Oklahoma football: Sooners add former Texas A&M TE through portal

With just three days remaining in the 2023 transfer portal window, the Oklahoma football staff continues its push to fill in areas of need with quality picks from the portal, and on Monday the Sooners added former Texas A&M tight end Blake Smith.

Smith becomes the 12th player to commit to Oklahoma via the transfer portal this offseason and the 11th on scholarship. With Brayden Willis’ collegiate eligibility having expired with the 2022 season, as well as that of Daniel Parker, a former Missouri transfer, season, the additions of both Smith and former Sooner Austin Stogner, who is returning to OU after a transfer season at South Carolina, provides experience and depth for Oklahoma at the tight end position.

And Oklahoma may not be done in the portal for the coming season despite there being just under 72 more hours left to complete the required paperwork for the 2023 season. The transfer portal window closes after Wednesday.

At 6-foot, 4 inches and 255 pounds, Smith played very sparingly for the Aggies at Texas A&M, used primarily as a run-blocking tight end. He was a redshirt sophomore this past season and will have three years of eligibility remaining.

Smith played in seven games in the 2022 season and had two catches. He was a three-star recruit out of Southlake Carroll High School in Dallas in the Aggies 2020 class. Oklahoma tight ends coach Joe Jon Finley was an assistant at Texas A&M at that time. When he committed to A&M, he was rated as the No. 24 tight end in the class nationally, according to the 247Sports Composite.

Stogner will most likely be the starting tight end next season for the Sooners. That leaves Smith to battle with Jason Llewellyn and Kaden Helms, both freshman this past season, for playing time behind Stogner.