Open Post | Weekend, July 14th – 16th
Posted on: July 14, 2023
Sooners Offer ’24 OL Josh Aisosa
– Charlie S – Posted on: July 7, 2023
Earlier this evening the Sooners offered ’24 offensive lineman Josh Aisosa out of Edmund, OK (Santa Fe).
Josh let me know this will be his third trip to campus and he is looking forward to developing his relationship with the staff.
Film:
He plays tackle for his high school team but his film really gives me flashes of Cody Ford in high school. Big guy with heavy hands and a sturdy lower body. Plays with an edge and really enjoys run blocking and grinding it out. He has a great frame and while he is raw, he uses his hands effectively at this point. Looks like an interior guy at the next level to me.
Lebby Needs a Big Year
– Super K – Posted on: July 10, 2023
Last week, a friend of mine was asking me about my prediction for the Sooners upcoming season.
Conversations veered off into the topic of the offense and specifically about the Sooners coming away with points – or not.
I relayed to him what many of you know but is worth reemphasizing – namely that the Sooners were outside the top 30 in scoring offense.
In the Big 12 in any year that’s not something you want to see from the Sooners. But it’s so much more shocking when you consider the fact that Oklahoma had five (FIVE) NFL draft picks…on the offensive side of the ball.
It’s even more eye opening when you consider the balance of those picks – one or more came at every since position other than QB.
They had two offensive linemen drafted, a wide receiver, a running back and even a tight end.
It’s really hard to argue that you lack talent when you’ve got five NFL draft picks on one side of the ball.
This is a big year for Lebby. They did a good enough job racking up the yards but they’re going to need to score a lot more. And I don’t mean to win ball games. For all I know, the defense might do well enough to do that. BV has been pretty open about his confidence in the defense.
But to demonstrate his value, those quarter after quarter droughts need to come to an end.
Keep in mind, last year was Lebby’s first year calling plays without an offensive guru overseeing things. I think this will be the year when you’ll get a better look at exactly who Lebby is. Whatever kinks needed to be worked out, that would have been taken care of last year.
Nwaneri and Boganowski Timeline Updates
– Charlie S – Posted on: July 11, 2023
***As many of you saw, per a report from Steve Wiltfong at 247, Sooners DL target Williams Nwaneri will announce his commitment to the school of his choosing on August 1st.
Last week in Super K’s most recent update on Nwaneri (HERE) he noted that while Georgia seemed to be surging, a source told him “Oklahoma is still in that more than you might think based on that Georgia chatter.”
If you recall, at one point, Tennessee seemed to be the most significant threat to OU in this recruitment…then Georgia…now there is talk about Mizzou…but the one constant? Oklahoma.
Again, reason for optimism, but nothing is final and it possibly could come down to where he visits (if anywhere) at the end of the month here when the dead period is lifted.
***Yesterday I touched base with Safety target Michael Boganowski to see if he had any updates on his timeline. Boganowski is thought to be down to Oklahoma and Kansas State as his recruitment winds down, but he did take OV’s to Kansas, Stanford and Florida State as well.
As far as his timeline goes, Boganowski said he is not exactly sure when he plans on announcing. I don’t see it dragging out all that long if he truly is down to two school, but currently there is nothing set in regard to making his call.
Other Sports May Define the 2024 RB Class
– Super K – Posted on: July 11, 2023
***As you know, Sooners RB target, Taylor Tatum is set to announce a decision on July 21st. Going into the official visit, USC was the favorite by a large margin. In fact, Tatum silently committed to USC on his official visit.
While Tatum had been to USC a number of times, recently, he had not visited Oklahoma since last September.
But the recent official visit that Tatum took seems to have had an impact and it came from an unexpected place. Some believe DeMarco Murray’s relationship with Taylor’s father made the difference but that relationship is a longstanding one and hadn’t swayed anything.
I know some of you were asking if all the picks coming in for the Sooners with Tatum should give fans permission to be optimistic. As I told you last week, because this is a unique situation we figured the best way to deal with this one is to wait and see – if Tatum picks OU you’ll be happy and if he doesn’t, you won’t be overly upset.
What makes this recruitment unique is the baseball factor which is really hard to gauge. It was made clear to me that if this was strictly a football decision, USC would remain the pick.
But because Tatum comes from a baseball family, this pick is less about two schools and more about the sport. And simply put, playing baseball at OU in the SEC is more appealing than playing baseball at USC in the Big 10.
I can tell you that Tatum has had two edits made.
If it’s strictly a football decision, it would likely be USC. If it’s strictly a baseball decision, it would likely be OU.
So in this case, the additional sport may end up working in OU’s favor.
However…
***To make this cycle even more unique, the Sooners are dealing with a similar situation as it pertains to Caden Durham. While Durham plays at Duncanville, you all know he is an Oklahoma native and comes from an OU family.
But he’s also an absolute burner on the track and is intent on running track in college. As a result, LSU has been a major player in his recruitment.
