Jim Nagy's fingerprints are all over Oklahoma's growing 'Bama Sooners' trend

Oklahoma went to Alabama last year and ended the longest active home winning streak in college football that belonged to the Crimson Tide, but that's not the only win the Sooners are stealing from Bama and even Auburn in their own backyard.

OU general manager Jim Nagy in just barely over a year has already built a steady pipeline from Alabama to Norman that has no signs of drying up. If anything, it will only flow deeper as it looks like the Sooners will soon have three recruiting classes in a row with at least one Alabama product if all goes according to plan.

The Sooners' top-5 2027 class has a pair of "Bama Sooners," as Nagy has coined, in four-star safety Jaylen Scott and four-star quarterback Jamison Roberts. The group at one point also included three-star wide receiver Tra'Von Hall, from Tuscaloosa, before he flipped to Ole Miss. The 2026 class had three-star linebacker Kristan Moore after Nagy got a late start to constructing that group. The 2028 class is also already predicted to add four-star wide receiver Dedrick Kimbrough from Alabaster with more offers on the table.

Read more: New recruiting prediction reveals Oklahoma isn't done raiding Alabama talent

"Just recruiting the other guys from the state, I want it to be a 'Bama Sooner' thing, like a tradition -- at least three or four guys that come out of Alabama go to Oklahoma," Scott recently said at Mobile County Media Days when asked about the growing pipeline to OU. "We all start that tradition up."

Jaylen Scott predicts this is only the start of Alabama-to-Oklahoma pipeline

As for who gets the credit for starting that possible 'Bama Sooner" tradition, or at least for getting Scott to leave Alabama for Norman? Nagy.

"I was committed to Auburn when Jim Nagy came down here to scoop me up and they've been recruiting me ever since," Scott said. "I actually felt like it was home since then."

Obviously Brent Venables and his staff also have to do their part to land recruits, but there's no doubt Nagy is the centerpiece in the Sooners tapping into this rather new field of talent. He's more familiar than anyone with the lay of the land after serving as executive director of the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, for seven years before getting hired by OU last February. Probably not coincidentally, Scott is from Mobile.

There have been endless benefits to the Sooners hiring Nagy, but his background and keen eye for talent collide to create this new "Bama Sooners" trend. Despite being in the Crimson Tide's own state, Oklahoma landed Scott and Roberts while both have went unoffered by Bama as Kalen DeBoer continues to whiff on in-state talent. They've both soared up recruiting rankings since, but by then, the Sooners already had them locked up. It was also the same situation with Moore in the 2026 class.

Read more: Jim Nagy has Oklahoma on its way to one of its best recruiting classes of the century

Nagy has taken full advantage of homegrown talent in Oklahoma while also tapping new pipelines to once again make the Sooners a force on the recruiting trail. There's no SEC school out west, so Nagy has given that opportunity to top recruits in California, Arizona and Utah. And if DeBoer wants to ignore the talent under his nose, then Nagy will also raid Alabama right in the heart of SEC country.

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