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Oklahoma football: Transfers + 2023 recruiting = an elite newcomer class for Sooners

By Chip Rouse

Oklahoma coach Brent Venables l;ocks arms with players before a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the UTEP Miners at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022.Ou Vs Utep
Oklahoma coach Brent Venables l;ocks arms with players before a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the UTEP Miners at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022.Ou Vs Utep /
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What do you get when you combine the Oklahoma football 2023 recruiting class with the transfers the Sooners are adding to the roster for next season?

Answer: One of the top-two newcomer classes in college football. That’s a very positive sign if you’re a fan of Brent Venables and looking for a major Oklahoma turnaround in the coming season.

It’s been well documented that OU’s 2023 recruiting class is one of the very best in the country, at least on paper, which is the only way to evaluate the incoming college prospects at this stage of their career.

The Sooners are one of just two teams among the top-10 2023 recruiting classes that had a losing record overall this past season. Miami (5-7) is the other.

In this day and age of college football, however, to get a real feel for the quality of the newcomers to the roster for any given season you have to also factor players brought in by way of the pervasive transfer portal.

In addition to a 26-member recruiting class that both ESPN and 247Sports ranked as fourth-best nationally this recruiting cycle, the Sooners have signed 12 transfers, the most notable of which is Dasan McCullough, an elite, former four-star linebacker prospect who played his freshman season at Indiana and is one of several incoming OU transfers considered impact players on defense.

The Oklahoma transfer roster additions for 2023 also grade out as a top-10 class, according to 247Sports.

The encouraging thing for Sooner fans is the emphasis that has been placed on elite defensive talent. Sixteen of the 26 scholarship players in the 2023 class are defense players, and six of the 12 transfers are on the defensive side of the ball. That’s 22 new defensive players — and some very good ones at that — that Venables is bringing in to begin the 2023 season.

Brett Gibbons, who writes for FanNation.com, a sports website affiliated with Sports Illustrated, has combined the recruiting class rankings and transfer rankings for the top teams in the country, based on the 247Sports Composite rankings for both, and come up with a combined “newcomer” class ranking for the top 10 teams.

Oklahoma comes in No. 2 behind LSU. Georgia is No. 3 followed by Miami and USC. See the full list by clicking here.

"“In Brent Venables’ second season with Oklahoma, he signed the fourth-ranked recruiting class and the first top-five class for the Sooners since 2010,” Gibbons writes..”After a disastrous year on defense — particularly on the defensive line — Oklahoma hit the portal hard to improve, signing three four-star defensive linemen and four-star pass rusher Dasan McCullough from Indiana.”"

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