Open Post | Weekend, May 1st – 3rd
Posted on: May 1, 2020
TFB Talking Point | 2021 Draft Possibilities
– Charlie S
The Sooners just had a successful draft as four players heard their names called as CeeDee Lamb, Kenneth Murray, Jalen Hurts, and Neville Gallimore were all selected.
The Sooners ran their impressive streak of having at least four players selected to 13 years which is the longest such streak in the country.
Let’s take an early look at the potential for that streak to continue during the 2021 draft.
Who could be the guys that help to continue the streak?
QB: Not happening. Rattler, and Morris are not eligible and Mordecai doesn’t have a real path to the NFL through Norman at this point (as I see Rattler being QB1).
RB: OU could have two potential draft picks here as you have Kennedy Brooks and Rhamondre Stevenson. Brooks is a good bet to get selected in the mid to late rounds and Stevenson is a question mark as he is suspended for the first five games of the season. Stevenson could still head to the draft and he may even have a chance to be the higher draft choice of the two based on his skill set.
WR: Charleston Rambo is the candidate here and if he has a big year he could certainly declare early and continue the Sooners success of putting receivers in the league. Theo Howard is also a guy who could get a look, but I feel like Rambo is your best bet right now as Howard is recovering from an Achilles and is a bit of an unknown commodity.
OL: Creed Humphrey could have headed to the draft this year but instead he chose to stay in Norman as I predicted he would at this time last year. He will likely be a first or second day pick in the 2021 draft. Then you have a guy like Adrian Ealy who could come out early should he have a good year and Marquise Hayes is another guy who has the potential to be a mid-round draft choice. If you asked me today, I would suggest that both stay in Norman following the 2020 season for one more year, but that could change based on their play in 2020. Tyrese Robinson would also be eligible, but again, as of today, I think he would be better served by staying in school another year.
TE/HB: Not sure I see anyone that could add to the Sooners draft pick totals right now.
DL: You have Ronnie Perkins who would be a 2021 draft selection in any normal year. However, with his suspension looming and a potentially weird season (stoppage/late start etc) ahead of us due to the pandemic, I’m not sure he leaves next year. He could, and he would be selected on his measurables and film to this point, but he may be better served to stay another year. All depends on how he plays and when he plays in the 2020 season. Another guy who could be a selection? LaRon Stokes. Stokes came in last year out of JUCO and became an important piece of the OU defensive line as he started in multiple spots throughout the season. What about Perrion Winfrey you ask? I don’t see it. One year at OU likely won’t be enough incentive for a GM to use a pick on him. At first glance, he needs two years at OU. Then there is Jalen Redmond. All the potential in the world and he flashed often during last season. He will need to become more consistent and stay healthy, but he is a possibility. Right now, I would say he should stay, but again, if he continues to develop, he certainly has a chance to be among the draft picks!
LB: Caleb Kelly is the best option you have here of having a draft pick in my opinion. Kelly will get every chance to show his progression. We know he has a great skill set, it’s all about putting it together on the field, staying healthy, and putting out some good film. Right now, it is hard to even speculate on his draft chances as his career in Norman has been less than breathtaking. DaShaun White would also be eligible, however, unless he has a break out year, I don’t see him leaving early.
DB: Tre Brown is the guy that everyone has pegged as being a draft selection and I don’t necessarily agree with ‘everyone’. Following the PMot experience this year, it is clear that one year of ‘great’ film is not enough if you don’t have the measurables. Brown has one thing in his favor, and that is speed. However, at this point, he does not have film at the level of PMot. It will be a challenge for him to become a serious contender to be picked next year. He can do it, but he will need to perform better at CB and put that on film.
Obviously, it is way to early to tell for a bunch of those guys. In the end however, I have a feeling the Sooners will get enough guys drafted to continue their streak.
Right now, the only player I see as a day one potential pick is Creed Humphrey. Things could change, and that’s why they play the games!
Looking forward to your thoughts and bringing up some possibilities I may have missed!
Mario Williams and Initial Take on Virtual Visits
– Super K
***Sooners elite 2021 WR target, Mario Williams had his virtual visit earlier this week. I exchanged some texts with him and discovered that he actually did the visit with his parents and some of his coaches including his baseball and football coach.
***I actually spoke with his head football coach, Coach James Booth about the virtual visit.
***It was a lengthy conversation so I may add additional notes to this but wanted to get a few things up for you all to get a sense of what these visits are like.
***So first of all, it’s very clear that these are really well thought out and organized. I expect nothing less from Riley and company. Coach Booth said the visit was about two hours long but didn’t feel long because of how little lag time there was. They had everything set up in a way to keep the flow and the cadence of the visit properly moving.
***He did say that the Sooners set up a pretty cool first person angle (imagine a go pro) where they have someone walking through campus or the dorms or the weight room so that the athlete feels like they’re the ones walking around and then coaches will actually say “what’s up” or something of the sort. It’s meant to give the kids the feeling of immersion.
