All Sooners

How Wide Receivers Coach Emmett Jones Has Hit the Ground Running at Oklahoma

The Sooners already have five wide receiver commitments over the next two years thanks to new coach Emmett Jones.

Ryan Chapman

John E. Hoover / AllSooners
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Emmett Jones was offered a blank slate.

Oklahoma’s new wide receivers coach inherited an unknown room, fresh off of losing Marvin Mims to the NFL Draft and Theo Wease to the transfer portal.

Jalil Farooq and Drake Stoops were the known quantities returning, combining to catch 76 passes for 859 yards and eight touchdowns.

Otherwise, Gavin Freeman caught the third-most balls in the receiver room, finishing his freshman campaign with three receptions.

While Jones’ skills as a developer of talent will be put to the test in 2023, he’s already been hard at work reshaping the room to prepare it for the future.

On the day Jones was hired, the Sooners also landed a transfer in former Michigan pass catcher Andrel Anthony.

Wide receiver Andrel Anthony (pictured) announced his commitment to Oklahoma the same day Emmett Jones was hired as OU's wide receivers coach.
Wide receiver Andrel Anthony (pictured) announced his commitment to Oklahoma the same day Emmett Jones was hired as OU's wide receivers coach :: John E. Hoover / AllSooners

After spring practice conduced, Jones dipped into the transfer portal again, this time winning the services of Texas’ Brenen Thompson.

But the portal recruiting wins only served as a precursor to how hard Jones would hit the trail in the 2024 class and beyond.

Already, the Sooners have five wide receivers committed to play for Jones in the next two recruiting cycles.

Four of those five commits (Zion Kearney, Ivan Carreon, Dozie Ezukanma and Gracen Harris) all play their high school football in Texas, where Jones has plenty of recruiting connections.

“I can just continue to build that bridge from Oklahoma to the state of Texas,” Jones said during spring practice in March. “Not only Dallas, but the state of Texas. OU has always had a presence in the state of Texas. I just feel like with me having the success I had in Dallas — Dallas Independent School District — getting a chance to work here at Oklahoma it’s like a no-brainer.”

Jones isn’t just after one type of player to replenish his room, either.

Kearney, Oklahoma’s highest-rated 2024 verbal commitment, is a 6-foot-2, 195-pound playmaker.

Carreon, who Jones flipped from Texas Tech, towers over Kearney at 6-6. Ezukanma has a big frame to fill out at 6-3.

Jones’ lone non-Texas commitment, Louisiana preps star KJ Daniels, is a 5-10, 153-pound speedster who instead hopes to bring a completely different element to the fold.

Harris, a 2025 verbal pledge, is out of the Daniels mold as well as a 5-9 burner.

Assuming the Sooners sign all four 2024 receiver commitments this winter, Jones will have delivered on his first task as a recruiter.

This fall, he’ll have a chance to show off his skills as an on-field coach to help OU’s inexperienced wide receiver group make an impact.

“I’ve always had great admiration and respect for him as a man, his ability to develop players, how his players play, that matters to me,” OU coach Brent Venables said of Jones last February. “… Then he values a lot of the same things that I do in terms of coaching and developing people.”

Just as his recruiting class has a diverse skillset, so do the pieces Jones has to work with on the 2023 squad.

True freshman Jaquaize Pettaway, Anthony and Thompson all have the ability to stretch the field with their speed.

Jayden Gibson, J.J. Hester and Nic Anderson all can stress defensive backs with their size, standing 6-5, 6-4 and 6-3 respectively, but none of the trio got many opportunities last year either by way of being stashed on the depth chart or due to injuries.

LV Bunkley-Shelton never really got going at OU after transferring in from Arizona State last year as well. 

LV Bunkley-Shelton will have a change for a much larger role in his second season with the Sooners.
LV Bunkley-Shelton will have a change for a much larger role in his second season with the Sooners :: John E. Hoover / AllSooners

D.J. Graham is a familiar face in Norman, but the former defensive back will get the chance to make plays for the offense for the first time in 2023.

“We’re trying our best to work them in multiple spots,” Jones said last spring. “And one thing we’re doing in the room is learning different concepts to get guys used to moving all around and playing all over the football field, and they’ve been absorbing it.

“… While I’m coming into a new offense, we still got to fix a lot of stuff from last year… I’m breaking them all the way down.”

The Sooners have already seen the fruits of Jones’ labor on the recruiting trail, all that’s left is for him to replicate his success as a developer at Kansas and Texas Tech to Norman to round out his first year on staff. 

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Ryan Chapman
RYAN CHAPMAN

Ryan is deputy editor at AllSooners and covers a number of sports in and around Norman and Oklahoma City. Working both as a journalist and a sports talk radio host, Ryan has covered the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the United States Men’s National Soccer Team, the Oklahoma City Energy and more. Since 2019, Ryan has simultaneously pursued a career as both a writer and a sports talk radio host, working for the Flagship for Oklahoma sports, 107.7 The Franchise, as well as AllSooners.com. Ryan serves as a contributor to The Franchise’s website, TheFranchiseOK.com, which was recognized as having the “Best Website” in 2022 by the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters. Ryan holds an associate’s degree in Journalism from Oklahoma City Community College in Oklahoma City, OK. 

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