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With OU softball season starting two weeks from today, @Bryan Clinton and I are shifting our focus to Patty Gasso's squad. We'll also be reviewing each football position group's performance in 2023.

Softball talk begins around the 4:00 minute mark. Football around the 34:30 mark.

What is the meaning behind this? I've seen CFB team names, MLB logos, NFL names. What in Sam Hill is going on here?

Came across this on Twitter

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Do we think this turns into a PWO offer or Scholarship?

🤣😂😅

Breaking on ESPN

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Headed to Miami this weekend instead of the Sooners’ junior day.

All but two of our guys dropped.

Spoke to multiple sources, including one in Washington transfer OL Geirean Hatchett’s camp, and was told that the transfer OL is visiting OU starting tomorrow (Friday).

Hatchett appeared in 25 games the last two seasons for the Huskies. He also played in 12 games this past season — starting in four at RG. Hatchett was injured in three of the Huskies’ games this past season.

The Huskies won the Joe Moore Award for top OL group in CFB and Hatchett was an integral part of that.

OU was his second choice out of HS, so one would expect Bill Bedenbaugh and the Sooners to have a decent chance with experienced OL.

Hatchett also has a younger brother, Landen, that OU recruited quite heavily out of HS. However, at the time of this note, I’m told the younger Hatchett isn’t set to visit the Sooners and them playing together “isn’t a deal breaker,” per a source in Hatchett’s camp.

I’ll update more as I get it.

*** As you all know, Sooners DL coach/Co-DC Todd Bates is on the road recruiting. He will be out seeing all of his top targets and commits in the 2024 class, and obviously 2025 and 2026 targets as well over the next few weeks.

A name that I wouldn't be shocked to see/hear that Bates makes a stop by and an in-home with this week is 2024 four-star DL Dominick McKinley. Obviously, McKinley is committed to the Texas A&M Aggies, but with their head coaching change and McKinley's lead recruiter Elijah Robinson taking the Syracuse DC/DL coaching job on Sunday, there seems to be huge crack in the door for Bates and the Sooners to try and get through.

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Sources I speak with feel this will come down to how McKinley feels about the new A&M staff and new DL coach Sean Spencer, along with the Aggies being able to hold off the Sooners, Horns(if they decide to push) and Tigers down the stretch. Sources also feel that as things stand today, there is some strong OU and Texas buzz (more Texas in a bit as it’s conflicting). More so than in-state LSU, but I will never count them out due to location. Would just be naive to do so.

As just noted, the Tigers are the team with the location advantage, but the relationship that Todd Bates has with McKinley and his family is top notch and still the strongest of the three. That relationship has been there still with a source saying there was contact with people in McKinley’s camp on Sunday evening. OUinsider can confirm that to be the case as well.

That said, there has been some fodder that Texas and their DL coach Bo Davis continued to be heavily in McKinley's ear during the 2023 season. Additionally, I am told that relationship had grown significantly. How that looks now, though, between UT and McKinley is something I’m trying to dig more on. One source tonight said it was OU and UT if things opened back up, but another wasn’t so sure UT would push hard.

There also is a NIL aspect to McKinley and his recruitment. That said, this part of the recruitment is one that I am hearing won't scare OU away, according to multiple sources. I continue to hear that OU will play the game as needed.

Obviously, with A&M and the news that E-Rob has left to coach the defense for the Orangemen being so fresh, there is going to be a bit of some "recouping" factor -- with McKinley and his family -- to see how they want to attack his recruitment moving forward. However, Brent Venables and Todd Bates are going to continue to swinging away, at the Rivals 250 defensive lineman, to see if there is a chance Oklahoma can pull off a Early National Signing Day surprise, while also knowing and understanding that there is quite a bit to go before that begins to even be discussed as a realistic possibility.

Nonetheless, I wanted to make sure you all were aware that communication is still strong and that OU should be stopping by there over the next week or so to see him at his school and potentially do an in-home.

All that is most definitely something to watch and something we are monitoring very closely. Parker and myself are also monitoring some more rumors regarding a few transfer portal DL that could be getting in over the next week to 10 day.

We also continue to hear that the next week could get pretty wild. And that's saying something with how things started on Sunday.

For now, it's just buzz, but we are watching a few players across the country so...

Stay tuned.

"I apologize to Sooner Nation. I’ve been working to get this crowd like this. They were great. We didn’t win. We’ll bounce back from this."

The Sooners simply ran out of gas late in the second half against Texas:

Moore is so great in these games for us, and nice to see Uzan and Oweh be the leaders on O. Defense is really good, but wow Texas always has those bigs that make it all look so smooth! Gonna be a great finish folks.

