HISTORIC: Oklahoma Sooners Land Jamison Roberts & Seneca Driver, DOMINATE Recruiting | What's next for the Sooners

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Jim Nagy, Brent Venables and the Oklahoma Sooners just put together a historic weekend.

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I'm John Williams of Sooners, why are he's Jason Smith of Unfair Sports and it's recruiting

central today because the Oklahoma Sooners not only landed one commitment, not two commitments,

not three commitments, not four commitments.

They landed five commitments over the weekend during future Freaks Weekend J. It was incredible

to watch all day Saturday, I was fighting some kind of bug and I was just sitting there

scrolling my phone nonstop and I couldn't even rest because I had so much work to do.

It was great.

It was so great to watch this recruiting staff, the coaching staff, the front office staff

have so much success over the weekend.

Sooners are on a heater, man, and it's one of those weekends that we have always set

on the sidelines and envy of man.

Every one day we'll have a whole bunch of commitments to show up one day on a recruiting

weekend.

Maybe one of these big champion barbecue official weekends or whatever, you'll start

seeing all these players flood in.

I was very impressed with just the foundation that was set even walking in there.

Right now, Oklahoma sits at 19 commitments and you walk in there with 14 and not very

often as Oklahoma typically have that many commits of front.

We usually around July is when Oklahoma tries to wrap up the vast majority of their commitments.

Now it's March.

I'm kind of curious to what we're going to be doing in like June because now we're going

to have much to do since everybody's basically in the class.

But no, it's a testament to what they've been working on and so they've got a plan

obviously and it's showing again.

If there's one thing that's big that came out of all of that, John, these position coaches

knew who they wanted.

Jim Nagy in this front office did a good job of putting them in front of the staff and

they said, all right, let's close the deal because we locked down the cornerstone player

of the class, which I feel like is the most important.

Yeah, this group, well, let's just go over it real quick.

Jamison Roberts, the quarterback, finally committed somebody projected to Oklahoma for a long

period of time, Tyson Ross, offensive lineman, out of Kansas, committed to Oklahoma.

The buzz started generating for him toward Oklahoma more and more as the week went on and

leading into the future freak weekend.

And then Jayden or Jalen Scott, excuse me, another player that from Mobile, Alabama,

somebody who'd been projected to Oklahoma for a long time now jumped in the boat on Saturday

as well.

Send it to driver.

Someone tied in in the class, according to rivals, chose Oklahoma, again, a big momentum

shift for the Sooners after Jason Witten was hired as the Titans coach.

And then another one that was a little bit, I think, surprising maybe to outsiders, maybe

not so much to the insiders, but Grayden, how the athlete out of Oklahoma chose the Sooners.

I saw a lot of Oklahoma state fans really mad about this one, Jay.

Yeah, that was a big one.

So starting off with the cornerstone, Jamison Roberts.

You got your quarterback.

You typically want that position locked up as early as possible, because like I said, that's

the cornerstone.

That's the one that's really the main piece in your class.

Everybody's got to have a quarterback.

And I love his game and I love his stature, six, two and a half, six, three.

He's probably closer to 190, 200 pounds now as he's only a junior in high school.

It doesn't keep in mind.

So he's going to gain good amounts of weight over the next 12, you know, 12 months to 12

18 months before he really gets going on the football field and dudes of baller, think

the thing that jumps out the most, 72.6% completion percentage, 3300 yards passing, 30

something touchdowns.

He was lighting it up in the state of Alabama.

And so got your quarterback and you add a second Bama kid with Jalen Scott, the safety

that I've seen some people compare to Peyton Bowen's athleticism and capabilities with

a little bit of Michael Bogey now skis hitting capabilities or more closer to Jalen

Hardy.

But Hardy was a hitter too.

He's going to be a fun one to have out there, Brennan Hall knew what he was doing with

that pickup, with that with pursuit of that.

He was a former Auburn commit and like I said, we jumped out in the state of Alabama.

So I was like, you know, pulling a few of their players, you know, that ownership stake

helps.

Yeah.

Whenever you're pursuing players in a state itself, winning games out there in said

state, those kids take notes of that stuff.

