 2020 OC Sedrick Van Pran (New Orleans, LA) to see how things are progressing between him and OU following his official visit to Norman back in April.
If you recall, following his visit we had a full post visit update on his trip and in that post I said:
“OU did a fantastic job on his visit. I feel as though they put themselves in about as good of a position as they could have with the caliber of athlete Sedrick is and the geography of where he is from.
I came away feeling as though he truly loves everything about OU, everything except the distance as his family is incredibly important to him. It was very important for him to feel that sense of family while on his visit and I think that will keep OU at or near the top of his list throughout the process.
The obstacle I see going forward for OU is the fact that he took his official, and it will be difficult to get him back on campus while the schools closer to him will have the opportunity for multiple visits.
I am by no means counting OU out, as I feel if he committed today they would have a real shot at him. It will be all about continuing to build that relationship and strengthening the bond he has formed with the staff and the players.“
I asked Sedrick if OU, in fact, has continued to build that relationship and he said, “They have done a wonderful job of keeping in close contact, from Coach Bedenbaugh to Coach Riley” He added, “The visit made a lasting impression, I love Oklahoma”.
I was interested in seeing if Sedrick took notice of the recent commitments of Nate Anderson and Noah Nelson and if the guys who were committing to OU had much of an impact on his recruitment. Sedrick said “I look at who is committing because I am a fan of college football. At the end of the day, however, I mostly focus on my relationship with the coaches.” As far as the fact that OU grabbed two tackles, Sedrick said “I’m a multi-purpose guy so if I’m the best, I will play, but that would probably be at center.”
As far as what is up in his recruitment, Van Pran mentioned that he has some ideas on where he would like to potentially visit this summer. “Maybe Texas A&M, LSU, Bama…nothing official set up right now though.”
So as far as where things currently are with Van Pran, OU is still in a good position with him but they will still have the same obstacle of geography in front of them that they will have to contend with. It is not something that cannot be overcome, but it will take a lot of work on behalf of Bedenbaugh and Riley.
Just a little change of gears here but one other thing I wanted to note about Sedrick…he reminds me so much of EJ Ndoma-Ogar when I speak with him that it’s uncanny. Both of them are very mature and very confident in who they are in a humble and gracious manner. Both of them are very driven by family and community even though they come from completely different environments in Allen, Texas, and New Orleans, Louisianna.
They are high character kids who are thoughtful and insightful and are born leaders. Sedrick read the piece that EJ wrote for us and when I told him he reminded me a lot of EJ, he let me know that he viewed that as a huge compliment.
Jalin Conyers | The Latest + Insider
– Super K
Earlier this week, I spoke with 2020 TE, Jalin Conyers (Gruver, TX) about where things currently stand in his recruitment.
You’ll recall that Conyers visited Oklahoma for an unofficial visit not too long ago. Conyers is an athletic tight end who saw his recruitment explode fairly recently picking up offers from Texas, Ohio State, Georgia and a host of others.
A few notes from conversation with him…
***Thus far, he tells me that he has taken unofficial visits to Texas, Baylor, Texas Tech, OU and Oklahoma State.
***While Conyers has offers from schools farther away and says that his parents are supportive of him going to school farther away, my read after talking to him is that he is unlikely go very go very far from home.
“For my family and my friends being able to watch, especially being from a small town and not being able to go as many places, it’s honestly in the back of my head that I kind of want to go somewhere close but at the end of the day I’m going to to a place where I believe that I fit in and a place where my mom and dad, whether it’s far or close that they will be glad to go to anytime and watch games and be apart of it”.
***In terms of distance, he says OU and OSU are about three or four hours. Texas Tech, he says, is about a three hour drive. And he said Texas is nine hours.
***Conyers says that he plans on releasing a top five later this month. Those five schools will be his list of official visits. He said he already knows two of those schools but said he wasn’t ready to release those. Just based on the fact that he’s only visited five schools unofficially, my best guess would be those five will be his OVs but I guess it is possible he throws an out of a region school in the mix.
I’ll be shocked if OU isn’t in it.
***Conyers said that it is possible he take his official visits in the summer and make a decision before the season starts but added that it is entirely possible that he wait until the fall to complete his process and announce a decision.
***Conyers highlighted a moment from his recent OU unofficial visit that stuck with him…
“One of the coaches asked me if I’d like to talk to a player or meet one and I was like, yeah sure but it’s not a big deal. And then literally about ten minutes later I was touring the field and Marquise Brown walks out of the tunnel with coach Lincoln Riley. So, it was really cool to see that and to know that I had asked or said I wanted to talk to a player and they made it happen that quick. So, it was really cool”.
***Jalin says that his primary recruiters are coach Gundy and coach Lincoln Riley. Gotta feel sorry for other schools recruiting against that tandem at that position with OU’s offense.
***Again, look for his top five later this month (around May 24th, he says).
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