Open Post | Weekend, July 3rd-5th
Posted on: July 3, 2020
July 4th Weekend | Hot Dogs, Apple Pie, and Fireworks
– Charlie S
As you all know the July 4th weekend has been circled on our calendars as being an important period for Oklahoma in regards to recruiting for quite some time now.
We are expecting multiple high priority targets to announce their commitments and OU is in prime position to pick up some much-needed momentum on the recruiting trail by securing several commitments.
Publicly Scheduled Announcements:
*** Elite 2021 Quarterback Caleb Williams, fresh off his ‘Elite 11’ MVP award will make his public commitment. Williams is choosing between a final three of OU, Maryland, and LSU.
We feel very good about where OU stands with him and it would be a shock if he were to choose any other school at this point. He has not publicly released a time for his announcement at this point, however, I am assuming it will be streamed by one of the other services.
*** 2021 Wide Receiver Keon Coleman is planning on announcing his decision on his Instagram live at 7:00 central time.
Coleman has a final three of OU, Kansas, and South Carolina. What once felt like a slam dunk for OU has suddenly been thrown into some doubt.
Someone we are expecting to announce his decision:
*** As K has hinted at within the last 10 days or so, we have been expecting a defensive player, other than David Abiara, to publicly announce his commitment. McCutchin is that guy and he has been dropping his own hints on Twitter that he is close. We are expecting an announcement from McCutchin and we continue to feel good about OU’s chances here as we have maintained since his unofficial visit to Norman.
Additional names to keep an eye on going forward:
Some of the guys I would keep an eye on following the 4th are:
*** 2021 Wide Receiver Jalil Farooq. OU is in a good spot with him and he is closely connected with Caleb Williams. Not a lot more to say here and it would not be a surprise to see him make a decision very soon.
*** Another guy to monitor for a summer commit is 2021 ATH Kendall Daniels. Daniels is a guy who is being pursued heavily by Clemson and Aggie as well as OU and would like to visit the campus’. However, he does feel like a guy who could shut things down and wind up joining the class in the near future. He and Caleb Williams have struck up a friendship and should Williams pull the trigger for OU, Daniels will undoubtedly receive a lot of additional attention from his peers to ‘LincUp’.
*** 2021 Running Back Camar Wheaton. While Wheaton is not a guy who is out there on social media and has kept his recruitment very quiet, people around his recruitment tell us OU is in a good spot. How good? That’s difficult to say and predicting when he will make his choice is anyone’s guess but he is still someone to keep an eye on.
*** 2021 Defensive Back Caleb Johnson mentioned to me a few weeks back that he ‘is close’ to making a decision. Johnson let me know that while he was thinking about dropping a top list, he was just as likely to just go ahead and pull the trigger to the school of his choice. So he would be a candidate to keep an eye on through July.
*** 2021 Defensive Back Prophet Brown is another guy worth paying attention too. Things really heated up between him and OU a few weeks back following his virtual visit and while he has mentioned he wants to take his physical visits when momentum starts for a program, some guys speed up their timeline and want to secure their spot. Something to keep an eye on here as well.
*** 2021 Defensive Lineman David Abiara. K has more on him below. He was the guy I had predicted would be in the OU class prior to the 4th. Right now it doesn’t appear like that will happen, but that obviously did not happen. We will see, but it looks like there is a bit of a delay here at this time.
*** 2021 Defensive Lineman Marcus Burris is another guy who plans on making a summer commitment. With Burris being injured, I reached out to his coach last week. His coach didn’t mention any change in plans in regard to a planned summer commitment. Burris will likely not be able to play this season (if there is one) so there will be no opportunity for schools to evaluate him further and should OU stay on him, I think they remain in a good position to secure his commitment.
*** 2021 Defensive Back Tommi Hill is a guy I have nothing really concrete on in regards to a timeline, but I can’t shake the feeling that OU has got to feel good about their standing with him based on some of the things I have heard. Hill has previously mentioned his connection to Mario Williams and Caleb Williams to me, but on the other side, he has also expressed a connection with his current teammate Christian Leary who is an Alabama commit. This one is basically me speculating that something has to give at safety and I see Hill as the most likely guy to pull the trigger.
