It was a bunch of "Who?" and head-scratching as the Oklahoma Sooners added wide receivers from the Transfer Portal to pair with quarterback John Mateer over this past offseason, but after just one week, it seems OU head coach Brent Venables and his staff dug up a handful of gems.
The Sooners will need Mateer's weapons to be at a peak level this week when No. 18 OU hosts the No. 15 Michigan Wolverines at 6:30 p.m. CT on Saturday at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. The game will be in the primetime slot on ABC.
The biggest game of the week drew ESPN College GameDay to OU's campus on Saturday morning, and Venables was a guest early on in the show, when he was asked by Desmond Howard about OU's group of wide receivers.
Brent Venables praised Oklahoma's WRs on ESPN College GameDay
"It's a bunch of misfits," Venables joked. "We're gonna surprise a lot of people. I really believe that.
"We've got great juice and energy. We've got length. We've got speed, explosiveness, guys that got great catch radius, guys that know how to get open, understand defense, love to compete and have been ultra consistent since January when we brought them in."
Those misfits played a major role in Mateer breaking Baker Mayfield's record for most passing yards in an OU debut with 392 against Illinois State last week. Keontez Lewis, who would belong on an island of misfits as much as Rudolph, got his Christmas Eve moment by leading the Sooners in receiving with nine catches for 119 yards and two long touchdowns in Week 1.
Oklahoma is Lewis' fourth and final stop as a redshirt senior. He never really did much before at the Power Four level after starting his college career at UCLA before transferring to Wisconsin. He then broke out last season at the FCS level for Southern Illinois.
Even OU's best receiver, Deion Burks, could be considered a misfit on Saturday night. Despite being from down the road in Inkster, Michigan, the Wolverines never offered Burks out of high school before he ultimately committed to play at Purdue, then transferred to OU last year.
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