Elijah Thomas is Oklahoma's most exciting addition from 2025 signing class

Elijah Thomas will most likely play wide receiver for Oklahoma, but he still has a group text with Brent Venables and safeties coach Brandon Hall.

Thomas was OU's first commitment from the 2025 class in July 2023 and finally signed with the Sooners on Wednesday morning when the early signing period started. He's a consensus four-star receiver from Checotah, Oklahoma, and one of only two receiver signees that OU added along with Emmanuel Choice.

"He's just one of the lowest, most low-maintenance players that I've ever been a part of recruiting," Venables said during his signing day press conference. "He was our first commitment in July of '23. Everybody in the country, when they found out about Elijah, came after him, and he had no interest whatsoever. He's truly Sooner born, Sooner bred, and appreciate his loyalty."

At Checotah, though, Thomas did it all for the Wildcats. Thomas played both sides of the ball for Checotah, primarily as receiver and safety, and was the best player on the field at every position because of his athleticism.

He's good enough to do the same at the college level, which Venables agrees with, and Colorado's Travis Hunter proved that's possible. Even the Sooners asked cornerback Jacobe Johnson to play some receiver this season while the team was plagued with injuries.

"Elijah can do a lot," Venables said. "He can play on either side of the ball. He sends Coach Hall and I, we got a little two-man, a three-man group text, rather, and he sends us his weekly defensive highlights as a safety, as a tackling and intercepting."

Thomas not only played his usual receiver and safety spots, but Checotah would also line him up as a wildcat quarterback, running back, cornerback, linebacker, edge rusher and return man during a single game. Offensively, he scored from all of those positions at least once this season.

As a receiver, Thomas pulled in 72 catches for 1,803 yards and 26 touchdowns in 13 games this season, according to MaxPreps. He also rushed for 406 yards, averaging 6.4 a carry, and 10 scores.

Defensively, Thomas tallied 82 tackles, 48 of which were solo, eight tackles for loss and four interceptions.

I don't like making comparisons often, but I've said multiple times that Thomas reminds me of CeeDee Lamb when he's on the field. Lamb also played defensive back and returned kicks in high school, albeit against much stiffer competition in Texas compared to Class 3A in Oklahoma.

Thomas and Lamb, when in high school, showed off similar abilities, even as a defensive back, that attributed to Lamb emerging as one of the best wide receivers in the NFL.

What Thomas does as a defensive back will help him regardless if he plays only receiver at OU, but it's even more exciting to think about him playing both, especially after watching Hunter do it this season. And that really isn't as farfetched as it seems at first considering Venables acknowledged Thomas' ability as a safety, and so has Hall, and the Sooners just this season had a guy play both ways during a dire situation.

There's not a player from this class, or maybe even on OU's roster, with as high of ceiling and as many possibilities as Thomas.

Read more about OU's signing day:

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