The Oklahoma football program only signed three transfers in the spring portal window, and one of those took a step back this week and flipped to OU's chief rival, Texas.
The spring portal window is only half the picture, though. The Sooners added 13 transfers during the winter transfer window, and when you factor the bigger picture, Oklahoma is one of the major programs that may have benefited the most in the 2024 transfer cycle.
That is the judgement, anyway, of Jaron Spor of Athlon Sports. And I have to say -- although my opinion is obviously biased, I think he is on to something.
The Sooners lost heavily on the offensive line after last season, lesser so on the defensive side of the ball, but head coach Brent Venables and his staff hit the portal hard to add experience and depth in the areas of greatest need. For example, the Sooners are bringing in five transfers on the offensive line along with four offensive lineman among OU's 2024 freshman recruits.
The transfer portal additions ahead of the 2023 college season along with a top-10 2023 recruiting class were contributing factors in Oklahoma's ability to improve from six wins in 2022 to 10 in 2023.
Here is what Spor had to say about Oklahoma 2024 transfer class:
"When you get arguable the best defensive tackle (Damonic Williams from TCU) and wide receiver (Deion Burks from Purdue) in one class, it's hard not to put them in the top five. Add that to the work they did on the offensive line adding guys like Febechi Nwaiwu from North Texas, Branson Hickman from SMU, Geirean Hatchett from Washington and Michael Tarquin from USC and they (OU) are in a good spot."
Time will tell whether this season's group of transfers will be as big a contributor to the success of the 2024 Oklahoma team as the Sooners' 2023 transfer class, but it's a good early sign that others are viewing them favorably.