Oklahoma WR Charleston Rambo enters transfer portal

After three seasons of inconsistent productivity, Rambo will seek opportunities elsewhere

John E. Hoover | Jan 4, 2021

Oklahoma WR Charleston Rambo enters transfer portal /

Oklahoma’s receiving corps just got a little thinner.

Charleston Rambo, a fourth-year junior from Cedar Hill, Texas, has entered the transfer portal.

Thank you Sooner Nation, Coach Stoops, Coach Riley and Coach Simmons for believing in me. Thank you OU football for the lifelong memories made. After much thought and prayer I have decided to enter the Transfer Portal. God Bless.
— Charleston Rambo (@CharlestonRambo) January 4, 2021

Rambo was the Sooners’ most experienced wideout coming back in 2020, but had a mostly disappointing season. He ranked fourth on the team with 25 catches and 312 yards and scored only three touchdowns.

His three TDs came in the first game (two against Missouri State) and the last game (one against Florida) of the year.

After getting off to a nice start — four catches for 82 yards against the Bears, five catches for 30 yards against Kansas State, four catches for 61 yards at Iowa State — the 6-foot-1, 175-pound Rambo’s production trailed off.

Charleston Rambo :: Ty Russell / OU Athletics

In the Sooners’ final eight games, he caught only 12 passes for 141 yards.

Rambo redshirted in 2017. After snagging a 49-yard touchdown bomb from Kyler Murray against Alabama in the Orange Bowl in 2018, Rambo looked like the next big OU receiving star behind Sterling Shepard, Dede Westbrook, Marquise Brown and CeeDee Lamb.

Rambo seemed on the precipice of fulfilling that role in 2019 as Lamb’s sidekick when he caught 43 passes for 743 yards and five touchdowns. He surpassed 100 receiving yards in three of the Sooners’ first four games, including three for 105 and a touchdown against Houston, five for 116 and two TDs at UCLA, and two for 122 against Texas Tech.

Instead, Rambo couldn’t consistently produce and caught five or more passes just twice in the Sooners’ last 10 games.

OU outside receivers coach Dennis Simmons said in August he just wanted to see more consistency from Rambo.

“It’s just him continuing to be Charleston,” Simmons said. “I’m not asking him to be CeeDee. I’m not asking him to be Marquise. I’m not asking him to be Dede. He understands that.

“All four of those guys have special gifts and different skill sets and different talents. He needs to be consistent and play at a level to where he can showcase his.”

Making competitive catches was a problem for Rambo in 2020. While 2019 5-star Theo Wease tied the team lead with 37 catches and compiled 530 yards and four TDs and true freshman Marvin Mims emerged with 37 catches for a team-leading 610 yards and school-freshman record nine TDs, Rambo had fewer and fewer opportunities.

Still, OU’s receiver group seems to be trending up.

Two other 2019 5-stars — Jadon Haselwood and Trejan Bridges — are back on the field after missing most of 2020 with an injury and an NCAA suspension.

And OU’s 2021 receiver class — SI All-Americans Billy Bowman and Mario Williams, SI99 Cody Jackson and SI 1000 Jalil Farooq — add an element of explosiveness and versatility.

Published Jan 4, 2021

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.