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Former Oklahoma Wide Receiver Jalil Farooq Announces His New School

Farooq was productive during his first three years with the Sooners, but got hurt early in 2024 and wasn't able to contribute as a senior.
John Hoover|
Oklahoma wide receiver Jalil Farooq
Oklahoma wide receiver Jalil Farooq | BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK

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Oklahoma Sooners

Jalil Farooq is going home.

Oklahoma’s senior wide receiver entered the NCAA Transfer Portal on Dec. 10, and on Friday he landed at his hometown school.

Farooq announced via Twitter that he’ll play his final season of college football at the University of Maryland.

The 6-foot-1, 208-pound Farooq joined OU as a 4-star prospect out of Henry Wise High School in Lanham, MD. Lanham is just nine miles from the College Park campus. 

Farooq grew up friends with Washington, DC, quarterback Caleb Williams and the duo came to Oklahoma together in the 2021 class. 

He finishes his OU career with 89 receptions for 1,287 yards and seven touchdowns while also rushing for 235 yards and also compiling 697 yards on kickoff returns. In 36 career games in the Crimson and Cream, Farooq amassed 2,219 all-purpose yards in his four seasons in Norman. 

Things didn’t end well, however. He suffered a broken foot just two plays into the 2024 season opener and wasn’t able to return until the Week 12 game at Missouri — then suffered a relapse of the injury and missed the final two games. 

Farooq caught just three passes for 58 yards this season, inclduing a 47-yard reception from Jackson Arnold on the opening drive against Temple.

He caught 45 passes for 694 yards and two scores in 2023, which built off his 2022 campaign where he caught 37 balls for 466 yards and five touchdowns.

Farooq developed ball security issues in 2023, however, losing a fumble on a kickoff at Tulsa and losing two fumbles in the Sooners' Alamo Bowl loss to Arizona.

The Sooners have watched six wide receivers exit this portal cycle since the portal opened on Dec. 9: Farooq, Jaquaize Pettaway, Nic Anderson, J.J. Hester, Andrel Anthony and Brenen Thompson. In all, OU has lost 25 players off this year’s roster to the portal.

So far, Oklahoma has brought in three receivers to offset the departures: Javonnie Gibson of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Keontez Lewis of Southern Illinois and Isaiah Sategna of Arkansas.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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