Oklahoma football: Five-star 2021 WR expected to announce today

The early signing period for 2021 kicks off next week, but Oklahoma football recruiting could get a big jump start ahead of time.

In a year full of surprises — mostly of the wrong kind — Lincoln Riley and the Sooners are hoping to pull off a huge one on the eve of what was supposed to be the regular-season finale between Oklahoma and West Virginia.

Emeka Egbuka, rated by both Rivals and 247Sports as the No. 1 wide receiver in the 2021 class, is expected to announce his commitment this Friday night  (7 p.m. CT). Previously, he had announced that his decision was down to three finalists: Ohio State, Oklahoma and Washington.

The 6-foot, 1-inch, 190-pound receiver hails from Steilacoom, Washington, about 50 miles south of Seattle, where the Washington campus is located. The Huskies, however, are not expected to be his first choice when he reveals his recruiting decision Friday night.

For over a year now, Egbuka has been believed to be headed to Ohio State. He made two recruiting visits to Columbus, Ohio, both before the coronavirus pandemic, but both visits were over a year ago, in 2019.

Here’s the intriguing part, however, if you’re a Sooners fan. Up until this week, Egbuka has been very quiet about when he would be declaring his commitment, and there has been no indication it would come anytime before early national signing day next week.

As many Oklahoma fans know, Caleb Williams, the Sooners’ top 2021 commitment and the No. 1 quarterback prospect nationally, has been working on a number of top national prospects trying to persuade them to join him at OU. One of those prospects Williams has been talking with fairly regularly is Egbuka, and last weekend Egbuka was one of several recruits Williams convinced to join him in Norman for the Oklahoma-Baylor game.

What’s interesting about that visit, which was an unofficial one because of COVID restrictions and done at personal expense, is it’s timing, coupled with the follow-up action to announce now and not next week or thereafter.

This is what Williams wrote in the weekly “All on the Line” blog he does for Sports Illustrated:

"“I spent time with Emeka, throwing probably for an hour. It was fun throwing with him. We had a connection in the sense of on the field and off. It was pretty easy to throw to him. Just understanding where the quarterback wants you — when that happens you generally get the ball way more than usual.“You don’t always find somebody and connect as if you feel you’ve known him forever,” Williams wrote “I feel like I’ve know him (Egbuka) forever, and I feel like I’ve been throwing with him forever, too.”"

The fact that the timing of Egbuka announcement is coming on the heels of the Oklahoma visit and the time he spent with Williams is why some experts believe he may surprise the college recruiting world and elect to join Williams and another Williams, Mario, rated as the second best receiver in the 2021 class and already committed to the Sooners, at Oklahoma.

Tonight, we’ll have the concluding scene — or, at least, the intent — to this building drama