Weekend Open Post | May 9th
Posted on: May 9, 2025
Spring Portal Comings and Goings
– Charlie S – Posted on: May 1, 2025
The Sooners added another piece to the puzzle that is their 2025 roster yesterday when former McNeese State wide receiver Jer’Michael Carter announced he will be transferring to Oklahoma.
With that move, it appears that the majority of the heavy lifting in the spring portal is done for OU.
Let’s take a quick inventory of the comings and goings in the spring portal for the Sooners:
Portal entries out of OU:
RB – Gavin Sawchuk
RB – Sam Franklin
TE – Davon Mitchell
OL – Josh Aisosa
QB – Cole Gonzales
DB – Mykel Patterson McDonald
DB – Pete Schuh
DB – Joecelyn Malaska
Portal acquisitions by OU:
RB – Jaydn Ott – Cal
OL – Jake Maikkula – Stanford
WR – Jer’Michael Carter – McNeese State
DL – Ricky Lolohea – Utah State
K – Tate Sandell – UTSA
QB – Whitt Nebauer – Mercer
I like the swaps. Feels to me like OU gained more than they lost, and that’s the whole idea, right?
Would have liked to see the Sooners add a corner as I still have questions about that room based solely on health, but they certainly have enough talent to be a solid room.
Brain vs Gut
– Super K – Posted on: May 1, 2025
Earlier in the week, we discussed how talented this 2025 OU team appears to be.
To recap, we noted that the past couple years the Sooners have only had two or three NFL draft picks. This current team could easily see 8+ guys get drafted.
The Sooners brought in a familiar and cogent offensive system and a young talented OC to run it. Arbuckle already has one first overall pick under his belt. Everything we have heard inside and outside the program about Mateer has been overwhelmingly positive.
If you haven’t seen Mateer run, do yourself a favor and pull up some film. He is extremely twitchy. Really looks like a dangerous runner.
Led by the guys up front, the Sooners fielded a great defense last year. All those guys are back, and they should get some additional help from guys like Stone, Okoye, Wein, etc.
As many have noted, last season, the Sooners were a decent offense away from winning a lot more games.
The South Carolina game is a great example. The offense gave the game away in the first quarter and then won every subsequent quarter. There is no question in my mind that if OU simply had a serviceable offense, they win that game.
The Missouri game is the same. And you could argue about some others.
And what about OU’s schedule this year? So many of the teams they play are breaking in new QBs. Additionally, the OU players have now had some experience playing an SEC schedule. They should have a better sense of the upgrade in talent that they’re facing each week.
They have three automatic out-of-conference wins. Michigan comes to Norman. Michigan lost a lot. And they’re breaking in a new QB.
Ole Miss – new QB, Alabama – new QB, Tennessee – new QB, Missouri – better be a new QB. And again, OU has already demonstrated it can defend South Carolina’s QB.
Months ago, I noted that this staff needs nine wins to stay in power. And the Sooners have built a roster that seems to indicate they know that.
On paper, this team has the talent to get those nine wins and more.
But there remains for me, and I’m sure for a lot of you, this gnawing doubt. Any other year, you show me this group of players, I’m calling for a playoff run.
In my gut, though, I’m just not ready to say that.
I’ve tried to figure out why.
The easy answer is because Brent hasn’t done it yet. But, for me, that’s not really it. I feel pretty comfortable extrapolating. If all I knew of BV’s tenure was last year, I’d be pretty sold on the idea of what will happen this year.
The problem for me is that throughout BV’s time, the leaks change from year to year and game to game and sometimes quarter to quarter.
We have seen last year’s Alabama game and the year before at Texas. But even in the Texas game, the game started out as a Bob Stoops early 2000 style beat down and somehow it turned into a barn burner. That was followed by an underwhelming second half of the season where the Sooners almost lost to UCF at home and then did lose to Kansas and Oklahoma State.
It really is just a matter of this looming question: What is going to go wrong that I’m not anticipating? That’s it.
It’s much harder to discern that this year because of how much more talented this OU team is than any other that Brent has had.
But there have been so many oddities over these past years that you just don’t know where the surprise is coming from.
My eyes are firmly in the camp that this team has the talent to go to the playoffs. My gut and my heart aren’t there yet, and I don’t think they’ll get there. It’s just something I’m going to have to see.
I think the good thing is, one way or another, after this season, it’s going to be clear to everyone what kind of coach the Sooners have in Brent.
If the Sooners win this year, the talent will continue to roll. Support for BV will grow. BV’s confidence will grow. The Sooners will be off to the races. If the Sooners fall short of that nine wins, I don’t think anyone will have any more patience. I think most will simply ask, How can the Sooners amass much more talent than they already have?
