Oklahoma football: Newcomers could have big impact on Sooners’ season

The 2021 Oklahoma football roster includes 24 new scholarship players who weren’t there a year ago.

This is not an unusual number of newcomers because many  incoming recruiting classes are of that size, and some even larger. What stands out about this year’s Oklahoma roster additions is that eight of the new faces are players who have transferred into the program from other Power Five programs.

Transfers are nothing new to college football or to Oklahoma. The Sooners have added at least one new player through the transfer portal nearly every season over the past 10 years. A number of the incoming Sooner transfers have been graduate transfers. Under NCAA rules, a player who has obtained his degree is allowed to transfer and play immediately so long as he has eligibility remaining.

The Sooners’ eight new 2021 additions through the transfer portal is one of the most, if not the most, in college football for the coming season. And several of those new transfers are expected to make important contributions for Oklahoma in the 2021 season.

Of those eight transfers on the 2021 Oklahoma roster, six are offensive players and four of those are at skill positions. One is a defensive back, and one is a kicker on special teams.

Up until this past year, players who elected to transfer without graduating were forced to sit out a year before becoming eligible to play for their new school.

Earlier this year, however, the NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, amended its transfer rules and now allows both graduates and non-graduates to change schools, on a one-time basis, and play immediately. Because of this new ruling and the one-time waiver granting student athletes an extra year of eligibility because of all the disruptions and cancellations created by the 2020 pandemic year, the transfer portal exploded this offseason.

It has been reported that over 2,000 college student athletes have put their names in the NCAA transfer portal since 2018, with the vast majority of those occurring over the past 12 to 18 months.

ESPN recently came out with a “Top-50 Newcomers” list of the transfers, recruits and new starters who will have the most impact in the 2021 season. Five Oklahoma players are listed (three transfers, one new starter and one incoming recruit).

What’s noteworthy about this is three Sooners are ranked in the top 10 and four in the top 15.

Junior running back Kennedy Brooks, who returns in 2021 after opting out last season because of COVID concerns, is ranked No. 4. Brooks rushed for over 1,000 yards in each of his first two seasons at OU.

Sooner running back Eric Gray is ranked right behind Brooks, at No. 5, and will team with Brooks in the Oklahoma backfield this season. Offensive lineman Wanya Morris is No. 7 and defensive back  Key Lawrence is No. 13. All three are transfers from Tennessee.

OU true freshman Mario Williams, rated as the No, 2 wide receiver in the 2021 class and No. 15 overall, is the lone Sooner recruit to make the ESPN ranking. He is ranked No. 46.

A couple of other transfers who could be offensive contributors for the Sooners this season are wide receiver Mike Woods, an Arkansas transfer, and Tre Bradford, a running back from LSU.

Among the incoming freshman to keep an eye on are quarterback Caleb Williams, like OU QB starter Spencer Rattler the No. 1 overall quarterback in his class, wide receiver Jalil Farooq and defensive back Latrell McCutchin.