Oklahoma football: Spring recruiting update on 2024 Sooner prospects
By Chip Rouse
As the first week of spring practice wraps up in advance of the 2023 season, the Sooners are still waiting for their first Oklahoma football commitment for the 2024 cycle.
When that first commitment comes, however, it likely will swing the door wide open. Head coach Brent Venables is a strong proponent, remember, of firm commitments not conditional ones. He wants the prospects who receive scholarship offers from Oklahoma to take all the visits to as many places they need so that a commitment made to OU is precisely what the term implies.
Venables and his staff aren’t idly standing by, however, waiting for the dominoes to start falling. They are out actively recruiting a number of highly ranked targets, several of which we’ve reported on previously.
Among those are five-star DL William Nawneri out of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City. Nawneri is rated by 247Sports as the nation’s No. 3 overall player in the 2024 class and the top-rated defensive lineman. The Sooners are also heavily recruiting David Stone, rated as the No. 2 defensive lineman and No. 7 overall, from Bradenton, Florida.
Bryant Wescoe is a highly recruited wide receiver from Midlothian, Texas. The 6-foot, 2-inch Wescoe is the No. 3 wide receiver in the 2024 class and the No. 9 player overall, according to 247 Sports
A couple more elite defensive players the Sooners are all in on for 2024 are No. 82 safety prospect Aaron Flowers. Flowers in rated No. 109 overall, and right behind him is DL Nigel Smith. The Sooners’ reportedly are in the lead for both of Flowers and Smith.
Oklahoma’s first verbal commitment for 2024 is likely to come from four-star QB prospect Michael Hawkins out of Frisco, Texas. Hawkins announced previously that he would publicly reveal his commitment on April 8.
And speaking of recruiting, Oklahoma is hosting a major recruiting event this weekend. The weekend is officially dubbed as “Future Freaks.” More than 60 recruiting prospects spanning multiple recruiting cycles (2024, 2025 and even 2026), will be visiting Norman. The biggest group is composed of 27 2025 recruiting prospects.
The 2023 Oklahoma recruiting class got off to a similar slow start but got rolling in a big way in June and July. That class ended up as the nation’s fourth best, according to both 247Sports and ESPN.
So be patient. It’s coming.