Yeah, the Jalen Scott edition is kind of underrated, you know, he's not a top 100 prospect

if you look at the rankings, but he's just outside of the top 100 and 247 sports.

He's a top 300 prospect over there at rivals.

But I think you described his game really, really well.

He's an athlete.

He's smooth in coverage.

He's someone who can play some corner.

He does that at high school, mostly a middle of the field safety for me and I think that's

a spot for him.

He tracks the ball really, really well.

He's a playmaker on the football, whether it's in coverage or in run support, unafraid to

get his head in there and lay a lick on somebody.

And that's exciting.

Jameson Roberts, you talked about the completion percentage and it's not all just like dump

off some screen passes.

The due to tacked the middle of the field and he gets the ball there quickly.

He's got a good arm and accurate pass or like really excited about this one.

And I think this is another discussion for another day, but just talking about Ben

Arbuckle and his ability to evaluate some of these under the radar quarterback prospects

and get in the game early with them, whether it was, you know, John Matier back in the

day or Bo Bentley or now Jameson Roberts, but his ability to identify it early, get in

there, build the relationship.

And then when everybody else starts catching wind and getting their eyes on these quarterbacks

and like, kind of too late because Ben Arbuckle has already done it.

So big addition and Tyson Rossman, he is an athletic, physical offensive lineman.

He plays tackle in a wing T option offense.

So you know the guy can run block is not the ability to move.

He can get outside and some of the outside concepts.

He gets to the second level quickly, really, really like his game.

He's going to come to Oklahoma and help add to their one blocking additions.

And then dude, the Senate can driver piece had me on cloud nine on statter day.

When you know Steve Woltfong was projecting him to Oklahoma, I was like, dang.

And you and I were talking like, oh, this is probably going to be one of those things

that takes a while to get to an actual commitment.

And it did not take a while.

It was that day that he commits to Oklahoma.

They get the number one tight end in the class.

Yep, number one tight end by rivals.

He's number 18 in the country.

So once they once they become seniors and they finish their 32 five stars,

he'll most likely be a five star as well.

So you bring in a five star tight end to go along with, you know, like I said,

Tyson Ross is like it's interesting for the uninitiated there.

Wing T is usually done.

You don't have the athletes or enough players to really be able to compete.

So you can find the quarterback.

And you can't find the quarterback.

It's hard.

It's hard high school.

I mean, he has Kansas.

I mean, they didn't have Jerry Kinnick anymore.

It's kind of hard to do that.

We can try to replace that guy.

And so it's the most of an athlete.

Like remember, he was a wildcat quarterback that did everything.

So, but as you mentioned, Ross can move.

And that's what's important.

That's kind of like the attribute that I did.

I didn't highlight as much about him.

But that's one to really think about in his game.

Because yeah, he can move.

And that's going to be something to be leveraged.

That's the fourth offensive lineman in his class.

We're going to have to go back and do a whole review on this class again.

Yep.

Because we've got 19 in March.

It's just like it's unheard of.

I don't know what to do with my hands.

Right.

And I'm just I'm confused here, right?

Let's just I don't know what I say.

I don't know what going to happen in June.

Well, if you think back to the 2024 class, Jay,

I want to say it was it wasn't Michael Hawkins that was the first commitment.

He was the second one of that class.

Yeah.

It didn't come until March.

Yeah in 2024.

It's that it usually takes time.

Usually this class is built in July because the focus is get your visits in.

Once you commit, you're done.

And they do say the same philosophy.

Like they occasionally been for certain players or whatnot.

But for the most part, the philosophy is when you're in, you're in.

And they're still living by that, which is a good thing.

Seneca driver was one that shocked me too.

Like that through me completely off.

Like I said, we were talking about it.

I'm like, yeah, what phones know was Oklahoma's probably going to end up winning this one.

But I'm going for a prediction and now because I think this is going to happen in the end,

not today.

And then like hours later, it's like, well, this may have escalated.

Yeah.

The timeline has accelerated.

Keep your eyes open.

I'm like, keep eyes open.

Let me go.

Go to my desk and I'm exhausted.

