— Let’s start with the biggest official visitor of the weekend, which would be Williams Nwaneri. Many of you might have expected that his host would be his former high school teammate Cayden Green. However, OU’s M.O. is to have a player from the recruit’s future position group host him on the visit, and I’m told Jonah La’ulu gets the honors of hosting the Sooners’ top defensive end target. Meanwhile, Green will host four-star offensive lineman Jason Zandamela, which makes a lot of sense considering that Zandamela is also seriously considering USC. For those of you that are familiar with some of Green’s opinions and past comments on USC and the Trojan staff, it stands to reason that the freshman tackle will be doing everything in his power to sell Zandamela on OU over USC.
— Another interesting tidbit regarding Nwaneri’s visit is that he’ll have four-star 2025 WR Isaiah Mozee in tow. With Gracen Harris already pledged to OU and Adrian Wilson trending fast towards joining him, the receiver spots are filling up quickly in the 2025 cycle. Kevin Sperry will be on campus throughout the weekend, and I’m told Mozee is one weapon that Sperry would especially like to have at his disposal at Oklahoma. I expect the Sooners’ wondrously gifted quarterback commit to give Mozee the hard sell this weekend, and it wouldn’t be surprising for Oklahoma to try and nudge the timeline along.
That noted, I can say rather authoritatively that Mozee does not intend to commit this early. That shouldn’t be surprising to anybody that recalls the general policy for P5 recruits at Lee’s Summit North, let alone such a recruit that is also the head coach’s son. To be honest, I have begun to wonder if there’s a world in which the Oklahoma receiver class fills up before Mozee’s timeline runs its course. That’s a conversation for another day, though. Expect OU to place high priority on both Nwaneri and Mozee this weekend.
— File this amongst the words I never thought I’d type: Oklahoma and Cooper Alexander are moving in different directions. That’s truly a bizarre development, as Alexander seemed to be a slam-dunk candidate for Oklahoma’s 2024 class as soon as he received the offer. The whole situation has been somewhat odd from the jump, though, as there had previously been no indication whatsoever that the Sooners would make a play for any tight end not named Davon Mitchell. All of a sudden, Alexander got the offer straight from Brent Venables, and it seemed a virtual certainty that OU would end up with the in-state legacy prospect. I caught up with Alexander just days after the offer, and he acknowledged that it was a dream come true to have the opportunity to play at Oklahoma. However, I put feelers out with sources at the Sooners’ elite camps the following week, and that’s where I first began to catch wind of the fact that Alexander and the OU staff just weren’t clicking. It’s hard to put a finger on why that is, and though I have my guesses, I don’t pretend to have the indisputable answer. But as things stand today, Oklahoma is pursuing other options and Alexander can be expected to land at Stanford or Iowa State (the Cyclones lead the race right now).
An emerging 2024 name that I would watch in the days ahead is fast-rising Kansan tight end Gavin Hoffman, who’s gone from zero FBS offers in mid-April to eighteen (!) as of this writing. I’m told he would be next to receive an offer from the Sooners, but I’m also told Oklahoma would be content with a one-man class if Mitchell does choose OU. That is highly probable, as an enormous NIL offering from Miami looks like the only thing that could even theoretically derail the Sooners’ pursuit of Mitchell at this point. One additional note that I’ll tack on here: file away the name Pierce Mooberry, a 2025 tight end out of Nebraska that camped with the Sooners today. His performance caught the eye of the staff, and Joe Jon Finley’s brother is an old teammate of Mooberry’s father. Given Finley’s proclivity for recruiting the Cornhusker State, I can foresee Mooberry getting an offer down the line. But for now, I believe Dasaahn Brame and Chase Loftin are the top priorities at the position in that class.
— On the offensive line front: obviously, after plenty of conversations with sources and the subject himself, I entered a FutureCast last week in favor of Oklahoma for four-star OL Grant Brix. Heading into this weekend, I’m not sure there is an offensive visitor that will be more highly prioritized by the OU staff. The Sooners want Brix badly, and he’s been open about the fact that he doesn’t have a definitive timeline in mind. When the time feels right, he’ll commit. That’s why I think this weekend could be decisive, and I’m watching this one closely. A couple sources have intoned that the Sooners might be able to get Brix in the boat by the end of his visit. I also continue to hear that Oklahoma is in better standing than one might imagine for Eddy Pierre-Louis, despite the fact that the four-star OL from Tampa begins his first-ever visit to OU today. Lewis Carter has been recruiting his former high school teammate hard, and it’s not difficult to see some parallels to Carter’s recruitment in Pierre-Louis’ case: Carter had never visited OU before his official, made the trip at a juncture where there wasn’t a clear leader in his recruitment, and ended up comfortable enough to commit to Oklahoma after that single visit — all despite heavy interest from established local P5 programs. The Sooners will hope to replicate that very arc with “Big Eddy.” And how’s this for a final tidbit? Casey Poe will be back in Norman before the end of the month, as he was forced to pull his July official visit off the schedule due to compliance regulations. I am far from a compliance guru and I’m not sure exactly why that OV had to be cancelled, but some of you may recall a similar occurrence last cycle with Tausili Akana, who originally planned his OU official for the Party at the Palace before hitting the same roadblock as Poe. In speaking with the four-star East Texas lineman, I get the sense a decision might come sooner than originally anticipated — i.e., by early July. By my count, this final trip will be Poe’s sixth visit to Oklahoma, but I don’t think the Sooners have a comfortable advantage on the pack here. They’ll have to hold off Clemson and Alabama, as well as the persistent parries of Texas Tech.
