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Oklahoma Football: Regular Season Segues to December Recruiting

By Chip Rouse

Dec 3, 2016; Norman, OK, USA; The Oklahoma Sooners celebrate winning the Big 12 Conference Championship after defeating the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 3, 2016; Norman, OK, USA; The Oklahoma Sooners celebrate winning the Big 12 Conference Championship after defeating the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports /
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It virtually transitions overnight. The regular season ends on a December Saturday and quickly becomes December recruiting season for Oklahoma football and everyone else in the college game.

Dec 31, 2015; Miami Gardens, FL, USA;Clemson Tigers and Oklahoma Sooners line up in the first quarter of the 2015 CFP Semifinal at the Orange Bowl at Sun Life Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 31, 2015; Miami Gardens, FL, USA;Clemson Tigers and Oklahoma Sooners line up in the first quarter of the 2015 CFP Semifinal at the Orange Bowl at Sun Life Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /

With three weeks and a Christmas holiday before their postseason bowl game in the Sugar Bowl against Auburn, Bob Stoops and his coaching staff are hard at it multi-tasking between postseason recruiting and preparation for their bowl opponent.

Oklahoma has not had a top-10 recruiting class since 2010, despite winning three Big 12 championships, making the College Football Playoff in its second year and playing in another New Year Six postseason bowl game over that time frame.

According to ESPN Recruiting Nation, the Sooners enter the critical home stretch of the college football recruiting calendar with the fifth-ranked class in the land for 2017, behind only the usual suspects: Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia and LSU.

Rivals values the Oklahoma 2017 class even higher, currently No. 3.

Sixteen of OU’s 22 verbal commitments for 2017 are rated as four-star prospects. Of the 21 current commits to the Sooner class of 2017, 10 are on the offensive side, nine on defense, two athletes and one on special teams.

By position , the current Oklahoma 2017 commitments include one quarterback, four linebackers, three defensive backs and three offensive linemen, two each defensive ends, two running backs and two athletes, and 1 wide receiver, 1 tight end and 1 kicker.

For the Bedlam game with Oklahoma State and Senior Day, the Sooners hosted several of their biggest remaining recruiting targets for 2017. Included among this group was Marquise Brown, a highly touted wide receiver from Santa Clarita, Calif.

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Brown, who comes out of the junior-college ranks, was very high on the target list for Southern California and West Virginia, but he apparently liked his visit to OU so well that he committed to the Sooners on Monday.

With Dede Westbrook currently in his senior season and Penn State transfer Geno Lewis also departing after this season, Oklahoma will have an immediate need for future talented prospects at the wide-receiver position.

It will not be surprising to see Brown and several others from the Sooners talented 2017 class on the field next season.

National Signing Day for 2017 college football recruits is Wednesday, February 1.

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