I'm throwing in an OU prediction for Mason James, the recently offered 2026 WR out of Norman (Okla.) North High. The kid has grown up steeped in Sooner football and I know it's way early, but it's hard to imagine a world in which he doesn't end up in Oklahoma's class. It's not often that the Sooners move first on a kid, and he understands that. Moreover, Emmett Jones is Emmett Jones. I'll have a full interview posted in the next couple of days, but just to give y'all a teaser, James admitted to me that he "started tearing up" when he received the offer. The last kid that said something along those lines to me was Jacobe Johnson. If the Sooners are first to offer a kid that lives in their state (let alone their city), how likely is it that they don't end up closing the deal?
You likely saw Isaiah Mozee's top eight by now. That top eight is effectively a top two (Oklahoma and Oregon), as we've reported extensively on this site. I think the fact that Mozee was in Lawrence this past weekend speaks for itself, because I can promise you he wasn't there primarily to watch Kansas. Still feel quite confident in my FutureCast for Oklahoma here.
There's a reason we have kind of backed off from reporting anything concrete on Eddy Pierre-Louis these last few days, because any and all reporting that's been done about the kid is just writing for the sake of writing. This has morphed into a thoroughly unpredictable recruitment, with Oklahoma and UCF emerging as the top two contenders. But I'll say this: I've seen this movie a time or two, and this feels like exactly the type of recruitment that features a late swoop and an unexpected victory from Oregon. If the third team were just about anybody else, I'd discount them. I can't do that with the Ducks. Pierre-Louis is scheduled to be in Norman on Nov. 11, but then again, he was scheduled to be at UCF this past weekend and at Oklahoma the weekend before that. Neither visit happened. Until he either shows or doesn't on the 11th, it's hard to figure with any degree of certainty where this thing is truly trending. I know for a fact both OU and UCF have been given reason to believe they sit in the catbird seat.
Yes, I'm aware of what's been said and reported on the Nebraska side. I am still of the opinion that Grant Brix ends up a Sooner at this time. I'll put it this way: if he didn't commit to Nebraska within 48 hours of visiting this past weekend, he's not going to commit to Nebraska before giving Oklahoma their final shot. The Sooners will get that shot on Nov. 11, and I can tell you all that the Sooner staff and the commits intend to roll out the red carpet. They're going to do their darnedest to make sure Brix feels at home in Norman. I remain of the opinion that his Nov. 25 visit to Kansas State is very much in jeopardy depending on what happens on his trip to OU. If the Sooners win him over, an announcement will likely happen in expedient fashion following the visit. But if you don't see him pull the trigger quickly upon taking that visit, odds are that the Sooners will have to wait out that final trip to K-State. This is a recruitment in which the final impression could well be the decisive impression. Seeing as how I view this battle as an OU/Nebraska duel with K-State a distant third, I'm not terribly worried about Kansas State swaying him at the end, and I think the Sooners maintain the advantage here.