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— Spoke last night with three-star defensive lineman Kole Briehler, a former teammate of current Oklahoma OL Logan Howland at the Hun School in New Jersey. Briehler’s top schools right now are Oklahoma and Michigan, with Stanford also in the mix, but the Sooners certainly seem to have the upper hand in his recruitment of late. He’s well aware that the situation in Ann Arbor is highly fluid depending on Jim Harbaugh’s eventual decision, and he values the stability and developmental opportunities that Oklahoma offers. As we reported last week, Briehler got an in-person visit from Brent Venables and Todd Bates, and he’ll be back on campus with the Sooners for their junior day this weekend. Briehler also informed me that he’s already set an official visit with Oklahoma for the final weekend of June; it’s his only scheduled official right now and he doesn’t intend to take more than four OV’s. At this point in a previous cycle, I’d probably be confident enough in Oklahoma’s standing with Briehler to drop a FutureCast. But because this class will be smaller and spots come at a premium, I’m going to hold off for now and see how the visit this weekend affects Briehler’s potential timeline. Also of note is a very pertinent detail that Briehler shared at the end of our conversation: he’ll have company when he takes his OV.

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— Four-star linebacker Kamar Archie and Oklahoma have quietly been a thing for some time now, and Briehler told me that he and Archie plan to take their Oklahoma OV together. For the moment, the Sooners are only recruiting for one additional linebacker spot in the 2025 class. And although Zac Alley’s arrival could impact the priorities with regard to that spot, I have been told by a well-placed source that Archie is on the short list of players that would be a take to fill that spot at any point. He’s a bona fide two-way star who is a menace at linebacker and a unit at running back, and for those that haven’t watched his junior film, treat yourself at some point today. Archie is the real deal. In fact, last November, Rivals national recruiting analyst Adam Friedman had him first on his list of most impressive linebackers he’d watched in 2023. For my money, that’s easily a top-100 player by year’s end if his senior tape lives up to expectations.

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— Caught up with 2026 Southlake Carroll wideout Brock Boyd last night. I’d already been told by a couple of sources in the Lone Star State that the Sooners had jumped out to a big lead in Boyd’s recruitment, and I’ve got an itchy trigger finger with the FutureCast on this one. Emmett Jones recruited Brock’s older brother Brady to Texas Tech, and if memory serves me correctly, Brock might actually have been the first 2026 WR to get an Oklahoma offer. He’s been a priority for Jones and OU from the jump, and he’s a certifiably elite prospect — so much so that Cam Newton sought him out from hundreds of miles away for his national 7-on-7 team, which is comprised almost entirely of players from Florida and Georgia. TCU, SMU, Nebraska and Texas Tech have been steady in their pursuit of Boyd, but Oklahoma appears to be a few steps ahead of the crowd here. Boyd told me he wants to commit pretty early in the process, as he’s mindful of the portal’s impact on numbers. I think this is one that should be wrapped up before the calendar year is over, and though I’m holding off the FutureCast for the time being, this is definitely a prediction I could see myself making in the not-too-distant future.

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— Another 2026 wideout with whom Oklahoma is in good standing is four-star Dominic Saidu-Robinson, the son of former Oklahoma wideout and revered DFW-area skills trainer David Robinson. I spoke to Saidu-Robinson last night, and when I brought up Emmett Jones, he referred to the Sooners’ wide receivers coach as “my dawg.” Jones has been recruiting and maintaining a relationship with Saidu-Robinson since his freshman year, and that has put Oklahoma abreast of Baylor and TCU at the forefront of this recruitment. The young receiver is big on relationships, and he’s got long-standing ones with Jones, Malcolm Kelly and Baylor running backs coach Khenon Hall. This is one that I’m watching closely, but given where Oklahoma already stands with Boyd, Legend Bey and Mason James, I think much will depend upon Saidu-Robinson’s ultimate timeline here.

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— Let's start with Gus Cordova. Although the three-star DE did plan on visiting Oklahoma this weekend, it seems as though the OU staff has backed off of those plans from their end. As he continues to gain steam on the recruiting trail, Cordova maintains strong interest in the Sooners despite a laundry list of other offers. If we’re talking about sheer interest level from the prospect, I would say Oklahoma is easily in the best position for Cordova. But the question becomes whether the love is truly reciprocated from the OU staff, and as of right now, the on-again, off-again nature of the Sooners’ pursuit of Cordova would indicate that the answer is no. If Oklahoma turns up the heat on the Lake Travis standout and OU legacy (who has outstanding junior tape, by the way), I think they could wrap things up with him pretty expediently. But for the moment, they’re standing pat in his recruitment. And in speaking with sources on the matter, the Sooners’ primary concern may not be the off-field situation involving Cordova at Lake Travis (if you've heard nothing of this, let me know in the comments and I'm happy to fill you in). It may be as simple as his fit in the defense. He projects as a hand-in-the-dirt defensive end and is currently about 255 pounds, but the Sooners already have a guy of that phenotype committed in Alex Shieldnight. Would they take two? It doesn't seem they are necessarily banking on it.

