It might be time for Oklahoma Sooners fans to start sounding the alarms following troubling recent trend
When you talk about the best programs in college football historically, the blue bloods, the Oklahoma Sooners are typically not too far down the list of top teams to bring up. They have a proud history of winning, and developing great football players. There is a standard of excellence and expectation for those who put […]
When you talk about the best programs in college football historically, the blue bloods, the Oklahoma Sooners are typically not too far down the list of top teams to bring up. They have a proud history of winning, and developing great football players. There is a standard of excellence and expectation for those who put on that uniform, with names such as Adrian Peterson, Trent Williams, Gerald McCoy, Baker Mayfield, Billy Sims, and Brian Bosworth carrying the tradition proudly.
The current iteration of the Sooners program is not doing a great job holding up to that standard, having had two separate 6-7 seasons in the three years that head coach Brent Venables has been leading this program. He now heads into the 2025 college football season presumably on the hot seat.
With new general manager Jim Nagy now in the fold, the Sooners are not acting like a program with a coach whose job is on the line.
We have heard Nagy speak a lot this offseason, and some of the phrases that are said most are “finding value”, “trust our evaluation”, and “understanding the market”. There seems to be an intentionality from this program to not overpay for higher ranked recruits, or the ones whose market has overvalued them, and defer to the lower perceived recruit that their staff has similar grades on.
In theory, this is an interesting ideology behind roster building. Here’s the problem, you are the University of Oklahoma. You are, at least in theory, one of the big boys on the block. You shouldn’t have to go bargain hunting for the majority of your recruits. It should, at least, be a mixture of big game hunting and finding diamonds in the rough.
Both matter, but only when done in unison.
Some Sooners fans will use this thrifting perspective as a way to ignore the obvious red flags on the recruiting trail right now. As of today, the Sooners have the No. 34 ranked class via the 247Sports Composite ranking for their 2026 group, which takes into account each of the major recruiting platforms. Teams such as Rutgers, Indiana, and Minnesota currently sit in front of them.
Oklahoma also only has one player, quarterback Bowe Bentley, who ranks inside the top 200 overall players in the 2026 class on the Composite ranking. That’s okay though, right? This staff under Nagy and Venables are looking for value.
The bigger issue is, while you’re trying to reinvent your recruiting ideology, you are also losing the undervalued targets you want, to programs you have no busy losing to. That includes the Sooners recently losing out on Missouri athlete Jacob Eberhart, who opted for Illinois over Oklahoma last week despite being predicted to land with the Sooners.
Eberhart is an Illinois legacy, and there are a lot of family circumstances that have driven him to that decision. If this was a one-off circumstance, most, including myself, would be able to turn the other cheek and be patient. But it isn’t. This is a trend.
In recent weeks, Oklahoma has also lost cornerback Danny Odem to Nebraska. The Cornhuskers are also a proud program, but the Sooners should win out on the majority of those battles. The bigger issues are they also lost out on Texas pass catcher Jordan Clay to the Baylor Bears and three-star linebacker Braxton Lindsey to BYU.
Losing to Nebraska – forgivable. Losing to schools like Baylor and BYU – not so much.
Their scouting process also led to them letting star wide receiver Mason James, the top player in the state Oklahoma, to commit to Washington. It was supposedly because of some poor testing at a camp. Meanwhile you sit with one wide receiver commit in the class, who also ranks as just the No. 40 wide receiver in the country.
There are a couple of priority targets on the board remaining, including Texas athlete Davian Groce and IMG Academy pass rusher Jake Kreul. Both are ranked high, and would take some of the heat off of the Sooners recruiting staff, at least momentarily. They are in a good spot with both, but closing down the stretch will need to be important.
Even if Oklahoma lands both players, this class still won’t likely rank up to standard in the end. Perhaps the program goes on a tear down the stretch and this becomes a moot point, or maybe their bargain hunting approach is the future craze of college football, but there are clearly some red flags out there some are choosing to ignore.
With their place now in the SEC, and their history behind them, Oklahoma choosing the side of underrated bargain hunters doesn’t match the program persona. If the Sooners aren’t careful, this is a unique moment where they can really hurt their image in a brand new environment, and people can lose their jobs because of it.
Oklahoma is one of the very best programs in college football. Start acting like it, and find value around bringing in top talent.
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