— Let's kick off this week's Nuggets with a fresh FutureCast prediction I've entered in favor of Oklahoma. No, I'm not talking about Cooper Alexander; we'll get to him in a bit. I'm talking about three-star LB Easton Baker, a relatively new offer out of the state of Utah. I say "relatively new" because there was some miscommunication between Baker and the OU staff; Ted Roof offered Baker several weeks back, but Baker didn't realize he had the offer until Roof basically told him earlier this week, "You know you've got an offer here, right?" Up to that point in time, Baker had announced an official visit with Oklahoma but hadn't yet posted the offer. That trivial misunderstanding aside, I caught up with Baker on Wednesday evening and I really like where this recruitment is trending. I also really like Baker's film, which is well worth a watch. The kid's an absolute headhunter who flies to the ball, and he seems to have an inherent sense of the angle he needs to take in order to arrive with maximum force. That's especially evident in his play on special teams. He's not enormous in stature (6 feet, 205 pounds), but he's fast and he hits with pure electricity. I love this eval by the Oklahoma staff, and Baker is enamored by the opportunity to play under Roof and Brent Venables. Baker will camp at Notre Dame next month, and if he picks up that offer, it could obviously move the needle. But right now, the main competitors to OU are Washington State and Arizona State. It's not difficult to figure why the Sooners seem to be the clear frontrunner.
I've always been tentative about Oklahoma and Tyanthony Smith, and while I do like the Sooners' standing in the race for Brayden Platt, the rest of the linebacker board has been an enigma since Payton Pierce committed to Ohio State. With the Sooners cooling on Jordan Lockhart and heating up on Baker, I finally feel as though things are starting to crystallize at linebacker, and that's why I'm comfortable making my first FutureCast prediction for any 2024 LB target. Baker will be on campus for the ChampU BBQ on June 16.
— That brings us to Cooper Alexander, and I got out to Noble's team camp last night to touch base with the three-star legacy tight end. Alexander acknowledged to me that the offer "kind of came out of the blue," but that playing at Oklahoma is "a childhood dream" for him. Though Joe Jon Finley has been building a relationship with Alexander for several months, it was Venables who finally extended the offer via FaceTime. Alexander informed me that he's working with the Oklahoma staff to set up an OV in late June, one that would likely be a midweek visit. Thus, he'd essentially be the only recruit on campus, and the Oklahoma staff would be able to focus exclusively on closing the deal with the Washington (Okla.) product. The Sooners tried to get him on campus for his official on either June 9-11 or June 16-18, but Alexander already had those dates set aside for OV's to Stanford and Iowa State, respectively. As he put it to me, "I'm going to take those visits because I gave those coaches my word."
Though it isn't all the way over in Alexander's recruitment, it would be the stunner of all stunners if Stanford or ISU can keep him out of Norman. He's a legacy who's been around the program his entire life. I feel very good about my FutureCast here. And just to assuage any concerns, the offer to Alexander should not be taken as a warning sign in Oklahoma's pursuit of Davon Mitchell, nor should it be interpreted as a concession that Mitchell might not successfully reclassify into the 2024 cycle. I reached out to a very well-placed source less than 30 minutes after the offer went out to Alexander, and I asked straight up if there was any reason to suspect that Mitchell was trending away from OU or that his reclassification process might hit a snag. The answer I received was, "No. None."
— Speaking of Mitchell, his good buddy Michael Hawkins will be back up to Oklahoma on June 1, as will Hawkins' fellow Sooner QB commit Kevin Sperry. They'll be participating in the Sooners' first elite camp, and they'll be spending the remainder of the day studying scheme with Jeff Lebby. Both Hawkins and Sperry are going to be regulars in Norman throughout the month of June (each has multiple visits scheduled), and in talking to the two QB's and their parents, they seem to have very similar objectives throughout the remainder of their respective recruitments. They're both eager to get a jump start on learning the offense, and they're both laser-focused on recruiting an elite class around them. Sperry's best opportunity to recruit his peers will occur at the Sooners' camps, and he and his family have made arrangements to be in town for several of them. Hawkins' best opportunity will obviously come at the ChampU BBQ, which he'll attend immediately after competing at the Elite11 finals in Los Angeles.
— Now for some transfer juice. The Sooners are currently hosting junior-college corner Demetrius Freeney, a visit I reported in last week's Nuggets. However, they're also hosting one of Freeney's teammates from College of San Mateo, and this name is one worth knowing. Sione Laulea is an enormous corner at 6-foot-4, 185 pounds, and he's accumulated numerous high-end P5 offers. I'm working to get more insight on the visit beyond the obligatory "things are going well," but the fact that the Sooners got two top junior-college cornerbacks on campus in one fell swoop is cause enough for optimism. If Jay Valai can bat .500 with this pair of Californian defensive backs, it's a huge win for Oklahoma. I also caught up with Utah State transfer DL Phillip Paea, and with the uncertainty regarding Jacob Lacey's status, the Sooners have moved quickly to get Paea in town for a visit. He originally committed to BYU after hitting the portal, but reneged on his pledge to the Cougars and ended up on OU's radar through the connections of some of his old high school coaches. He'll be in Norman next week, and based on my conversation with him, I expect Oklahoma to get his commitment barring some unforeseen development. Despite spending four years on the roster at Michigan and two at Utah State, Paea somehow has two years of eligibility left (please don't ask me how; I can't make heads or tails of it either). Coming off a season-ending ACL injury last year, he's admittedly a flier, but you'd be hard-pressed to find somebody who's been around the block as much as Paea. If nothing else, he'd provide a senior presence.
