Let's start with a guy who's already in the boat. Three-star OL and Oklahoma commit Josh Aisosa will be back to campus for the second consecutive week, and this time, it'll be for his official. The Edmond (Okla.) Santa Fe mauler will be accompanied by three-star teammate Bergin Kysar, who is also committed to the Sooners. Both have assumed peer-recruiter roles since their pledges, and you might have seen Aisosa having some fun with four-star target Eddy Pierre-Louis via social media. For his part, Aisosa committed to Oklahoma after a July unofficial, and never got the chance to take an OV because his offer came after the dead period hit on July 1. So this weekend, he'll get to enjoy the red-carpet treatment.
On the Oklahoma end, the feeling with Grant Brix is that the Sooners have done just about all they can. At a certain point, there isn't much left to show or tell a given recruit. It's simply a waiting game, and there are plenty of folks in the OU camp that aren't really sure what Brix is still waiting on. It'll either be Oklahoma or Nebraska for the blue-chip Iowa lineman, and thus, Sooner fans are likely hoping to see their team take care of business this weekend against SMU while Colorado beats the brakes off the Huskers. If that scenario were to come to fruition and Nebraska starts 0-2 under Matt Rhule, it'd do little to assuage Brix's previously voiced concerns about whether the Rhule era of Husker football would truly be different. In related news as far as the offensive line is concerned, I got an interesting comment from a source today regarding Eddy Pierre-Louis. That source told me straight up, "I feel like he's in the bag." I don't share that same level of crimson-tinged optimism yet, but undeniably, UCF's momentum has leveled off over the last few weeks and Oklahoma has made a strong surge. I'd consider the two schools in a dead heat for the time being. I was also informed that Pierre-Louis had given the UCF staff a sort of commitment-esque assurance back in June, but obviously, enough time has passed (and enough has changed in the tenor of that recruitment) that such an assurance doesn't hold much water anymore.
Four-star LB and Las Vegas native Christian Thatcher will be back on campus this weekend for his third unofficial visit of the year. As I see it, Thatcher is going to end up being the Nigel Smith of the 2025 cycle: he'll likely take his time to announce his decision and won't play up his recruitment publicly, but I already fully expect him in the Sooners' class. Barring injury, Thatcher is on pace to graduate high school as the leading tackler in the history of the state of Nevada. On tape, he's the essence of a Brent Venables linebacker, and it didn't take long for him and his family to fall in love with Oklahoma. Their values align perfectly with everything that OU football is. This is a hand-in-glove fit, and that seems to be exactly how Thatcher himself sees it.
It's admittedly early to be driving up the hope for the Sooners to land a borderline five-star offensive lineman in 2025, but they've established a very strong standing with enormous Texan tackle Lamont Rogers. He is headed back to campus this weekend for another unofficial visit, and he'll have two highly regarded young teammates in tow. Markel Ford is a 2026 safety with a very impressive early offer sheet, but the name that might be of more interest to Sooner fans (if only because of his position) is 2026 QB Legend Bey. The last few weeks have brought Bey's first four offers, as UTSA, Texas Tech, Cincinnati and Oregon have all thrown their respective hats into the ring. It's wild that we've reached the point where we're talking about 2026 prospects, but the time has come for Jeff Lebby and the Oklahoma staff to begin trawling the waters and studying sophomore tape to identify their next target. Bey is a solid candidate, and a good source told me, "[He] is definitely an OU fan."
