The Football Brainiacs

The Sooners added a huge addition to their class this evening as elite 2021 defensive line target Kelvin Gilliam (6’3″ 250) out of Highland Springs, VA.

Gilliam had a final three consisting of OU, South Carolina, and Penn State. He chose to commit to OU while holding offers to over 40 different schools which included most of the power players in college football.

For those of you who have been following along with us here at TFB, back in mid-July, Super K dropped a post titled ‘Taking Another Look at the DL Class’ in which he stated…

‘Also, it does sound like they received a commitment from an additional DL (not Abiara).

Gilliam is that silent commit.

While Gilliam has yet to physically make it to Norman, a lot of the momentum that went into his eventual commitment came from a virtual visit that the Sooners hosted for him and his family back in early May. Following the virtual, K caught up with him to get his thoughts.

‘***It’s clear this virtual visit was really big for both Kelvin and his parents. He said it gave him a clearer sense of what OU is. He was able to see the campus and how close things are…

***He got to see the dorms, the workout facilities, etc.

***As I said, you could tell that it made a huge difference in terms of his ability to visualize himself there.

***What struck me was how excited he was by the way the Sooners personalized the visit. He said multiple times that he doesn’t think anyone will be able to match the creativity of the OU visit.

***Kelvin is a huge Dallas Cowboys fan and he said that Lincoln Riley wore a Dallas Cowboys jersey on the visit.

***Kelvin has always wanted to wear number four on his jersey in college so the Sooners put that number up on the jumbo board in the stadium for Kelvin.

***They killed the visit and you could hear the excitement in Kelvin’s voice.’

Gilliam joins a defensive line class that currently includes Isaiah Coe, Ethan Downs, and Nathan Rawlins-Kibonge.

He also joins a growing number of Sooners from the east coast and the DMV area in particular which includes his friend and sometime training partner quarterback Caleb Williams as well as DB Damond Harmon. The Sooners are also in good shape with 2021 WR Jalil Farooq who is from the same region.

The Sooners now have 14 members publicly committed to the ‘LincUp21’ class and there are currently a number of additional targets (including Farooq) in Norman for the Sooner Summit which was put together in large part by Caleb Williams and his father.

Gilliam is a guy who projects to grow into an interior player for the Sooners. His length, quickness, and athleticism are traits that Alex Grinch craves for his ‘Speed D’. Defensive line coach Calvin Thibodeaux did a heck of a job in this recruitment as he secured a commitment from a highly coveted national recruit for the Sooners.