I've always been tentative about Oklahoma and Tyanthony Smith, and while I do like the Sooners' standing in the race for Brayden Platt, the rest of the linebacker board has been an enigma since Payton Pierce committed to Ohio State. With the Sooners cooling on Jordan Lockhart and heating up on Baker, I finally feel as though things are starting to crystallize at linebacker, and that's why I'm comfortable making my first FutureCast prediction for any 2024 LB target. Baker will be on campus for the ChampU BBQ on June 16.
— That brings us to Cooper Alexander, and I got out to Noble's team camp last night to touch base with the three-star legacy tight end. Alexander acknowledged to me that the offer "kind of came out of the blue," but that playing at Oklahoma is "a childhood dream" for him. Though Joe Jon Finley has been building a relationship with Alexander for several months, it was Venables who finally extended the offer via FaceTime. Alexander informed me that he's working with the Oklahoma staff to set up an OV in late June, one that would likely be a midweek visit. Thus, he'd essentially be the only recruit on campus, and the Oklahoma staff would be able to focus exclusively on closing the deal with the Washington (Okla.) product. The Sooners tried to get him on campus for his official on either June 9-11 or June 16-18, but Alexander already had those dates set aside for OV's to Stanford and Iowa State, respectively. As he put it to me, "I'm going to take those visits because I gave those coaches my word."
Though it isn't all the way over in Alexander's recruitment, it would be the stunner of all stunners if Stanford or ISU can keep him out of Norman. He's a legacy who's been around the program his entire life. I feel very good about my FutureCast here. And just to assuage any concerns, the offer to Alexander should not be taken as a warning sign in Oklahoma's pursuit of Davon Mitchell, nor should it be interpreted as a concession that Mitchell might not successfully reclassify into the 2024 cycle. I reached out to a very well-placed source less than 30 minutes after the offer went out to Alexander, and I asked straight up if there was any reason to suspect that Mitchell was trending away from OU or that his reclassification process might hit a snag. The answer I received was, "No. None."
— Speaking of Mitchell, his good buddy Michael Hawkins will be back up to Oklahoma on June 1, as will Hawkins' fellow Sooner QB commit Kevin Sperry. They'll be participating in the Sooners' first elite camp, and they'll be spending the remainder of the day studying scheme with Jeff Lebby. Both Hawkins and Sperry are going to be regulars in Norman throughout the month of June (each has multiple visits scheduled), and in talking to the two QB's and their parents, they seem to have very similar objectives throughout the remainder of their respective recruitments. They're both eager to get a jump start on learning the offense, and they're both laser-focused on recruiting an elite class around them. Sperry's best opportunity to recruit his peers will occur at the Sooners' camps, and he and his family have made arrangements to be in town for several of them. Hawkins' best opportunity will obviously come at the ChampU BBQ, which he'll attend immediately after competing at the Elite11 finals in Los Angeles.
— Now for some transfer juice. The Sooners are currently hosting junior-college corner Demetrius Freeney, a visit I reported in last week's Nuggets. However, they're also hosting one of Freeney's teammates from College of San Mateo, and this name is one worth knowing. Sione Laulea is an enormous corner at 6-foot-4, 185 pounds, and he's accumulated numerous high-end P5 offers. I'm working to get more insight on the visit beyond the obligatory "things are going well," but the fact that the Sooners got two top junior-college cornerbacks on campus in one fell swoop is cause enough for optimism. If Jay Valai can bat .500 with this pair of Californian defensive backs, it's a huge win for Oklahoma. I also caught up with Utah State transfer DL Phillip Paea, and with the uncertainty regarding Jacob Lacey's status, the Sooners have moved quickly to get Paea in town for a visit. He originally committed to BYU after hitting the portal, but reneged on his pledge to the Cougars and ended up on OU's radar through the connections of some of his old high school coaches. He'll be in Norman next week, and based on my conversation with him, I expect Oklahoma to get his commitment barring some unforeseen development. Despite spending four years on the roster at Michigan and two at Utah State, Paea somehow has two years of eligibility left (please don't ask me how; I can't make heads or tails of it either). Coming off a season-ending ACL injury last year, he's admittedly a flier, but you'd be hard-pressed to find somebody who's been around the block as much as Paea. If nothing else, he'd provide a senior presence.