Obviously, we’ll have much more ahead throughout the weekend — and I can promise at least one new FutureCast within the next 72 hours.
— Another interesting tidbit regarding Nwaneri’s visit is that he’ll have four-star 2025 WR Isaiah Mozee in tow. With Gracen Harris already pledged to OU and Adrian Wilson trending fast towards joining him, the receiver spots are filling up quickly in the 2025 cycle. Kevin Sperry will be on campus throughout the weekend, and I’m told Mozee is one weapon that Sperry would especially like to have at his disposal at Oklahoma. I expect the Sooners’ wondrously gifted quarterback commit to give Mozee the hard sell this weekend, and it wouldn’t be surprising for Oklahoma to try and nudge the timeline along.
That noted, I can say rather authoritatively that Mozee does not intend to commit this early. That shouldn’t be surprising to anybody that recalls the general policy for P5 recruits at Lee’s Summit North, let alone such a recruit that is also the head coach’s son. To be honest, I have begun to wonder if there’s a world in which the Oklahoma receiver class fills up before Mozee’s timeline runs its course. That’s a conversation for another day, though. Expect OU to place high priority on both Nwaneri and Mozee this weekend.
— File this amongst the words I never thought I’d type: Oklahoma and Cooper Alexander are moving in different directions. That’s truly a bizarre development, as Alexander seemed to be a slam-dunk candidate for Oklahoma’s 2024 class as soon as he received the offer. The whole situation has been somewhat odd from the jump, though, as there had previously been no indication whatsoever that the Sooners would make a play for any tight end not named Davon Mitchell. All of a sudden, Alexander got the offer straight from Brent Venables, and it seemed a virtual certainty that OU would end up with the in-state legacy prospect. I caught up with Alexander just days after the offer, and he acknowledged that it was a dream come true to have the opportunity to play at Oklahoma. However, I put feelers out with sources at the Sooners’ elite camps the following week, and that’s where I first began to catch wind of the fact that Alexander and the OU staff just weren’t clicking. It’s hard to put a finger on why that is, and though I have my guesses, I don’t pretend to have the indisputable answer. But as things stand today, Oklahoma is pursuing other options and Alexander can be expected to land at Stanford or Iowa State (the Cyclones lead the race right now).
An emerging 2024 name that I would watch in the days ahead is fast-rising Kansan tight end Gavin Hoffman, who’s gone from zero FBS offers in mid-April to eighteen (!) as of this writing. I’m told he would be next to receive an offer from the Sooners, but I’m also told Oklahoma would be content with a one-man class if Mitchell does choose OU. That is highly probable, as an enormous NIL offering from Miami looks like the only thing that could even theoretically derail the Sooners’ pursuit of Mitchell at this point. One additional note that I’ll tack on here: file away the name Pierce Mooberry, a 2025 tight end out of Nebraska that camped with the Sooners today. His performance caught the eye of the staff, and Joe Jon Finley’s brother is an old teammate of Mooberry’s father. Given Finley’s proclivity for recruiting the Cornhusker State, I can foresee Mooberry getting an offer down the line. But for now, I believe Dasaahn Brame and Chase Loftin are the top priorities at the position in that class.
— On the offensive line front: obviously, after plenty of conversations with sources and the subject himself, I entered a FutureCast last week in favor of Oklahoma for four-star OL Grant Brix. Heading into this weekend, I’m not sure there is an offensive visitor that will be more highly prioritized by the OU staff. The Sooners want Brix badly, and he’s been open about the fact that he doesn’t have a definitive timeline in mind. When the time feels right, he’ll commit. That’s why I think this weekend could be decisive, and I’m watching this one closely. A couple sources have intoned that the Sooners might be able to get Brix in the boat by the end of his visit. I also continue to hear that Oklahoma is in better standing than one might imagine for Eddy Pierre-Louis, despite the fact that the four-star OL from Tampa begins his first-ever visit to OU today. Lewis Carter has been recruiting his former high school teammate hard, and it’s not difficult to see some parallels to Carter’s recruitment in Pierre-Louis’ case: Carter had never visited OU before his official, made the trip at a juncture where there wasn’t a clear leader in his recruitment, and ended up comfortable enough to commit to Oklahoma after that single visit — all despite heavy interest from established local P5 programs. The Sooners will hope to replicate that very arc with “Big Eddy.” And how’s this for a final tidbit? Casey Poe will be back in Norman before the end of the month, as he was forced to pull his July official visit off the schedule due to compliance regulations. I am far from a compliance guru and I’m not sure exactly why that OV had to be cancelled, but some of you may recall a similar occurrence last cycle with Tausili Akana, who originally planned his OU official for the Party at the Palace before hitting the same roadblock as Poe. In speaking with the four-star East Texas lineman, I get the sense a decision might come sooner than originally anticipated — i.e., by early July. By my count, this final trip will be Poe’s sixth visit to Oklahoma, but I don’t think the Sooners have a comfortable advantage on the pack here. They’ll have to hold off Clemson and Alabama, as well as the persistent parries of Texas Tech.
Obviously, we’ll have much more ahead throughout the weekend — and I can promise at least one new FutureCast within the next 72 hours.