We are either at a new beginning or the beginning of the end. I have very little doubt about that.
Turning Toward Recruiting
– Charlie S – Posted on: May 4, 2025
As the calendar has turned to May, focus on high school recruiting will be a big topic of discussion within the community over the next few months.
One of the things to keep in mind is what we posted back in March about Sooners GM Jim Nagy reevaluating the 2026 class and the Sooners offers and pursuits in the class. That is still an ongoing process, but some changes have been made.
We are already starting to see a change on the Big Boards, which I will update throughout the coming days and weeks. For example, OU pretty much dropped their pursuit of running back Kaydin Jones (who committed to OkState) and appears to be moving on from several other targets, with WR Mason James among them. Also, some of that eternal optimism of the coaching staff in regard to how OU feels they stand with certain recruits (looking at EDGE here) is being hedged a bit with additional offers at that position.
The Sooners have sent out multiple new offers, particularly at EDGE/WR and LB. This should indicate that Nagy has focused on those position groups off the rip, which makes sense as those rooms will need some serious restocking in the coming years.
I will start updating the Big Boards with new names for those positions (and also removing some names), with this in mind because there have been some notable changes in regard to OU’s standing with some of the targets as well as a clear indication of what Nagy and OU are looking for at those positions.
The one thing that stands out to me prior to actually finishing up the revised Big Boards is that the recruiting star gazers among us are going to be in shambles because there are not a ton of 5-star types with serious connections to OU at this time.
A handful of under-the-radar type guys have been identified and have received offers and/or interest from the Sooners under Nagy’s guidance.
The Imperfect Storm | Recruiting
– Charlie S – Posted on: May 5, 2025
Yesterday, I talked about the need to update and revise the Sooners Big Boards, particularly at EDGE/WR and LB. OU has been sending out more offers following GM Jim Nagy’s arrival and some of the previous targets have either moved on or the Sooners moved on from them.
Last night, one of the Sooners’ priority WR targets this cycle, and one guy that we felt OU had positioned themselves well with as we head into Official Visit season, Aljour Miles, committed to SMU. SMU has a ton of money, some momentum from their playoff appearance last season, and they pushed hard for Miles with that combination in mind. SMU chose to push all their chips in, in May.
Earlier this week (HERE), we passed along a note on Sooners OT target Felix Ojo, who received a massive NIL offer from Texas Tech, which included a ‘Take it or leave it’ date attached to it. That date comes at the end of this coming week. This is obviously a hard push for a commitment, in May.
Previously, back in April (HERE), Super K noted that while the Sooners have put themselves in good standing with EDGE Jake Kreul, a source brought up that he had so many visits left, which means, slow down the Sooner talk for the time being.
Now, there are murmurs about OU and Duncanville EDGE KJ Ford changing up his OV date from the summer to the season. If you’ll recall from back in February (HERE), when it came to Ford and OU, I talked about slowing down the hopium as Ford would be a long and drawn out recruitment and in order for OU to be real players there, he would need to see improvement ON the field.
“Going forward, it will be vitally important for OU to show improvement on the field in order to keep Ford’s attention as basically every major program is pursuing Ford and OU cannot afford to provide them with any additional negative fodder. This is one where I like what OU has done to this point, but I would not recommend anyone getting out over their skis here with a highly coveted kid out of Duncanville.”
Still some folks once again got out over their skis and started putting in predictions for Ford to land at OU despite knowing full well that there is more going against OU in that recruitment (right now) than they have going for them. Folks just can’t help themselves (or rather, they try to help themselves to clicks and subs by building false hype time and time again).
So…there is a storm brewing out there, and OU seems to be without a proper shelter as they are getting it from multiple sides.
First of all, we have talked about this extensively, the Sooners coaching staff is a very easy target on the recruiting trail. It’s not just us at TFB saying it, it’s teams and programs around the country who can see it and therefore say it to recruits…you don’t have two losing seasons in three years at Oklahoma and have job security. You don’t have consecutive NFL drafts at Oklahoma, where your team is hardly mentioned, and you send 5 total guys to the NFL via the draft, with only one of them drafted before round 4, and have job security.
Then you have the NIL whirlwind, which is on steroids right now as the revenue sharing concept is on the horizon, which, in theory, will put some guardrails on these crazy NIL deals. There are programs out there that are absolutely just emptying their chambers this spring.
Look at what USC is doing with a head coach who is likely in the same position as Brent Venables. Look at what we told you Texas Tech is doing…they offered a high school OL a multi-year, multi-million dollar deal with a timer attached to it before it blows up.
