Oklahoma football: WR Trevon West is an underrated offensive weapon
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma football wide receiver Trevon West has already doubled his game participation and contribution from a year ago.
That, in itself, isn’t the real story here, though. Eight months ago West wasn’t even on the Sooners’ 2021 roster.
A little more than a month after his freshman season at OU, West notified Lincoln Riley that he was entering the transfer portal. West was one of a host of Sooners, including QB Tanner Mordecai, RB T.J. Pledger, WR Charleston Rambo and DB Brendan Radley-Hiles, who entered the transfer portal after the 2020 pandemic-altered season.
West played in four games for OU his freshman season and caught four passes for a total of 59 yards. The problem was the Sooners’ wide-receiver group was the deepest position group. Fourteen different Oklahoma receivers caught at least four passes.
Riley and the OU coaching staff liked what they saw in West last season in practice and in his limited playing time, but when he entered the transfer portal the belief was that the soon-to-be sophomore wide receiver might be looking for greater opportunity with another program.
"“We knew he (West) had a chance to be a really good player, and we felt that he fit in here,” Riley said during his weekly press conference the week of the Texas Tech game.“We really loved having him around, so it was kind of a shock to us when he left.”"
A couple of months went by and there had been no news that West had signed on with another school. Then one afternoon in late spring Riley received a phone call from the former Sooner wide receiver informing OU head coach that he had had a change of heart and would like to return to Oklahoma.
“We were happy to get the phone call,” Riley said, but we told him he would have to work his way back. When he returned to the program, West was placed at the bottom of the depth chart, and he has worked hard and managed to work his way back up, which has earned him playing time in all nine of the Sooners’ games this season.
He had a 35-yard reception in Oklahoma’s 21-point win over TCU a couple of weeks ago and followed that up with a display of speed on a 66-yard run off of a reverse that set the Sooners up inside the 10-yard line for their first score in the comeback win over Kansas.
It may not be a coincidence that since Caleb Williams replaced Spencer Rattler at quarterback for the Sooners that West has started seeing more playing time. What is it they say? A rising tide lifts all boats.
“He’s a great kid,” Riley said of West. “His teammates love him. Seeing him make the big play (against Kansas), our sideline erupted.
“The guys have (a lot of) respect for him because it’s not easy to come back. A lot of guys, when they leave, they would never do that.”
Now West is starting to earn that same respect from Oklahoma’s opponents, And that’s the best part of the story.