*** With what I said above about Tommi Hill, one guy that I believe would announce for the Sooners the minute he gets pushed by OU would be 2021 Defensive Back Daymon David. If David starts picking up the vibe from OU that they are ready to bring him in, a summer commitment is by no means out of the question.
*** Looking at another Defensive Lineman in Kelvin Gilliam who just released his top list. OU made the list as expected, but right now, pre CWilliams commit to OU (if that does in fact happen) it feels like OU is in a real battle here as Gilliam appears to be pretty open to enjoying his recruitment. An addition of CWilliams to the class could shift things in a big way towards Oklahoma, but he does not have a set timeline for a commitment. With that said, I have little doubt that CWilliams will be in his ear on a daily basis and that could speed things up a bit between Gilliam and OU.
*** That brings us to 2021 Offensive Lineman Savion Byrd. Things felt close enough a few weeks back to bring out the ‘Whoah’ (along with Abiara) from K. At this point, we still like where OU stands and while I would not say I have a crystal clear picture of when he will announce his decision, the momentum OU should have following this weekend coupled with some aggressive peer-to-peer recruiting efforts, he feels like a guy that could make a choice at any point still.
Those are some of the names worth paying attention to as the summer rolls on. Yes, there are other targets out there like Bryce Foster (Tells me he plans on announcing in December), Tristan Leigh (no announced timeline), Emeka Egbuka (would help if OU was able to get him on campus), Prince Kollie (who told me he has no timeline at this point), Donovan McMillon (no timeline set in stone) and J.T. Tuimoloau (who is a massive wishlist kid of guy) but those are guys OU will have to continue to work on over the coming months.
Obviously, there are also a bunch of other guys OU is recruiting and one may pop at any time, but the names listed above are guys I would pay attention to over the course of the weeks immediately following the 4th of July weekend.
Still Waiting | Abiara Decision
– Super K
The intel we received a couple weeks ago is that David Abiara would finally announce a final decision at the end of June or early July.
Our understanding is that while the family really likes the academic prestige of Notre Dame, they prefer David stay closer to home.
Texas recently entered the picture for Abiara. He did a virtual visit with the staff and has remained in contact. I checked with a Texas source earlier this week and was told they are now feeling pretty good. The obvious pitch they’re making to Abiara is that Texas can provide the academics they wanted at Notre Dame and the proximity to home.
I will tell you though that when we originally heard a final decision was going to be announced, it was made very clear that his plan was to announce a flip to Oklahoma.
I cannot say whether anything has changed and with so many players announcing on July 4th, I won’t sound any alarm bells until this weekend has passed. If a move one way or another isn’t announced this weekend, then my guess is he is a lot more torn than we believe he was only two weeks ago.
Snippet from: Wednesday Notebook | Leaders and Defensive Backfield
– James Hale
Most of the players have been tested and those that turn up negative will start to work today with a few expected to be dragged out until July 6th. Most of the players will start to work out on Wednesday. A lot is going to be expected from the 2020 Sooners because they will have to be a very disciplined bunch to hang in there and be able to start the season on September 5th against Southwest Missouri State.
To get that done OU will have to have some real leaders to keep everybody in check and they themselves will have to set examples for every other player moving forward. Who are the real leaders on this team? It’s not as clear as you might think or might like but here are a few guys that I think will be good leaders for OU this year.
The two best leaders during the COVID-19 shutdown without question were junior Justin Broiles (5’10, 193) and senior Chanse Sylvie (6’0, 195). Both have been very active during the Black Lives Matter movement with Broiels leading nonviolent protests in Oklahoma City and Norman while Sylvie took it a step further by putting tougher a 700-word document on Steps for Reforming Policing in America.
Both young men should be commended for how they handled themselves in regards to their stance against police brutality and racism in the country and they were certainly two prominent leaders during the shutdown for the Sooners.
