Open Post | Wednesday, October 17th

Quick Hitter | 2019 DL Kori Roberson Injury
– Charlie S

– It was brought to my attention earlier in the week that SoonerScoop’s Josh McQuistion reported that Sooners 2019 DL Commit, Kori Roberson, suffered a torn ACL and had undergone season-ending surgery.

– I went ahead and got in touch with Kori, who confirmed the injury and subsequent surgery.

– When discussing the injury, Kori said “It’s cool, I’m already walking on it”. So he seems to be in good spirits.

– Roberson let me know that he was told he will be sidelined for 5 – 6 months before resuming football related training activities.

– We will have more on his recovery in the future

 


 

Updates From California
– Super K

Some thoughts on players from the Mater Dei vs. St. John Bosco game.

***DJ Uiagalelei was excellent. I don’t do quarterback evaluations but it was pretty obvious that beyond his arm talent, he knows what he’s seeing pre and post snap and knows where to go with the ball.

DJ is a leader. Just watching him with his teammates, watching him on the sideline review the previous series and taking note of his demeanor, he has those leadership qualities you look for in a quarterback. Very gracious young man.

I spoke to his father who interestingly told me that DJ will visit Oklahoma and said it may even happen during the season. However, when I asked DJ about it he said he doesn’t think it’ll happen during the season.

I suspect if this visit happens, it’s going to be after the season. It does sound like OU is still pushing for him. I asked his father if they had any concerns about a competition with a guy like Spencer Rattler. His father is an alpha through and through, “DJ isn’t scared of nobody. He knows what he can do”.

***On Bru McCoy I’ll add to this tweet I posted…

He’s all the things you expect him to be but I’d really to see what he can do when he’s able to catch his breathe. He didn’t sit out much at all. In fact, I kept trying to find him on the sideline to get some sideline pictures and as soon as he came out, he’d be going right back in.

Also, football is definitely more physical in California than I expected. Not sure if it was just this particular game but they were letting the guys play. This was in the 4th quarter after I imagine McCoy was exhausted. You see he’s getting physical with 4-star DB, Trent McDuffie.

Didn’t speak to the Mater Dei kids after the game. They were, as you can imagine, very upset. But I did talk to McCoy’s father the night before and I plan on speaking to him again later today to see what the remaining visit plans are. As you know, McCoy still has a while before he makes a decision.

I still believe this one is USC vs. Texas. Last I checked, Bru was planning on visiting Oklahoma but I should be able to confirm that later today.

***5-star DB, Elias Ricks was another player on the field that Oklahoma is targeting.

Ricks is what you expect. He’s the big corner with the looseness and bend to actually play corner. Watching film on him, I thought he would transition to safety in college and that may end up being the case. But after seeing him move in person, he seems to have the bend and twitch to play outside.

So, the second point I mention in the tweet above is one of my favorite things about Ricks. He’s a competitor. Reminds of the south Florida guys. Plays with that edge, talks all game long, looks at the opposing crowd and talks to them but he’s locked in at the snap.

One of his players got into a minor dust-up on the other side of the field and Ricks was the first person to go flying across the field to come to his teammate’s defense.

There were too many other players on the field to watch. So, it’d be tough to give you a detailed technical evaluation but I did not that he does well mirroring at the line of scrimmage which is obviously a big thing for bigger corners cause they tend to be a little later in their turn. Though I noticed the cornerback opposite of him, Darion Green-Warren was also quite good in his mirror and off hand jam. So, this must be something they teach well at Mater Dei.

In the end though, Ricks has premium size and athleticism which are the tools you want to work with.

I plan on stopping by the school tomorrow to speak with Ricks. So, I’m hoping to get a sense of his visit schedule as well.

***As I mentioned, Sooners commit, Darion Green-Warren mirrors receivers really well. His ability to stay in front of his guy early in the route was second to none of a field with four 4/5-star cornerbacks.

Great movement…his feet, his heeps are fantastic. I’m not sure he’s a burner but he’s young and he’s quick so I can see him being to break in any direction from any position in the secondary.

While the other kids showed passion, you can tell Darion Green-Warren has that Oklahoma blood. Man, he is a fiery competitor. During the game, he’s rallying the troops. After the game, he was visibly upset. I personally liked that. I like that he wants to win so bad.

Something I really liked seeing from Warren was as follows. When Mater Dei was trying to make a final push in the 4th to close the gap, one of the DBs gave up a touchdown. But Warren’s desire to win didn’t trump his position as a leader. He immediately put his arms around the player who gave up the TD and encouraged him. He talked to him on the sideline and was clearly trying to keep the player’s spirits up.

***Just a quite note on 4-star DB, Trent McDuffie. McDuffie is better than I expected. More physical than I expected. Plenty of speed. McDuffie visited Oklahoma and was supposed to take an official visit to OU but I get the sense the Sooners may have stopped pushing once they felt comfortable with some of their other targets.

I did ask him if there was any contact between him and OU and he said things had fallen off.

 


 

Jordan Battle | In-Person & Update
– Super K

As you all know, I went out to Florida about a week and a half ago to see, among other players, Sooners 2019 DB target and Ohio State commit, Jordan Battle (St. Thomas Aquinas).