Jim Nagy is not going to play the desperation card with NIL funds (there is only so much money to go around) with the high school ranks at this time, as he knows he is better served right now focusing on the immediacy, and that help comes from the portal.
As I said yesterday (and have been saying for months), this is going to be a tough cycle for OU on the recruiting trail. The staff can still pull in a solid class, but do not look for it to be a star-studded class with a ton of national accolades attached to it.
As a reminder, take what you hear on social media and from click baiters very lightly, and you will be in a much better position to weather the storm.
There is only one solution.
Go win football games.
The rest will take care of itself.
QB Dominoes Start to Fall
– Charlie S – Posted on: May 5, 2025
The class of ’26 QB Dominoes have begun to fall, particularly when it comes to Oklahoma.
As you all know, the Sooners currently have Jaden O’Neal committed, and they are aggressively pursuing Bowe Bentley.
O’Neal recently took a visit to Georgia, and Bentley also visited Georgia in the spring.
Well, 5* QB Jared Curtis just announced his commitment to Georgia as we expected and that would pretty much count the Dawgs out of the race for Bentley and out of pursuit of O’Neal.
The Bentley recruitment is now shaping up to be OU vs LSU head to head and while O’Neal hangs out and watches that play out still while being committed to OU, FSU is in pursuit of him and he plans on officially visiting with them this summer.
How Does OU Stack up to Texas? Offense
– Super K – Posted on: May 6, 2025
Believe it or not, we’re already in May. The season is still a summer away but with a variety of folks starting to drop pre-season rankings, the season is feeling closer and closer!
Charlie and I began discussing OU’s talent across the board and how the Sooners stack up against this upcoming season’s opponents.
We’d like to try and make a position group by position group comparison of the teams.
I wanted to start with a general overview though of the Sooners vs Texas. I keep seeing Texas get a lot of love in the pre-season polls. In fact, just yesterday, Joel Klatt dropped his post-spring top 25 and he had Texas at number two. He had the Sooners at 25.
All I want to do here is an overall view of the position groups…
Quarterback
Texas has the name brand in Manning. Manning is also a great athlete who can hurt you with both his arm and his legs.
But the Sooners have a guy who can do the same. While Manning is the bigger runner, Mateer is closer to a running back in his twitch and change of direction. I think Mateer is an extremely dangerous runner.
Add to it that Mateer has a lot more experience as a starter. And, Mateer knows the system as well as a coach.
What would’ve once been an advantage to Texas, I’ll now give to OU or at the very least say it’s a push.
But I’m giving OU the advantage here.
OL
I’ll do this as a relative thing.
The Sooners bring their guys back. Their OL struggled last year but really started to come alive in the second half of the year.
Meanwhile, Texas loses key components.
I trust Bedenbaugh here. And this is the first cycle in the past two years where the NIL advantage that Texas seized from OU when the Sooners were late to the party a few cycles ago, is pretty much over.
Gun to my head, I’d give this to the Sooners but I’ll call it a push, for now. I may update this later.
RB
Tashard Choice would’ve been a reason to pick Texas here. The Sooners cannot seem to put together a great running back room and it’s not for lack of talent.
But, Choice is gone and the Sooners have brought in a ready made top shelf RB.
Both teams will have QBs that will run for some yardage.
The other issue is Texas’ elite RB CJ Baxter had a pretty nasty injury and we still don’t know when he will be back and at what capacity.
I’m giving this slight edge to OU due to Ott and the young talent OU has in Tatum.
WR
As much as there is a question mark around OU’s wide receiver room, Texas has at least as big of a question mark.
They’re dealing with the loss of their top WR in Golden. They lost Bond and they’re dealing with injuries and youth.
The Sooners do have a sure fire guy in Burks. And, OU is so traumatized from last year that they’ve just added and added to their room.
Additionally, the Sooners are getting a big upgrade in consistency at the QB position which should help their WRs.
I’d have a pick with a gun to my head but just because OU’s room struggled so much last year, I’ll call this a push. I really can’t justify giving it to Texas given all their question marks.
TE
Texas.
TOTAL
QB = OU
OL = Slight OU or Push
RB = Slight OU or Push
WR = Push
TE = Texas
Given the Sooners weakness last year was the offense, if the above is anywhere close to accurate, that’s pretty dang good.
We’ll look at the defense in a bit.
Now for the Defense | OU vs Texas
– Super K – Posted on: May 6, 2025
Earlier today, I went over a bird’s eye view of the offensive position groups comparing OU to Texas. I think, on paper, the Sooners compare very favorably to Texas.
How does the defense look?