Durham has his commitment date set for late August and I’m not ready to make a trending pick (I’m awaiting word back from someone on a particular question after which I think I’ll be ready to offer a trend). But I do believe that if it weren’t for track, the Sooners would be the clear winner in this one.
So, as I said, it’s a bit of a reverse Taylor Tatum.
If the Sooners can land Tatum later this month to go along with Xavier Robinson, then anything else is just cherry.
Trending | ’24 OL Eugene Brooks
– Charlie S – Posted on: July 11, 2023
The Sooners hosted ’24 OL Eugene Brooks in June and made a major impression.
Brooks holds around 20 offers from the likes of Texas, USC, Texas A&M, Oregon, Georgia and Florida State.
Super K spoke to a source and we expect Brooks to announce next week and our trending pick is 80/20 to OU over the field.
Resetting the OL Board and Expectations
– Charlie S – Posted on: July 12, 2023
While there has been much hand-wringing over the state of offensive line recruiting this cycle (rightfully so to a degree), the Sooners are still in a decent position for several of their priority offers while also handing out some new offers.
***OU currently has one commit in Isaiah Autry (6’6 290) who announced his pledge to the Sooners back in April.
***As we noted earlier this week, things are trending well for Eugene Brooks (6’3 320) who picked up his offer while on his official visit in June, so that was a mere formality and he was/is a priority target.
***Oklahoma sent out a trio of ’24 offers recently to Harrison Utley (6’3 280), Daniel Akinkunmi (6’4 317), and Josh Aisosa (6’3.5 305)
***Utley and Aisosa are in state products and Utley subsequently put out a tweet indicating that he is going to remain committed to Kansas (we’ll see) but Aisosa will be in town at the end of July. Akinkunmi is from England, so we will have to do some digging on him as to when a visit may take place and whatnot.
***OU remains in pursuit of Grant Brix, and while we don’t have him trending to OU at this point, you never know if they can make that move into the top spot as they are still doing work there. Eddy Pierre Louis is also still not committed, tho we believe he is trending to UCF, but again, OU will continue to put in the work there.
***So while the Sooners missed on a bunch of their priority targets if they land Autry and Brooks, that is two guys they prioritized (your rankings be damned) and then if you grab one or two other HS guys, you have enough to work with until you can go shopping in the portal.
***All is not lost, by any means, but I understand the optics suck when it seems like you missed out on the majority of the targets to start the cycle.
***The good news, in my opinion, is that this is not a very deep and talented cycle for OL. It just isn’t. Yes, there are some guys that are better than others on paper and a few gems at the very top (they all seemingly went to Georgia), but when Kaedin Massey is one of the more coveted OL in the region, you can realize it’s not all that deep of a cycle as while he has good potential, he is by no means a sure thing.
***Lock up Autry, Brooks and one or two projects that Bedenbaugh believes he can work with (ala stealing Cody Ford from TCU) and you are fine when you piggyback that off of last year’s class (which I think has the potential to be very good).
***I expect additional offers to go out, but not a flood of offers at this point as it just doesn’t make sense to shoot a lot more bullets with the talent out there in this class.
***What the down year on OL recruiting does is put pressure on the ’25 class, and you have to address that when the time comes.
Sourced Team Notes | Defensive Line Talk
– Charlie S – Posted on: July 13, 2023
Many in the community noticed the physical gains made by Gracen Halton that were posted on social media last week. Halton is up to 287 (was told he is now closer to 290) so I wanted to sniff around a bit about the defensive line.
***Was told Halton brings the same energy to every workout and walk through that he arrived on campus with as a freshman. Source said Halton is a guy who is doing everything he can to make an impact and it shows with how dedicated he is. Source went on to say Halton’s personality flips like a light switch as soon as its his turn to take a rep or hit the weight. He goes from dancing and joking to incredibly intense really quickly.
***Source had more accolades for Da’Jon Terry. Was told he is just different (in a good way) and is very focused and thrives in the weight room. Source noted that he has immediately earned respect for how he goes about his business and some of the younger guys are starting to gravitate towards him.
***Was told Jonah Laulu has really transformed his body and has ramped up his intensity. Was told he ‘looks like a completely different dude than last year’.
***Freshman Ashton Sanders is a guy that continues to impress. Source said that Sanders is usually first in and last out for summer workouts. Was told that he doesn’t ask a lot of questions, but you can tell he is taking in all the info he can from the older guys.
***I asked about Utah State transfer Phil Paea and was told ‘Hes gonna surprise some people with his athleticism’. Source also noted that he has done a lot of work on his body and is at a ‘good fighting weight’ (The updated roster has him at 305). Source said it’s kind of funny when you look at Paea compared to the freshman running around…the physical maturity is evident.
I got a couple other tidbits that I can drop in the comment section as the thread evolves, but those are the biggest takeaways I picked up.
