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Oklahoma football: Sooners have sights on 2023 in-state TE prospect

By Chip Rouse

NORMAN, OK - APRIL 24: The Oklahoma Sooners run onto the field for their spring game at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on April 24, 2021 in Norman, Oklahoma. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images)
NORMAN, OK - APRIL 24: The Oklahoma Sooners run onto the field for their spring game at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on April 24, 2021 in Norman, Oklahoma. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images) /
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Oklahoma football went outside of the Sooner State to gain the 2023 commitment of four-star tight end Kaden Helms.

Now OU has its eyes on the No. 1 2023 tight-end prospect in Oklahoma, Luke Hasz. But the Sooners are going to have to get in line. Hasz, rated a four-star prospect out of Bixby, a town a half-hour south of Tulsa, has eight major schools he is considering, including the Sooners.

The 6-foot, four-inch, 220-pound Hasz pulled down 32 receptions for 703 yards and nine touchdowns as a high school sophomore last fall. His receptions weren’t of the dink-and-dump variety, either. He averaged over 20 yards per catch.

In addition to Oklahoma, Hasz is strongly considering offers from seven other major college programs: The other seven are Ohio State, LSU, Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma State and TCU.

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The Sooners are hoping that landing the commitment from Malachi Nelson, the No. 2 QB in the 2023 class, this past weekend, along with running back/athlete Treyaun Webb, might be the tipping point that gets Hasz to stay home and pick Oklahoma. The 247Sports recruiting tracker likes the Sooners’ chances of landing Hasz.

Several years back, Oklahoma football recruiting let local tight-end prospect Charlie Kolar slip away.

Kolar, who is from Norman and played high school football at Norman North, is now an All-Big 12 First Team tight end at Iowa State. The 6-foot, 6-inch tight end had a couple of big performances last season against the Sooners.

He caught four passes for 66 yards in Iowa State’s 37-30 home win over the Sooners and hauled in six passes, including a touchdown catch, in OU’s 27-21 win over the Cyclones on the Big 12 championship game.

A three-star prospect in the 2018 class and ranked as a top-50 tight end prospect nationally, Kolar barely got a look from the Sooners. That could have been because Mark Andrews was in his junior season at Oklahoma in 2017, and freshman Grant Calcaterra was waiting in the wings.

And the year Kolar signed on with Iowa State, Oklahoma signed four-star, tight-end prospect Austin Stogner.

In retrospect, Oklahoma probably regrets it didn’t recruit Kolar harder. Andrews left for the NFL after his junior year in 2017, and Calcaterra announced late in his junior season that he was retiring because of concussion issues (he reconsidered that decision this offseason and elected to transfer to SMU).

Stogner was having a strong 2020 season before he was injured with two game to go in the regular season. He missed those final two regular-season contests and all of the postseason, but he expected back healthy, and ready to go to for his junior year this season.

With the tight end being an important position in Oklahoma’s Air Raid offense, it appears the Sooners want to make sure they have talent and depth there, looking out the next three to four years.

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