Open Post | Wednesday, April 4th By: The Brainiacs Posted on: April 4, 2018

– As you know, 2019 DB Jalani Williams (St. Louis, MO) visited Oklahoma for one of the Sooners junior days.

Following that visit, he let me know that he would be taking an official visit to Oklahoma. That was significant then because he has taken a number of unofficial visits and, at the time, OU was the only school he was certain about taking an official to.

Williams let me know that he is going to visit Oklahoma this month for the OU spring.

He also noted that he will be at UGA’s spring game. This will be a return trip to UGA. Jalani also said he plans to visit Ohio State, the first week of May.

Williams sister goes to school at Emory in Georgia. So, there is obviously a family tie to the region. But Oklahoma clearly has UGA beat in terms of proximity to home. – (Super K)

 

 

– 2020 New Canaan (CT) QB Drew Pyne, has made multiple visits to OU over the last year. The elite QB once again arrived in Norman this week.

I spoke with Pyne, upon his arrival to OU, and he said that he will be spending two days in Oklahoma. I will be speaking with Pyne much more in-depth, following his visit, but I did ask him why he has made so many return visits to OU, as Connecticut is quite a ways away from Norman. Pyne stated, “I really like Coach Riley, the university and the opportunity that it all presents to me. Plus, I wanted to catch some practices.”

Pyne said that he will likely be visiting Penn State and Notre Dame later on this month. Notre Dame has long been OU’s major competition for the star 2020 QB, but Penn State and its closeness could become a major factor as well.

As noted above we will have much more on Pyne’s visit shortly. – (Brandon)

 

 

– The Sooners have a strong history of top running backs signing and playing their college career in Norman. 2020 Houston (TX) North Shore RB, Zachary Evans, is well aware of the history and that is one reason he and his brother, CJ, made the trip up to Oklahoma to see what all OU had to offer.

This was Evans’ first trip to Norman and he came away impressed. Impressed with facilities, campus and the fact that when OU says it’s a family, they mean it. While speaking with Evans’ brother, one of the things that stood out was the fact that the running backs all spoke with Evans, “You don’t see other players, that play the same position, walk up and introduce themselves like the running backs at OU did. We have been to a ton of places and that has never happened. Something that we really thought was impressive.”

With the players making an impact on the visit the way they did, it would take a lot to top that and Riley and the Sooners found a way to do just that. During the long meeting in Riley’s office, the phone rang, Riley answered it, but the phone call wasn’t for the Sooners head coach. The phone call was for Evans. Evans’ brother told me, “Baker Mayfield called and spoke to Zach and he was just in awe of that. The Heisman Trophy Winner on the phone talking to you while you’re in Coach Riley’s office. Was just awesome.”

Evans has been on a lot of trips. K told me that he caught wind that Evans is set to visit Texas this coming weekend and Texas may be hard to beat for Evans services. That said, Evans brother said they will be back to visit OU “very soon” so if Oklahoma can get Evans back on campus, things could really become very interesting with his recruiting process.

Evans is a 2020 kid, but just the thought of him and Sooners 2020 running back commit, Jase McClellan being in the same backfield would be a Sooners fans dream. There’s time to dream, and time for OU to continue to make significant progress towards landing Evans. – (Brandon)

 

 

– As we mentioned, this weekend 2019 Offensive Tackle Wyatt Tate, Geronimo, TX, made his way to Norman for a visit. Tate told us that Coach B will be visiting him this spring, and he plans on coming up to the camp in Norman for further evaluation.

Wyatt, a 6’6” 305 lbs. offensive lineman, plays left tackle for his high school squad. He’s very interesting as a prospect.

While he’s raw, he plays hard and finishes. If you can look down the road a couple of years you can see what college coaches see in him. He’s very smooth and athletic as well as being surprisingly quick. He needs to refine his technique and pad level.

While he has good hip flexibility, he tends to play too high. Contacts people with his chest and hasn’t quite learned how to use his hands. As he develops his punch and upper body strength he will be a very very effective run blocker. He’s good now, but since he plays high and doesn’t strike with his hands, he isn’t as lethal as he could be.

With, growth, development and technique refinement, he will be a diamond in the rough for the right coach. Has the versatility and size to play guard or tackle. We see the need for this more and more. Athletic enough to play outside and powerful enough to play inside. Good player who needs to train hard and get with the right coach. – (JY)

 

 

– A surprise visit to OU happens from time to time, but not a lot of surprise visits are made all the way from California. That’s exactly what happened as 2019 John Bosco HS (CA) defensive back, Trent McDuffie, made his way to Norman.

Background

Trent transferred to John Bosco High School this past year from Servite. The Sooners offered him, “a few months ago”. Trent says, “coach Cooks came out to the school to see Chris Steele”. Coach Cooks was impressed with McDuffie and offered him, as well.

