Oklahoma Has Thrived With Group of 5 Transfers, But Might Be Even Better in 2024

Over the last three offseasons, Oklahoma has done quite well in the NCAA Transfer Portal.

The Sooners have landed starters or major contributors from Michigan, Texas, Tennessee, TCU, Oklahoma State, Indiana, Stanford, Cal, Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Texas Tech, Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA and North Carolina, plus potential starters from Washington, USC, Michigan State, Purdue, Baylor and Missouri.

But that’s just one side of today’s college football coin.

OU coaches have also mined for gold — and occasionally struck it rich — at schools in the Group of 5 conferences.

“As we know,” said head coach Brent Venables, “some of the best players in the NFL are Group of 5 players.”

For starters, Venables’ first team in Norman featured a left-handed quarterback from the American Athletic Conference. After transferring from Central Florida, all Dillon Gabriel did in two seasons at OU was complete 66 percent of his passes for 6,828 yards and 55 touchdowns with just 12 interceptions, plus scored 10 TDs himself.

That 2022 OU squad also included defensive starters from Hawaii (Jonah Laulu) and Wyoming (C.J. Coldon).

The 2023 Sooners rolled the dice on players from Utah State (Phil Paea), Texas State (Davon Sears) and Miami-OH (Caleb Shaffer) that didn’t produce much playing time, but ones from Appalachian State (Troy Everett) and Central Michigan (Luke Elzinga) did.

This year’s roster went after even more G5 talent, and so far, the returns are good.

Branson Hickman is projected to start at center after starring at SMU. Febechi Nwaiwu is projected to start at guard after two great seasons at North Texas. Caiden Woullard will get significant snaps at defensive end after an all-star career at Miami-OH. Dez Malone has impressed everyone at corner after standing out at San Diego State.

Beyond G5 schools, OU seems to have hit on two or three important transfers from the FCS level: running back Sam Franklin (Tennessee-Martin), tight end Bauer Sharp (Southeastern Louisiana), and kicker Tyler Keltner (East Tennessee State, followed by a year playing for his hometown Florida State Seminoles).

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Venables said he didn’t know if Group of 5 (and FCS) portal recruiting was replacing what some power conference schools have always used to bring in from the junior college level — but it might.

“It’s been proven, in the very short amount of time that the transfer window has been open, or been a thing, rather, that some elite players can come from there and can bridge the gap,” Venables said, “maybe give you a little bit better depth at that position, playmaking, those types of things as well.”

Tight end Jake Roberts, a Norman product who transferred to OU from Baylor, played the first three years of his career at North Texas under current Sooners offensive coordinator Seth Littrell.

What qualities translate from the G5 level to what’s now called the Power 4?

“A lot of people have asked a similar question and first of all they play great football down there,” Roberts said. “The competition is great. I think the biggest thing for me is I was able to get a lot of good experience as a younger player. You know the best teacher is repetition and experience. I think coming from North Texas, being able to get on the field a lot, get a lot of snaps, in-game experience, make mistakes, learn from them, I think that’s what’s helped me the most.”

Nwaiwu was a Freshman All-American and an All-Conference USA guard at UNT before deciding to come to Oklahoma.

“North Texas not being the biggest school, and especially me and my situation at North Texas, kind of teaches you how to work extremely hard,” Nwaiwu said. “And then when you’re coming over here it makes it a little bit easier because you’re blessed with a great coaching staff — not to say North Texas has a bad coaching staff at all. They have a phenomenal coaching staff and a phenomenal head coach. But you know what they say. At Oklahoma, it’s a little bit different. 

“ … But I think North Texas helped me really be able to be tough and take some losses and not look too much at my wins but keep my head in the right place.”

Malone, who earned All-Mountain West accolades as a two-year starter for the Aztecs, said when he left San Diego State, he simply wanted to go somewhere that would push him. 

“Somewhere that I can grow as a man,” he said. “That’s why, 10 seconds talking to Coach V, I knew he was a good man I could follow and could come up under. That’s one thing I was looking for that I kind of valued over a lot of different places.”

The difference in talent, Malone said, is very small.

“I would say, you know, probably it’s a little bit more athletes that are all capable of doing better things on the field,” Malone said. “It isn’t a crazy transition for me, I would say. I feel like confidence is everything. I feel like if you’re confident enough to go up against anybody, it really don’t matter. We definitely have a lot of great guys on this team to where you have to come to work, you know?”

Hickman was twice all-conference in the American Athletic Conference and a three-year starter at SMU. The Mustangs are beginning membership in the ACC this year, but Hickman will be playing in the SEC.

“I wanted to come to a school that was big and play in a big environment in the SEC,” Hickman said, “and OU’s close to home (Dallas), so I couldn’t be more excited.

“It was really hard because, I mean, I have a lot of friends at SMU. I respect the coaches at SMU. It was a really tough decision. But I felt like it’s what I needed to do for myself to get a new experience.”

Hickman played at OU last year as a member of the SMU offensive line, and his trip to Memorial Stadium and his performance against the Sooners in front of 84,186 fans left an impression on him. 

“I remember it was red and white everywhere,” he said. “It was pretty cool. We came out of the tunnel, and I was like, ‘Wow, this is big-time, real college football right here.’ I just knew that was something I wanted to be a part of one day.”

Roberts saw the step up in competition when he went from C-USA to the Big 12. He anticipates another step up this year going to the SEC.

“Well, we know it’s going to be a high level of play in the SEC,” he said. “I think the biggest difference going in is every week it’s going to be a challenge, and I guess what I’d say I’m most curious about — I’m excited to just play against the best competition every day, so that’s why I chose Oklahoma. I’m excited to be back playing against the best every week.”

G5 transfers have always sought greater opportunities on the P5/P4 level, though in most cases, it was NFL Draft-relatd. Now, in addition that, they also know there’s the possibility of landing a potentially much more lucrative NIL deal at a football powerhouse — conceivably life-changing, family-saving wealth. And OU and other blue bloods are able to use that potential to their advantage to land talented players. 

An all-conference player at a G5 school should be able to come in and help a program like Oklahoma. So far, that’s worked out well for the Sooner coaching staff.

“It’s helped us, the guys that have come,” Venables said. “They’ve been really good role players and even starters at a really pretty good level, and kind of the glue. And that’s what I look for. Instead of thinking about all of the different type of parts, I think the glue is the magic of putting a good roster together.”