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Why Oklahoma Coaches Say Recruiting on Defense is Easier This Year

There's more hard evidence now behind what they're selling, but it's hard to undervalue the results they produced last year in Brent Venables' first recruiting class.
John E. Hoover|
Why Oklahoma Coaches Say Recruiting on Defense is Easier This Year
Why Oklahoma Coaches Say Recruiting on Defense is Easier This Year

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Oklahoma Sooners

NORMAN — Recruiting defensive talent at Oklahoma is considerably easier in 2023 than it was in 2022.

At least it should be.

The Sooners are 7-0 this season, beat Texas, come in at No. 6 in the polls and control their fate for a return to the College Football Playoff.

This time last year, OU was 4-3, unranked, had little hope and wandered through some miserable fourth quarters almost every Saturday.

“You certainly have an in now because you don’t have to explain, ‘Here’s what’s gonna happen,’ “ defensive coordinator Ted Roof said on Saturday after OU beat Central Florida. “You can say, ‘Here’s what happened, just like we said was gonna happen.’ There’s probably more belief by recruits.”

And yet, the work that Roof, Brent Venables and the Sooner defensive staff did landing last year’s class — where all they had to sell was a vision, with very little actual results — remains profoundly impressive.

Using the 247 Sports rankings, Venables had landed verbal commitments from eight defensive prospects at this time last year. So far in this year’s recruiting cycle, that number stands at 12.

So there’s certainly a greater volume of defensive prospects in the 2024 class who can see the results on the field and want to play for Venables this year than there were at this time last year.

But the 2023 class also included pledges from five defensive prospects who were ranked in the 247 Sports top 125 nationally — defensive end P.J. Adebawore (9th), linebacker Sammy Omosigho (76th,), cornerback Makari Vickers (102nd), cornerback Jacobe Johnson (116th) and linebacker Lewis Carter (124th).

So far, this year’s class only has one player ranked among 247 Sports’ top 125 national prospects: defensive tackle David Stone (17th).

Of course, this year’s class has plenty of room to grow — just like last year’s did. From defensive lineman Ashton Sanders on Nov. 20 to defensive end Taylor Heim on Jan. 27, the last seven players to commit in OU’s 2023 class were all defenders.

Oklahoma isn’t expected to go crazy on defense in the final two months before the early signing period — expect offense to be the closing theme this year — but there may still be a couple of big names who jump in late.

And the fact the Sooners now lead the nation in tackles for loss, rank second in interceptions and stand 13th in fewest points allowed per game — with one shutout, one incredible goal-line stand and a growing number of eye-popping defensive plays every week — and are actually winning games makes OU increasingly more attractive.

“Winning,” Roof said, “helps a lot of things. Not just recruiting.”

“Yeah it’s all important,” Venables said Tuesday. “You laid out the vision knowing what the opponent was constantly feeding (recruits). I told the coaches, ‘Here’s what they’re being told,’ so we’re all on the same page. We had a little credibility based on past defensive success in building something multiple times and having consistent results (at Oklahoma and Clemson). But you had to sell the belief, obviously. We weren’t just bad (in 2022), we were one of the worst in a lot of categories. I’m appreciative of people that had faith anyway. That means a lot to me. That means they’ve got something to them, in my opinion.

“But again, you're constantly selling vision. I think that's part of being a leader and being a good recruiter, painting a vision for everybody and hopefully what their future will look like. And our future, certainly.”

As grateful to the 2023 class as Venables sounds, he’s still got his focus turned to closing on the 2024 class, all while building a foundation for the 2025 class and beyond. There are three wide receivers and a quarterback committed in the 2025 cycle, but as of today, defensive tackle Ka’Mori Moore remains the Sooners’ only verbal commitment on defense.

“With the little bit of success we anticipated, if we do these things, in-house — we’re talking about if we do these things, these are some of the issues or good problems to have that we might have,” Venables said. “But you have, you know, this number of commitments — don’t flinch. These are guys who maybe have one toe in the water earlier on. I would just say keep your guard up. But the other side, let's be practical. People around them, there’s a negativity that maybe people are recruiting to. Like I said, justifiably so. So what? What should they say? Our job is to change what the expectations are and certainly the quality of our work.”

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. 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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