Oklahoma football 2018 recruiting picking up steam
By Chip Rouse
It has been a while since we last checked on the 2018 Oklahoma football recruiting effort. For fans that haven’t been following the Sooners’ progress on the 2018 recruiting trail, activity has been picking up and the latest developments are very positive.
Oklahoma has been moving upward in the recruiting team rankings, which is a strong signal that the retirement of head coach Bob Stoops is not having the negative effect on recruiting that some Sooner fans feared. There have been no decommitments since Stoops announced his retirement, and three new prospects have been added to the commitment list since that time.
Rivals.com currently has the Sooners at No. 13 in the national recruiting battle with 11 commits so far. That is up from the low 20s several weeks ago. Of OU’s 11 2018 commitments, six are rated as four-star recruits (out of five possible) and five are three-stars.
New head coach Lincoln Riley fully recognizes the critical importance of recruiting and how integral the process is as the lifeblood to sustained success on the football field.
In a recent interview with Oklahoma assistant athletic director and director of strategic communications Mike Houck, Riley spoke about recruiting:
"“It’s always been important to me, and I’ve always enjoyed it,” Riley said. “It’s honestly more fun when you’ve got an incredible product to sell and you’ve got a great place to show these kids. It will be a big part of what we do every day here.“We have an interesting recruiting model, because Oklahoma is a national brand,” the new OU head coach continued. “We get recruiting interest from players in just about every state in the country. We know we’re a national brand, and you’ve seen over the last few years we’ve signed kids from the East Coast and have always had a strong presence on the West Coast.“So if great players and great people and great students have an interest but are a little farther away, we’re willing to go after them if they’re the right ones.”"
A breakdown of the 11 verbal commitments Riley and his coaching staff have so far includes five offensive players and six who play defense. The offensive players include two running backs, a quarterback and two offensive linemen. On defense OU has commitments so far from four defensive backs, a defensive end and a defensive tackle.
The Sooners’ most recent commitment is from a 6-foot, 2-inch, 227-pound running back from Dayton, Ohio (Tavion Thomas). Sounds a little bit like a bigger Samaje Perine, if you can believe that. And watching his high school highlight film, he has the speed and runs over people like Perine did in his OU career. Thomas was also being recruited by Alabama and Arkansas, which speaks to his talent level and running-back ability
Within the last week to 10 days, Oklahoma also has received a commitment from a four-star, 6-foot, 6-inch, 330-pound offensive lineman out of Independence (Kan.) Community College (Tramonda Moore).
And here’s more good news from the Oklahoma recruiting front. The Sooners were successful in getting a former Texas commit to flip and turn his allegiance to OU. Ron Tatum, a 6-foot, 5-inch, 269-pound defensive end from Oklahoma City, had originally committed to the Longhorns, but changed his mind a couple of weeks ago, deciding to stay closer to home and become an Oklahoma Sooner.
So the needle continues to move toward the bright side as far as 2018 OU football recruiting with five months to go before the early signing period commences.
Oklahoma finished in the top 10 in national recruiting in 2017, Stoops’ final season at Oklahoma. The last time the Sooners brought in a top-10 recruiting class before then was in 2010.