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Local Oklahoma Target Announces Top Five Schools

The Sooners are in the mix for one of the top juniors in the state, giving Brent Venables and company a chance to continue their impressive recruiting run on OK Preps prospects.
Randall Sweet|
Local Oklahoma Target Announces Top Five Schools
Local Oklahoma Target Announces Top Five Schools

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Marcus James, a 3-star athlete from Carl Albert High School in Midwest City, announced his top five schools on Wednesday morning.

James star holds 13 offers, including one from Mike Gundy and Oklahoma State. On Monday, however, the star junior cut his list to Utah, TCU, Arkansas, Texas A&M and OU.

James is rated one of the top 20 linebackers in the 2025 class, according to Rivals. Listed at 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, the Titans' standout has the frame to develop into a physically imposing player at the next level, especially with a collegiate weight training program.

James plays both tight end and linebacker at Carl Albert, but will likely fit better as a linebacker once he reaches college football. The two-way athlete is high school teammates with Oklahoma commits Kevin Sperry and Xavier Robinson, as well as Trynae Washington and Trystan Haynes, who also hold offers from the Sooners.

If Brent Venables and company are able to land a pledge from James, he would be the six commitment in OU's 2025 class, and the fourth from the Sooner State, joining Millwood's Jaden Nickens, Checotah's Elijah Thomas and Sperry, his teammate at Carl Albert.

James would also be just the second defender to commit to Oklahoma in the next recruiting cycle, as interior defensive lineman Ka'Mori Moore pledged his commitment to the Sooners over the summer.

With multiple OU commits on the same high school team as James, including his quarterback, it would not be surprising to see Venables earn another in-state victory on the recruiting trail. Since May, Venables has earned commitments from 11 OK Preps athletes in addition to David Stone, who is originally from the Oklahoma City Metro. 

At the moment, the Sooners appear to be a good spot with James, as multiple recruiting outlets have placed predictions that the versatile athlete will commit to Oklahoma.

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Randall Sweet
RANDALL SWEET

Randall is a recruiting analyst and staff writer at AllSooners focusing primarily on OU Football and the recruiting trail. Working as a journalist, Randall has covered the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and high school sports across the state. A 2022 University of Oklahoma graduate, Randall hails from Lubbock, TX. While in college, Sweet wrote for the OU Daily in addition to working with Sooner Sports Pad and OU Nightly. Following his time at OU, Sweet served as the Communications Coordinator at Visit Oklahoma City before leaving to join the team at AllSooners. The West Texas native has bylines in the Norman Transcript and is a Staff Writer for Inside the Thunder. Randall holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK. 

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