Oklahoma football: Sooners rolling out red recruiting carpet this weekend

Oklahoma football recruiting is a year-long exercise, but this weekend in one of the high points of the cycle.

Friday through Sunday this week, Lincoln Riley and his coaching staff are hosting the fifth annual ChampU BBQ. More than 20 top 2022 recruiting targets that the Sooners are pursuing, as well as several of the 2022 recruits who are already committed to OU, are expected to be in attendance for the three-day event.

With the possible exception of the OU-Texas recruiting weekend, this is the premier Oklahoma recruiting event of the year, and this year it takes on added importance because in-person contact with coaches and official campus visits have been on hold for over a year because of COVID-19 health and safety protocols.

With the nationwide restrictions lifted and so-called dead period ended beginning June 1, this month has been especially busy time in college football recruiting, especially at major programs like Oklahoma.

The CampU BBQ was preceded last weekend by the annual OU Elite Camp at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Several high school prospects from across the country — and even one from across the Atlantic — and others from the state of Oklahoma and Texas made their way to Norman to showcase their talent last Saturday in front of the Oklahoma coaches.

Among the notable prospects attending the one-day camp was five-star cornerback Gentry Williams out of Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, considered the top prospect in the state of Oklahoma. Williams is a prime target for the Sooners, but he is also high on the radar of other major programs.

The Oklahoma coaches did extend several scholarship offers to prospects attending the camp, including 6-foot, 6-inch tight end Theodor Merlin Ohrstrom from Sweden. and an offer to 2023 offensive tackle prospect Lucas Simmons, an OU football legacy. His father, Abel Simmons, played for John Blake in the late 1990s.

Notable among the top prospects on the invite list for this weekend’s ChampU BBQ festivities are a number of highly recruited defensive players.

These include edge rusher Kenyatta Jackson from Hollywood, Florida. The Sooners are in heavy company for a commitment from Jackson, who is also being recruited heavily by the likes of Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Florida, among others. Las Vegas safety prospect Zion Branch is expected to attend the ChampU BBQ, and he will be joined by his Bishop Gorman High School teammate, offensive tackle Jake Taylor. Bishop Gorman was the high school of former Sooner star and now running backs coach DeMarco Murray.

Also in attendance over the BBQ weekend will be Myles Pollard, a cornerback at Ravenwood High School in Brentwood, Tennessee, who was a teammate of current OU defensive end Reggie Grimes. Pollard is rated by the 247Sports Composite as the No, 39-ranked CB for 2022.

Perhaps the highest-rated prospect who will be a participant this weekend is an offensive player. Four-star running back Gavin Sawchuck, out of Valor Christian High School in Littleton, Colorado, is a a prime target for the Sooners, but he has offers from a number of Power Five schools, including Oklahoma.

OU already has a commitment from four-star RB Raleek Brown from Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California. The Sooners did not, however, sign a RB it their 2021 class, so are in need of building up depth at the position for the future.

Sawchuck in the No. 2 running back in the 2022 class, according to the 247Sports Composite, and Brown is ranked as No. 4.

There is a barbeque, as the name suggests, but that is just a part of the activities the participating recruits will engage in over the weekend. The weekend is structured to give the recruits some attention and have some fun that isn’t all football focused. It also allows them to get to know the Sooner coaches better as people and start to build or strengthen an existing relationship.

This is the fifth year the ChampU BBQ has been held (it wasn’t held last year because of the pandemic). Some of the players Oklahoma has signed from past BBQ weekends include LB Kenneth Murray, a first-round NFL pick by the Los Angeles Chargers in 2020, as well as Jalen Redmond and Clayton Smith on the current OU roster.

So there’s a good chance one or more of the recruits who visit the OU campus this weekend will end up suiting up for Oklahoma come the 2022 season.