Oklahoma football: Don’t be misled by Sooners’ signing day silence

With a 16-member 2021 recruiting class already locked and loaded for the next Oklahoma football season, some Sooner fans are wondering if there will be any additions on Wednesday.

Wednesday is late signing day in college football recruiting and once was the biggest event in the college football offseason.

What used to be National Signing Day and a big deal in college football recruiting is now just the later of two designated signing days for prospects to formalize their college commitments. What is now known as early signing day takes place in early December and is when the vast majority of commitments are finalized with the signing of a National Letter of Intent.

The December signing day is now when most of the big announcements take place and most all the recruiting classes take substantive form. There are a few players, however, who for whatever reason elect to defer their formal commitment until after the early signing period.

But for the most part, the February signing date has now been reduced to a non-event insofar as big recruiting headlines.

This is a long way of saying don’t expect any major news from Lincoln Riley and his staff on Wednesday regarding OU’s 2021 class. But don’t be misled by that, either. This may all be by design.

This has not been your ordinary Oklahoma football recruiting year

To begin with, this has been a difficult and unprecedented year in general. Recruiting was just one of the many areas in college athletics impacted by health and safety concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Prospects were unable to make campus visits and restricted from in-person contact with coaches.

By this time in a normal year, Oklahoma would typically have somewhere in the neighborhood of 22-25 players signed to its incoming recruiting class. This year, one day before late signing day, the Sooner class size stands at 16.

“We’re gonna have chances to sign more guys. We’re gonna have chances with the transfer portal and immediate eligibility and all that comes with that.” — Lincoln Riley on OU’s 2021 recruiting

In discussing the recruits who signed early in December, Riley said, “We’re gonna have chances to sign more guys (between now and February). We’re gonna have chances with the transfer portal and immediate eligibility and all that comes with that.”

There was another consideration that played into Riley’s recruiting thinking and decision to keep the 2021 numbers lower than normal in this highly abnormal year.

First of all, he didn’t want the recruiting restrictions in place because of the pandemic to become an excuse for bringing in players who were not good fits. Secondly, was the potential future problem relating to scholarship numbers.

Because of all the players have had to go through with the pandemic, the NCAA elected to grant the players a concession in the form of an extra year of eligibility. Sports columnist Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman newspaper provided this explanation of what that means:

"“Instead of having five years to play four seasons, anyone who played last season will have six years to play five.”"

With new players coming in and others taking advantage of the opportunity for an extra year of eligibility, plus allowing any player who opted out in 2020 to come back in 2021 without losing any eligibility, the NCAA is offering schools an extension of the number of scholarships allowed.

Instead of the normal scholarship limit of 85, the NCAA has raised number for next season to 110. But that only applies to the 2021 season. The limit reverts back to 85 the following year, which could become a messy situation for those teams that don’t plan ahead.

So while the 2021 Oklahoma recruiting class size appears to be the lowest its been in a decade, you also have to factor in the five players the Sooners have picked up over the last 30 days through the transfer portal. Three of the five are coming from one school, Tennessee.

Offensive lineman Wanya Morris, defensive back Key Lawrence and running back Eric Gray all are former five- or four-star recruits who had scholarship offers from the top SEC schools and all made game contributions to the Volunteer team in 2020. All three were top recruits and come to OU with major college experience. Morris and Gray have two years of eligibility remaining, and Lawrence, an incoming sophomore, has three years left.

Oklahoma also adds Penn State quarterback transfer Micah Bowens. Bowens comes to OU as a redshirt-freshman and former four-star dual-threat prospect out of Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, the same school that produced former Sooner star and now running backs coach DeMarco Murray.

The Sooners also have picked up former Arizona offensive line starter Robert Congel. Congel started his college career as a Texas A&M recruit before transferring to Arizona. He has two years of eligibility remaining.

Despite what happens on Wednesday, Sooner fans should be encouraged by the makeup of Oklahoma’s 21 new additions for next season. Factoring the 16 existing signees in the 2021 class and the five players who are transferring in, OU’s 2021 newcomers include four five-stars and aa four-stars. The offensive/defensive breakdown shows good balance: Nine players on offense, 11 on defense and one athlete.

In this particular Oklahoma recruiting year, less turns out to be more.