Voice is still a little shot from it.

All of those shorts had to put together.

And then he popped and it's like, wow, six, seven, two, forty.

Jason Witten coached like Witten just walked in.

Of course, we knew that the name would give him cloud.

Now I'm ready to see him to develop them because that's dope that he was able to pull

off because driver was the first person he actually reached out to when he took the

job.

That was like one of the notes that he immediately got on the greeting trail.

I'm assuming the front office said, hey, here's some tight ends that we really that everyone

likes.

Take a look, pick something out that you like and do your things.

I got this.

The best part is he's from rule Kentucky.

And one, Witten with the Tennessee, not too far off from them there, right?

The second thing is been our buckle coach that Western Kentucky.

So you know, he has ties and connections and understandings of the landscape.

Closing that, sealing that deal Kentucky fans are not very happy.

They're thinking that Will Stein's going to find a way to try to film away.

I think Oklahoma's got that one and then that last one, like you mentioned, whoo, Grayden.

He hurt some poke feelings, all they feel is a hurt.

Yeah.

The incredible athlete that Grayden howl is looks like they're projecting him to play

wide receiver for Oklahoma.

The dude's just a ball player.

And I think it was Parker Thune that I saw mentioned that he's got offers in what not

just two sports, but like three to four sports, which is crazy and multiple positions.

Yeah.

Just crazy.

That.

Talk about historic like that is an impressive resume.

But you can decide, you know what, I'm going to try football and we'll see how this works

out.

If it doesn't work out, you know what, I'm going to go play baseball.

That doesn't work out.

I can fall back to basketball.

Oh, that's not working out.

Let me go try out track.

But the fact is the dude is such an athlete that it's going to work out.

He's incredible to watch.

He turned on the film.

It's just incredible highlights after incredible highlights.

Can't wait to see what he does as a sooner.

Let's get into who's next in recruiting because yes, they landed five commitments over

the weekend.

It was six in the last week, because remember Cooper Whitton committed earlier in the week.

It's also crazy.

We'll discuss who's next for the Oklahoma Sooners coming up next here, unlocked on Sooners.

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All right, Jay.

So we got six commitments over the last week five in the last weekend.

You're at 19.

We got to believe that this is going to get bigger.

I think most people are anticipating anywhere from 23 to 27 commitments in this cycle.

But who do you think is going to be next for the sooners?

The list is getting long.

So like not only did we get these five commitments.

We started to get a whole bunch more predictions for players that we were hoping

to land.

So Gus Corsair, the lineman from out of Kansas, another lineman that we're going

after it appears that we're going to have a pretty nice size class for Oklahoma,

which I'm not complaining about, right?

Like there's no reason for me to be upset if they're for thinking or what not.

There's 27 class.

A lot of these kids will probably play in 28.

And at that point, you're probably going to have a nice influx of dudes gone.

You'll probably see de-censhmit still here and know a best.

Those are probably going to be your main guys.

You probably have Darius Afelava as a junior senior ready to play.

Or as your junior ready to play.

So because of that, you're looking at how they're constructing this roster,

which is something we could definitely dive into in the future,

because it's very fascinating in the direction that they're going.

But Gus Corsair is one that's key.

And then another OK prep, like we talked about Grayden Howell,

who's an athlete, ridiculous player, that plays multiple positions

and also multiple sports and being recruited for all those sports.

Gabe Osborne, the corner who's like a top 30 player in the country right now

at 247, which is bananas.

You got three dudes that are potential five stars out of the state of Oklahoma right now.

And I think it sticks.

He's one that just got another prediction to Oklahoma.

So you get Gus Corsair, who gets it from Steve Woltfon,

who feels like he's going to pick Oklahoma in the near future.

May take his business, but could be in the near future.

And then Gabe Osborne, who's the local kid that a lot of schools in the country want.

That's two big possible pickups on top of what we're currently doing.

Yeah, the Oklahoma offensive line depth is going to be really, really nice

in this class.

If you get Gus Corsair, again, another big physical dude

that can move well, playing in your interior offensive line,

it just stacks up really nicely with Cooper Hackett and Caden Penny

and Luke Wilson, the guy that was the first commit in the 2027 cycle.

