Oklahoma football numbers to know: WR Charleston Rambo, No. 14
By Chip Rouse
We knew he had the perfect name for the game he loved, and late last Oklahoma football season we got a good look at the upside potential Charleston Rambo possesses.
When Rambo signed on as a member of OU’s top-10 2017 recruiting class as a four-star WR prospect, the scouting evaluation on him was that he possessed outstanding ball skills and catches everything thrown at him. The general knock on the Dallas native was he lacked bulk and strength. He arrived at Oklahoma measuring 6-feet, 1-inch,166 pounds.
Although being labeled in spring practice in 2018 as a player to watch that fall, Rambo’s No. 14 jersey number was called on only sparingly.
He saw action in 12 of the Sooners’ 14 games a year ago, but only for brief periods of time. He saved his best impression for the very last, however, catching three passes for 74 yards in OU’s national semifinal loss to Alabama in the College Football Playoff, including a 49-yard touchdown.
Rambo’s breakout performance in the biggest game of the year for the Sooners most likely will earn him increased playing time this season, but he is certain to have plenty of competition from perhaps the deepest wide-receiver corps in college football, including a 2019 recruiting class that featured a trio of five-star prospects, two of three who were ranked in the top-three at their position nationally.
Rambo told reporters during training camp this month that everyone is sleeping on him and, given the opportunity, he plans to change all that this season.
With seven returning letterman at the position along with the nation’s best receiver recruiting class, Rambo clearly has his work cut out for him, but the momentum he carries over from what he showed on the field late last season certainly works in his favor.
Rambo has put on solid weight and gotten stronger in his two seasons in the Sooners’ program. He has been patient, learned from the other Sooner receivers and knows that the time has come for him to finally deliver on the promise the OU coaches saw in him when he was recruited.
The pressure on him to fulfill expectations is still going to be there, but Rambo is ready to meet the challenge with a full head of steam, much like the rugged action figure of movie fame that bears the same name.