DT
I think this one goes to OU and I don’t really think it’s close. It’s not that Texas doesn’t have talent. It’s that OU has talent and experience and depth here.
DE
Texas has some nice pieces here in Collin Simmons and Ethan Burke and they’ve got some guys waiting in the wings.
But this one, again, has to go to OU. R Mason is in his NFL season and he looks like a guy who will be drafted early. Additionally, Marvin Jones brings experience. And then the Sooners have plenty of guys with upside in Okoye, Wein and Adebawore.
LB
I prefer the Sooners overall talent here but Texas has the best linebacker.
But put together when you take Kip + McKinzie + Daniels/Dolby, I’d take that over Texas but because Texas does have some young guys who could be emerging and because of Hill, I’m going to call this a push.
Safeties
I’ll give this one to OU. I think RSJ is potentially a high draft pick and Bowen, when healthy, is a dangerous safety. Texas has a guy like Taafe who is a pure football player and a darn good one.
But Texas also lost their safeties coach and I prefer the Sooners immediate upside here.
Cornerback
I’ll go push here. I think Bowen and Malik are very similar type players. I think both teams have question marks at the other cornerback spot.
TOTAL
DT = OU
DE = OU
LB = Push
Safety = OU
Corneback = Push
Updated Big Board | EDGE | 2026
– Charlie S – Posted on: May 7, 2025
Time to update the Big Boards.
We will start with the EDGE Board.
You can find the original EDGE Big Board HERE.
Original offers – Pre-Nagy
Kevin Ford Jr. – Duncanville (Duncanville, TX) – 6’3 245
Jake Kreul – IMG Academy (Bradenton, FL) – 6’3 230
Kamhariyan Johnson – Muscle Shoals (Muscle Shoals, AL) – 6’4 260 – Alabama 4/12
Hudson Woods – Smithson Valley (Spring Branch, TX) – 6’3 220
Ronelle Johnson – Blue Springs (Blue Springs, MO) – 6’4 245
Zion Elee – St. Frances Academy (Baltimore, MD) – 6’3.5 220 – Maryland 12/7/24
Trenton Henderson – Pensacola Catholic (Pensacola, FL) – 6’4 225
Nolan Wilson – Picayune Memorial (Picayune, MS) – 6’4 240
Xavier Griffin – Gainesville, GA – 6’3 205 – USC 7/27/24
Shaun Scott – Mater Dei (Santa Ana, CA) – 6’3 230
Titan Davis – DeSmet (Saint Louis, MO) – 6’5 238
Luke Wafle – Hun School (Princeton, NJ) – 6’5 240
Zach Groves – East Robertson (Cross Plains, TN) – 6’4 212
Dre Quinn – Greater Atlanta Christian School (Norcross, GA) – 6’4 228
Hunter Higgins – Maize South (Wichita, KS) – 6’5 240 – Kansas 1/15/25
Dutch Horisk – St. John Bosco (Bellflower, CA) – 6’2 240 – Oregon 8/17/24
Additional offers – Post Nagy
DeAnthony Lafayette – Lake Nona (Orlando, FL) – 6’1 230 – Offered April 10th
Reston Lehman – Peters Township (Canonsburg, PA) – 6’4 230 – Offered April 23rd
Ashton Blatt – Central Catholic (Pittsburgh, PA) – 6’4 230 – Offered April 30th
Daniel Norman – St Thomas Aquinas (Ft Lauderdale, FL) – 6’4 220 – Offered May 5th
Matthew Nelson – Bryant (Bryant, AR) – 6’5 215 – Offered May 2nd
Commits at this time: 0
Number of commits OU is looking to take out of high school: 2 (3 max for the right guys, I just do not see it)
Where things are at:
The top two targets remain pretty easily identifiable. Jake Kreul and KJ Ford.
Kreul has his OV locked in (June 20th), Ford, not so much. The current plan is for Ford to OV at some point, and it is looking like that would have to come in the season.
The only other EDGE that I have as currently lined up for an OV is Matthew Nelson for June 20th, but I have not confirmed that the date is officially locked in yet.
The recent offers are the guys to pay attention to going forward, for the most part, and I would say a couple of them (Norman, Lehman, Blatt) are strong candidates for official visits.
OU will be in a battle for Kreul as he currently has OVs set to Texas, Ohio State, Florida, and Colorado, along with OU. As we have reported previously, OU has done nice work here, but the visits will be a big part of his decision-making process.
