Oklahoma football: Sooners moving up in 2023 recruiting rankings
By Chip Rouse
National Signing Day in college football recruiting for 2023 is next Wednesday (Feb. 1), and the Oklahoma football class for next season is getting more notice and higher ratings than it did just two months ago during the early signing period.
The Sooners’ 2023 class is virtually complete. The class is 25-strong, all are signed and 14 are already on campus and enrolled.
In the final days ahead of what for years was the official National Signing Day are sitting in the No. 4 position in the 2023 class rankings according to ESPN, No. 5 by 247Sports and have moved up to No. 6 in the Rivals class rankings.
The Sooners might add one and possibly two more players to the 2023 class by next Wednesday, but for all purposes the class is fully together. It’s a high probability, according to sources close to the program, that Oklahoma will add three-star athlete Taylor Heim to the 2023 class. Heim played linebacker in high school in Bethany, Oklahoma. He is holding a dozen offers but is still uncommitted.
With the Sooners’ 2023 class all but wrapped up and with more than half of the ’23 newcomers already enrolled, Brent Venables and his coaching staff are now actively focused on the 2024 and 2025 recruiting classes.
This weekend Oklahoma is hosting its first Junior Day of the new recruiting cycle, with a number of elite 2024 recruits who are finishing their junior year of high school expected to attend. Among those will be four-star quarterback recruit Michael Hawkins from the Frisco/McKinney, Texas area, who is high on OU’s target list for 2024.
The Sooners currently have no official commitments for 2024. It would not be surprising to see Hawkins as the first.