McDuffie’s been playing football since he was young but he’s also a track guy, a talent, it seems, he gets from his mom. Trent’s mother ran track at the University of California Irvine. We all know Kerry Cooks loves a defensive back with speed. Who doesn’t? Trent has it. He’s a sub 11 100 guy who is looking to crack into the 10.5 second time range this year.

Trent also has has a couple older brothers who were athletes that played high school football, “they were the inspiration for me to play football”.

McDuffie’s recruiting process began with a bang. He says his first offer out the gate was from in-state powerhouse, USC. And while most of his family is in California, he does have some ties to this region. His grandmother on his father’s side lives in Austin, TX.

Recruiting and The Sooners Visit

McDuffie is teammates with two of the Sooners top 2019 targets, Chris Steele and Suaava Poti, so he has heard about OU for some time, “I talk to those two on occasion about Oklahoma, so us all playing together has been brought up.”

If Oklahoma was to land the three John Bosco stars it would be music to most Sooners fans ears, and really open up a pipeline to one of the top high school football programs in the nation.

Having spoken a bit about OU with his teammates, there has to be certain things that attracted McDuffie to Norman, right? McDuffie explained that OU’s “value on winning ” had a huge hand in it.

Oklahoma’s journalism school, however, also made an impression. McDuffie wants to major in journalism, and having just a fifteen minute conversation with him, you can see his future is bright in that field. He walked away impressed with “one of the top journalism schools in the nation”.

He also added that among the reasons he wanted to visit Oklahoma, “was the academics and the football program, but I wanted to get a feel for the school in general. I came away impressed with it all.”

Not surprisingly, the coaches made McDuffie and his mother, who accompanied him, feel right at home, “mom loved it. Coach Riley is a down to earth guy. He’s not fake. He’ll give it to you straight up”.

McDuffie got a similar impression from coach Cooks, “he (coach Cooks) is a guy who will tell you when you’re wrong but you know he loves you. He has a lot of experience so I know he can’t get me ready for the next level”.

When I called McDuffie, he was sitting down and talking with his family about official visits. That made it easy to transition to the question, “Will you be returning to Norman on an official?” McDuffie said that he did intend on taking an official to Norman saying it was “likely to happen in the fall with the rest of his official visits. I want to see game day atmospheres at all the top schools I’m interested in.”

McDuffie plans to visit Washington this Wednesday. He will visit Alabama in the summer. He has already visited schools like USC, Notre Dame, Colorado, Utah and others. He tells us that he will take unofficial visits until the fall. As mentioned above, Trent plans to take all five official visits and a decision will come after that. The unofficial visits, Trent says, “are about trying to narrow things down to decide on the official visits I’m going to take”.

So, it would seem the Sooners made the initial cut.

Our Take: Any visit from star John Bosco HS players is a good thing, especially with Oklahoma being in such a good position with Steele and Poti. If they can get McDuffie back for an official, they can sell the game day atmosphere that he is looking for in a school and further sell OU’s top notch journalism program.

McDuffie will likely be a November/December decision, so this one has long time to go.

Kerry Cooks has Oklahoma in good with a lot of top defensive backs in California. USC is always the big threat out there. But in the end, USC can’t take them all. – (Brandon & Super K)

 

 

– Fast Five: Team Notes

I was able to catch up with my sources and gather some additional team notes from recent practices. I think you will enjoy these, and as always, we have more sourced notes on the donor board.

– Interestingly, in Saturday’s scrimmage, the defense beat the offense. I know the immediate reaction from some will be to assume the offense is struggling but I’m told the defense is just more athletic than they’ve been in a while.

 

*Fields and Haughton are, as expected, taking the bulk of the reps at safety. But I’m also told that Bookie is taking some reps at safety. He’s obviously the nickel but it sounds like they want to make sure he can play all the positions in the secondary. Simply put, Bookie is the best cover guy who doesn’t play corner. Of note, I heard he had a one handed INT earlier last week.

*Jon Michael Terry has been taking a lot of reps at MLB. Murray is dinged up. Source said, “I don’t how they keep him off the field”. Source added that neither is significantly better than the other. As such, if one isn’t playing up to par, the other should absolutely be in there.

*Very good news that we continue to hear Ronnie Perkins name come up more and more, as well. That means he’s picking things up well and showing up in team period and scrimmages. That’s when it counts. Still learning but the athleticism is special.

*Also heard praise for DE, Isaiah Thomas. He came into OU as a fantastic athlete but a raw athlete. He’s starting to put on the weight and playing well.

*One note that surprised me…a source said, “Kennedy Brooks is a man! He is the real deal. He doesn’t care who is in the hole, he’s coming”. I’m told he scored twice in this past weekend’s scrimmage.

 

-How’s this for an opinion? One source said point blank period, “This group (team) can definitely be better than last year” – (Super K)