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Oklahoma Offers a Second Quarterback in 2026 Recruiting Class

Bowe Bentley guided his Celina team to a 16-0 record and a Texas state championship last season and has added an offer from the Sooners to his resume.
John Hoover|
Celina quarterback Bowe Bentley
Celina quarterback Bowe Bentley | Ronald W. Erdrich/Reporter-News / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Oklahoma Sooners

Oklahoma has offered a second quarterback in the 2026 class.

With a long-standing verbal commitment from Californian Jaden O’Neal, OU coach Brent Venables and new offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle on Friday offered Texan Bowe Bentley as well.

A Texas 4A state champion this season at Celina, Bentley is rated a 4-star prospect by 247 Sports after completing 171-of-245 passes (69.8 percent) for 3,211 yards with 47 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Bentley also rushed 124 times for 923 yards (7.4 yards per carry) and scored 16 TDs on the ground as he led his team to a 16-0 record.

O’Neal committed to OU on June 24 when Seth Littrell was still coaching Sooner quarterbacks.  He took an unofficial visit to Colorado in November, but his father told Sooners On SI that was just to get a close-up look at Buffs QB Shedeur Sanders. 

O’Neal has voiced in numerous news outlets since then that he’s 100 percent committed to Oklahoma.

He told Rivals just last week that he was “still really locked in” with the Sooners.

At Narbonne High School in Harbor City last season, O’Neal completed 61 percent of his throws for 3,040 yards with 28 TDs and four INTs and led his team to the CIF championship. He’s a 247 Sports 4-star prospect, ranks as the No. 12 QB in the nation and is the No. 23 recruit in the state of California. 

O’Neal posted Thursday that he’s “excited to be back in Norman, OK this weekend for the (Junior) Day,” with a "BoomerSooner" hashtag and the usual “horns down” emojis.

As for Bentley, the 6-foot-2, 200-pound junior has offers from Appalachian State, Arkansas State, Arizona, Boston College, Cal, Cincinnati, Colorado State, Duke, East Carolina, Georgia Tech, Kansas State, North Texas, Texas Tech, Tulane, UCF, USF, UTEP, UTSA and Wisconsin among others.

According to 247 Sports, he’s the No. 11 high school quarterback in the country and the No. 28 player in the state of Texas.

Recruiting insiders have largely assumed Bentley would choose Texas Tech, but the OU offer could change that dynamic.

Historically, the Sooners don't usually offer more than one quarterback in a class, but the transfer portal may have changed that strategy. In the 2024 class, OU brought in 4-star Michael Hawkins and 3-star Brendan Zurbrugg as true freshman (Zurbrugg has already transferred).

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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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