OU's Portal Success Allows Them to Swing for the Fences in Recruiting
Lincoln Riley’s Class of 2023 is off to a blistering start.
With just five verbal commits on the OU train, the Sooners have sprinted out to take the early lead as the No. 1-ranked class by both 247 Sports and Rivals, and it’s all down to the offense.
A quarterback, an interior offensive lineman, a running back, a tight end and a two-way athlete who likely wants to play wide receiver make up the 2023 spoils so far, highlighting the job Riley has done not only on the field by setting records year after year, but by landing the best talent on the recruiting trail.
And if the 2021 recruiting cycle was any indication, the Sooners are only going to get more selective when recruiting.
Riley made it a point that OU wasn’t going to be settling for backups or players they felt would be below the program’s standard in 2021, a luxury afforded to Oklahoma due to their success with the transfer portal.
“We knew we wanted to be pretty conservative with the first full signing date,” Riley said during his National Signing Day press conference this past February. “I don’t know -- it depends on how you look at it. I look at almost like we were aggressive and that we had the guys that we wanted and we went hard after them. We really didn’t -- we didn’t push, really, on anything outside of it.
“The transfer portal gave us a chance to -- it was almost like in three segments. You had the initial signing period and you see what you get. We wanted to have some flexibility after that. We left ourselves a lot of flexibility. Then the transfers start making their decisions, so we were able to kind of see what was in there, what we needed and able to get a few guys there, and that honestly made today a lot easier because then kind of the last part of the plan was, if there’s something that we need that we don’t get in the transfer portal, then we could look to sign them out of high school.”
It may yet be too early to crown the Sooners the kings of the portal era, but Oklahoma’s success via the transfer market is undeniable.
Looking past the obvious quarterback additions in Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts (two of which predate the official “transfer portal”), the Sooners have a knack for finding gems via transfer.
Best known for their quarterback transfers like Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray, the Oklahoma Sooners have had great success all over the field with transfers
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Before becoming known for transfer quarterbacks, the likes of Dede Westbrook, Marquise Brown, Jalen Saunders, Lane Johnson and Phil Loadholt all made an impact at Oklahoma after starting their careers elsewhere.
But the Sooners have kicked things into top gear as of late, just look at the end to the 2021 recruiting cycle.
Oklahoma misses out on star running back Camar Wheaton, should be a major problem right? Especially since the Sooners missed out on their top running back two years running.
Instead, OU filled the hole with a guy proven in the SEC, Eric Gray, who appears to be primed for a major role in 2021.
Gray’s arrival at Oklahoma should come as no surprise, as he said he had his eyes set on Norman since entering the portal.
“I kind of knew from the jump that this was the place I wanted to come to,” he said during a press conference this past spring. “Just looking at the past you see how great the offense is. I saw myself and how great I could fit into the offense just playing for a guy like Lincoln Riley and having a position coach like DeMarco Murray, someone who’s played in the league, who’s been there before, it was just all around amazing.”
Eric Gray rushed for 1,311 yards and eight touchdowns in the SEC at Tennessee before transferring to OU
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Similarly, the Sooners missed out on Tristan Leigh, but immediately dipped right back into the Knoxville waters to land Wanya Morris.
The additions of Robert Congel on the offensive side and Key Lawrence on defense helped build depth and competition that OU would have missed in the spring.
And even when they had to dismiss a talented wide receiver who was removed from the team, the Sooners picked up the services of Arkansas star Mike Woods even after he had played in the Razorbacks’ spring game.
Woods even pointed out OU’s success with transfers as a reason why he wanted to play with the Sooners.
“And as a wide receiver, you look at OU every year putting out these big numbers and every receiver wants to be in an offense like this. So it was pretty easy when they reached out to me,” Woods said during a media availability last Wednesday. “You see what Coach Riley does with transfers, and what his receivers doing and also his quarterbacks, so it was a pretty easy decision.”
In three seasons at Arkansas, Mike Woods totaled receiving 1,248 yards and 10 touchdowns, averaging 15.0 yards per catch
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Oklahoma will always look to bring in the top talent in the country, but Riley and his staff have figured out a means to ensure the roster doesn’t get clogged down with depth that won’t be able to cut it at OU.
With the transfer portal as a suitable Plan B, the Sooners can continue to swing for the fences, simply trying to land true difference makers on the recruiting trail.
