How did 2024 OU football recruiting class do in top-150 national player rankings?

In a couple of weeks, the 2024 recruiting classes for OU football and every other FBS-level team will be locked and loaded for the coming season. How well did Brent Venables and his staff do in the 2024 recruiting cycle?

We examined how many Sooner recruits are among the top 150 2024 prospects as judged by three prominent national recruiting services: Rivals, 247Sports and ESPN. The results may surprise you.

Nine members of Oklahoma's 2024 recruiting class were ranked in the top 150 by at least one of the three national services, but just four Sooner prospects ranked in all three.

OU defensive line recruit David Stone, who according to Rivals this week ascended to the top position among defensive linemen in the 2024 class nationally, is the highest ranked OU player. Stone placed No. 5 in the Rivals top 150, 4th in the ESPN top 150 and 7th, according to 247Sports.

The Sooners had two 2024 recruits rank in the top 50 (Stone and RB Taylor Tatum) and three rank in the top 100 (Stone, Tatum and WR Zion Kearney).

Seven different commits in OU's 2024 class rank in the top 150, according to 247Sports. Four rank in the top 150 by Rivals, and ESPN has six members of the OU 2024 class in its top-150 ranking.

How does that compare to some of the top teams in the country and the Southeastern Conference that the Sooners will be competing against beginning next season?

Georgia, perhaps not surprisingly, leads all teams as many as 15 recruits from its 2024 class among the top 150 recruits nationally. The Sooners have half that many.

Using the top-150 player rankings from both 247Sports and Rivals as a base reference, we looked at several of the SEC teams that are on Oklahoma's 2024 schedule as a comparison of the perceived top talent in their respective incoming recruiting classes. Red River rival Texas, for example, has eight incoming recruits in the 247Sports top 150, six in the top 100 and five in the top 50. Looking at that same ascending breakdown, according to Rivals, Texas has seven in the top 150, six in the top 100 and four in the top 50.

What's truly interesting as you examine how the different recruiting services, is how varied and across the board the various individual rankings are, especially as you get deeper down the list.

Here is how Oklahoma's 2024 recruiting class compares to other major programs (numbering sequence represents, from left to right, top 150 players/top 100 players/top 50 players).

247Sports Rivals

Oklahoma Sooners 6/3/2 6/3/2

Georgia Bulldogs 15/9/6 14/8/5

Alabama Crimson Tide 9/8/3 9/6/4

Ohio State Buckeyes 8/5/5 8/6/4

LSU Tigers 6/4/2 4/4/2

Tennessee Volunteers 5/2/2 5/5/3

Oregon Ducks 8/6/3 8/7/1

How Oklahoma's top 2024 recruits rank nationally overall

247Sports Rivals ESPN

DL David Stone 7 5 4

RB Taylor Tatum 36 51 41

WR Zion Kearney 74 139 83

TE Davon Mitchell 108 214 56

DL Nigel Smith 114 104 96

Edge Danny Okoye 141 164 171

OL Eddy Pierre-Louis 256 33 NR

S Jayden Hardy 195 185 150

OL Eugene Brooks NR 133 NR