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Oklahoma Lands Commit from Arkansas-Pine Bluff WR in Transfer Portal

The Sooners are in dire need of wide receivers, and landed an FCS All-American on Wednesday.

John E. Hoover

Arkansas-Pine Bluff' wide receiver Javonnie Gibson
Arkansas-Pine Bluff' wide receiver Javonnie Gibson / Lauren Witte/Clarion Ledger / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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Oklahoma’s rebuild of its shattered wide receiver room has officially begun.

The Sooners received a commitment Wednesday from Javonnie Gibson, a big-play and highly productive wideout this season at Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

That’s according to a tweet from On3’s Hayes Fawcett.

The 6-foot-3, 205-pound Gibson was named second-team All-America on the Associated Press All-FCS team this season after catching 70 passes for 1,215 yards and nine touchdowns for the Golden Lions this season, averaging 17.4 yards per catch. Gibson had five 100-yard games. In the season opener against Arkansas, he caught two passes for 32 yards.

He finished second among FCS receivers and first in the Southwestern Athletic Conference in receiving yards, and landed a first-team spot on the All-SWAC team. He finished tied for third in the conference with nine touchdown receptions and ranked third in all-purpose yards, averaging 101.3 yards per game. Gibson garnered several accolades throughout the season, including FCS Player of the Week, SWAC Player of the Week, and SWAC Newcomer of the Week. He surpassed 150 receiving yards in three games, with a career-high 183 against Prairie View A&M.

Wideouts coach Emmett Jones faces a massive rebuild as OU has lost six wide receivers off the 2024 roster to the transfer portal, some after enduring season-ending injuries: Nic Anderson, Andrel Anthony, JJ Hester, Jaquaize Pettaway and Jalil Farooq. In all, 25 Sooners have entered the transfer portal since it opened on Dec. 9.

Gibson a third-year sophomore, will have two years of eligibility remaining.

A native of Opelousas, LA, he began his college career at Division II Arkansas-Monticello.

Gibson was not rated by 247 Sports or by Rivals as a recruit, and his only offer was UAM. 

As a redshirt freshman in 2023 for the Boll Weevils, Gibson caught 28 passes for 403 yards and four touchdowns and averaged 14.4 yards per catch.

According to Pro Football Focus, Gibson played 668 snaps for the Lions this season, including 538 as the wide receiver and 124 in the slot. Of his 72 catches, 15 were targeted 20 yards downfield or more, with an average depth of target of 31.4 yards, which is something the Oklahoma offense got away from in 2024. 

Gibson finished the season with just seven dropped passes on 108 targets.

Per PFF, he graded out at 96.0 on deep balls and 96.1 on intermediate routes. He also generated 430 yards after the catch. He caught 19 passes to the right side of the field and only eight on the left side, with 36 receptions between the numbers.

Gibson posted overall single-game grades of 86.8, 82.1, 79.4 and 75 this season, with a season-low 55.6 against Central Arkansas and a 56.0 against Arkansas. For the season, he graded out at 78.1, per PFF.

Gibson is the Sooners' third addition through the NCAA Transfer Portal this week. OU added punter Jacob Ulrich from Kennesaw State and offensive lineman Luke Baklenko from Stanford, and, with a handful of prospects taking their official visits to Norman, are expected to fill out the rest of the class in the coming days.

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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.