Oklahoma football: OU back to No. 1 in 2019 recruiting rankings
By Chip Rouse
Great players come and go, in and out of elite programs like Oklahoma football. Great recruiting is the lifeline to sustained success.
We think of college football as a fall sport, but the reality is the work and preparation that goes with continued success doesn’t end when the natural season does. Nowhere is that more true than in the area of recruiting, where there is seemingly never an offseason.
Second-year Sooner head coach Lincoln Riley and his staff have been super busy on the recruiting trail this offseason, even before securing the 2018 class, which Rivals had tied for eighth with Clemson.
Currently, Oklahoma, with 13 verbal commitments, sits atop the Rivals 2019 team recruiting rankings, just ahead of Alabama.
In the opening decade of the new millennium, Oklahoma, under head coach Bob Stoops, was a virtual regular in the top 10 of the annual recruiting rankings. Since 2010, however, the Sooners have brought in only three top-10 recruiting classes, including each of the last two years.
The last time Oklahoma had a top-five football recruiting class was in 2005, when Rivals ranked that class the third best in the nation. The 2005 Sooner recruiting class included offensive lineman Duke Robinson, linebacker Curtis Lofton, wide receivers Malcolm Kelly and Juaquin Iglesias, running back Allan Patrick and safety Nic Harris.
Of the 13 Oklahoma commitments for 2019, two are rated as five-star recruits and seven as four stars. The two five-star commitments — Theo Wease, from Allen, Texas (the same hometown of QB Kyler Murrary), and Arjei Henderson, from Richmond, Texas — are both wide receivers. Remember those names because they should fit nicely in Riley’s Air Raid offensive system.
Wease ranks third overall and Henderson sixth on the Rivals Top 100 list. The pair rank as the first and third best wide receivers, respectively, in the 2019 national class.
The Sooners gained three commitments for the 2019 class in the past week. Marcus Hicks, a defensive end from Wichita, Kansas, committed to OU on Friday. Rivals rates Hicks and the No. 1 player in the state of Kansas.
Earlier last week, OU received commitments from Joseph Wete, another defensive end, from Washington, D.C., and offensive lineman Marcus Alexander.
The position breakdown of the OU 2019 commits: Three defensive ends and three wide receivers, two offensive lineman, plus a quarterback, linebacker, defensive tackle, defensive back and tight end. Seven are offensive players and six are defensive players.
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