However, now that we’re getting back to football neither player is projected as a starter, and even though both will play big roles on special teams and provide good depth in the secondary it is sometimes difficult to be leaders if you are not on the field. I hear Broiles will be back at corner when training camp starts and he will be in the mix but senior Tre Brown (5’10, 186), junior Tre Norwood (6’0, 189) and sophomore Jaden Davis (5’10, 182) will be hard to beat out, plus throw in freshmen D.J. Graham (5’11, 194), Josh Eaton (6’2″ 175) and Kendall Dennis (6’0 174), and Broiles will have to play very well to hold on to his second-team spot.
Sylvie may be out of the Alex Grinch doghouse now and that’s good for him. He’s been close to starting a couple of times, once at safety, and once at nickel since he has been at OU. He will probably start out at safety but considering where OU plans to play redshirt freshman Jeremiah Criddell (5’11, 198) he may be at nickel. OU had planned to move Criddell back to corner in the spring but if the coaches do, that will make the position even more crowded at the start of camp. I also hear that he may stay at nickel back to compete with junior Brendan Radley-Hiles (5’9, 186). Sylvie has the talent to be a very good nickel back and of course, we would all like to see what Justin Harrington (6’3, 214) looks like when he arrives on campus on July 8th.
At safety, sophomores Pat Fields (5’11, 199) and Delarrin Turner-Yell (5’10, 193) are returning starters, and both show leadership capabilities. You hope that Defensive Coordinator Alex Grinch will find a couple of players to compete with them in training camp and Sylvie and Broiles have also played safety and they both could be in the mix. Maybe in the end Criddell finds a spot there. Of course, we have talked a lot about redshirt freshman Woodi Washington (5’11, 192) and freshman Bryson Washington (6’2, 193) challenging for playing time at safety and both are what Coach Grinch is looking for in a safety type. If Fields and DTY hold on to their starting jobs they will, just by their character, try to be leaders.
Senior Caleb Kelly (6’3, 234) will be a player that the team hopes becomes a leader. Kelly has been around OU for a while and has played a ton of football in big games at OU. The team knows he is immensely talented. Whether he can be good enough at inside backer to draw that kind of responsibility this season will be one of the key things to watch this training camp.
On offense, you can bet that junior Creed Humphrey (6’5, 307) will be a captain and be looked upon to be one of the team leaders this year. Humphrey has not always been the most vocal guy thus far in his career at OU but that will change this year as every member of that offense looks up to him.
Coaches always look at the quarterback position for leadership and whoever the starter is between redshirt freshman Spencer Rattler (6’0, 198) and sophomore Tanner Mordecai (6’2, 210) will naturally become that leader. Both were great leaders in high school with Rattler leading more by bravado and personality and Mordecai a coaches son being a coach on the field and a player that knew every position on the field at Waco Midway High.
There is not another player on offense that at this point has put himself into a position of being a captain or a real leader. CeeDee Lamb was a great player last year but was not a captain and was not a real leader on the team. He was a leader in the wide receiver room though. So, just being a good player does not mean a player is a born leader but it doesn’t hurt a player when he is a good player that the team will look to him to be a leader.
OU will not name captains until a week before the opening game but it’s clear that a couple of those spots are still open and will be earned in training camp.
Build Your Preferred Defense | Game One : Snap One
– Charlie S
Last week, you gave me your starting 11 for game one on offense.
This week, I want your opinion on the first 11 guys that will be on the field for game one on the defensive side of the ball.
Keep in mind that for right now, Ronnie Perkins is appealing a suspension and will not likely be available.
Looking forward to seeing who you all favor, particularly on the back end of the defense!
DE: *Perkins, Stripling, Thomas, Grimes, Arinze, (or you can pick a rush guy to play with his hand in the dirt if you would like)
DT: Redmond, Stokes, Hicks, McKinney
NG: Kelley, Winfrey, Ellison, Roberson
RUSH: Ugwoegbu, Bonitto, JMT, Wete
ILB (Pick Two): White, Kelly, Asamoah, Whitter, Mead, Barnes, Morris
CB (Pick Two): Brown, Davis, Graham, Norwood, Eaton, Dennis
Safety (Pick Two): Fields, DTY, W. Washington, B. Washington, J. Broiles
NB: Bookie, Criddell, Sylvie, (Or choose any other defensive back to challenge for the spot)
As a bonus exercise, give me the result of the first defensive play (who makes the tackle/play if one is made)
