Oklahoma is off to an insane start in recruiting for 2019 – even better than 2018.
2019 verbal commitments
*Spencer Rattler, QB – 6-2, 190, 4.6 QB
Four stars. Rivals100, Under Armour Game selection. Pushing for a fifth star. Just needs a great camp circuit to lock down his status as the country’s No. 1 dual-threat quarterback.
*Austin Stogner, TE – 6-6, 225, 4.6
Rivals’ No. 1 tight end, Under Armour Game selection. Dominated the recent Under Armour camp and is battling to be the No. 1 tight end in the 2019 class.
*Isaiah Spiller, RB – 6-1, 190, 4.45
Four stars. One-cut running back with excellent speed and receiving skills. Dad is a Texas A&M alum, so expect a massive push by the Aggies.
*Trejan Bridges, WR – 6-1, 184, 4.4
Four stars. Very similar to Charleston Rambo. Could play really any spot on OU’s WR board.
*Jeffrey Carter, ATH – 6-0, 180, 4.4
Four stars. Could end up at safety or cornerback.
*Derek Green, DT – 6-5, 305, 5.1
Three stars. Underrated right now, but starting to garner a lot of attention and offers. Could have four-star status after summer evaluations.
The Rose Bowl loss to Georgia did nothing to hurt OU’s recruiting momentum. In fact, numerous 2019 kids were all over social media showing their support for OU.
OU basically has the 2018 class finished so expect a lot of 2019 activity during the rest of January. The only real negative right now in recruiting is that it appears to be a very weak year in Oklahoma after several really good years. The top in-state recruits are leaning to OSU due to family issues (defensive back Daxton Hill) or OU having already filled the position. (tight end Grayson Boomer).
Right now, I don’t project OU signing a single in-state player. Conversely, though, it’s a very good year in Dallas. That always helps OU versus the talent being located more in the Houston area.
The biggest change for the Sooners in recruiting is that starting in April OU prospects can take official visits thru June. OU previously needed to wait until game weekends starting in September.
When everyone decided on their college destinations in December and January, that process was fine. However, with the accelerated recruiting calendar, OU was losing out on kids because of decisions made before OU could get kids on campus in the fall. This was especially hurting OU’s efforts in California and attempts to establish pipelines in Florida and Georgia.
Now, OU can quickly determine their place with a number of national prospects by the process of scheduling official visits in the spring. Currently, at least 10 top-rated national kids are talking about taking spring official visits to Norman.
OU only has 56 official visits to use, so the balancing act of using critical and productive spring official visits will be key. In recent years, OU has never come anywhere near the total number because of all the early verbal commitments in spring/summer. Previously, OU might use 35 official visits to sign 23 kids.
If the Sooners use too many official visits in spring and don’t hit on enough kids, OU could find itself short of visits to use in the fall for home game weekends. That has been the most effective recruiting tool to date. In addition, each kid can only take one official visit to a school, so do you bring them in for spring or try and hold out until a big fall home game?
It will help OU quickly eliminate national kids who are not really interested in OU enough to use one of their five official visits. That elimination process alone will help OU work its big board of offers and targets. SEC schools are going to be crying foul because it’s going to allow Urban and Harbaugh to get kids to Columbus/Ann Arbor in May rather than in December/January. Also, it’s going to force Saban’s hands in terms of who he really wants earlier.
Overall, I think OU might be one of the top beneficiaries of this new process.
-Atlantasooner