Oklahoma
Oklahoma State football recruiting became a speedy process for Idabel’s Matrail Lopez
STILLWATER — Matrail Lopez had a busy weekend in Tulsa already planned, with a Friday night basketball game and a Saturday afternoon 7-on-7 football event.
Yet in between, he and his family decided to squeeze in a trip that turned out to be immensely impactful in laying the groundwork for Lopez’s college future.
On Feb. 3, the morning after helping the Idabel boys basketball team defeated KIPP Tulsa 88-41, Lopez drove to Stillwater for a brief unofficial visit at Oklahoma State’s football facility.
A few days earlier, OSU offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn had driven down to Idabel in the far southeast corner of the state, where he watched Lopez at basketball practice.
“I talked to him after practice and he offered me,” Lopez said. “He’s a cool dude. He’s outgoing and I think he’ll be like family going up there. He made me know they wanted me.”
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After his wild weekend traveling from Idabel to Tulsa to Stillwater to Tulsa and finally back to Idabel, Lopez decided OSU was the place for his college future. He announced his commitment on social media, becoming the Cowboys’ first commitment in the 2025 recruiting class.
“We were on a time crunch for the visit, because we had to get back to Tulsa, so we only had a couple hours,” said Sammy Lopez, Matrail’s father. “I was really impressed with Coach Dunn, because we could’ve taken pictures and done all this other stuff, but he wanted to sit down and talk, get to know us and talk a little football.
“That really impressed us.”
Beyond that, a few key pieces fell into place for Matrail and his family.
Matrail got his first offers from Texas-San Antonio and Washington State during his junior season last fall. In mid-January, Tulsa and North Texas came in, and Dunn’s trip to Idabel followed shortly after.
Even though it’s a four-hour drive from Idabel to Stillwater — “We joke that we’re three hours from anything,” Sammy said — the fact that Matrail can stay in his home state and play Power Five football became a big selling point for the Cowboys.
“My mom’s really happy,” Matrail said with a laugh, referring to his mother, Karess, who is an assistant basketball coach for the Idabel girls team where Matrail’s twin sister, Mercades, is the starting point guard.
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The first four programs to offer Lopez liked him as a defensive back.
“Oklahoma State was the first one to offer on the offensive side, which was really intriguing,” Sammy said.
A 5-foot-11, 175-pound receiver, Matrail has been training at C4 Sports Performance and Fitness, operated by Sean Cooper. Located in Durant, C4 is still nearly a two-hour drive from Idabel. But it has been worth it.
“It gives an opportunity for kids this way to get that elite training,” said Sammy, who coaches softball and baseball at Idabel. “We don’t have that where we are. Sean has done a great job providing opportunities for kids in small towns.”
Matrail is a multi-sport star. He’s a double-figure scorer at point guard on Idabel’s basketball team, which is ranked No. 6 in Class 3A, and he plays shortstop for his father on the baseball team.
“Growing up, baseball was my favorite sport,” he said. “I kind of fell in love with football in high school.”
And the feeling was mutual from Idabel football coach Scott Pratt.
“He’s a great young man, just a high-character kid,” Pratt said. “He’s the same way every day. He doesn’t have good days and bad days. Just a good kid, fun to be around. Academically, he’s a great student, never an issue.
“Athletically — and I’m pretty partial — the last two years, he’s done some really good things for us and been a major contributor for us being successful because of what he’s done for us in all three phases of the game.”
More: How Oklahoma State basketball was hampered by shaky late-game play in Bedlam loss to OU
Over the last two seasons, Idabel is 20-5 with playoff losses to either the eventual state champion or runner-up. And the Warriors did all that with Matrail playing a key role on offense, defense and special teams.
As Idabel went 11-1 last season, Matrail had 814 receiving yards with 10 touchdowns on 41 catches (19.9 yards per reception). He added 484 rushing yards with nine touchdowns on 37 carries (13.1 yards per attempt). At safety, he had 61 tackles and three interceptions, adding an interception return, a kickoff return and a punt return for touchdowns to bring his total to 22 scores.
“Just a tremendous athlete,” Pratt said. “He comes from an athletic family. For us, he’s dangerous with the ball in his hands.
“From an athletic standpoint, guys like him don’t come around all the time, so we’re fortunate to be able to coach him and be around him.”
When recruiters called Pratt, he mostly let Matrail’s athletic exploits speak for themselves through video, but the coach constantly points back to Matrail’s character away from the field — something that comes back to how Sammy and Karess have raised all their children.
“We really stress that we want our kids to be good kids first,” Sammy said of Sammy III, Jaylee and twins Mercades and Matrail. “And then good students. Then the athletic part falls in line third. Those are the things that are very important to us.”
Scott Wright covers Oklahoma State athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Scott? He can be reached at swright@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @ScottWrightOK. Sign up for the Oklahoma State Cowboys newsletter to access more OSU coverage. Support Scott’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com or by using the link at the top of this page.
What you need to know about Oklahoma ahead of the College World Series
North Carolina will face a dangerous Oklahoma team that is on a roll.
Oklahoma (41-22) has been just as dominant. The Sooners, making their 13th College World Series appearance and first since 2022, surged through the postseason as road warriors. They won the Atlanta Regional by upsetting No. 2 seed and ACC champion Georgia Tech in the final, then swept Big 12 champion and No. 15 seed Kansas by a combined score of 21-3 in the Lawrence Regional.
