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Sunday Offering: Oklahoma Maintains Momentum on the Recruiting Trail

Since Christmas, the Sooners have found themselves in contention for a handful of talented high school prospects while building out next season’s roster through the transfer portal.

Randall Sweet

Sunday Offering: Oklahoma Maintains Momentum on the Recruiting Trail
Sunday Offering: Oklahoma Maintains Momentum on the Recruiting Trail /
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Despite replacing two coordinators shortly after the end of Oklahoma’s 2023 campaign, Brent Venables and company haven’t slowed down on the recruiting trail.

With players still in the transfer portal, high school prospects trimming down their lists of top schools and the Sooners’ 2024 class moving in over the weekend, OU has been busy building its future roster.

Recently, Oklahoma received one commitment out of the portal, but has heard good news on the high school recruiting front over the past few weeks.

Here is AllSooners’ roundup of OU’s recent recruiting activity.

Transfer portal commitment

With former backup quarterback Davis Beville in the transfer portal, the Sooners' coaching staff knew they would need a suitable backup option for highly touted signal caller Jackson Arnold.

On Thursday evening, Oklahoma found the perfect player to step into the aforementioned role: former OKPreps standout and Longhorn QB Casey Thompson.

Playing for Southmoore and Newcastle, Thompson was a 4-star recruit coming out of high school, rated the No. 14 dual-threat quarterback in the country. Thompson committed to Texas over Oregon, Oklahoma and Ohio State, among others.

As a junior in college with the Longhorns, he threw for 2,113 yards and 24 touchdowns with just nine interceptions. One of Thompson’s best performances during his time in Austin came against OU, when the Sooner legacy threw for 388 yards and five touchdowns against his father’s former team.

Following the 2021 season, Thompson transferred to Nebraska, where he threw for 2,407 yards and 17 touchdowns. As a Cornhusker, the veteran signal caller got the chance to square off against the Sooners once again, mustering only 129 passing yards and one score in a 49-14 loss.

As a sixth-year senior in 2023, Thompson tallied 509 passing yards and five touchdowns for the Florida Atlantic Owls before an injury ended his season.

With one year of eligibility remaining, Thompson elected to return home to play for the same school where his father, Charles Thompson, and older brother, Kendal Thompson, both played. 

With Arnold set to be the Sooners’ starter heading into the SEC, Thompson can serve as a mentor and trustworthy, experienced backup in case Arnold gets dinged up or needs to take a breath.

Top schools lists

Since Christmas, three 2025 recruits have narrowed down their college choices with the Sooners making the cut.

First, 4-star defensive lineman Ethan Utley announced his top five on Christmas Day, with Michigan, Syracuse, Tennessee, Texas and Oklahoma still in the mix.

Listed at 6-foot-4 and 270 pounds, Utley is rated the No. 112 overall player and the No. 11 defensive lineman in the nation, according to the 247Sports Composite ranking.

Since releasing his Top 12 schools, the talented defensive lineman cut out Miami, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Auburn, Vanderbilt and Texas A&M.

Hailing from the Ensworth School in Nashville, TN, Utley visited Norman in the summer of 2023.

The day after Christmas, fellow 4-star defensive lineman Max Granville included the Sooners in his top 10 alongside Alabama, Penn State, SMU, Ohio State, USC, Baylor, Kansas, Texas A&M and LSU.

Granville is a 6-foot-3, 215-pound edge rusher from the Houston area that Oklahoma continues to make a priority in the 2025 class. Attending Fort Bend Christian Academy, Granville is rated the No. 76 overall player and No. 6 edge rusher in the country, according to On3.

On Jan. 1, Onis Konanbanny, a 4-star defensive back in the 2025 class, included OU in his Top 10 alongside Florida State, Tennessee, Penn State, LSU, Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, North Carolina and USC.

A product of Rabun Gap, GA, Konanbanny is listed at 6-foot-2 and 170 pounds and is rated the No. 153 overall prospect and the No. 18 cornerback in the 2025 recruiting class, per On3.

Early Enrollees

On Saturday, 20 members of the Sooners’ 2024 class moved into their dorm on Oklahoma’s campus in Norman. These 20 players will all be able to get an early start on their collegiate careers, working with the OU coaching staff through winter and spring workouts.

From a post by the Oklahoma football team’s social media account, Davon Mitchell, Zion Kearney, Michael Hawkins Jr., Xavier Robinson, Nigel Smith, Isaiah Autry, Danny Okoye, Ivan Carreon, Wyatt Gilmore, James Nesta, Brendan Zurbrugg, Reggie Powers III, Michael Boganowski, Eli Bowen, Joshua Aisosa, Eugene Brooks, Jaydan Hardy, Liam Evans and Jacob Jordan all moved into their dorm rooms on Saturday.

Coming all the way from London, former NFL Academy offensive lineman Daniel Akinkunmi arrived in Norman earlier in the new year and is also an early enrollee.

Despite not being seen in the photo, former IMG Academy teammates David Stone and Jayden Jackson are expected to be early enrollees as well. They're both participating in team activities at this week's Polynesian Bowl in Hawaii.

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Randall Sweet
RANDALL SWEET

Randall is a recruiting analyst and staff writer at AllSooners focusing primarily on OU Football and the recruiting trail. Working as a journalist, Randall has covered the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and high school sports across the state. A 2022 University of Oklahoma graduate, Randall hails from Lubbock, TX. While in college, Sweet wrote for the OU Daily in addition to working with Sooner Sports Pad and OU Nightly. Following his time at OU, Sweet served as the Communications Coordinator at Visit Oklahoma City before leaving to join the team at AllSooners. The West Texas native has bylines in the Norman Transcript and is a Staff Writer for Inside the Thunder. Randall holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK. 

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