Ford has officials scheduled with Alabama, USC, and Auburn on the docket, and he planned on visiting OU on June 20th, but that is up in the air and not likely to take place, as he is looking to move the OU visit to the season. As I noted in the original EDGE Big Board, folks got out over their skis with the predictions to OU (much as they did with Jonah Williams last cycle). OU is not out of this, but they certainly are not in a commanding position.
Bottom line: OU has a lot of work to do here, and right now, there are no slam-dunk locks for OU.
Updated Big Board | Linebacker | 2026
– Charlie S – Posted on: May 8, 2025
Continuing to update the Big Boards, as we noted that the arrival of GM Jim Nagy has seen the Sooners’ 2026 target board undergo some changes as he reevaluates the situation.
Today, we will check out the LB Board.
You can find the original LB Big Board HERE.
Original offers – Pre Nagy
Braxton Lindsey – Rogers (Rogers, AR) – 6’2 225
Dejon Ackerson – Putnam City (Oklahoma City, OK) – 6’2 195
Jakore Smith – Parkview Magnet (Little Rock, AR) – 6’0 190
Beau Jandreau – Hamilton (Chandler, AZ) – 6’1 215
Cincere Johnson – Glenville (Cleveland, OH) – 6’3 225
Tyler Atkinson – Grayson (Loganville, GA) – 6’2 205
Jamarion Phillips – South Oak Cliff (Dallas, TX) – 6’0 220
Talanoa Ili – Orange Lutheran (Orange, CA) – 6’3 215
Brayden Rouse – Kell (Marietta, GA) – 6’3 210
Daquives Beck – Carthage (Carthage, TX) – 6’1 205
Shadarius Toodle – Cottage Hill Christian Academy (Mobile, AL) – 6’3 210
Malik Morris – Lakeland (Lakeland, FL) – 6’1 225
Anthony Davis Jr. – Grayson (Loganville, GA) – 6’2 200
Storm Miller – Strongsville (Strongsville, OH) – 6’3 220
Kenneth Goodwin – Narbonne (Harbor City, CA) – 6’1 205
CJ Sanna – Olentangy (Lewis Center, OH) – 6’3 225
Tank King – Memorial (Port Arthur, TX) – 6’0 205
Kosi Okpala – Mayde Creek (Houston, TX) – 6’1.5 215
Hudson Dunn – Liberty (Peoria, AZ)- 6/1 205
Colsen Gatten – Central Catholic (Pittsburgh, PA) – 6’1 215
Karon Maycock – Miami Central (Miami, FL) – 6’1 200
Additional offers – Post Nagy
Adam Balogoun-Ali – Cardinal Newman (West Palm Beach, FL) – 6’2 205 – Offered March 13th – OV set for June 6th
Kuane Akana – Orem (Orem, UT) – 6’3 200 lbs – Offered April 5th – Tausili Akana’s brother
Mason Marden – Ladue Horton Watkins (St Louis, Missouri) – 6’3 215-225 – Offered April 24th – OU in top 5, expect an OV
Ben Wenzel – North (Appleton, WI) – 6’3 215 – Offered April 29th
Commits at this time: 0
Number of commits OU is looking to take out of high school: 2
Where things are at:
With the resetting of the boards due to Jim Nagy’s arrival, the Sooners have started to shift their focus off of some of the original offers and onto some of the newer offers while maintaining their pursuit of others who have been there from the beginning.
For instance, the Sooners are no longer pursuing local product Dejon Ackerson, who they could have locked up rather expediently. At the same time, it feels like a sense of reality has set in when it comes to a guy like Cincere Johnson and while OU has not moved on from him, they realize it will be a huge uphill climb and they are not going to get locked out on other prospects by devoting a large chunk of energy that way…unless said energy in returned in kind. Do not get it twisted, Cincere is planning on officially visiting, but we will see how things develop as we head toward June 6th.
The guys at the top of the OG list: Braxton Lindsey (OU top 3), Jakore Smith OV 6/8, Beau Jandreau OV 6/20 are guys OU is still pushing for as new LB coach Nate Dreiling picked up and maintained communication where and when needed with those guys.
As for the post-Nagy offers, Adam Balogoun-Ali jumps out as he was a March offer, who is originally from nearby Moore, OK and grew up as a Sooner fan. Once the offer was made, OU immediately made his top schools group and he didn’t wait long to set up an official visit for early June (6th).
Akana, Marden, and Wenzel are all guys that picked up the most recent offers and I would expect OU to work on getting them in for officials, particularly if things start trending away with any of the other guys mentioned above.
Right now, I would say OU is in the best shape with Jandreau (who would come with his twin brother Niko – Hybrid S/LB) in regard to potential commitments, but Smith, Lindsey and even Balogoun-Ali are very much in play at this time.
