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Oklahoma football: OU wide-receiving corps deep, dazzling and dangerous

By Chip Rouse

PASADENA, CA - JANUARY 01: Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb #9 of the Oklahoma Sooners runs after a catch against the Georgia Bulldogs in the first half in the 2018 College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual at the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
PASADENA, CA - JANUARY 01: Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb #9 of the Oklahoma Sooners runs after a catch against the Georgia Bulldogs in the first half in the 2018 College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual at the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images) /
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There are plenty of spectacular, sure-handed wide receivers who will be toiling in the college ranks this season, but few teams are as deep and interchangeable at the position as Oklahoma football.

And that will be bad news and result in lots of heartburn for all of the defensive coordinators who have the Sooners on the schedule in 2019.

The Air Raid offense is lethal enough as a one-dimensional passing blitzkreig. All you need is a strong-armed quarterback who can find his receivers, get rid of the ball quickly and throw with accuracy and a coterie of receivers who can stretch the field, find the holes in the defense and catch the ball.

Oklahoma has all that and probably will continue to as long as Lincoln Riley is running the show.

But the Sooner version of the Air Raid is about much more than putting the ball in the air. OU employs a cadre of talented running backs who keep defenses honest by grinding out yards on the ground and doubling as receiving options out of the backfield.

Oklahoma led the nation in total offense last season and almost 60 percent of that (322 yards per game) was through the air.

Nineteen different Sooners caught passes last season and only four of those won’t be back this season. Unfortunately, one of those departures was Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, the Sooners top receiver a year ago. The First-Team All-American caught 75 passes for 1,318 yards and 10 touchdowns and averaged over 17 yards per catch.

Right behind Brown last season and back again in 2019 is Junior CeeDee Lamb, who led the team in TD catches with 11 and averaged 17.8 yards on 65 receptions.

Oklahoma was well-stocked in the receiving department with what it had returning, but Riley and his coaching staff are never satisfied with the status quo, always looking to get better. That is reflected in spades in the makeup of the Sooners’ 2019 recruiting class.

Four of OU’s top five incoming recruits this season, all four- and five-star prospects, are highly-recruited receivers. And the fifth player in that mix is the country’s top-rated dual-threat  quarterback, Spencer Rattler. Rattler will back up Alabama graduate Transfer Jalen Hurts this season, but the four receivers are all expected to see plenty of action this fall.

One of those highly touted freshman receivers is Jadon Hasselwood, rated as the country’s No. 1 receiver prospect and the No, 4 player overall by Rivals.com, was originally verbally committed to Georgia but changed his mind and signed with Oklahoma instead. Listed at 6-feet, 2 inches and 206 pounds, the Sooners are expecting big things from this high school All-American.

Theo Wease and Trejan Bridges are both five-star, wide-receiver prospects out of Texas, and some think Austin Stogner, a highly-touted tight end, also from Texas, may have the biggest impact of the four newcomer receivers. All four were already on campus this spring and working out with the team.

There is no shortage of playmakers among the Oklahoma receivers — let’s amend that, among those Sooner offensive players tasked with catching and advancing the ball —  and it appears it is going to remain that way for a least a few more years.

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