The Sooners, who are 3-0 in Omaha after beating No. 7 seed Alabama and knocking off No. 3 seed and SEC champion Georgia twice, are seeking their third national championship. Oklahoma won titles in 1951 and 1994 and finished as runner-up to Ole Miss in 2022.
Here are a few things to know about Oklahoma:
Best player: Catcher Deiten LaChance
LaChance is Oklahoma’s most powerful hitter. He is batting .333 with 12 doubles, two triples and team highs of 16 home runs and 65 RBIs.
Throughout the postseason, he is hitting .326 with four home runs and 15 RBIs. In Omaha, he is 5-for-14 (.357) with one home run and five RBIs.
Strengths
Like North Carolina, Oklahoma is a balanced team that is good at a little bit of everything and is built to frustrate opponents.
Oklahoma is a balanced hitting team like UNC, but the Sooners have hit a few more homers with 91, compared to the Tar Heels’ 82. That is largely due to the Sooners smashing 26 home runs in their 10 postseason games. In Omaha, OU has homered eight times, including five homers in its win over Georgia in its previous game.
The Sooners have stolen 129 bases this season. That is good for 24th nationally and second in the SEC.
Pitching-wise, OU is 18th nationally in strikeouts per nine innings and leads the SEC in shutouts.
Weaknesses
The most glaring weakness is the pitching staff, despite its ability to strike out opposing batters and record shutouts.
The Sooners have a 4.98 ERA as a staff. Only one pitcher with 10 or more appearances has an ERA under 3.60.
They also allow 4.51 walks per nine innings, which ranks 138th nationally.
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It was a Friday Night Lights in June kind of moment for the Oklahoma State Cowboys as Israel “Izzy” Hammons made his commitment announcement.
The Choctaw, Okla., rising senior announced his decision to commit to Oklahoma State on Friday during an Instagram Live session. The Cowboys beat out a roster of schools vying for the linebacker, most notably Texas.
Hammons made just two official visits — one to OSU and one to Texas last week.
His commitment pushed the Cowboys’ 2027 recruiting class back to nine players after the defection of Mount Carmel (Chicago, IL) offensive lineman Chase Clark to Purdue.
Commitments are non-binding. The earliest that Hammons can sign with OSU is in December.
Izzy Hammons to OSU
Hammons is the first four-star player to commit to the Cowboys this cycle. Their previous commitments all came from three-star players. The 6-3, 225-pound linebacker was considered a Top 200 player in the country by both On3/Rivals and 247Sports. Both services had him ranked as a Top 10 player in the state of Oklahoma at any position. He’s also considered the No. 1 linebacker in the state.
He also runs track and field, competing in the high jump and the 100-meter days, with a personal best of 11.30 seconds in the latter.
The Longhorns came in hot at the end but already had linebackers committed to the program this cycle. For the Cowboys getting a pledge from a player like Hammons is key to shore up a position where they didn’t have a commitment and where they plan to use senior transfers as starters in 2026. That means OSU and head coach Eric Morris must start building a pipeline now.
OSU’s Class of 2027
After Clark’s decommitment the Cowboys were down to eight recruits for 2027 entering Friday, most of which were on the offensive side of the ball and starting with Iowa Colony (Texas) quarterback Carson White, who was the cycle’s first commitment in April.
Up front, OSU has two offensive line commitments Jake Baker of Ensworth High School in Nashville, Tenn., and Sonny Mullen of Troy, Texas. When it comes to skill positions players the Cowboys have three commitments as well, including two wide receivers — Cooper Hooker of Pryor (Quapaw, Okla.) High School and Ake O’Neal of Argyle, Texas. Oklahoma State also has a pledge from tight end Talan Scott of Queen City, Ariz.
Defensively, the Cowboys have commitments from safeties Chayce Davis of Euless (Texas) Trinity High School and Bryson Brown of Broken Bow, Okla.
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OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — As an Oklahoma utility company seeks a multimillion-dollar rate increase, two Oklahoma state representatives are asking the Oklahoma Supreme Court to give customers a voice.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission is currently deciding on a $29 million rate increase for Oklahoma Natural Gas.
If approved, officials say it would mark the fourth rate hike the OCC has approved for ONG in the last four years and has led to an $128 million increase in customer bills.
Rep. Tom Gann, R-Inola, and Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore, have filed an appeal with the Oklahoma Supreme Court, saying customers weren’t given a chance to participate in the case.
“The OCC has gone completely off the beam,” ONG customers Gann and Kevin West told the Supreme Court in their June 17 petition.
In the filing, they claim that the OCC set a March 27 deadline to intervene in ONG’s rate case but only set it after the deadline had already passed.
They say ONG’s customers weren’t notified about the case until late April.
“This case was rigged from the start to keep ONG ratepayers out,” said Gann. “The federal courts have said utility customers have constitutional due process rights – including a right to timely and adequate notice about these cases. We are asking the Supreme Court to uphold customers’ rights and require the OCC to change its rules to respect them. ONG ratepayers should be allowed to exercise their right to participate without being muzzled.”
The commissioners are expected to make a final decision on the $29 million rate increase later this year.
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ONG, the OCC, and the attorney general have 30 days to respond to Gann and Kevin West’s latest ONG appeal.
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