And then you also add Tyson Ross, it's a really nice group.

And then Gabe Osborne, dude, that dude is a really good athlete.

Like you said, coming out of the Mustang high school system

and someone who can just absolutely cover.

If you can add that to what you already have in your defensive back class,

that's a really, really strong addition.

And it's again, the fact that Oklahoma is getting this many high profile

players from the state of Oklahoma, it's a nice shift from what we'd seen previously

because one, maybe there wasn't quite this high level of talent,

but two, they're making sure to make it a priority.

When the talent is there.

And they're all in for some of these guys.

And then you talk about Body Sparrow.

That's a dude that was also, at least, heavily trended toward Oklahoma,

even if the predictions weren't there just yet.

There's a lot of good positive buzz for Body Sparrow and the Sooners.

Good buddy of his crew Jones is already committed to Oklahoma.

And that's just another impressive defensive back prospect

that Oklahoma's targeting, someone who can play both sides of the ball.

And would add to a really nice defensive back class for the Sooner.

So there's no telling where this thing could head because not only are they

adding good depth in the class, but they're adding a lot of high profile

prospects that's going to garner the attention from other prospects

across the country, you know, the Cooper Whitton edition,

the Jameson Roberts edition, the Seneca driver edition,

that's going to create just some positive gravity for Oklahoma

for some players that may not have considered them before.

So not only is it, and we'll get into more of what this means here in a second,

but not only is it great to get these talented players,

but it just gets more talented players to turn their attention towards Norman

and be like, man, what's going on over there?

Maybe I need to take a look at what's going on over there.

And so it wouldn't be surprising, especially that you already have

your quarterback in the boat, you have a high profile prospect

like Seneca driver in the boat to see Oklahoma re-prioritize their attention

to some other prospects that they had not, I don't want to say lost focus on,

but weren't spending as much time and attention and energy and effort

trying to move the needle with.

So again, I'm excited, man, if they can get Gabe Osborne in before summer,

I think that'd be huge.

Especially if you go into the champion with Gabe Osborne in the boat,

you're going to have, I mean, 75, 80% of your class,

90% of your class locked in, and everybody just gets to come party

at champion barbecue at that point.

And the coaching staff and the players just have a few guys to focus on.

Exactly.

And on top of that, a little bit of sneak preview here, right?

Oklahoma is got another one from Will Fong.

Will Fong was busy with the sooners.

He basically was living in Norman for the weekend

and all the write-ups he was putting.

But Oklahoma got a crystal ball from him also for it.

The 2028 top defensive lineman in the country in Keelan Hall

out of Louisville, Kentucky.

Now, that is a whole nother year of recruiting to come,

but we'll talk about this later this week,

but some NFL people think that Oklahoma's got three defensive lineman

going in the first round.

And if that's the case, Keelan Hall, seeing that,

and he's saying, oh, I can come play as a freshman.

Sign me up.

And he's good.

Please go watch his film.

The kid is explosive off the snap.

He's playing in the wrong league because it just dominant, absolutely dominant.

So I'm excited to see what happens with him

because that's a really good player.

And they've already got the number one

running back in the class in Xavier Rhodes,

committed for 2028 if they can get Keelan Hall.

Michael Rhodes.

Michael Rhodes.

What did I say?

Xavier.

Xavier Rhodes.

What?

I'm thinking of the former Minnesota Viking safety.

That's crazy.

That's a throwback.

My apologies, Micah.

Yeah, if you get Hall committed,

then your 2028 class is already off to an incredible start

as well, just build off of what 2027.

What does this mean for the Oklahoma Sooners?

What does this mean for 2027 recruiting?

And beyond, we'll discuss all that.

Coming up here, unlocked on Sooners.

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Your team every day, Jay, it was a great weekend.

Great teamwork from the front office to the coaching staff.

What does this mean for the Oklahoma sooners?

I mean, so we opened up with it of how this is the earliest

that we've had roughly 20 commits in the class

in the Brinventables airs since he started.

This is not a common thing.

