Oklahoma football: Projections mounting for OU 2025 elite safety prospect

Before Brent Venables arrived back in Norman as the Oklahoma football coach, it had been nearly forever since the Sooners had landed a five-star defensive player in their recruiting efforts.

The result of that became patently apparent throughout the 2010s and especially during Lincoln Riley's time at Oklahoma. Defense became an afterthought to a program that was more focused on outscoring everybody.

Make no mistake, Venables was brought in to change that mindset and return the Sooners to the championship-level defensive performance that OU enjoyed in the 1970s under Barry Switzer and the early 2000s under Bob Stoops -- not coincidentally with Venables on staff.

In each of the last two recruiting cycles, Oklahoma's defensive haul has been among the best in the country. And that couldn't come soon enough with the Sooners about to become part of the always defensive tough SEC.

Oklahoma has landed a five-star defender in both the 2023 and 2024 recruiting classes. In fact, the Sooners signed a pair of five-star-rated defensive players in the 2023 class (safety Peyton Bowen and edge rusher P.J. Adebawore). In the just completed 2024 recruiting cycle, OU beat out a number of major programs that were hot on the tail of five-star defensive lineman David Stone, ranked as the No. 2 player at his position nationally by 247Sports.

If the predictions of multiple recruiting analysts are correct, the Sooners are in excellent position to make it three years in a row with a five-star defensive commitment. Six different projections have come in favoring Oklahoma to land elite safety recruit Jonah Williams. The latest is from Rivals Texas Longhorn Insider Geoff Ketchum. Others include Steve Wiltfong and Mike Roach of 247Sports, Sam Spiegelman and Justin Wells of On3 and Texas Aggies Insider Landyn Rosow of Rivals.

If Oklahoma is successful in gaining Williams' commitment and signature, he would be the second five-star safety to become part of the OU roster in the past two seasons and the fourth five-star recruit in the last three recruiting cycles.

There are no reports on when Williams might announce a commitment to Oklahoma, but it is something that Sooner fans will be closely following.

Oklahoma has also recently made the top-schools list for at least five more 2025 top targets, according to a report by Randall Sweet of FanNation's All Sooners website, affiliated with Sports Illustrated

The Sooners currently rank 6th in the 2025 class rankings published by Rivals and 247Sports with 10 commitments.