Oklahoma's Blend of the Old With the New Continues to Yield Results on the Recruiting Trail

Oklahoma is successfully pairing old-school college football with a new era approach.

Jim Nagy’s front office moved fast throughout their first major transfer portal window to help build OU’s roster ahead of the 2026 season, but Brent Venables is still bringing plenty of high-end talent in on the recruiting trail.

Venables has always been an energetic recruiter, but the Sooners’ nightmare 2024 season appears to have only caused a small hiccup for his efforts at attracting talent.

Oklahoma’s 2025 and 2026 recruiting classes finished 18th and 14th in 247Sports’ Composite Team Rankings, respectively, but the Sooners are off to an outstanding start in 2027.

Linebacker Cooper Witten, son of new tight ends coach Jason Witten, verbally pledged to the Sooners on Tuesday.

Oklahoma’s 2027 class now has 14 commitments, which ranks first in 247Sports’ Composite Team Rankings.

The Sooners are loading up in key areas, too.

OU currently has commitments from in-state offensive tackles Cooper Hackett and Kaeden Penney, who each rank in the top 50 of 247Sports’ Rankings.

Witten gives the Sooners the No. 2-rated linebacker in the country to play alongside Taven Epps, who is another top 100 player that Venables will be able to mold at the heart of his defense.

Oklahoma also has edge rusher Krew Jones and defensive back Mikhail McCreary, as well as running back Keldrid Ben, to round out the Top 300 players already in the class.

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A top 10 finish on Signing Day for the 2027 class would give Venables four top 10 classes in six efforts, including the 2022 class that he took control of weeks before Signing Day.

The trio of top 10 classes ties the run OU went on from 2017-2019 of top 10 classes, levels the Sooners hadn’t previously hit since the early Stoops days.

Oklahoma’s resurgence in 2025, which was capped off by a trip back to the College Football Playoff, not only ensured that new Athletic Director Roger Denny wouldn’t have to step in and make major changes to the Sooners’ football operations, but it ensured that Venables would have a strong foundation to resume his top-end recruiting efforts from after a year of negative recruiting.

Adding Nagy and his staff in for further evaluations and extra support in the actual recruiting process itself is the cherry on top of an already well-oiled recruiting machine.

Player retention and manning the transfer portal are key factors in building a winning team in the modern era of college football, but the best path forward for any team is still to identify and attract the best talent out of high school, which can then be developed for years in the same system.

If Venables can continue to deliver results on the field, there’s no reason the Sooners can’t keep their recruiting momentum rolling to continue to replenish the roster in Norman for years to come.