***Also, it sounds like these visits are really comprehensive. There are meetings with coaches and meetings with academic advisors.
***In the case of Williams, because he’s two sport guy (WR and CF) the Sooners had the OU baseball coach meet with Williams on the virtual visit. They went over what his schedule would like and how he’d balance both sports. OU has a significant advantage here in that Kyler Murray did the exact same thing and that was quite recent.
***And as coach Booth and I discussed, if Murray as a QB can do it, surely a WR can do it.
***I think OU is pretty far out in front in terms of these visits. This is the first one Mario has done and as I understand it, none of the other schools have even attempted to set one up. So, my guess is some schools are either not doing it (bad idea IMO) or are behind.
***You already know how we feel about where OU stands with Williams so I won’t go into that here. I primarily wanted to give you all a glimpse into these visits. Again, I may have some additional notes of interest on this and if so, I’ll pass them along.
Update | 2021 LB Trenilyas Tatum Commits to South Carolina
– Charlie S
One time Sooners 2021 linebacker target Trenilyas Tatum (6’2″ 208) out of Jonesboro, GA, has announced his commitment to South Carolina.
Tatum unofficially visited Norman earlier this year and was scheduled to officially visit for the Spring game.
However, this should not come as a surprise to you here on the Donor Board following our latest update on Tatum which we put out on April 23rd.
“Since the time we found out that the Spring Game would not go off as planned, I had been reaching out to Trenilyas for several weeks without hearing back from him.
K was able to get in touch with him late last week and Tatum mentioned to him that he has not been hearing much from OU of late.
So it feels an awful lot like the Sooners have at the very least put the brakes on their pursuit of Tatum at this time.
If you are looking for reasons why that could be the case right now, you may need to look no further than the potential of Danny Stutsman (6’2.5″ 205, FL), Kobie McKinzie (6’3″ 227, Lubbock, TX) reclassifying to 2021 and how the Sooners feel about where things stand with Kendall Daniels (6’4″ 190, Beggs, OK).
If OU lands Daniels, who is a linebacker to the Sooners, and if McKinzie is in the ’21 class, Oklahoma has their inside linebackers and that would leave them to focus on a RUSH candidate.
I am not saying things are completely done with Tatum, but based on our interactions with him, things have slowed down between him and OU quite a bit and it certainly does not appear that the Sooners are pushing here right now.”
With the Sooners aggressively pursuing Danny Stutsman, Kendal Daniels, and several others at linebacker, I would consider this one done.
Jaydon Williams | Quick Update + Note on Tatum
– Super K
***Apologies for the incessant posting about this. Didn’t want this to get lost in the morning notes.
But per a source, it sounds like the Sooners are likely to miss on recently offered 2021 LB Jaydon Williams tomorrow.
Let’s just say if OU ever loses their LB coach, Antonio Pierce wouldn’t be a bad replacement.
***Also, to add to Charlie’s previous note on Trenilyas Tatum, Charlie was spot on there.
That was a situation where the Sooners could’ve landed Tatum if they had chosen but made the decision to take their chances elsewhere.
With Odom, I think that gamble will pay off.
Update | Danny Stutsman Announcing Next Week
– Charlie S
Yesterday afternoon, James, K and I were talking about what we had been hearing. Both K and James mentioned that they are hearing very good things about OU and Danny Stutsman following his virtual visit.
I was waiting on posting the info as I wanted to have one of us speak to Stutsman following the visit…
Prior to posting that information, Stutsman tweeted out that he will be announcing his commitment to the school of his choice next week.
This is a quote from K during our TFB discussion text:
‘Per sources, the visit went very well. We are starting to believe that the decision by Jaydon Williams to go ahead and announce tomorrow may be connected to where OU and Stutsman are at. It was following Stutsman’s scheduled visit when I spoke to Williams’ coach who said he was likely going to go ahead with his announcement.”
As we have detailed over the past month or so, Stutsman has become a priority for OU and that appears to have had a role in the Tatum and now Williams recruitment.
Quick-Hitters | Virtual Visitors, & A Reschedule
– Super K
***As we previously noted, Wednesday’s virtual visitor list originally included: Keon Coleman, Danny Stutsman, Kaden Prather and Malcolm Johnson.
I did speak with Malcolm about his visit. More on that later. But it sounds like Prather’s visit didn’t happen and will be rescheduled.
***Charlie previously reported two of Thursdays three visitors, namely 2021 DL, Kelvin Gilliam (Highland Springs, VA) and 2021 DB, Donovan McMillon (Canonsburg, PA)
I continue to think Gilliam is a winnable prospect. I’ll be very interested to see how this visit went. As you know, he was supposed to take an unofficial visit to OU back on April 9th.
McMillon is a guy we’ve only recently been in touch with but it sounds like he is a priority for the Sooners.
***The third visitor Thursday was 2021 DL, Marcus Burris (Texarkana, TX). Of the two big DL targets at Pleasant Grove HS (Burris and Landon Jackson) the Sooners have made Burris the priority.