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— That brings us to a new offer at edge in the 2025 class, and that’s fast-rising Houston phenom Smith Orogbo. He’s got some really fun junior tape, plus some ideal measurables which are not dissimilar to a younger PJ Adebawore (minus the world-class wingspan, obviously). Orogbo has long been a target for schools such as Nebraska, Houston, Texas Tech and Baylor, but he added the offer from OU yesterday and moved quickly to set up a visit. Orogbo told me that he clicked right off the bat with Miguel Chavis, and that although he already had a trip to Baylor booked for this weekend, he intends to get to Oklahoma next month for an unofficial visit. The Sooners have a myriad of pre-existing options at the edge, including CJ Nickson, Dawson Merritt, Jayden Woods, Max Granville and the aforementioned Cordova. So it very much remains to be seen how hard they’ll push for Orogbo. However, especially at this point on the calendar, I don’t think you offer a kid like Orogbo unless you’re willing to take him. I know it’s early, but OU piqued Orogbo’s interest from the get-go, and I like the Sooners to eventually get an official visit from the 6-foot-4, 215-pound stud.

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— Ashdon Wnetrzak was one of the standouts at the All-American Combine in San Antonio earlier this month, and it resulted in a wave of interest from several Power 5 schools. I’ll save you the headache on this one: the name is pronounced WIN-trick, and he already held an offer from Oregon but is now hearing from OU, Texas, Utah, Notre Dame, Penn State and others. I’m frankly not surprised that he hasn’t picked up any offers from those schools just yet, because this is definitely the type of kid that a college coach probably wants to see with his own two eyes before pulling the trigger. Wnetrzak is 6-foot-8 and 340 pounds, and that listing might even be a bit conservative. In terms of sheer surface area, he’s one of the largest human beings I’ve ever seen. He was on the Forty Acres for Texas’ junior day this past weekend, and tells me he’ll be at Oklahoma on Feb. 2. I don’t know if Bill Bedenbaugh ends up offering him right off the bat given the Sooners’ standing with some of their current targets, but it is worth noting that Wnetrzak is a former high school teammate of Eugene Brooks, so he’ll effectively have two lead recruiters if he does pick up the OU offer.

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— OU was the first offer for Manny Choice last summer, and he’s built a strong relationship with Emmett Jones throughout the process. However, he has yet to visit Norman. That’ll obviously change this weekend, as he was one of the first names we confirmed for the Sooners’ junior day. I spoke to Choice tonight and he told me that Jones remains arguably his strongest player-to-coach relationship on the recruiting trail. Texas A&M and Texas have both become big players in this process, as has TCU. But especially because Jones was first to the table with Choice, I think OU has the advantage. What will inevitably come into play here, though, is the timeline, as the Sooners only have one receiver spot left in the 2025 cycle. From the sounds of things, Choice isn’t planning on shutting things down before the summer. So unless Emmett and Oklahoma can completely blow him away this weekend, I’m holding off on projecting Choice into Oklahoma’s class. But let's see if Jones can work some magic when the kid gets to campus.

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DT just entered the portal

Long story, but I'm having a heart catheter on Tuesday, Jan 23 for the purpose of determining whether I have a stent or bypass surgery. I'm praying for the former. With a stent I miss a week of work. With a bypass, two months. By the way, I feel fine. But they did a stress test recently and said the heart was pumping fine. But there was congestion on the right side that needed to be dealt with. In 2018, I had a stent inserted in my LAD, aka widowmaker on the left side. This is the other one.

If God somehow were to take me Home, I'd be okay with that. But the one thing I do not want, is to not be able to take care of myself. I had two PC appointments Wednesday, even though it was freezing. I had three today and two Friday and two next Monday. Then, who knows. I trust Him and know He is in control. Pray for the doctors, and my longterm outlook. Know that He is sovereign, and trusting that is a great comfort in life.

Thanks in advance,
Randy

Josh is such a great person. I believe he truly cares about the Players! It's worth the watch.

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Not afraid to go after the brothas at LB, I like it.

Just very interesting

Clemson Pre portal era/w penalty year
2015. 14-1
2016 14-1
2017 12-2
2018 15-0
2019 14-1
2020 10-3
Average: a little over 1 loss a season

Clemson post portal era / with out penalty year
2021 10-3
2022 11-3
2023 9 -4
Average : over 3 losses a season

Here’s where is also gets interesting in their highschool recruiting

247 rankings
Clemson Pre portal era/with penalty year
2014 #16
2015 #9
2016 #11
2017 #16
2018#7
2019#10
Average #12 th ranked class

Clemson Post portal era without penalty year
2020#3
2021# 5
2022# 10
Average: # 6th ranked class

Clemson actually is getting more highschool talent than ever and averaging less wins / less championships in the portal era.

I’m not saying recruiting rankings mean a ton and I will also mention Clemosn use to take smaller classes which hurts their rankings .

I do find it interesting that even with elite highschool classes Clemson is struggling by refusing to supplement with the portal because of culture / the Clemson way

Dabo can’t recruit any better than he has the last 3 years , without changing his portal philosophy his program may continue to decline .

BV does use the portal , but he’s not willing to play ( pay the price ) that the big boys do.
It’s like having one foot in the door and one foot out .

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