We this staff usually gets everyone done in the summer

because it allows for the opportunity for them to get

whatever visits out of their system that they want to

and boom, move forward.

Well, with now with revshare and IEL mainly revshare,

figuring out that pie, it's important to have that stuff

established in July as early as possible

because when you bring those kids in and for the spring,

you want to make sure that you can have everything

established and ready to go, especially spring semester

and roll these, that way they can come in for

when a workout or whatnot.

We are all about that early and rolly life.

That's the one thing you know the Oklahoma does.

And with some kids, you may not get that.

Like, I don't think a grade and how we'll do that

because he most likely comes here and he plays baseball

as well as playing football.

And if that's the case, he's got an entire spring.

Plus track, right?

He does everything.

He's a 18 tool athlete.

It feels like he doesn't know.

But I think the other thing is it shows the strength

of having a very strong front office.

And let me explain what I mean.

We went 10 and three last season, made it to the playoffs

and that's a big deal.

Playout first usually always leads into a spike in recruiting.

But you don't jump up this high without having the right

people in place doing the right evaluations

and also helping with the right conversations needed

to close some of these deals.

Where Jim Nagy gets his flowers and his staff,

Lake Dawson, Stacey Ford, right?

All of those guys get their flowers

for what they've done to help build what we've got going on.

Because when you go to playoffs, you're working.

You working through December, right?

And we did that.

And so now it's, we turned it around to go into January.

A lot of people were wondering why we didn't do

a whole bunch more in the 26th class.

And honestly, we didn't have to.

We've got a lot of players that we have with experience here

that we'd like.

They added a bit, it's not a big class, 25 players.

But they knew that 27 was one they were going to use

to really restock the cover, especially now

that we're back at 105 players rather than 85.

We were playing at the 85 mindset.

Now we're back 105.

We added more in the 26th class.

We're going to, this one's just 27 class

should be pretty stacked as well.

But John, the thing that really, like I said,

jumps out to me is just this front office took it in

and took it personally that people were doubting

their capabilities made the magic happen.

Yeah, and Jim Nagy, he mentioned it after the playoff run

whenever Oklahoma signed their 2026 class,

there's how much negative recruiting

that Oklahoma had to deal with in the 2026 cycle.

Well, they won games.

They won big games.

High profile matchups against Michigan, against Auburn,

against Tennessee, Alabama, beat NLSU, beaten Mizzou,

like all of that helped lay the foundation

for the 2027 class.

So as much, you can scout the right guys,

you can have the right conversations,

develop the right relationships.

You win football games on the field,

it helps build into all that.

And it's been fun to see how the coaching staff,

the front office staff, how all of it has just melded

together so well.

So now we're seeing this.

We're seeing these early recruiting fruits take place.

You know, Jim Nagy and his staff can focus so much

on the scouting during spring ball, during summer

and fall camp, during the season.

And then the coaching staff can spend all their time

with players focusing on development.

Brennan Vettables mentioned it with the Oklahoma breakdown

that his staff is still watching tape.

It's not like they've been completely removed from it,

but they don't have to spend as much time watching tape.

They can spend more time with the players

that they have on campus.

And that just serves the whole program.

Well, they've got the best setup in college football.

Now they have to continue to win,

they have to continue to build on what they did in 2025

and go get closer or go in a national championship,

but they've got a setup that has been fruitful so far

in the first year and what, three months

that Jim Nagy has been on campus.

It's been about a year since his staff has been put together.

And we're seeing all of that take place

where hey, Jim Nagy has locked it down.

They've had a lot of conversations with these players.

The coaching staff has had a lot of conversations

with these players.

So then when you get to a weekend like future freaks weekend,

you can just close the deal.

And that's what we saw happen this past weekend.

And the fact that Jim Nagy and his group

is able to do a lot of the pre-scouting

for the coaching staff, it makes the conversations,

I think so much more intentional when they're on campus,

when they're going on their visits.

So you're not having to have,

and the coaching staff isn't having

to have the money conversations.

And I think that's another really strong aspect of this too,

is when we talk money,

we'll talk with Jim Nagy and his people.

Yep.

Yeah, I've heard some pretty prominent people

in the media and television space and everything.

