Oklahoma continues to climb in On3 team recruiting rankings

With the news that four-star quarterback Nick Evers committed to Oklahoma, the Sooners’ 2022 recruiting class got a boost in the On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Ranking.

The Sooners climbed one spot in the ranking after Evers’ commitment on Monday morning.

Oklahoma now has the No. 9 class in the country and the second-best class in the Big 12 Conference behind the Texas Longhorns. The Longhorns’ class was bolstered by commitments this past weekend from five-star offensive tackle Kelvin Banks and four-star offensive lineman Cameron Williams. UT is at No. 6 overall.

The Sooners’ class took a bit of a ding after Lincoln Riley departed for USC. There were high-profile decommitments, including from five-star defensive lineman Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy, and others that decided to look elsewhere.

But new OU coach Brent Venables has done an excellent job of rallying the remaining commitments to stay true to their word. Plus, he’s been able to get OU in on new names, like Evers and four-star receiver Jayden Gibson.

After a weekend visit to Norman, the Sooners are now the overwhelming favorites to land Gibson, according to the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine.

Who can Oklahoma close with?

There are other names Oklahoma fans should be paying attention to over the next three days.

The Sooners also hosted Allen, Texas, four-star offensive lineman Neto Umeozulu on an official visit this past weekend. It appeared at one point that he was going to end up at TCU for a visit. But the Sooners rallied and got him on to campus. The RPM now lists Oklahoma as the favorites to land Umeozulu.

Another name to pay attention to is local four-star EDGE DeSean Brown of Choctaw, Okla. The previous OU staff wasn’t keen on Brown. But the new staff loves him and has put the full-court press on to land him. He, too, was on an official visit this weekend and the Sooners have a 95.3% chance to land him, according to the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine.

It will also be interesting to see what happens with former OU commitment and now current Texas Longhorn commit Kobie McKinzie.

The four-star linebacker from Lubbock (Texas) Cooper was also in Norman for a trip this weekend. There’s been a lot of intel that he’s thinking about flipping from the Longhorns to the Sooners.

Another name to watch for OU is three-star defensive lineman Alton Tarber of Deerfield Beach, Fla. He decommitted from Georgia Tech on Sunday and all indications are that he’s about to be a Sooner.