'Pretty Damn Cool:' Oklahoma Adds Local QB Through Transfer Portal

Steele Wasel has joined the Sooners as a preferred walk on after redshirting last year at Akron and an All-State career at nearby Choctaw High School.

Steele Wasel / Lindsay Bower Tesio / used with permission

Oklahoma’s quarterback room just got a lot deeper — and with a local QB at that.

Steele Wasel has transferred from Akron, where he redshirted in 2023, to OU, he told Sooners on SI Saturday.

The news was first reported by OU Insider’s Brandon Drumm and Parker Thune.

Wasel said he grew up an OU football fan and loved watching one Sooner QB in particular.

“It was my freshman year,” he said. “They started inviting me to come out to some of the games, and just watching Baker Mayfield play as a young kid, getting into football, it was pretty damn cool.

“I don’t know if I would say I model my game after him, but definitely one of my favorites to watch.” 

Wasel was offered by offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Seth Littrell to join OU’s roster as a preferred walk-on.

“So I went in the portal and not too long after, Coach Littrell called me,” Wasel said. “You know, it was actually like probably two or three weeks ago that we had finalized it, but I had been just waiting for my admission to go through before I put anything out there.”

Littrell always kept his finger on the pulse of Oklahoma recruits when he was head coach at North Texas — especially quarterbacks — but Wasel said he never spoke with Littrell before he got the call. 

“I was just sitting in my bed, doing some school work, and I got a call from him,” Wasel said. “Pretty crazy deal.” 

Littrell apparently got an assist from the Sooners’ growing NIL collective, which has a program specifically targeting walk-ons.

“We haven’t gotten to any of that stuff yet,” Wasel said.

Wasel was a prolific quarterback at Choctaw in 2022, when he threw for 3,325 yards and 38 touchdowns, rushed for 543 yards and five touchdowns, and led the Yellowjackets to an 11-2 record and playoff run. Wasel was a three-year starter for coach Jake Corbin and was named Oklahoma All-State. As a sophomore in 2020, he Wasel racked up 3,324 total yards and 33 touchdowns and powered his team the state championship game.

He was part of a Choctaw team that sent at least seven players into Division I football, including former Sooner defensive back Jordan Mukes and two others who went to Oklahoma State.

“I never thought about it like that,” he said. “Saying them all out loud, puts a little different perspective on it.”

The 6-foot-4, 215-pound Wasel was a 3-star prospect coming out of high school, according to 247 Sports. He chose Akron over scholarship offers from Arkansas State, Memphis, Rice, Tulsa and Virginia Tech, and had several Power 5 offers as a preferred walk-on.

At Akron last year, as the Zips were just 2-10 for the second consecutive year under coach Joe Moorhead, Wasel did not get any game action.

“There’s no bad blood with them,” Wasel said. “Nothing bad to say about them. I just feel like it wasn’t right for me — for me to be the best I can be and just be happy on and off the field.”

Now he's playing for the program for which he grew up supporting, and at the spot of the player he grew up cheering for.

“I'm a huge Baker Mayfield fan obviously, grew up watching him,” Wasel told Sooners on SI in 2021, especially “the way he resets his feet and the way he leads his team.”

At OU, he’ll enrich a QB room that’s grown in both depth and talent over the past year with the addition of freshmen Michael Hawkins and Brendan Zurbrugg as well as seventh-year senior and three-time transfer Casey Thompson behind sophomore starter Jackson Arnold.

“Just want to show up there and do whatever I can to make myself better and make my team better,” he said.

“Shoot, I’m just ready as hell to get out there and get started. Not too much else to it. … Work hard and just play ball.”