In terms of what I saw. He was probably the best football player on the field. He’s an elite safety,

He almost had a second INT where a very athletic Deerfield went up for the ball and somehow Battle managed to sky over the receiver and get his hands on the ball without a PI. It was beautiful.

He’s reading the field well and can eat up ground, quickly. So you’ve got the combination you’re looking for if you want him to roam around in center field. He looks good in man coverage as well so a secondary can play left and right without really worrying about losing cover ability when the offense changes their formation.

Again, just absolutely elite. He’d probably play early at OU.

I spoke to him after the game. At that point, Mike Stoops was still the defensive coordinator at OU but he didn’t mention him or any of the defensive guys. In fact, he said the best thing about OU is, “Lincoln Riley. Yeah, he’s the best thing about the visit. He’s very relatable. I really like him. I feel like I can talk to him. Oh, and I love his office!”

Battle said he had a return trip to Ohio State scheduled. I don’t recall the date on that. He did say that he wants to make a return trip to Norman in November, “I’m going to try to make it back out if Jaden (Davis) goes”.

The only other visit he mentioned was the possibility of an Alabama visit, “they’re trying to get me to come out but I don’t know. I might go because they want me to”.

But Battle was pretty clear that OU is the team giving Ohio State competition. Prior to the visit I had heard that Battle’s father loved OU and actually preferred it because of the lack of depth and the possibility that Battle could get on the field earlier. I also heard that his mother was still leaning towards Ohio State.

I asked Battle what his father thought, “yeah he loved it. I mean loved it loved it. I think that was his favorite visit”.

I asked Battle what his mom thought. He smiled, “well, I don’t really rely on my mom as much for recruiting advice”.

Image result for Fist Bump OFFICE Gif

Battle was pretty candid about OU being the team that is giving Ohio State a run for their money.

He’d like to make a final decision pretty quick. He’s looking at a final decision to be made next month (November). And, yes, Jaden Davis is working hard to get him to go to OU with him. Jaden and Battle have been best friends for many years and they play really well together. They understand each other and what the other is going to do in various situations on the field.

Stay tuned…

 


 

NewWave19 | Resetting The Board
– Charlie S

 

Current number of scholarship players on the roster: 80

Number of players exhausting their eligibility after the 2018 season: 12

Current number of verbal commitments for 2019: 18 (one set of eyes yet to be announced)

Without any underclassmen declaring or any transfers, OU would be at the maximum of 85 players on scholarship.

Allow for anticipating 4-5 early departures, the number for the NewWave19 class should be between 20 – 24.

The Sooners will lose a relatively low amount of scholarships as well next year so they could choose to stay on the low end in anticipation of saving some scholarships for the ’20 class.

So in my opinion, there are anywhere between three and five spots remaining for the ’19 class.

 


 

Quarterback: 1 – Done

Spencer Rattler

 

Runningback: 1 (Would like 2)

Marcus Major 

Targets: Kenny McIntosh, maybe Breece Hall

(McIntosh would represent the best shot for the Sooners at this point, yet he will still be a difficult pull. Noah Cain has mentioned taking an official, have not seen any movement towards it, but I cannot totally rule him out quite yet as a target, and Breece Hall (Marcus Hicks’ high school teammate took an unofficial to OU and remains in contact with the staff)

 

Wide receiver: 3 – Once upon a time we thought this was done at 3…

Trejan Bridges

Arjei Henderson

Theo Wease 

(Could potentially take one more IF the player is a can’t turn down type such as Haselwood/McCoy. We know the Sooners have remained in contact with both of those players, just hard to gauge how hard they will push)

 

Tightend/Hback: 1

Austin Stogner

(Depending on the play of the Hbacks throughout the season, you may see a spot open up for a player like Keon Zipperer or recent OU visitor and Baylor commit Logan Compton)

 

Offensive Line: 5

Marcus Alexander

EJ Ndoma-Ogar

Stacey Wilkins

(Danielson Ike, JUCO OL Finley Felix are currently the most notable realistic targets at this point. K did see Jonah Tauanu’u on his trip out to Cali and while he expressed his desire to visit OU, there is nothing to really talk about unless that visit occurs)

 

Defensive Line: 5 – 6

Derek Green

Marcus Hicks

Kori Roberson

Joseph Wete (DL/OLB)

Jacoby Jones

(DL Marcus Stripling, DL/OLB David Ugwoegbu, are currently the most notable targets)

 

Linebacker: 1 *Maybe 2

Jonathan Perkins

(Shammond Cooper keeps talking about visiting but it still appears OU is in no hurry here and Marcel Brooks is the only other realistic option in regards to ‘targets’ at this time)

 

DB: 4 *maybe 5

Jaden Davis

Jamal Morris

Woodi Washington

( Jordan Battle and Jalen Catalon have both officially visited recently are still in play for OU and as we reported, Josh Sanguinetti is also planning on visiting Norman)

 


 

Needs: At least one more OL and one more DB

Wants: One more DL, possibly another DB (5 total) and perhaps one more LB

Add in the set of eyes that are out there and you’re at 19..

To go above the 21, OU will have the opportunity to be very picky