All Sooners

Oklahoma Lands Commitment from Local WR Gavin Freeman

The Heritage Hall product's dad is a coach and played for the Sooners, and his grandfather is of a hall of fame high school football coach.

John E. Hoover

Brent Venables may be putting his foot down — and putting a fence up — when comes to in-state prospects.

Oklahoma picked up a verbal commitment today from dynamic receiver Gavin Freeman, one of the state’s most decorated and accomplished high school football players. Freeman announced his commitment on Twitter.

Freeman is the second OU commitment from within the Sooner State in two days. On Saturday, after attending Venables' first Elite Junior Day, OU got a pledge from McAlester running back Erik McCarty.

Freeman, a member of the 2022 recruiting class out of Oklahoma City’s Heritage Hall, will be a preferred walk-on at OU. He previously was verbally committed to Texas Tech. Freeman also held offers from Tulsa and Air Force Academy.

The immediate comparison for the 5-foot-9, 170-pound Freeman is another Heritage Hall alumnus who committed to Tech — and then became a superstar there. Wes Welker played slot receiver for the Red Raiders from 1999-2003 and went on to a 12-year career in the NFL, where he was a two-time All-Pro and played in two Super Bowls and five Pro Bowls with the New England Patriots and another Super Bowl with the Broncos. The 5-9, 190-pound Welker caught 903 career passes for 9,924 yards and 50 touchdowns in his NFL career. 

Welker was twice All-Big 12 as he caught 259 passes for 3,069 yards and 21 touchdowns in his Tech career, while also returning a Big 12-record 152 punts for an NCAA-record 1,761 yards (an 11.6-yard average) and eight touchdowns (No. 2 in NCAA history).

Welker was always lamented at Oklahoma as “the one that got away,” the one that Bob Stoops always said he wished he could have signed in Norman. Venables, co-defensive coordinator on those early Stoops teams, doesn’t want to see it happen again.

Welker was a unique talent, but other than playing at the same high school, Freeman possesses a lot of the same qualities: sticky-good hands, an almost supernatural ability to move laterally, good speed and a high football intellect.

In 11 games as a senior at Heritage Hall, Freeman caught 74 passes for 1,438 yards (19.4 yards per catch) with 18 touchdowns, and also rushed 14 times for 117 yards and four TDs.

His junior year, Freeman had 35 receptions for 702 yards (20.1 yards per catch) with nine TDs, plus another 27 carries for 246 yards and two TDs on the ground.

During the 2021 season, Freeman scored nine touchdowns from 50 yards or more: two punt returns, one interception return and one fumble return to go with five receiving TDs.

Freeman has football in his blood. He’s the son of a former Sooner, Jason Freeman, who played tight end at OU for four years under Howard Schnellenberger and John Blake from 1995-98 before a brief stint in the NFL. Jason, who primarily backed up All-Big Eight tight end Stephen Alexander, went to OU from Muskogee, OK, where he was an All-State tight end who contributed 101 tackles as a senior and also punted while playing for his dad.

His dad is Oklahoma high school coaching legend Ron Freeman, who coached more than 150 career victories and is in the Oklahoma Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Jason Freeman is now the offensive and defensive line coach at Heritage Hall and was previously head coach at Pryor, OK.

Gavin Freeman is a 3-star prospect who plays multiple sports (wrestling, baseball, track) and multiple positions. Freeman is the No. 30-ranked player in the state of Oklahoma and the No. 135 athlete in the nation, according to 247 Sports. Rivals lists Freeman as a 2-star prospect.

Freeman committed to the Red Raiders in October after being verbally pledged to Air Force for a month.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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