Oklahoma Football: Sooners Gain Commitment From Highly Touted Slot Receiver
By Chip Rouse
Dede Westbrook’s breakout 2016 receiving and returning season has both good and bad news associated with it for Oklahoma football.
Sorry if this may disappoint, but no, we are not speaking of the news bomb over the past weekend related to bad personal choices made in Westbrook’s past. Our reference in the lead paragraph above has to do with looking forward, not backward.
It is unfortunate that the Sooners only had Westbrook’s services for two seasons and that he really didn’t come into his own and display the breakneck speed and sure hands that he possesses until the last of his two short seasons in an Oklahoma uniform.
Westbrook’s remarkable stats this season have pushed him to the top of the charts among the very best receivers in the college game and earned him big-time national attention in the form of being a Heisman Trophy finalist as well as the recipient of the Biletnikoff Award, which goes to college football’s most outstanding receiver. He also was named to the Associated Press All-America First Team.
That, of course, is the good news. The bad news is fairly obvious: He is gone after this season, on to bigger pursuits and challenges in the National Football League.
On Monday, however, the Sooners took a major step toward filling the enormous gap created in the receiving corps by the departure the past two seasons of Westbrook and Sterling Shepard before him, two of the most dynamic receivers all-time to play football at Oklahoma.
Adding to the momentum of a potential top-10 recruiting class for 2017, which would be Bob Stoops’ first at Oklahoma in the past seven years, Oklahoma gained a verbal commitment from highly touted junior-college wide receiver Marquise Brown.
Brown, who hails from South Florida and played the past two seasons for College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, Calif., is rated as No. 13 overall in the ESPN JC 50 and the No. 3 wide receiver available in the 2017 recruiting class.
This past season at College of Canyons, Brown recorded 50 catches for 754 yards and 10 receiving touchdowns.
Brown become the 22nd commitment to OU 2017 recruiting class and is one of 17 four-star prospects and three wide receivers who are members of the incoming Sooner class for next season. He joins fellow wide-receiver recruits Charleston Rambo and Cedarian Lamb, who earlier gave their verbal commitment to play football at Oklahoma.
ESPN staff writer Gerry Hamilton wrote the following about Brown in a blog published on Tuesday:
"“With the departure of Heisman Trophy finalist Dede Westbrook (along with Jarvis Baxter and Geno Lewis), Oklahoma is not only in need of an influx of talent, but also impact playmakers at wide receiver. Brown is just that and is set to be in Norman in January and available for spring practice, setting the tables to make his impact an instant one next season.”"
The recruiting book on Brown, according to Hamilton, is that the 5-foot, 11-inch receiver is “explosive in space after the catch, runs good routes and has the ability to separate from defenders. He is elusive to bring down and has the skills to make quick cuts and accelerate away from would-be tacklers.”
The 2017 Oklahoma recruiting class is currently ranked the third best by ESPN Recruiting Nation.