2025 WR Prospect Jaden Nickens 'Loves' Oklahoma But Will Take His Time

Nickens is already rated as the top player in the state of Oklahoma but he knows he still has plenty of time to choose between football and basketball.

Jaden Nickens knows there’s plenty of time. He’s in no hurry to get his college football career started — nor his college basketball career.

“Just wanna keep being a student-athlete,” Nickens told AllSooners recently. “Just keep being a kid, pursuing my high school dreams.”

Nickens is a 6-foot-3, 195-pound wide receiver in the 2025 recruiting class at Millwood High School in Oklahoma City. He’s a consensus 4-star prospect by 247 Sports, Rivals and On3, but ESPN rightly ranks him as a basketball prospect.

“When it comes time for college, I’ll be ready to make that decision,” Nickens said. “Because my body’s worth millions. So I want two try that both-ways route, but I’m worth a lot of money and I just want to keep my body fresh and clean for when I get to the league, so I won’t be beat up too soon.”

Nickens currently holds 11 Division I football offers, including Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Arkansas, Missouri and Texas A&M. Not bad for a high school sophomore who just helped lead his basketball team to a repeat state championship.

Had an amazing day wit da guys @alldaycj34 @Jamesgreenhowar at the University Of Oklahoma , thank you @CoachVenables & @CoachEmmett for having me! Definitely will visit again! #BoomerSooner❤️ pic.twitter.com/VgyPDRejEe

— Jaden Nickens (@jaden_nickens) March 26, 2023

“Crazy experience, man,” Nickens said. “We’ve been through lot of adversity as a team on and off the court. So we just battled. … Going back-to-back my first two years of high school … I’ve never seen a team more dedicated than us.”

Per ESPN, Nickens holds basketball offers from Oklahoma State, Auburn and Ole Miss. Most predict his real future is in football, where he’s a standout defensive back and wideout. It’s wide receiver where he’s drawn the most interest.

“Having that Big 12 and that SEC conference coming in, it’s pretty fun,” he said.

Nickens said he’s flattered to have offers from both Oklahoma and OSU.

“Them coming to get me means a lot,” he said.

State pride, Nickens said, is important to him.

“It’s always Boomer Sooner. It’s always Go Pokes,” he said. “I love Oklahoma. This is my hometown.”

He admitted, though, there was only one school he can say has always been his favorite.

“Everybody knew it was Duke for me growing up,” he said. I’ve always been a big Duke fan. But Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are very great schools that I like.”

It’s still early for the 2025s, but Nickens is rated as the No. 61 overall player in the class, the No. 4 wide receiver and the No. 1 prospect in the state of Oklahoma, according to 247 Sports.

He attended camp at OU last summer, then was able to take in a couple of Sooner games and came away impressed.

“I love the coaches,” he said. “When I started playing football and I went to a camp early summer, I went to a Coach Brent Venables camp, and they saw me there, and they were pretty interested in what I was doing. But then I got hurt so I couldn’t showcase all my one on ones, but I did pretty good.”

Nickens got his OU offer in late January. Texas Tech offered him last August — but the Red Raiders coach who formed a bond with Nickens now works for Brent Venables in Norman.

“I got that offer from Coach Emmett (Jones) at Texas Tech, but now he’s at OU,” Nickens said. “So I’ve already had a little connection with him. But him just coming to my state and seeing … my hometown, it’s very big. I love the whole coaching staff.”

Nickens said he gravitated to the OU players as well, including wide receiver J.J. Hester, a Missouri transfer and a Tulsa native.

“I just love OU,” Nickens said. “It’s a hometown team, and they’re one of my favorites.”

Nickens is currently staying busy with high school obligations like spring football at Millwood and is lining up which camps he wants to attend and which unofficial visits he plans to take this spring and summer. But what’s been taking taking up most of his time is double-dipping with Sooner 7’s 7-on-7 team in Oklahoma and the prestigious Miami Immortals in South Florida.

The Immortals travel the country (the roster consists of mostly South Florida talent, but the team flies Nickens and other out-of-state players back and forth for games and practices) and Nickens is almost always moving. He also plays elite level AAU basketball.

“I’m always on the go. I’m always on the run,” he said. “I’m a very busy kid for my age. I gotta keep it moving, I gotta do what I gotta do to get my family out of Oklahoma and get to a better place.”

Nickens' Sooner 7 coach, Derek Rasmussen, said there are only "a handful" of national travel teams like the Immortals and said it's a fairly new phenomenon. But Rasmussen said Nickens clearly belongs at that level.

"For only playing football for a couple of years," Rasmussen said, "he's already polished in and out of routes, he gets out of his breaks easy, he's got great hips, he attacks the ball. You know, there's people that catch the ball and there's people that grab the ball. He grabs the ball. Yeah, he's definitely got a bright future."

Playing up in South Florida against national competition will only raise Nickens’ game. He’s seen it happen already.

“Everybody knows Florida football’s very intense and a very high level,” Nickens said. “So playing out there, playing for the best of the best, the best team to come out of Florida, everybody wants to be like, they’re the best. … Everybody wants to see what the Immortals can do, so going out there and showcasing what I can do, just getting Oklahoma on the map — everybody thinks I’m from Florida, but I got a little L.A. and a little Oklahoma in me, so I want to go out there and show them what West Coast and South football is about, and show them I can compete with the highest — and I’m not a 5-star for no reason. I want to show what I can do and show people what I’m about.

“Also, just putting on for Immortals. Because they came out and reached out to me. They came and got me from Oklahoma. So I want to do whatever I can to represent the program as best I can.”