I'll always say, if you can avoid it,

the smartest thing you could possibly do

is not negotiate your own deals,

because then it's when you find out

how much they don't like you.

And it's not a thing of you, it's, they got budgets.

They've got particular amounts that they can only pay

in this situation, they've got caps,

they've got, in theory, they've got,

they got a particular amount in revshared that they can pay,

and in adding NIL on top of that,

the focal point there is,

this is what I can pay you,

because I've got to pay other guys too,

and I can also pay my current guys.

And it's not an unlimited amount,

and so it's always better to have someone else

be able to have that conversation to where,

they can, you know, be stern and be realistic with,

like, hey, this is what it looks like,

this is the game blah, blah, blah.

Yeah.

So with that being said, like you said,

having guys that can do that conversation

for you, having guys to focus on that,

hey, having guys to focus on the budget,

I don't think people want to say how much of a challenge

that is, and trying to put all that stuff together,

and keeping up with all that,

you know, roughly a hundred kids.

A hundred spots is a lot of mathematics

to really try to figure out,

and make sure you got everybody covered,

and make sure everything's being paid on time,

make sure, that's what the front office for.

Which, sometimes you wish,

front office stuff that came out long time ago, right?

Like, having people be able to do all the scouting for you.

Now, you've got scouts, you've got people to do it,

but having, like, established people in the industry,

you know, I think that's also where Jim Nagy stands out,

the most is he's got established relationships everywhere.

He knows people, he understands where things are.

So, you're just leaning in on all of that.

And so, let's try to get a natty in this

before he decides to take an actual NFL job

in the next few years.

That'll be always a plus.

It's not gonna be long before other college football programs

try to start poaching guys off of Jim Nagy's staff

to come be their general manager

and create something similar,

because the setup has helped Oklahoma set themselves up

with a really strong 2027 class,

and to me, they're gonna only keep building from there.

Sorry, I have to share this little graphic.

If you're watching on YouTube, I made this over the weekend.

It's the old Miami Heat Dwayne Ways serving it up

to LeBron James, Allie Upe,

but that's what we're getting at

at a Jim Nagy in Brent Venables right now,

is Jim Nagy just throwing these lobs

and Brent Venables just crushing them,

just dominating and throwing it down.

So, I'm ecstatic for where this thing is.

Again, you gotta go win football games,

you gotta get this class signed.

That's, you know, we're,

what, nine months from the early signing period.

So we gotta get this class signed,

but the relationships that they've built already

and the dudes that they've got committed already,

I feel really good about getting all of this class signed.

If there's always gonna be a decommitment or a flip,

that happens every cycle,

but I'd be shocked if there's more than just one or two,

because these guys are getting into the boat early here.

There's, there's conviction.

It seems like with Oklahoma at this point.

Any final thoughts or notes?

Yeah, I don't say with the coaching staff

that we've got, you know,

especially on both sides of the ball,

defense has been overly established for years.

Offense has built some establishment

and then adding some really good components.

McCullough, he's already solidified himself

as a bona fide baller and the recruits are,

I've seen was that Michael Rhodes from the 28 class

say that he's locked in.

You, you've seen Kendrick Ben as well as Stokes,

it's both, you know,

point out their excitement and how great it was.

Shout out to Molly Jacobi,

who's a new director recruiting or whatnot.

She comes in and immediately puts together

one of the best events ever here.

And now, yeah, we, we, we killed it.

So yeah, let's keep it going.

We see you Molly.

We see you.

Can't wait to see what you come up with

for the champ you barbecue,

but that's going to do it for today's episode of Locked On

Sooners. Thanks so much for tuning in

being a part of the show, subscribe to the show

wherever you get your podcasts.

We're free and available on all social media platforms

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You can also subscribe over on YouTube as well.

Follow Jay over at unfair sports.

Go check out his channel unfair sports

over on YouTube. You can follow me at john nine

Williams and read my work coming to the

sooners over at sooners wire dot com.

The show is out locked on sooners, but until next time,

he's Jason Smith.

I'm john Williams.

We'll talk to you then boomer sooner.

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